| |
| Leadership Team |
|
|
Karl Wiley
President, US Operations
more info |
|
|
Dr. Nirja Sharma
Vice President,
Human Resources
more info |
|
Richard S. Van Pelt
Vice President,
Training & Process Migration
more info |
|
|
| |
| Profiles |
 |
Kaushal Mehta - Founder and Chairman
|
|
Kaushal along with Parul, founded Motif in August 2000. Kaushal has over 18 years of wide-ranging accomplishments in the BPO and Electronics Industry in Strategic Marketing, Program Management, Sales and Business Development. With international experience and strong leadership skills, Kaushal has consistently grown Motif in terms of revenue, employees and clients. He has led Motif to be an innovation driven BPO player with a focus on continuous process reengineering and best in class people processes.
Kaushal received the AMA-Atlas DyeChem 'Entrepreneur of the Year award' in 2003 for his accomplishments as a true entrepreneur and leader in the BPO industry in the state of Gujarat. His relentless efforts to make Motif a preferred employer of choice was recognized when DATAQUEST-IDC ranked Motif as one of the top 10 Preferred BPO companies in India, three years in a row in their BPO Employee Satisfaction Survey 2004, 2005 & 2006. Motif is also ranked among the Top 100 ITO and BPO companies in the world by NeoIT and Global Services, three years in a row, 2005, 2006 & 2007 and among Top 20 ‘Rising Stars’ in the Global Outsourcing 100 by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in 2006. In June 2006, he was awarded the Rotary award for Corporate Excellence by Rotary International. On January 09, 2008, Kaushal was featured in the cover story of Global CEO magazine, published by India’s leading educational institute for Finance and Accounting, ICFAI. Kaushal has initiated many 'Giving back to the community' programs at Motif such as the annual Motif Charity Walks, events for under privileged children and blood donation drives.
Prior to returning to India, Kaushal lived in the US for ten years and worked with Silicon Valley companies such as Sun Microsystems, Inc., LSI Logic and Vadem in roles ranging from chip design to product marketing. After his return to India, Kaushal, along with Parul Mehta (Motif’s co-founder and COO) started Confluence, a premier outsourced provider of software development services. Motif, Inc., is their second venture.
Kaushal holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, USA and a Masters in Business Administration from San Jose University, USA. |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
|
 |
Robert Kaplan - CEO
|
|
|
Bob Kaplan has over 30 years of experience as a management consultant, senior executive and board member. His expertise is in the areas of strategy development and implementation, organizational effectiveness, and information systems and technology. As CEO of Motif, Bob leads the management team and board's efforts in defining strategies which capitalize on Motif's unique strengths in process reengineering, Six Sigma quality, and operational excellence.
Prior to Motif, Bob had a personal consulting practice where he worked extensively with CEOs in technology-based industries, financial services, and utilities. He also held a number of senior executive positions including acting CEO and CTO for venture backed companies. From September of 2002 to June 2005, Bob served as head of the Office of Information Services at Silicon Valley Bank.
From 1985 - 1995, Bob was a Director (Senior Partner) of McKinsey & Company, Inc. and was a leader of McKinsey's practice in information technology and systems. He also served major clients in the financial services practice. Before McKinsey, he was the Managing Partner of the San Francisco office of the Boston Consulting Group where he worked for eleven years. Bob's prior experience was at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG) as a systems consultant.
From 2005 - 2007, Bob was a member of the Technology Advisory Peer Group for the State of California. This was a group of private sector executives providing counsel to the state CIO as part of the Governor's Information Technology Consolidation and Realignment Initiative. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Bridge Capital Holdings (NASDAQ:BBNK), a member of the board of directors of REX & Co., a shared appreciation real estate equity investment firm, as well as a member of the board at ITM Software.
Bob received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1972. He completed all requirements, except dissertation, for a Ph.D. in computers and information systems, also at Stanford. He graduated with a B.A. magna cum laude with honors with exceptional distinction in economics from Yale University in 1970. Bob has also passed the California C.P.A. exam.
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
|
 |
Karl Wiley – President, US Operations
|
|
|
Karl joined Motif in January, 2008 and is responsible for all of Motif’s U.S. based operations, including corporate strategy, sales & marketing, key account management and M&A. Karl’s prime focus is to accelerate Motif’s growth by attracting new clients, expanding into additional industries and service lines, and further developing Motif’s current client base.
Karl comes to Motif from
eBay, where he spent over 6
years serving in various
roles of increasing
responsibility. Most
recently, he was the Chief
Operating Officer of Microplace, eBay's online
securities brokerage
start-up, which enables
individuals to make
investments in the
microfinance industry. Karl
managed all business
operations for the
Microplace, including
marketing, product
management, business
development and customer
service.
Prior to that, he was the
General Manager of eBay’s
$5+ Billion Technology and
Media categories, and led
eBay’s B2B wholesale
initiative. In these roles,
Karl was responsible for
strategy, buyer and seller
marketing, and product, and
managed eBay’s relationships
with many major branded
retailers and manufacturers.
Karl has extensive public
relations experience, and
represented eBay as a
speaker at multiple major
conferences and events, and
has been interviewed by
leading publications such as
The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal and The
Washington Post.
Prior to eBay, Karl was
Vice President of
International Operations
with Alibris, an e-commerce
company focused on books,
movies and music. After
managing Alibris’ business
development team in the
U.S., he established and ran
Alibris’ European subsidiary
in the U.K.
Karl started his career
with the Emerging Markets
Group of Deloitte consulting
where he worked for over
three years. He focused on
privatization and enterprise
restructuring assignments in
the former Soviet Union,
including Russia and
Uzbekistan.
Karl earned his MBA with
honors from Harvard Business
School. He also has a
Masters degree in
International Affairs from
The George Washington
University and graduated
magna cum laude from Duke
University. |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
|
 |
Parul Mehta - Co-founder & COO
|
|
|
Parul co-founded Motif, along with Kaushal Mehta, in August, 2000. She brings 16 years of experience in the IT and services industry. Her extensive international experience has helped Motif develop robust operations processes. Her IT background and exposure to the US work environment has enabled Motif to create a unique work environment. She has been a mentor to various teams such as HR and software which have been instrumental in building a solid platform for the organization. Her drive towards customer satisfaction has enabled Motif to excel on all programs undertaken by the company, and provided customer satisfaction to Motif's clients.
Parul and Kaushal's first venture, Confluence was founded in 1998. The company developed customized software, web portals and various applications. This team continues to work as a part of Motif and has developed a BPO ERP suite of applications for internal use and various process enhancing tools for clients.
Parul started her career at Intel Corp. as a Design Engineer in Santa Clara, CA. She worked there for six years. During her tenure she was involved in various design and development projects related to the Pentium series of Microprocessors.
Parul holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, USA. |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
|
 |
Dr. Nirja Sharma – Vice President, Human Resources
|
|
Nirja has over 17 years of experience working in both the private and public sectors in the Indian Industry. At Motif, Nirja leads the HR team and is responsible for designing and implementing HR strategies and policies to nurture the harmony of people, systems and culture.
Prior to Motif, she worked with CMC Ltd. (a TATA group enterprise), New Delhi, where she had varied assignments such as Head of Corporate team responsible for Organization Development and Training & Development; Head of HR for Northern region; All India Corporate Facilitator for Business Excellence, Social Responsibility and Management of Business Ethics initiatives.
Nirja has varied and in-depth HR exposure in the manufacturing, financial services and the information technology sector. She has worked extensively on designing and implementing Performance Management and Career Development systems in CMC Ltd, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency and Padmatex Engineering Ltd. She has led teams for designing and developing Human Resource Information Management Systems. She has expertise in conducting training need analysis and designing need based training programs. She has conducted training programs at IIM - Ahmedabad, Nirma Institute of Management, ONGC Ltd., and CMC Ltd.
While at Padmatex, Nirja had been certified as an internal auditor and trainer for conducting audits and training on ISO 9002. Tata Quality Management Systems [TQMS] has certified her as a Business Excellence Champion in October 2004 and as a Business Excellence Leader in March 2005 for the Tata Business Excellence Model which is based on the Malcolm Balridge Award. In August 2005, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, awarded her a Doctorate degree in Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior. The title of her thesis was "Diversity at Work Place and Human Resource Management issues".
Nirja also has a Masters degree in Business Administration from Allahabad University, India. |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
|
 |
Richard S. Van Pelt - Vice President, Training and Process Migration
|
|
Richard has over 15 years of experience as an international trainer and process migration specialist. Rich leads the business transition team and travels to various clients sites for process mapping and understanding all training and support requirements prior to transitioning and training different programs.
Richard is one of Motif’s first points of contact during on boarding new customers. Richard and his team groom and prepare future managers via Motif University – an internal learning institution at Motif where employees can learn additional soft and product skills to enhance their skills.
Prior to Motif, Richard was instrumental in setting up AT&T call centers in Florida. At AT&T, he was awarded 'Trainer of the Quarter' for three quarters in a row. After seven years with AT&T, he joined PRC where he was an integral part of the training team and has worked with clients such as Priceline, eBay, Orbitz, Pitney Bowes, Mutual Energy and Mellon in PRC’s domestic and international facilities in India and Philippines. He was twice awarded the 'Above and Beyond' award at PRC - an award given to only the best amongst the 12,000 plus employees at PRC. He has also attended several outside institutions for Classroom Delivery, Time Management, Motivation Skills and Coaching Skills, as well as, attended the Global Achieve program through PRC and assisted in developing PRC's online learning system.
Richard graduated from New York University, USA with a BA in Communications and BS in Management Science. Richard moved to India in 2002 and is an active member in his local community.
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
|
| ^ TOP |
|
|
