MTI’s international HR specialist in town for HR forum

Tuesday, 4 June 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

MTI’s International HR Specialist Darshan Singh is in Sri Lanka this week for the MTI HR Forum scheduled for Wednesday, 5 June at the Galadari, starting 5:30 p.m.

Darshan, having grown up and studied in the UK, has spent the last 25 years in senior HR roles across the Middle East and Asia, with the likes of Coca-Cola, Mars, Gulf-International Bank and Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance. His specialisation has been in leadership development, executive coaching, succession planning and performance management.

Darshan’s career began in 1980 with the Mars Corporation in the UK. Following a successful spell in the Sales Division, he was appointed as Sales Training and Development Manager where he designed, developed and delivered programs to the sales force of 500 strong across the UK. This was followed by a spell in the UK Distribution Division, and then appointment to a strategic business development role in the Far East in 1991. Based out of Singapore, he trained and managed a network of human resources managers throughout Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. He was also a member of the pioneer team for the introduction of Mars to China.

In 1994, Darshan joined Masterfoods, Dubai to build regional distributor, sales force and manager capabilities. He worked in Saudi Arabia with Arabian Food Supplies, the distributors for the Mars Corporation. In addition to his work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he established the Mars Academy of Sales at Jebel Ali, Dubai, and trained eight training managers across the Middle East.

He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1996 as Human Resources Manager for the Middle East. Again Darshan excelled with his understanding of the FMCG industry to support human resources development of Coca-Cola Bottling Companies in the Middle East. He was promoted to the Division Human Resources Development Manager where he managed the training and development of 6,500 employees across 12 countries.

Darshan became the Head of the Leadership and Management Learning Centre at Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) in 2003, a professional provider of human resources development for the financial sector in the Middle East. Whilst creating and presenting many programs, he facilitated the new BIBF vision, mission and strategic plans for the future. Darshan has provided people development solutions to a broad sector of both financial and non-financial institutions in the Middle East.

At Gulf International Bank, Bahrain, Darshan was appointed in 2007 as Senior Vice President, Human Resource Development. He managed the development of 475 staff through tailor-made human resources solutions to address business and career development needs.

Darshan has a wealth of expertise in human resources development, strategic planning, organisation design, facilitating change, recruitment and selection and performance management. His passion lies in developing people to reach their true potential.