His interest in social service began 10 years ago and since then, he says he has been keenly involved in social transformation at the grassroots level.

Of course, that was not the plan to begin with. In his younger days, Goyal wanted to become a surgeon. “However, after completing my master’s in management studies from BITS, I knew exactly what I did not want to do,” he laughs.

His telecom innings began in the mid-1980s, as executive assistant to Sam Pitroda. I was part of a high-impact C-DOT programme that seeded the telecom revolution in India.”

He then moved to Hughes when the company made its debut in the Indian market. Goyal spent 16 years with the company, essaying several roles in the fields of human resources, sales, IT, corporate communications, engineering, profit and loss, etc. “I was a part of the core team that started the company’s operations and made it public. I was involved in the acquisition of businesses in Europe and the US, including the process of merging the entities into a single company with operations in five continents.”

He played the role of an angel investor for start-ups like JobsAhead.com and PeopleStrong.com

Goyal joined Tata Com-munications two years ago in his current position. His role requires him to oversee the entire gamut of activities pertaining to the company’s people and human resources strategy. “Broadly, this includes identifying talent, leadership development, forging HR partnerships and ensuring employee engagement,” he says.

Goyal considers his current stint at Tata Communications and his time with Hughes as the most memorable. “An entirely new set of challenges were thrown up when General Motors sold Hughes to Flex-tronics, which in turn sold it to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts,” says Goyal. “Managing this change from a people point of view and integrating the seven companies that Flextronics had acquired in different countries were very challenging.”

That apart, he says that working with Tata Communications’ leadership team to help develop and execute the company’s people strategy and road map has been very interesting.