Asha Ramanathan, new COO; Gayathri Parthasarthy, new FSS lead at PwC India

Asha is a qualified chartered accountant (CA), and Parthasarthy is a Financial Services industry veteran

On Friday, PricewaterhouseCoopers India (PwC India) announced the appointment of Asha Ramanathan as the new chief operating officer (COO) and Gayathri Parthasarthy as the head of its Financial Services sector. Ramanathan's appointment as the COO is effective from October 1.

"Very pleased that we have two very strong women leaders take on critical roles and on behalf of the firm's leadership," Sanjeev Krishan, Chairman, PwC in India, said.

Ramanathan will replace Satyavati Berera who will retire in March 2023. "We thank Satya for her contribution to the firm over the last four decades," Krishan added.

Ramanathan is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) and became a partner of PwC India in 2009. She specialises in the pharma, industrial, consumer products and service sectors.

On the appointment, she said, "I look forward to playing an enabling role in our collective vision with a focus on ease of doing business for our people and our clients."

Parthasarathy is a veteran in the Financial Services sector. She will join PwC India from IBM Services, where she was working as the Asia Pacific Financial Services leader. She has earlier worked with companies like KPMG, Accenture and Oracle, among others.

"I am very excited to be joining PwC India and look forward to working with fellow partners and leaders to strengthen our presence and deepen our capabilities in this dynamic market. I am thankful for the confidence of the leadership in me and am gearing up for an exciting journey with this great team," she said.

"Asha's three decades of varied experience in our firm will be valuable as she takes over the operations mantle from Satya...Gayathri, on the other hand, has already held several leadership positions and brings in a world of experience including strategy, governance, large multi-jurisdictional and complex programmes, sourcing and offshoring projects," Krishan said.