About Us

Ben Thakur

eTeam Inc. President and CEO

I started my career building next generation technology for world class companies. I have enjoyed building talent based organizations and maximizing the potential of people, process and technologies to produce high quality work in a cost effective manner for our clients. I get excited by collaborating with passionate clients, partners and professionals to push the boundaries of our services and giving back to the world. Besides thinking about the future of work solutions, I like being outdoors and learning new things.

Aanchal (Ann) Thakur

Strategic Client Relationships and Founding Member

For me, it's all about relationships. Whether it’s helping clients meet their business goals or connecting talented professionals with career opportunities, my penchant for relationship building inspired me to co-found eTeam in 1999 and transform it into an innovative, global workforce solutions provider. I continue to be actively involved in designing and implementing innovative solutions for clients and sharing their views and feedback with our leadership team. In my free time, I love to go shopping and spend time with my family and friends.

Faizan Syed

Director, Recruitment

I started my career as a recent college graduate with dream to work for world class company. My passion is to manage and build recruiting teams, which result in my customers success and to create tomorrow’s leaders. I enjoy working with our company leaders and collaborating ideas to develop new systems and process for our recruiting team to achieve high end results for our customers and employees. I enjoy spending time with my family and BBQing on weekends.

Swetta Bhatt

CEO- INDIA & APAC

I started my career in business development & have always been passionate about managing strategic engagements. I leverage on my operational experience to advise on growing the business by uncovering new opportunities and identifying untapped revenue streams in addition to developing leadership capital.

I want to chart the growth of staffing and talent collaboration in India and other neighbouring countries, defining path-breaking staffing models for the technology companies. I love being hands-on, I get excited by shaping and fostering enthusiastic and energetic work culture and building high-performance teams.

I like to be instrumental in steering the early stage geographies from pre-revenue to a highly successful geographic by focusing on creating new customized business models, process re-engineering and bringing innovative best practices that results in bringing the best in most cost and time efficient way.

I am a fun loving person. I enjoy dancing and playing with Twisha, my 7 year old daughter beside exploring new places.

Frank Sands

Vice President – Strategic Initiatives

I started my career recruiting call center representatives for a global staffing firm. This experience quickly evolved into developing and managing the first Managed Service Provider solution for a Fortune 100 bank in the early 2000s. In my career I have sold and managed over $800 Million in non-employee worker spend. I enjoy looking at contingent labor programs holistically and finding new and innovative ways to reduce costs, improve quality, access to talent and drive efficiencies. I “geek out” on new and innovative technologies that are changing the way employers get work done and job seekers approach opportunities. Outside of work Frank enjoys paddle boarding and playing lacrosse with his wife and two children.

Jagadesan Balakrishnan

Global CFO

I believe, I am an expert in outsourcing and change management with a successful track record of transforming accounting and finance divisions with my operational insight and leadership skills and have achieved higher levels of performance by lowering costs and improving efficiency.

I enjoy connecting with people and firmly believe in increasing my network contacts as much as possible. I spend time in internet surfing and reading to keep enhancing knowledge. I also like to travel and spend time with my family.

Pooja Maggon

Global HR Head

I enjoy building world class organizations by leveraging the core of the organization- it’s people!

I did my Masters in Human Resources and Organizational Development and have since worked with large and small companies alike over the past 15 + years in different geographies. Over the years, I have built expertise in all areas of Human Resources and have led large teams in multiple geographical and functional HR areas for Talent acquisition, Talent management, Performance Management, Compensation, Global Compliances, Global benefits, Global Immigration and Organizational development. At the same time, I have served clients in diverse industries such as technology, healthcare, financial services and insurance to meet the client deliverables. I enjoy spending my free time with my family and volunteering for organizations like the Seeing Eye.

Wade Newell

EMEA Head

London has been home for the last 21 years as I am originally from South Africa. My expanding staffing experience has been focused on the insurance & financial services vertical markets. During my years in the staffing industry, I have built and managed teams and always enjoyed entering/developing new markets and building relationships with new Clients. As the staffing and talent acquisition industry evolves, I revel in the challenges aligned with new technologies and EMEA market expansion. My spare time is spent with my growing family and when I can escape, I am also an avid cyclist.

Malcolm Kelly

Vice President - EMEA

I have over 25 years experience in the global recruitment industry and have a real passion for developing business based on a passion for delivering excellence, outstanding customer service and creative and innovative solutions that provide more efficient and successful solutions for both candidates and clients.

Given the dynamic change in the recruitment markets , the opportunity to work with clients at both a local and global level ,to identify bespoke solutions that maximize the benefits of quality hiring with time and cost efficient processes while leveraging new technologies, continues to excite me. Outside of work, I enjoy travelling, sailing, diving and skiing.

Rishi Kapoor

Managing Director APAC & Head of Global Digital Services

I have over 2 decades of global experience in outsourcing, technology and enterprise solutions and have driven profitable growth in both mature and emerging markets across diverse industry sectors; including leadership positions with Fortune 500 organizations such as AdeccoGroup, Manpower, Dell, Convergys and General Electric. I thrive on my ability in building successful, motivated teams with a “start-up” mindset where every member can articulate their contribution to the overall strategic direction and goals for the organization.

Robert Merritt

Chief Revenue Officer

After 15+ years of experience here’s what I know for sure. Experience is inevitable, learning is not. The difference between the two is knowing what you want to achieve and how well you improve your plan and decision making based on the people you listen to.

I’ve run sales teams for companies ranging from startups to global institutions for 15 years. I'm a passionate sales leader and go-to-market strategy expert. Building teams, revitalizing GTM strategy, developing scalable plans and products for future growth and expansion is what I love doing and what I do best.

As the Chief Revenue Officer of eTeam, I am responsible for all revenue-related activities across the organization, including building a world-class marketing department and leading sales efforts for our forthcoming total talent platform.

Matt Pietsch

Chief Strategy Officer

Matt Pietsch, serves as the Chief Strategy officer and is responsible for the strategic direction of eTeam, including mergers/acquisitions, global alliances and partnerships, as well as helping to direct the future of eTeam’s technology platform. Matt has spent nearly all of his 30 year career in the human capital management space, starting in recruitment and transitioning to sales and sales executive leadership roles within the global recruitment, talent assessment, video interviewing technology space and with companies leveraging AI for predictive talent analytics. Outside of work, Matt is active with mission projects with at his church, entertaining friends with his wife Dona, and they love traveling with their two adult children.