The Client
A global investment banking firm was setting up a new Global Capability Centre in India, part of a bigger push to support its operations across international markets. This wasn't meant to be a back office. The centre was built to become a real strategic hub, spanning technology, finance, operations, AI and corporate functions.
But before any large scale hiring could begin, the organization needed something more fundamental: an experienced executive leadership team that could build the GCC from scratch. These weren't people who'd simply run existing teams. They'd need to define the operating model, set up governance, hire their own teams underneath them, and shape what the culture of this new centre would actually be.
Prism HRC was brought on as the strategic recruitment partner to build that founding leadership team.
The Challenge
Hiring leadership for a greenfield GCC is nothing like traditional executive search.
The client wasn't looking for managers. They needed leaders with a track record of setting up functions from the ground up, working across global stakeholders, driving transformation, and scaling large organizations, all within a highly regulated financial services environment.
Most of the candidates who fit this profile were already in senior roles at global investment banks, established GCCs, financial institutions, or consulting firms. These are people with strong careers already underway. They're rarely browsing job boards, and they're even more rarely open to a cold approach.
On top of that, the entire search had to run with complete confidentiality, and the candidate experience still had to be exceptional throughout.
Prism HRC's Approach
We worked directly with the client's global leadership team to understand where they wanted this India GCC to go long term, and what kind of leadership it would take to get there.
Conventional sourcing wasn't going to cut it here. Our executive search team ran detailed market mapping across investment banks, GCCs, financial services firms, fintech companies, and technology consulting organizations.
Each leadership position was treated as its own independent executive search, not a batch hiring exercise.Our consultants reached out to passive candidates through direct outreach, industry contacts, referrals from other leaders already in the network, and confidential conversations that never touched the open market.
Every candidate went through a proper evaluation, not a checklist. We looked at domain expertise, leadership style, strategic thinking, whether they'd actually built something before, how they handled stakeholders, and whether they'd fit the culture being shaped.
We stayed close to the client throughout, functioning almost like an internal team ourselves, feeding in market intelligence, sharing talent insights, coordinating interviews, benchmarking compensation and supporting through offer negotiations.
Leadership Roles Hired
We built out the founding executive team across the functions that mattered most:
- GCC Head
- Head of Human Resources
- Head of Operations
- Head of Technology
- Head of Finance
- Head of Risk and Compliance
- Head of Infrastructure and Information Security
- Head of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Business Impact
With this leadership team in place, the client was able to launch its India GCC with a solid foundation right from day one.
Each leader took on a critical role, setting up organizational structures, defining governance frameworks, building out their functional teams, recruiting the next layer of leadership, putting operational processes in place, and working closely with global business units.
This engagement showed what Prism HRC can deliver on high stakes executive search: deep domain knowledge paired with a genuinely consultative approach. By staying close to the client through one of the most critical phases of its expansion, we helped build the leadership backbone this GCC needed to grow over the long term.
Why Prism HRC
- Deep expertise in executive hiring for Global Capability Centres
- Strong network across investment banking, financial services, technology, and consulting
- Proven track record with confidential leadership searches
- Real understanding of finance, technology, AI, and corporate leadership roles
- A consultative approach backed by market intelligence and executive talent mapping
- A trusted partner for building leadership teams that drive long-term transformation
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