Viral Thakker

Viral is the leader of Deloitte’s Sustainability and Climate Strategic Growth Offering practice for Deloitte in South Asia. Viral works with clients to bring in multi-disciplinary solutions on Sustainability and Climate initiatives, and helps them realise their Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals with a focus on sustainability. With over 26 years of consulting experience, Viral supports clients across industries in the public and private sector to design and drive their ESG strategy and transformation, helping them deliver social impact, transition to net-zero, build responsible value chains, introduce transparent disclosures and reporting, and bring about climate resilience.

Prior to this role, Viral led the Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions and Analytics practice in India. In his role, he focused on the organisation’s strategic clients to provide multi-disciplinary solutions to support strategic initiatives, such as strategy, innovation, enterprise transformation, and operations improvement. Viral also served on the India Consulting Executive Committee.

Viral is a climate enthusiast who is passionate about innovative solutions and policy advocacy in the sustainability space. He is also the Deloitte South Asia leader for WorldClimate, in charge of spearheading Deloitte’s own sustainability efforts, including signature initiatives with respect to ESG. He brings significant experience in the consulting domain, from strategy and operations, to large-scale transformation, to business advisory.

Prior to Deloitte, Viral had established the Global Business Services Consulting practice for KPMG in India, where he also served on the Board. Viral started his career at Daimler-Benz Research and Technology, North America, where he was engaged in transportation and mobility research, focusing on telematics-based initiatives for the Mercedes Benz division.

Viral serves on the Management Committee of the Chandaramji School in Mumbai, one of the oldest schools focused on education of girls, as well as Saraswatam, focused on rural education (operating 20 schools and 102 Anganwadis) in the Kutch district in Gujarat. Viral is also the co-founder of Plaksha University based in Mohali, Punjab.