HEADHUNTER GIRISH TILAK: MASTERING THE TALENT QUEST
Bridging Ambition and Opportunity Through Insight, Ethics, and Impact
Finding the perfect candidate for a leadership role in today’s competitive landscape is like searching for a rare gem in a vast mine of resumes. For organizations seeking niche talent across diverse industries, this challenge can feel overwhelming. Enter Girish Tilak, a Headhunter extraordinaire who transforms this daunting task into a seamless success story.
Girish Tilak, the visionary Founder Director of Resume Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. (RMCPL) since April 2000, has earned a stellar reputation as a talent acquisition specialist. Over two decades, he has redefined executive search, placing senior leaders in sectors as varied as manufacturing, financial services, infrastructure, healthcare, precision machine tools, and private equity. His firm, RMCPL, serves an impressive roster of clients, including Fortune 500 giants, Indian multinationals, private equity-backed ventures, and first-generation entrepreneurs.
Beyond recruitment, RMCPL offers comprehensive services like recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), targeted executive search, HR policy design, performance management systems, and compensation benchmarking.
Girish’s unique strength lies in his intuitive ability to bridge diverse backgrounds—age, gender, culture, and education—connecting names to expertise with precision. His global travels, deep industry knowledge, and voracious reading habits have not only shaped his craft but also inspired two Marathi books, Headhunter and Nipun Shodh. These works, the only ones globally to chronicle real-time headhunting experiences, offer unparalleled insights into talent acquisition. A leading international publisher has recently signed a contract with Girish to narrate his unique journey in English, with a young author currently penning the manuscript, slated for release in December 2025.
Beyond RMCPL, Girish is a mentor and ecosystem builder. He shapes young talent through career counselling and guest lectures at educational institutions.
As the inaugural Global Secretary of the Saturday Club Global Trust, he championed entrepreneurship within the Maharashtrian community, guiding the organization to formal trust registration and drafting its constitution alongside trustees and committee members.
Girish has also conducted over 100 workshops on business networking, empowering entrepreneurs to forge meaningful connections.
In 2024, Girish expanded his influence as a Partner at Launch Capital, a Mumbai-based SEBI-registered Category 1 Angel Fund. Here, he leverages his extensive network to facilitate investor onboarding, supporting startups in their quest for capital and growth. With a career spanning executive search, mentorship, and investment, Girish continues to solve complex human-capital challenges while shaping the future of Indian enterprise, one strategic match at a time.
A Journey Rooted in People, Not Just Positions
Some carve their own paths rather than follow established ones, and Girish Tilak is one such trailblazer. His career didn’t begin in high-stakes boardrooms but with a profound ability to observe, understand, and connect people to their purpose. Early roles at organizations like Centaur Hotels, UTV Ltd., Boehringer Mannheim, and Sigma Laboratories honed his understanding of business operations and human capital—the true driver of organizational success. Unlike peers focused on titles or transactions, Girish mastered the art of decoding human motivations, cultural dynamics, and performance drivers.
This insight became the cornerstone of his legacy. When he assumed leadership at RMCPL in 2000, it wasn’t merely a career pivot—it was a commitment to investing in people. His approach went beyond filling roles; it was about aligning individual values with organizational vision.
Today, Girish is celebrated not just as a headhunter but as a mentor, investor, and catalyst for transformative change, all built on his deep belief in the power of human potential.
Building a Consultancy That Transcends Recruitment
When Girish joined RMCPL, India’s executive search industry was still nascent, often reduced to transactional exchanges: match a resume to a job, send an invoice, repeat. Girish envisioned something greater—a relationship-driven approach to talent acquisition. Under his stewardship, RMCPL evolved from a placement agency into a strategic partner for India’s top corporations. His philosophy was clear: a successful hire isn’t just about skills but about cultural alignment.
Girish immersed himself in industries, from manufacturing to healthcare, traveling globally to understand sectoral trends and leadership needs. His searches didn’t just fill vacancies; they addressed long-term business challenges by placing visionary leaders. Clients began to value RMCPL not only for recruitment but for its strategic insights and industry foresight.
In the past decade, alongside seasoned HR professional Ganesh Naik — formerly with Siemens, Crompton, Essel Propack, and Lafarge — Girish built a robust HR Advisory Division. This division has transformed over 100 family-managed businesses by aligning their HR processes with organizational vision, often accepting soft equity or profit-sharing arrangements as a testament to their commitment.
RMCPL’s unique business model stands out: with only three salaried employees (an accountant, Girish’s secretary, and a driver), the firm operates through a network of business partners in executive search and HR advisory. These partners, bound by a transparent MOU, share profits and are poised to take equity in RMCPL, ensuring the firm’s legacy endures.
Empowering Startups Through Launch Capital
As India’s startup ecosystem flourished, Girish recognized a recurring issue: brilliant ideas often faltered due to team-building challenges. Leveraging his vast network of high-net-worth individuals and industry leaders, he began advising startups on talent and strategy. His collaboration with CA Milind Garud, a colleague from Saturday Club Global Trust, marked a new chapter. When Milind sought to institutionalize his seed-funding efforts by forming Launch Capital, a SEBI-registered Category 1 Angel Fund, Girish was the natural choice as a partner. His role focuses on strengthening investor onboarding, connecting startups with capital through his extensive senior management and HNI networks across India and beyond.
Ethics: The Heart of Hiring
In recruitment, surprises are inevitable — candidates who ghost offers, delay commitments, or misrepresent themselves. Girish doesn’t shy away from these realities. A memorable LinkedIn post recounted the tale of a senior executive, dubbed the “Bluff Master,” who accepted an offer, stalled for weeks, and vanished. Rather than burying the incident, Girish shared it as a lesson in ethics.
In an industry fixated on metrics—CVs sent, roles closed—Girish emphasizes integrity. He believes a single act of dishonesty can derail an organization’s momentum. His response? Rigorously enhanced processes at RMCPL, from deeper reference checks to transparent client communication, with an unwavering focus on character over credentials. These experiences underscore a timeless truth: in an era of AI and automation, human judgment—and ethics—remain irreplaceable.
A Legacy of Impact
Girish’s journey—from corporate roles to consulting, mentorship, and startup investment—is defined not by deals closed but by lives transformed. He believes careers are built through clarity, guidance, and honest feedback, whether mentoring a fresh graduate or a seasoned CXO. In his hometown, Girish supports social organizations, not for publicity but as an extension of his commitment to community. These efforts reflect a man who gives back with time, wisdom, and experience.
As RMCPL evolves, Girish has built a team to carry its legacy forward. In 2024, Shantanu Bhave, an Engineer-MBA and former Head HR at a UAE-based global FMCG company, joined as COO, bringing fresh energy to the firm. Girish is now focused on two transformative goals: expanding RMCPL globally with a UAE-based venture and institutionalizing his experiences to inspire the next generation of RMCPL leaders.
Girish’s story isn’t just about success—it’s about significance. By investing in people, he doesn’t merely change companies; he shapes lives, one meaningful connection at a time.
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