Meet Raj Chopra

Tell us about your background before you landed at ghSMART. 

I was born and raised in London, one of five children of first-generation immigrants from India. My parents, both entrepreneurs, unknowingly introduced me to the foundations of Business Psychology long before I even knew the field existed. From a relatively early age, I was fascinated by psychology because my sister studied the subject at university. I was struck by the weird and wonderful early experiments as well as the universality of the subject – we all have our own psychology! The seeds were sown at home for me to be influenced by this field I’m now in.

I studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford and was drawn towards neuroscience because it was an exciting, emerging field. There's so much we do not know about the human brain and how it functions, and I had the opportunity to study that area. I initially went down the clinical route with plans to become a cognitive neuropsychologist.

As I got work experience, I came to realize clinical psychology wasn’t the right fit for me long-term. Fortunately, I came across an internship opportunity at The MindGym and got the gig, which  introduced me to the world of science-led behavioural change. I pursued a master’s degree in Occupational Psychology and then joined a boutique leadership development firm, where I had great client-facing exposure early on in my career—designing and delivering leadership development workshops, facilitating board effectiveness sessions, and delivering exec coaching sessions. This chapter cemented my conviction that this was the work I wanted to do.

How did your passion for psychology, neuroscience, and business fuel your consulting career?

I got my big break when I joined Korn Ferry as they were diversifying and building their advisory business. During those years, I did a lot of executive assessment and succession management work. Then, I joined the CEO succession and development practice and worked with boards of both publicly listed and private-equity-backed businesses, helping them navigate the challenging task of choosing their enterprise’s next leader. This chapter allowed me to sharpen my top of the house advisory skills and, critically, my business acumen as I learnt about the intricacies of diverse business models and sectors.

As I progressed in my career, I led some key client accounts, tasked with driving revenue growth—which was a lot of fun. Transitioning into this client partner role was a learning curve. I had to identify how to bring the best of the firm together to help solve our clients’ most pressing business problems. I also became a people manager for the first time, about 6 months before covid hit (another learning curve!), leading a team of six principals based across the UK and Ireland—and I loved it. It was incredibly fulfilling to develop, grow, mentor and support a group of absolutely fantastic people.

What brought you to ghSMART? 

I love the strategic clarity of the firm. ghSMART positions itself to have its most significant impact on leaders of the largest, most successful enterprises in the world.

The idea of amplifying these leaders’ impact in the world really resonated with me. It might sound like a cliché, but I believe this is privileged work, and the opportunity to help scale this business and thus it’s positive impact greatly appealed to me.

The people here are a big draw too. With every 'Smartie' I met during the recruitment process and every coffee catch-up with the recruiting team, I was genuinely blown away by how dedicated and intelligent everyone was. They were easy to get along with, authentic, and their passion for what they did for their clients every single day came through so clearly.

The other factor in joining ghSMART was my new life as a father. My wife and I had our first child, Aurora, in December 2023, and I was thinking about what I wanted my life to be like. ghSMART’s culture of freedom, flexibility, and working where you want and how you want appealed to me. The opportunity to be at home and literally not miss one day of Aurora's life has been incredible.  

Tell us about your client portfolio. What types of work do you do? How do you make an impact, and how do you decide what to work on?

As I started at ghSMART, I was conscious of going broad and working with a diverse group of clients and colleagues. In Team Europe, we do a lot of work with private equity investors, and that's a relatively new space for me. I was keen to just throw myself into that due diligence context, working on behalf of private equity investors. It’s been fast-paced, intellectually stimulating, and challenging as I’ve learned to help investors determine how best to meet their value creation plan through the lever of leadership. I just led my first senior team assessment project for a new, fast-growing Hedge Fund client, which I hope marks the beginning of a long partnership. It's been a lot of fun!

Additionally, I’ve supported assignments in our exciting new APAC business, working with our Head of Australia and leveraging my prior experience with law firms—this has been a highlight of my time at the firm.

I've also been working with colleagues in the U.S. in the corporate setting, doing developmentally oriented projects. I've just taken on my first executive coaching assignment, which has been fantastic. My work is global, across lots of time zones and at slightly random hours, but it's been a nice variety across different types of use cases. Finally, my passion for research has also been met, as I’ve been collaborating with wonderful colleagues and an external publisher on a thought leadership paper that we hope to publish later this year.

What mentorship and support have you received in the first 6 months at the company?

You know, joining a new firm after almost a decade in one place comes with challenges, and the learning curve can be steep. But I’ve felt immensely supported in the eight months I've been here. ghSMART is brilliant at giving formal training in addition to both a mentor and a buddy to support you as you are coming up that learning curve.

In the time I’ve been here, I’ve had weekly check-ins with my mentor, who has been helping me navigate the firm, reflect on areas for growth, and determine how to best position myself for success at the firm. I also have a brilliant buddy to whom I can ask “stupid” questions without feeling any judgment, and I’ve greatly benefited from his first-year learnings. As part of the apprenticeship process, after every client interaction, I benefit from receiving thoughtful, experienced feedback from a colleague who provides valuable insights into what I bring to the table. This is probably the most feedback I've ever gotten in my career. And there is something very powerful about what happens to your professional growth as a result. I genuinely feel like I am a sharper client advisor already.  

Raj’s full bio can be found here.