Our Story — The Painted Sky

founded in

2006

120+

Organisations

18

Countries

10,000+

Coaching Hours

100,000+

Learning Hours

Since 2006, The Painted Sky has grown into one of India's most distinctive leadership development and experiential learning organisations — working with 120+ clients in 18 countries through programs that range from two-hour immersions to six-month transformation journeys.

A pioneer in Art-Based Learning. The first in India to introduce Design Thinking as a corporate training discipline. Home to one of India's leading Executive Coaching practices with over 10,000 hours of experience.

The Painted Sky works across four interconnected spaces: Leadership Development, Design Thinking and Innovation, Executive Coaching, and Assessment.

Most recently, The Painted Sky launched India's first corporate program on Design Thinking augmented by AI — continuing a legacy of being ahead of where the world is going.

Because when you invest in humans, everything else follows.

What We Do

Where you need to grow, we have a program for that.

01

Leadership Development

Immersive, art-based, simulation-centred journeys that build mindsets and behaviours that last. Not a workshop. An experience.

02

Design Thinking & Innovation

From single-day workshops to multi-month evangelist journeys. Building human-centred thinking across functions and levels.

03

Executive Coaching

ICF-certified coaches working 1:1 and in groups with senior leaders. 6 to 12 month engagements built around real challenges, real growth.

04

Assessment

Assessment Centres, psychometric tools, and end-to-end leadership development programs that connect potential to performance.

Our Founders

Those who built this.

Anirban Bhattacharya

Co-Founder

Anirban Bhattacharya

Co-Founder

IIM Calcutta UVA Darden Hasso-Plattner Institute India's only Certified DT Coach

Anirban brings over 32 years of experience spanning Sales, Marketing and Business Development across ITC Hotels, American Express, PwC and beyond, in India, the US and Europe. An IIM Calcutta alumnus, he went on to certify in Design Thinking at UVA Darden and the Hasso-Plattner Institute, becoming India's only Certified Design Thinking Coach. At The Painted Sky, Anirban leads the vision of reimagining Design Thinking for resilience, responsibility and regeneration. A speaker at over 100 conferences globally on Innovation, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship and DEI, he is also an active investor in Cleantech, Climatetech and Deeptech startups.

Soni Bhattacharya, MCC

Co-Founder

Soni Bhattacharya, MCC

Co-Founder

MCC — ICF 10,000+ Coaching Hours Psychotherapy Transactional Analysis

Soni's journey spans three decades — across corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, art curation and people development. With an MBA from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, she built a career that moved from sales and marketing into a deep calling in coaching and human development. Today, Soni is one of the few Master Certified Coaches in India, credentialed by the ICF — the highest level of coaching certification in the world. With over 13 years and 10,000 hours of Executive Coaching experience, she works with senior leaders across industries to help them become the best versions of themselves. At The Painted Sky, she is the driving force behind the organisation's coaching philosophy — grounded in Psychotherapy, Transactional Analysis and a genuine belief in the power of every individual to grow.

Our Leaders

Those who drive this.

Deepika Bhattacharya

Lead Faculty

Deepika Bhattacharya

Lead Faculty

ICF Certified Coach Gallup Strengths Hogan & DISC

An ICF certified Coach, Gallup Strengths Practitioner and Hogan & DISC Assessor with three decades of experience, Deepika has led capability development across Accenture, Genpact, American Express, NIIT and Dabur. She has built and transformed training frameworks for over 22,000 employees at Genpact, pioneered industry-academia programs at Accenture and is a recipient of the Golden Peacock and Brandon Hall awards. Founder of Kshamta Consulting, a capability and workforce strategy firm, Deepika also serves as a Leadership Development Expert at BTS, while leading faculty at The Painted Sky.

Smitha Rao (PCC, ICF)

Head, Leadership

Smitha Rao (PCC, ICF)

Head, Leadership

PCC — ICF NLP Design Thinking SAATA — TA

A PCC certified Executive Coach with over 20 years of facilitation and HR experience, Smitha brings a rare blend of people practice expertise and learning design craft. With a background spanning Tata Elxsi and Celstream Technologies, she is trained in NLP, Design Thinking and Theatre for the Oppressed, and also holds a Diploma in Transactional Analysis from SAATA.

The Painted Sky was built on one belief.

Where you need to grow, we have a program for that.

Leadership Development

Design Thinking & Innovation

Executive Coaching

Assessment

Those who built this.

Anirban Bhattacharya

Anirban Bhattacharya

Soni Bhattacharya, MCC

Soni Bhattacharya, MCC

Those who drive this.

Deepika Bhattacharya

Deepika Bhattacharya

Smitha Rao (PCC, ICF)

Smitha Rao (PCC, ICF)

Those who bring this to life.

Mallika Patil

Ritu Shukla

Anandarupa Kar

Manu Menon

Monishita Bathij

George Cherian

Sri Krishnan

Pallavi Tandon

Surbhi Bajaj

We'd love to tell you more. In person.