An Engineer by academic standards and post-graduate in Business Management from a renowned B-School, Girish was with Hindustan Machine Tools Limited (HMT) from 1984. Inducted as an Engineer Trainee, he rose to lead the company as the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of the HMT Group of Companies. During this period, the Ministry of Heavy Industries also onboarded Girish as the CMD of Hindustan Photo Films Limited (HPF) and Tungabhadra Steel Products Limited (TSPL).

During his HMT tenure, Girish executed more than 23 international turnkey projects, all of which involved capacity building without any time-overrun or cost-overrun. These projects provided a platform for India to showcase its technological advancements. Girish was also recently nominated by the Government of India as a Nominee Director for Ceybank Asset Management Limited, Sri Lanka.