Board of Directors, Independent and Non Executive Director

Amar Deshpande is an M. Sc. in Statistics and holds a Diploma in Financial Management; and has over 36+ years of experience in the BFSI Sector mainly into NBFCs with expertise in areas including Fund Mobilization, Corporate Funding, Project Finance, Debt Syndication, Credit Appraisal and Management Consultancy. Deshpande comes with long-standing experience in Finance, Banking, Legal and Management spheres.

He was awarded as the “most influential CFOs of India” in 2015 by CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accounts).

Deshpande is a Chief Operating Officer of Poonawalla Finance Private Limited, a systemically important non-banking financial company and Ex. Vice President- Finance and Strategy at Electronica Finance Limited. He has spear-headed an arena of various departments such as Legal, Compliance, Operations, Finance, Treasury, Collections, etc. Deshpande has been a visiting faculty to NIBM (National Institute of Bank Management), Pune and Reserve Bank of India, College of Agriculture Banking, Pune.

Prabhakar Dalal, holds degrees in M. Com, LL.B., CAIIB, FIIBF, PGDFERM and PGDSL, and certificates in French and German languages. He is a highly experienced banker in commercial and development banking, with 37 years of experience and extensive international exposure across the globe. He has worked with the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) for 31 years, including as the Executive Director for over 3 years.

Dalal has been serving as Independent or Nominee Director on the Boards of several companies/organizations in various sectors, including West African Development Bank. He also served as a Member of the Jury for Business Excellence Awards and has appeared as an expert on top-rated business news TV channels in their several call-in shows.

Dalal’s expertise lies in retail and wholesale banking, international trade and project financing, institutional and international relations, stressed assets management, resource management, corporate and securities law and corporate governance.

Vijayalakshmi Rajaram Iyer, aged 63 years, is an Independent Director on our Board. She holds a master’s degree in commerce from the University of Mumbai. She has previously served as an Executive Director of the Central Bank of India and the Chairperson and Managing Director of the Bank of India. She was also a Whole Time Member (Finance and Investment) in the IRDAI. She has been associated with our Company since January 31, 2019.

Sajid Fazalbhoy is a Business Management Graduate (BBA) from European Business School, London UK and Regents College London UK. Additionally he has completed executive education courses on Private Equity and Venture Capital at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He has over 10 years of work experience in Private Equity and Venture Capital. He has led investments in over a dozen companies across seed, growth and late stages in sectors covering technology, financial services, retail and healthcare. He has significant experience in deal sourcing, structuring, portfolio management, fund management and fundraising.

Mr Sajid Fazalbhoy is a Partner at growth and late stage venture capital fund, Iron Pillar. He was formerly engaged as Principal Investments and Venture Advisor at Blume Venture Capital, a early stage venture capital fund from 2012 until 2021.

He has served on the boards of several high growth businesses. He was also the founder CEO of Amedeo Software (focused on call centere solution software and mobile value added services) from 2005- 2010,which rolled out several large scale contracts for Alcatel Lucent, Genesys Telecom Labs, Nuance, Reliance Communications etc.

Bontha Prasad Rao, aged 65, is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada. He is a Post Graduate in Industrial Engineering from NITIE, Mumbai. Rao has served as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), India till 31st December 2015. During a career spanning more than 37 years, Mr- Rao handled various assignments and has diversified, versatile and varied experience both in strategic and operational areas in all business segments of BHEL. He has held many senior level positions in BHEL and was elevated to the Board of BHEL in 2007. In 2009, he served as the Chairman & Managing Director of BHEL. Mr- Rao laid the foundation for diversifying BHEL into non-power businesses such as Railway Transportation, Defence Equipment, etc. Forbes magazine ranked BHEL at No. 9 on the World’s Most Innovative Companies list in July 2011. He has been the Chairman of CII Public Sector Enterprises Council, and was on the Board of Governors of IIM, Kashipur.

Sanjay Kumar (aged 61 years), is Master of Arts in Economics from Lucknow University and Bachelor of Commerce. He has 38 years of rich working experience in critical areas of Banking – Branch Banking, Credit Administration, International Operations, HRD & Training, Corporate Planning, Economic Research & Intelligence, and AML & Regulatory Compliances.

Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist with excellent exposure to handling Group Compliance portfolio of the second largest Bank in India viz. Bank of Baroda. Headed the Compliance Function in Bank of Baroda as the Chief Group Compliance Officer in the rank of Chief General Manager, followed by as an Advisor. Headed Hong Kong operations of Bank of Baroda for over 2 years and worked as CFO of Bank of Baroda (for 1 year). He has wide experience in dealing with Indian Regulators, mainly RBI, and overseas Regulators.

G. Jagan Mohan Rao (aged 67 years), is MA (Economics) from Andhra University and graduated from Sir. C.R.R. College, Eluru. He served as the Managing Director of Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPM) (A JV of SPMCIL – A Govt. of India Enterprise and BRBNMPL – A Subsidiary of RBI) between December 2013 to December 2018. BNPM was established by Rao and he ran it for five years successfully and was ranked as the biggest and the best mill in Asia.

Prior to that he was the Principal Chief General Manager in Reserve Bank of India – Department of Banking Supervision, Central Office. He was credited with pioneering the introduction of risk-based supervision in India, which is now emulated by other Central Banks. He has also headed the Bhubaneshwar Regional Office as Regional Director of the Bank.

In his career spanning over 33 years in the Bank, Rao has worked in areas of Currency Management, Exchange Control, Banking Supervision and Customer Services in senior executive capacity and as Principal Chief General Manager in the Department of Banking Supervision in RBI and has been part of Internal and External Working Groups and Committees in areas related to central banking. Rao is on the Board of Indiabulls Trustee Company Limited.

Atul Kumar Gupta, Commerce and a Law graduate and a Chartered Accountant.

Atul Kumar Gupta acquired the position of President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the year 2020-21.

He has also been Chairman of ICAI Accounting Research Foundation and Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) India. He has also been Director of the Governing Board of Indian Institute of Insolvency Professionals and Registered Valuers Organisation

With his diverse and deep knowledge, he has served in various governmental bodies in past. He has been first Chairman of the Accounting and Finance Services Sectional Committee constituted by the Bureau of Indian Standards. He has also been member of Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB), Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA), SEBI’s Primary Market Advisory Committee; Gupta has authored many relevant books and has published numerous articles in leading newspapers, magazines and professional newsletters.

On International front, he is the Council Member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), XBRL International.