Akash Mehta

Chairman

Over 20 years of transactional and principal investment experience in private equity, high yield and real estate across Asia.

 

Career highlights:

distressed acquisition of AIG Home Finance Limited from AIG Ltd for which Mr. Mehta led the turn-around and then subsequently sold to L&T Finance Holdings; Launched one of the first overseas high yield debt funds in India; private equity investment in Karvy Stock Broking to launch its NBFC

 

Previous Roles:

Managing Director at Samena Capital where he launched and ran the Indian High Yield Credit business; Chairman of Indo Pacific Housing Finance Limited (erstwhile AIG Home Finance Limited), Executive Director with Ashmore PLC (UK listed global asset manager); Managing Director at India Equity Partners; VP at the Pacific Century Group in Hong Kong. Mr. Mehta has a BA from Haverford College and a MBA from Harvard Business School

Suresh Gurumani

Chief Executive Officer

A Chartered Accountant and Senior Business Leader with over 32 years of experience in Financial Services.

 

Career highlights:

Advised ESAF as Head of Strategic Change Initiatives on setting up ESAF Small Finance Bank – converted a top 10 MFI into a Digital Bank within 15 months; As MD, led SKS Micro Finance (India’s largest MFI) through IPO (first MFI IPO); Set up and led Retail Banking in India at Barclays Bank PLC.

 

Previous Roles:

Head of Strategic Change Initiatives at ESAF Small Finance Bank; Managing Director of SKS Microfinance; Director of Retail Banking at Barclays Bank PLC; GM for Consumer Finance, SME Banking & Capital Markets at Standard Chartered Bank.

Mr. Gurumani is a CA and did his articles at Price Waterhouse and has a B Com degree from Madras University.

Srinivasan Narayanswamy

Co–Founder & Head of Business Development

A serial entrepreneur and a petro franchise owner with expertise and a strong track record in digital payments. Holds multiple copyright patents ad strategic tie-ups in the digital payments space.

 

Career highlights:

Member of development team designing the electronic toll system for the Government of Andhra Pradesh (pre-cursor to FastTag); Partnered with Muthoot Group to deploy white label ATMs – Worked with RBI to get consent to procure cash for the same from retail outlets; Created 100 franchises under the aegis of Hindustran e-Kendra along with the Ministry of IT in Kerala;

 

Current/Previous Roles:

Petrol franchise owner and Advisor to dealer associations on various digital initiatives and aligned revenue business to petrol pumps; Advisory to Deputy Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh; License partner with Muthoot on white label ATMS.

Ramesh R

Chief Digital Officer

Over 35 years of experience in areas of Technology, Operations, Business Transformation, Application Development, Process Engineering and Strategic Management.

 

Career highlights:

As a founding member of IDFC Bank set up the technology architecture of the bank with a special focus on Rural, Corporate, and Wholesale banking; Architected digital version of the core banking solution for Intellect;  Set up the mutual fund technology operations of Chola Mutual Fund in Mumbai.

 

Previous Roles:

Senior Vice President – Intellect Design Arena Ltd (Core Banking product company); Director – Technology at IDFC Bank Ltd; Head of IT for Chola Mutual Fund; Executive – Systems at Chola Retail Finance; EDP Officer – Ucal Power Systems Ltd

Ramesh R. has a BA from University of Madras with a Diploma in Application Programming and an alumni of IIM- A.

Bishal Thapa

Director - Solar

20 years of global energy sector experience supporting public and private sector clients on a range of management, strategic, operational, transactional and regulatory issues on energy.

 

Career highlights:

Founded Saral Urja Nepal, a leading distributed energy services company in Nepal – successfully completed ~100 distributed solar installations across rural and urban areas in Nepal; Established and served as Managing Director of India for ICF Consulting a global NASDAQ listed advisory firm – successfully grew firm in India to staff of 70.

 

Previous Roles:

Managing Director Saral Urja Nepal; Managing Director, ICF Consulting (India) – leading advisor covering energy, environment, and carbon markets; Independent consultant – provided advisory services to public and private sector clients to enable them to build integrated energy strategies, particularly around integration of distributed renewable energy solutions within their portfolio

Mr. Thapa holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland

Ramachandran Chellam

Chief Financial Officer

Over 30 years of experience in financial services with leading banks in India and overseas including CFO, Global Strategy & Finance leadership roles.

 

Career highlights:

Member of founding team that launched commercial banking, retail banking and cards business for Barclays in India – set up the whole finance department from scratch; As CFO of Centurion Bank, successfully navigated and executed the acquisitive growth strategy of the Bank.

 

Previous Roles:

CFO Saudi Hollandi Bank, CFO – Eskan Bank, Director – Finance India & Indian Ocean Barclays Bank PLC, India, CFO Centurion Bank of Punjab, Finance Controller Bank of Muscat; Vice President IDBI Bank

Mr. Chellam is a CA Rank Holder and has a B Com from University of Bombay