Governance Conclave Enhancing Governance Assurance

Pinky Mehta

Pinky Mehta is the Chief Financial Officer of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd, the holding company of the financial services businesses of the Aditya Birla Group (the Group). Prior to this, she was the CFO of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. (ABNL), from 2015-2017.

Pinky is a qualified Chartered Accountant with 32 years of diversified experience. She joined the Aditya Birla Group in 1991, to become the first woman officer in the Group. As a key member of the Finance team at ABNL for about two decades, she handled many portfolios and made major contributions in the areas of Taxation, MIS, Accounts, Legal and Secretarial. She has played an active role in the area of Demergers, Mergers and Acquisitions since 1998 viz., demerger of Cement; Joint Venture with Sun Life for Life Insurance business; acquisition of Madura Garments, Transworks, Minacs and Apollo Sindhoori. Pinky has handled many complicated tax issues and has mastered the intricacies of tax laws.

Pinky has led the Management Services Division (MSD) of the Aditya Birla Group for five years from 2010 – 2015 and has executed many high-impact projects aimed at achieving commercial excellence, knowledge integration & future forecasting and leveraging cost synergies and competitive advantage. Under her leadership, MSD expanded its services to new geographies and new businesses overseas including Pulp and Fibre, Trading, Overseas Spinning, Acrylic Fibre and Carbon Black in North America, China, South East Asia and Africa. She has also expanded MSD services to new areas such as renewable energy, GST, Benchmarking, Logistics Roadmap etc.

In her role as Chief Financial Officer of ABNL, she completed the Demerger of Madura Garments to Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Limited creating the largest Fashion & Lifestyle Company in India in the listed space under the name of Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd. She has also played a key role in the merger of ABNL with Grasim Industries Ltd., followed by the listing of the Aditya Birla Capital Ltd.

M. Damodaran

Meleveetil Damodaran, has, in a career spanning over 52 years, worked with the Union and the State governments in India, regulatory bodies, investment institutions, banks, development financial institutions and with the private sector. He has held regulatory and developmental positions in the Government and in India’s financial sector, before demitting office as Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on February 18, 2008. He graduated in Economics and in Law from the Universities of Madras and Delhi respectively.

After a career spanning several regulatory and developmental assignments in the state of Tripura, he was appointed as its Chief Secretary in 1992, the youngest ever in the country to hold such a position in any State Government. During his tenure when he also functioned as Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura held statewide elections without a single instance of repolling in a State which had seen more than 100 election related deaths in the run up to the previous election. He also led the State’s transformation from an entity that could not pay salaries in time, to an overdraft free State that was recognized for fiscal discipline. This effort led to the State government receiving additional central financial assistance as an incentive for excellent resource management. Thereafter, he worked as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Banking Division, for five years, dealing with Government’s ownership functions of Public Sector Banks and being its interface with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the regulator of India’s banking system. The first set of public issues of shareholding in the Government owned banks took place in his tenure. Thereafter, as Officer on Special Duty with RBI, he co-ordinated the revival plans for three identified weak public sector banks, Indian Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India, the closure of which had been recommended by CII in a report on banking.

In 2001, he was appointed the Chairman of Unit Trust of India (UTI) to rescue India’s largest and oldest investment institution which had collapsed. His restoring of UTI to health and strength is widely acknowledged as the most successful turnaround story in India’s Financial Sector. An institution whose obituary had been written was restructured as India’s largest mutual fund with exemplary governance practices being put in place. He was simultaneously given charge of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), another of India’s major financial institutions, which too was restructured by him in an innovative manner, pulling it back from the brink, transforming it to a bank, and merging it with another commercial bank. The unique Stressed Assets Stabilisation Fund (SASF) which helped clean IDBI’s books was his creation. This cash neutral approach to cleaning the asset side of the bank books enabled IDBI to retain its credit rating.

As Chairman SEBI, he brought improved practices to India’s securities market. He is widely acknowledged as one of the India’s foremost champions of Corporate Governance. During his tenure he introduced QIP, a new instrument for follow-on offerings in the Indian Market. This instrument prevented the continuing export of India’s capital market. During his tenure at SEBI, he was elected Chairman of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)’s 80 member Emerging Markets Committee for two years. In 2007, he organized, for the first time in India, the annual conference of securities markets’ regulators from all over the world. This conference is even now spoken of as the best annual conference that IOSCO has ever organized.

He is presently an Independent Director on the Boards of Larsen and Toubro, and Biocon. Till recently, he served as an Independent Director on the Boards of CRISIL, Tech Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp. He served as the non-executive Chairperson of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) for 3 years. He is a Nominee Director on the Boards of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company. He was also Advisor and Chief Representative in India for the ING Group of Netherlands. He is the founder of Excellence Enablers, a specialist Corporate Governance initiative that focuses on improvement of Board performance and addresses coaching and mentoring needs of corporate India. He chaired the Government of India constituted Committee for recommendations to scale up PE/VC investments in India and to streamline regulations thereto. He also chaired the Government of India constitued Taskforce for setting up Resolution Corporation of India. He was the Chairman of Ministry of Corporate Affairs Committee for Reforming the Regulatory Environment for doing Business in India and Chairman of Reserve Bank of India’s Committee on Customer Service in Banks. He was the founder Chairman of the Society and Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli (IIMT).

As one of the foremost advocates of Corporate Governance in India, he advises on improving Board performance. He chaired the Taskforce on Corporate Governance constituted by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He has been a recipient of several prestigious awards for leadership, transformation and Public Service. He is also regular on the public speaking circuit. He chaired FICCI Industry Insurance Awards (2019), FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards (2019, 2018 and 2013), Assocham Capital Market Intermediaries Excellence Awards (2017), EY Entrepreneur of the Year (2017, 2010 and 2009), FICCI CSR Award (2015-16), FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards (2016 and 2014), ET Now Leaders of Tomorrow Awards (2013), Business Standard Banker of the Year (2011-12), Outlook Money Awards Jury (2010 and 2011) and NDTV Mutual Funds Award Jury (2010) and being a part of the Jury of BML Munjal Awards (2015), IBN7 Diamond States Award (2011) and FICCI Healthcare Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

BHARAT VASANI

Mr. Bharat Vasani is a Corporate Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ Mumbai Office (CAM). Prior to joining CAM, Bharat was the Chief Legal & Group General Counsel of the Tata group. He has over 35 years of experience at senior management level and has successfully built and managed the in-house legal departments of large multinationals. He has been at the helm of and steered several large key M&A transactions pursued by the Tata Group during his tenure.

Bharat’s areas of specialization include corporate and securities law, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, and corporate governance issues.

Bharat chairs the Legal Affairs Committee at BCCI and is an active member of the FICCI Corporate Law Committee, and regularly provides his strategic inputs on key regulatory changes impacting corporate India. He is highly regarded for his proactive approach on public policy issues, and was also part of the drafting team for the new Companies Act and was a member of the Expert Committee appointed by the Government of India to revise the Companies Act, 2013.

Uday Khanna

Mr. Khanna is the Chairman of the Audit Committee of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Castrol India Limited and Pfizer Limited.

Mr. Khanna was the Managing Director and CEO of Lafarge India from July 1, 2005 to July 2011 and subsequently its Non-Executive Chairman till September 24, 2014. He joined the Lafarge Group in Paris on June 1, 2003 as the Senior Vice President for Group Strategy, after a long stint of almost 30 years with Hindustan Lever/Unilever in a variety of financial, commercial and general management roles, both nationally and internationally.

Mr. Khanna’s last position before joining Lafarge was as Senior Vice President Finance, Unilever – Asia, based in Singapore. He has earlier been on the Board of Hindustan Unilever as Director – Exports after having served as Financial Controller and Treasurer of the Company. He has also worked as Vice Chairman of Lever Brothers in Nigeria and General Auditor for Unilever – North America, based in the USA.

Mr. Khanna is a Commerce Graduate and a Chartered Accountant (FCA). He was the President of the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry in 2008 and 2009 and the President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry in 2012-2013. He is the recipient of “Ordre National du Merite” from the President of the Republic of France for his role in promoting Indo-French trade relations. Mr. Khanna is a Member of the Board of Governors of The Anglo Scottish Education Society and Jt. Managing Trustee of the Indian Cancer Society. Mr. Khanna is the recipient of ‘Best Independent Director’ award by Asian Centre for Corporate Governance Sustainability in 2018

K.R. Venkatadri

Venkatadri Ranganathan is the Chief Commercial Officer at Tata Chemicals.

Prior to this, he has held various leadership roles as COO of Nutrition Science Business and Chief Innovation and Digital Officer in Tata Chemicals. Before that, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Rallis India. In Rallis, he was instrumental in developing and implementing the precision agriculture services leveraging digital technologies.

Venkatadri began his career with Hindustan Lever Limited in 1991 as a Management Trainee and has worked across many functions over 13 years.

Venkatadri holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree from VJTI (Mumbai University) and has done his PGDM from IIM Lucknow. He graduated as the Gold Medalist of his batch. He is a qualified coach having got certified as Master Certified Coach (MCC) from International Coaching Federation (ICF), the most recognized body in the world.

He is a Governing Council Member of CII Centre for Digital Transformation, a member of the CII National Committee on Technology, Innovation and R&D and a member on the CII Smart Manufacturing Council. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Western Region Chemicals sub-Committee. He also served as a member of the Research Council of CSIR-NCL and CSIR -CECRI for 3 years. He serves on the Governing Board of TIFAC. He is also an Advisory Committee Member of PGDM – Rural Management of Wellingkar College of Management, Mumbai.
He is passionate about Rural, Marketing, digital, agriculture. He loves teaching and mentoring.

Sharad Abhyankar

Sharad Abhyankar is a Partner in the Corporate and Commercial Practice Group in Khaitan & Co. With over 30 years of experience, he specialises in corporate laws, securities laws, anti-trust laws, telecom regulations, constitutional litigation and international commercial arbitrations. He advises Indian and international clients on strategic M&As, private equity investments and exits, capital market transactions, financing transactions, domestic and cross-border foreign collaborations and joint ventures, foreign exchange and securities law related matters. Sharad is a member of the Advisory Committee and Drafting Committee of the NSE Centre for Excellence in Corporate Governance. He is an Independent Director various listed and unlisted Indian companies and has been a part-time faculty on various legal subjects at the Government Law College, Mumbai.

Suhas Tuljapurkar

Suhas Tuljapurkar, the Compliance Man of India, is an acclaimed lawyer with an extensive experience of over 40 years. His key areas of proficiency are Governance, Risk, Assurance, Compliance & Ethics (GRACE) with a fusion of information technology. Suhas is passionate about techno-legal innovations and after a successful career as an in-house counsel and law firm partner, Suhas founded Legasis Services, India’s first legal tech enterprise in the year 2006. At Legasis, Suhas has been instrumental in developing multiple IT-enabled legal support solutions like the Legatrix.

As a member of the Executive Committee of UN Global Compact Network India, Suhas was influential in developing groundbreaking solutions. He is invited by the government authorities to provide expertise in drafting several legislations on multiple occasions. He is a National School Residential Scholar and has been appreciated at the global and national level with the award of many scholarships, honors and recognitions including the Udyog Ratan Award. He is a prolific blogger, an intellectual contributor to legal journals and is an applauded speaker

Shilpa Kedia

Results driven Finance Professional with strong business acumen gained over 20 years of extensive multi-national and multi-industry experience in various areas of Finance including Financial Control & Reporting, Budgeting, Pricing, Costing, Strategic and Business Planning, Audits, Accounting, Statutory Compliances, Commercials, Risk and Project Management.

Currently Shilpa Kedia is the Group Finance Controller and Head of Investor Relations at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). She has been with HUL for around 3 years and was leading M&A, Treasury, and Insurance before taking over the current role.
Prior to this, she has worked with Johnson and Johnson, Nokia and Tata across various leadership roles. She is a Chartered Accountant (All India 46th rank) and has a Graduate Degree in B. Com from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics.

P. R. Ramesh

P R Ramesh was former Chairman of Deloitte India and a former member of Deloitte Global Board with over 40 years of experience in the profession and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
He has also been associated with various Regulatory bodies, Industry Bodies and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India which are as follows

• Was a Member of SEBI High Powered Advisory Committee to deal with settlements of enforcement actions
• Member of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Advisory Committee on Service Providers
• Former Member of SEBI Committee on Disclosures and Accounting Standards (SCODA);
• Was a member of the Committee for Reforming the Regulatory Environment for doing Business in India set up by Government of India;
• Was a Member of Working Group set up by the Reserve Bank of India for implementation of Ind AS by banks in India
• Was a Special invitee to National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS)
• Former Invitee to the committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India to assist in convergence to IFRS by banks;
• Former Member of the Technical Committee to review the form and presentation of the Balance Sheet of the Reserve Bank of India;
• Former Member of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Standing Committee on Accounting Issues;
• Was a Member of the Working Group on “Harmonizing IRDA Corporate Governance Guidelines and Disclosures with the New Companies Act, 2013

Ashok Barat

Mr. Barat is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and CPA, Australia.

He has held responsible and senior leadership positions in various Indian and multinational organizations, in India and overseas. He is presently on the Board of several public and listed companies.

He mentors and advises businesses, entrepreneurs, business families and professional firms on Strategy, Performance Improvement, Governance and Conflict Resolution.

Mr. Barat is a Past President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Council of EU Chambers of Commerce in India and presently, Member, Managing Committee of ASSOCHAM. He is a Certified Mediator empanelled with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.

Adithya Bhat

Adithya is a Partner in the Risk Consulting practice of Ernst & Young LLP with 30+ years of experience at leading global consulting companies. He is a Chartered Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor and a Cost Accountant specializing in Governance, Compliance, Internal Audit and Risk Consulting solutions for Advanced Manufacturing Industrial and Infrastructure Sector. He has been the Past President of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) India, Past President of IIA Bombay Chapter and is currently on the National Council of IIA India and Board of Governors of IIA Bombay Chapter.