Profile of Board of Directors
Dr. Ram Krishna Garg, PhD.
Independent Director
Dr. Ram Krishna Garg, PhD. Superannuated as Chief General Manager (Risk Management), from State Bank of India, in April 2013, after heading the Bank’s North East Operations for two years. He has vast experience in setting up New Companies for State Bank, resolving Stressed Assets for the Bank, managing High Value Industrial credit, Heading the Bank’s Risk Management function, heading challenging banking operations not only in India but also abroad with responsibilities over Retail Banking including SME, Agri, HR, and International Banking. He has also been associated with several companies, while in service and after retirement as well.
Dr . Garg is an Honours Graduate in Physics, with a Management Post Graduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. While he is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers, he was awarded Doctorate by Gauhati University, for his thesis on “A study of Enterprises based in North Eastern states, based on their credit rating “in April 2015. He has undergone several professional development programmes in Top ranking Indian and International Management Institutes
Mr. Rajan Bajaj
Nominee Director
Mr. Rajan Bajaj is the Founder and CEO of Slice, India’s leading consumer payments and lending company since 2016. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Rajan’s vision is to redesign and create a transformative and seamless financial experience for today's generation, who hold immense promise for the future. Today, slice boasts an impressive user base of over 14 million registered individuals nationwide, with an average age of 27, solidifying its position as one of the country's leading payments start-ups. Guiding a strong and relentless team of 1000+, Rajan has spearheaded the fintech unicorn over the last 7 years, enabling seamless bill payments, lending services, expense management, and exciting rewards. Rajan’s bullishness on the Indian fintech landscape led him to create and deliver products at par with some of the best global consumer payments solutions. Prior to founding slice, Rajan made significant contributions to Flipkart's product team, working in their marketplace team during its early stages. This segment quickly became the fastest-growing business unit and a key focus for Flipkart. Rajan's audacious goals and plans are to leverage today’s evolving technology and get the opportunity to create a “customer experience obsessed”, AI and digital first bank.
Dr. Gautam Barua
Independent Director
Gautam Barua is currently the Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. He was the Director IIT Guwahati from 2003 till 2013 and is currently on deputation from there. He was also the officiating Director of NIT Silchar during 2003-2005, and the Mentor Director of IIT Patna in 2008-09. He was at IIT Kanpur from 1982 till 1995. He graduated from IIT Bombay with B.Tech and M.Tech degrees in Electrical Engineering. He obtained a PhD degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA in 1981. His areas of interest are Operating Systems and Networks. He is an IT consultant to the Govt. of Assam and to a number of public enterprises.
Ms. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan, IAS (Retd.)
Independent Director
Ms. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan is a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from SV Regional College, Surat (NIT) and has 36 years of experience in the field of Industrial Sector particularly in agriculture & rural economy, Small Scale industry.
As an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer she worked various vital position as Joint Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Additional Secretary, Industries & Commerce Deptt and retired as Secretary, Industries & Commerce and Transport Deptt.
Ms. Smriti Chandra
Nominee Director
Ms. Chandra runs NMI’s Indian office. Prior to joining NMI, she was a co-founder of a boutique Investment Banking outfit – First League Ventures – based out of New Delhi, India for 3 years, focused on supporting start-up companies in M&A and raising seed to Series A venture capital funds across technology and consumer sectors. Previously, Ms. Chandra also worked at EY for 10 years where she served clients in multiple sectors with a focus on transaction advisory services, including investment banking (M&A and private equity fund raising), financial due diligence and bid advisory services. She has also worked with KPMG in their transfer pricing division. Ms. Chandra is a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Commerce graduate from Bangalore University. She has been associated with NESFB since 20.04.2021
Mr. Tapan Kumar Hazarika
Independent Director
Mr. Tapan Kr Hazarika has wide experience of Agri-Banking sector having worked with NABARD and retired as Chief General Manager. He has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
During his stint with NABARD, he was looking after Corporate Planning, Business Strategy & Development, Rural Credits and monitoring of promotional programmes. He was instrumental in drafting, finalizing (and coordinating with DFS, MoF) various budget proposals relating to promotion of rural credit/ development for incorporation in the (Annual)Union Budget of GoI.
He played a key role as member in various Corporate Level Committees viz. Management Committee, Investment Committee, ALCO etc. besides being member in the Board of Supervision (BoS) for State Co-operative Banks (StCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) responsible for providing directions and guidance on matters related to supervision and inspection and review of inspection findings of these banks and suggesting appropriate measures.
Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath
Nominee Director
Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath is an Economist and Development Banker engaged in financing and developing industries in India. He has experience of working over 25 years in all geographical regions of India in the field of project finance, receivable finance, micro finance, infrastructure project finance, equity finance, risk management, internal audit and compliance, refinance to NBFCs/MFIs/Banks, stressed assets & NPA management in a regulated ecosystem. He was instrumental in computerising Government Incentive Schemes and formulating policies and lending norms for MFIs/NBFCs from SIDBI, HO, Lucknow. He was a Member of Working Group for preparation of Revised Code of Conduct for Microfinance Industry towards responsible lending. He was also Director in the Board of NBFC-MFI and State Industrial Development Corporation. He is a Resource Person of Asian Development Bank, Manila, RBI and IIMs,
At present he is working as Deputy General Manager, SIDBI Guwahati office and Director in the Board of Assam Financial Corporation.
Mr. SHRIMOHAN YADAV
Independent Director
Mr. Shrimohan Yadav is an Advisor in the Financial Services space with an experience of 29 years in Reserve Bank of India, wherein he worked in diverse areas including Supervision, Regulation, Rural Development, Financial Inclusion, Human Resources Management, etc.
As Chief General Manager of Department of Regulation for 5 years, he headed divisions handling matters relating to ownership and licensing of private sector banks (Universal Banks/ Small Finance Banks/ Payments Banks); acquisitions in banks/NBFCs/HFCs/ARCs; amalgamation and restructuring of banks under stress; merger of NBFCs with private sector banks; and governance related issues (including executive compensation practices, constitution of board and board committees) in banks and NBFCs. He spearheaded the discussions with Government of India on privatization/divestment of public sector banks.
He was the lead manager and key contributor of ‘Internal Working Group to Review Extant Ownership Guidelines and Corporate Structure for Indian Private Sector Banks’ (2020) and ‘Discussion Paper on Governance in Banks’ (2020), instructions on governance in banks (2021). He was member of ‘Compensation Monitoring Contact Group’ of the Financial Stability Board, Basel, Switzerland. He was also a member of an Expert Committee set up by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). He is also member of Insurance Advisory Committee, set up by IRDAI
Prior to joining RBI, he worked with a large Public Sector Bank for 7 years and gained experience in credit and financing. He is also an MBA and CAIIB (Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers).
Mr. Parvez Kasim Mulla
Independent Director
Mr. Parvez Kasim Mulla has been a retail financial services professional with 30 years’ experience of which 20 years in banking. He has experience in insurance, NBFC lending and banking products of assets and liabilities. He has worked for 16 years with ICICI Bank, 4 years with ANZ Grindlay's, 4 years with HDFC Life and various other organizations. He has led P&L Business across Housing, Tractor, Two Wheeler, Microfinance which gives him a good Leadership quality. He has wide array of experience in business, sales, operations, technology, service and collections functions, liability, assets, rural, cards and currency operations. His past projects include projects on digitization, customer service, segmented operations, branch design. He has led insurtech transformation to put company on tech leadership position and collections team managing lowest delinquency in the industry. He has secured the awards of Top rated performer across 16 years and winner of leadership awards for 6 consecutive years at ICICI.
Previously he has been the Strategic Advisor of Briezi Insurtech , SLICE, Aerem, Bureau, Mysa, Jai Kisan, HealthAssure, Multipl, Led By where he was an advisor to these start-ups in Banking, Lending and Insurance Domain. He was engaged by Blume Ventures for majority of start-ups with 10 year vintage pre IPO. He was the Chief Operating Officer and also a Board member in HDFC Life Insurance Co Ltd. from Jan 2018 to Apr 2022, a Board Member of HDFC Pension from Jan 2018 to Apr 2022. While being a Board member in HDFC pension he launched More than 80 digital market leading products in the past 3 years. Furthermore, he created and led Digital Labs, Data Labs, Platforms teams. He positioned HDFC Life as a Digital insurer brand. He has been the Managing Director of True North (formerly known as Indian Value Fund) from Apr 2017 to Jan 2018 where he was responsible as Deputy CEO to National Bulk Handling Cooperation. As a Chief Executive of Retail at L&T Financial Services from July 2016 to Dec 2016 he was responsible 30% of Company’s P&L and achieving Retail ROE above 20% and also dedicate his time in Retail and Rural Business AUM of Rs 35000 cr of Housing, Farm, Microfinance, Two Wheeler, Business, Credit , Collections, RCU, Analytics, Digitisation and Rundown reporting into the CE. He was the general manager & Head Debt Service management from Oct 2015 to May 2016 banking at ICICI Bank Mumbai and during his tenure there he was responsible for All India Retail Asset Collections, handling a retail book with lowest delinquency across industries and achieved 30% savings over budgeted losses. He was the General Manager & Retail Business Head (East and AP) from March 2015 to September 2015 at ICICI Bank Hyderabad where he was responsible for ICICI banks entire retail business in 14 states of eastern India. He also achieved 15% CASA growth, 35% loan growth, 20% fee growth on YOY terms. He was the Joint General manager & Head India Operations- Retail at ICIC bank Mumbai from 2010-2015 and he was responsible for Bank’s entire Retail operations pan India. He led team of 5000 staff across 40 Regional centres, 35 currency chests, 100 Asset centres. He led ICICI Banks transformation for cost, productivity and customer service gains and enabled ICICI Bank to win a excellence award in shared services. He was the Deputy General Manager of ICICI Bank, Mumbai from 2007-2010 where he was responsible for achieving Profit , Retail CASA ,SME growth, Fee and Assets targets for the zone. He achieved Channel Sales Productivity, Branch Cross Sell, Operation Excellence and Delivery. He was project leader for Branch Layout Design with Allen International, London and for Design & Implementation of Privilege Banking Strategy with McKinsey & Co. apart from this he was engaged in carouis projects to improve Branch sale productivity, Branch sales measurement, Retail bank branch structures, Bank branch locations, etc. He has been associated with NESFB since 28/03/2024.
Mr. Samit Shankar Shetty
Independent Director
Mr. Samit Shankar Shetty is an accomplished finance professional with a distinguished career spanning over two decades, characterized by successful entrepreneurship, specializing in microfinance, NBFC management and strategic leadership. He has demonstrated success in founding and managing financial institutions, driving, digital lending initiatives, and executing mergers and acquisitions. He has proven his ability in leading teams toward organizational growth, adept at leveraging technical expertise in finance and risk management to achieve business objectives. He has experience in Microfinance and NBFC operations, Strategic leadership, Mergers and acquisition, Business development. Supply chain management, Entrepreneurship, Regulatory Compliance.
He is the Founder and Director of Alfenas Natural Solutions Pvt. Ltd. & New Soul Restoration Pvt. Ltd. Both these new companies work in the space of Agro- Forestry and private reforestation. These firms are trying to bring private capital to manage shared lands for sustainable farming, tourism and forestry. He was earlier the Vice President of M&A and Strategy in Navi Technologies Ltd where he provided strategic guidance on integration processes and post-acquisition operations for the health insurance and mutual fund business. He was also the CEO and Managing Director of Navi Finsrev from March 2020 to February 2021 and started digital lending focussing on personal loans and housing finance products. Key focus areas in Navi Finserv, was to enhance customer experience, stabilise credit risk, onboarding automation and fraud detection.
He Co-Founded Chaitanya India Microfinance in 2009 and was its Managing Director from April 2014 to March 2020. Chaitanya is a rural-focussed microfinance NBFC, he led the company till its strategic sale to Navi Group. He established & managed another NBFC, Chaitanya Rural Intermediations (CRIDS) specializing in two-wheeler and housing loans. Chaitanya's MFI operations scaled to 7 States with 250 branches under his leadership. Before setting up Chaitanya he was a Partner at IGSA Solutions Private limited from October 2008. His Managerial experience was with the Singapore Based Commodity Major "Olam International Group" from 1999-2008. As the Country Manager of Brazil at Olam International from 2004 to 2008 he started Olam's Coffee Business operations in Brazil, scaling it from scratch to a turnover of close to $200 million USD, managing a diverse multi national team. He has worked with Olam in Tanzania, and Cote d’Ivore, contributing the Company’s global expansion and market leadership in coffee. He has been on the Board of several reputed Companies. He has been associated with NESFB since 28/03/2024.
