Board of Directors

Mrs Arundhati Bhattacharya has over 40 years of rich experience in India's financial sector working across varied roles and diverse national and international locations.

During her four-year tenure as the first-ever woman Chair of the State Bank of India, a fortune 500 company, Mrs Bhattacharya has stamped her imprint on the financial world not just in India but globally as well. Mrs Bhattacharya has expertise and deep understanding of all aspects of banking speanning the domains of credit, forex, treasury, retail operations, mergers and acquisitions besides the capital and bond markets. She is credited with upscaling the bank's technology initiatives in order to give this 212 year old largest bank of India (22% market share) a digital edge that has been acknowledged by industry as path breaking. Her work in the area of Human Resources with special focus on status of women and "challenged" members of the work force, has also been of special significance. Under her leadership of the bank was adjudged one of India's top 3 best places to work in India by leading Indian global job site 'Indeed' based on their 15 million reviews globally for most highly rated reviews on overall employee experience.

Other notable initiatives during her Chairmanship include the overhauling of the bank's risk structure and implementation of various technology tools for this purpose. She also engineered the merger of the mother bank with its six Associate banks creating an entity three times the size of its nearest competitor.

Forbes magazine had ranked her  25th in their list of "Most Powerful Womrn In The World" and 5th in "Most Powerful Women In Finance" category in 2016. She has also been featured in the Fortune List of Top 50 globally most powerful women in business and ranked among the top 5 in the Asia-Pacific Region. She was included in the top 100 Global Thinkers in 2014 by Foreign Policy Magazine and was one of the two Indians on the list. She has been ranked 26th in the fourth edition of Fortune's World 50 Greatest Leaders List, becoming the only Indian Corporate leader to be featured in the list.

Mr. Neeraj Gambhir is the Group Executive – Treasury, Markets & Wholesale Banking Products of Axis Bank since May, 2020. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry with expertise in Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange, Capital Markets, Structured Finance, Derivatives, Risk Management and Investment Banking areas. Previously, he was the Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income for Nomura Holding Inc India, where he set up and grew their Fixed Income franchise in the country. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Lehman Brothers India and a Senior General Manager and Global Head of Structured Finance & Balance Sheet Management at ICICI Bank. Mr. Gambhir is a Board Member & former Chairman of Fixed Income and Money Market Dealers Association of India. He helped establish the Clearing Corporation of India and was a Nominee Director of its Board. He was also the Vice Chairman of the task force set up by Ministry of Finance - Government of India, for establishing a Public Debt Management Office in India. Additionally, he was involved in India - Japan discussions for financial co-operation. Mr. Gambhir holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science and is a Post Graduate in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow where he was awarded PGP Chairman’s Medal.

Mr. Ram joined the Banking Industry as Direct Recruit Probationary Officer in the year 1990. In his 30 years of banking experience, he has been involved in branch operations in various parts of the country and IT operations in India, Kenya and Singapore. Prior to assuming his current charge of Digital Banking operations of the Bank, he was Chief Information Officer at Bank of India and headed Data Centre operations of domestic and Foreign branches and its sponsored RRBs.　

Mr. Ram is a graduate in Science from Calcutta University and has also done Leadership Development Program in 2019-2020 from IIM, Bangalore. He is a CAIIB and has completed Advanced Management Program in Banking from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai. He is a Diploma holder in Cyber Law from Government Law College, Mumbai. Mr. Ram also holds a Diploma in Rail Transport Management (Bronze Medalist) acquired during his tenure with Indian Railways.　

Amongst other things, he takes　keen interest in social service programmes and is also a proud recipient of　the President’s Scout Award.

Mr. Mahesh M Pai is the General Manager – Integrated Treasury, since April 2021 

Mr. Pai joined the Banking Industry as Direct Recruit Probationary Officer in the year 1990. In his 25 years of banking experience, he has been involved in branch operations in various parts of the country and abroad branch banking, Administration, International Operations, Treasury Operations. Prior to assuming his current charge of Treasury operations of the Bank, he led the new business unit formed by Bank to focus on Gold loan lending during Covid Pandemic.  He also was the Senior Vice President and Chief Executive of the New York branch of the Bank during 2014-2018.

Mr. Pai is a graduate in Science and holds Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). He is a ∙ Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers, (CAIIB) Mumbai and a member of Institute of International Bankers (IIB). 

Mr. Pai has been a key member of various industry panels and committees like RBI’s Task Force on “Secondary Markets Trading for Corporate Loans”, Managing Committee of the Forex Association of India (FAI) and Markets Committee in Foreign exchange Dealers Association of India.
 

Mridula Iyer is head of Treasury & Trade Solutions (TTS) for Citi South Asia, covering India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. TTS serves Citi’s Corporate, Institutional and Mid- Market clients to provide them with Cash Management, Trade Finance and Working capital efficiency solutions.

She started her career with Citi in 1996 and over the past 22 years has worked in multiple roles in diverse businesses across Cash Management, Trade and Securities Services, as well as Compliance. Prior to this role, Mridula was Head of TTS Cash Products, where she led the growth of Citi India’s cash business with a focus on innovation and digital capabilities for clients.

She has vast experience in banking and financial services having worked in diverse functions across Sales, Product Management, Operations and Compliance. She has been a key member of the TTS India and South Asia management team.

A Chartered Accountant by qualification, she has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Mumbai University.

Mr. Anupam Verma heads the International Business at IFSC GIFT City and international business with Financial Institutions for ICICI Bank. Anupam started his career as a Management graduate with ICICI Ltd in 1999 and has rich experience of over 21 years of experience across businesses (project finance, corporate & institutional banking, global FI, fund raising, private banking and retail) in India & international markets. He enjoyed diverse career roles and responsibilities, which progressed from credit assessment, client coverage and business development, to leading business with end-to-end responsibility for credit, coverage and compliance. Anupam possesses a sharp understanding of Global Fixed Income market through investor engagement across Asia, US, Europe and other financial markets. 

In his recent role, Anupam Verma was the Chief Executive for ICICI Bank Singapore and Regional Head for South East Asia. In Singapore, he was associated with SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association) on multiple initiatives. Recognized by SINDA for valuable contribution, through career guidance talks to secondary school students, as a part Skills Future initiative of SG govt. He was also associated with SINDA as a mentor under SINDA IBR mentoring program.

Born 1974, Mr. Verma is B.Tech from The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India  and completed his MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, India in 1999.

Rajesh Naik is currently the Executive Vice President & Head of Central Processing Unit of Trade Finance at HDFC Bank and has been working with HDFC Bank for over 13 years. Prior to his new role, he was heading the Foreign Branch Operations. 

Before joining HDFC Bank Mr. Naik has worked with Yes Bank, ABN Amro Bank , IDBI Bank and The Kapol Co-op Bank. All throughout his banking career he has been involved in the Treasury operations and possesses a rich experience in this domain. He has played a key role in the launch of various products for the bank's Treasury operations. 

Mr. Naik is a graduate and is CA (Inter) and cleared CA (Final group I)

Mr. Kiran Kumar Tarania is currently the General Manager – Treasury Division at Punjab National Bank. He is an accomplished finance professional with over 33 years of demonstrated history of work experience in banking industry. He has been with the bank since 1989 and has rich experience in treasury management, risk management, corporate credit & general banking. 

Mr. Tarania holds a B.Com (Hons) and a Masters of Management Studies degree and is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers.

Mr. Gaurav Bhatnagar is a seasoned transaction banker with 24 years of experience. He is currently working as Managing Director and Head – Trade, India and South Asia with Standard Chartered Bank. Over his vast banking career Gaurav has handled various aspects of TB business viz. Operations , Sales and Product Management. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Gaurav was working with Infosys in its Finacle Business unit. Gaurav has keen interest in leveraging technology to streamline the paper intensive world of trade finance and bring efficiency in the financial supply chain of corporates.

Gaurav is an alumnus of INSEAD and Dept of Business Economics, Delhi University.
 

Shri Abhijit Chakravorty, presently the Chief General Manager (IT - Channels & Ops) at State Bank of India, started his career as Probationary Officer with SBI in 1988. Shri Chakravorty has over 3 decades of rich experience in various areas of banking like Branch Operations, Corporate Credit, Foreign Offices and IT establishment of the Bank. 

Shri Chakravorty has been the Country Head of Bangladesh Operations of the Bank. At the Global IT Centre of State Bank of India, Shri. Chakravorty has headed the Core Banking Operations of the Bank for 3 years and presently he heads the team for developing and implementing the customer facing applications of the Bank as part of Digital Banking, Mobility, e-Commerce, SWIFT, Payment Systems, Treasury as also the IT services at the Foreign Offices of Bank at 25 countries. He holds a Masters degree in Science, specialising in Chemistry and is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).

As Managing Director, Middle East Africa India Subcontinent (MEAISC), Mr. Sid-Ahmed Bestani leads major SWIFT initiatives in the region, working on synergies, collaboration, and business development between SWIFT’s offices in Africa, the Middle East and India.

From 2007-15, he was Head of Middle East & North Africa and led the creation of SWIFT’s consultancy hub in Dubai in 2012. 

He began his career as an IT consultant then worked for an insurance company in Paris as a trader. From there, Mr. Bestani joined SWIFT for five years, where he held several positions, before moving to CACEIS in Paris for five years where he gained extensive project management and sales experience in the securities business. 

Mr. Bestani re-joined SWIFT in 2007. He holds a Bachelor in Mathematics and a Master in Mechanical Engineering

Arnaud Boulnois is Head of Messaging Services at SWIFT and has been with the company since 2007.

He started his career in France with Crédit Agricole, where he was active as a developer, project manager and architect for SWIFT services. In 2001 he moved onto a consulting company, where he was in charge of SWIFT implementation projects. 

Arnaud was hired in a pre-sales role and key client manager by SWIFT in 2007, and was appointed head of SWIFT France in 2009. He moved into a Product Management role in the US early 2012 and is heading the Messaging Services organisation since 2019.

Arnaud holds a PHD in theoretical physics.

Rosemary was appointed Chief Business Development Officer in May 2021, with responsibility for business development and communications. Previously, Rosemary was SWIFT’s Chief Corporate Officer. Prior to that, she was Global Head of Human Resources, Managing Director for the UK, Ireland and Nordics, and held senior management positions within SWIFT in the US and Belgium. Earlier in her career, she held a variety of senior roles in corporate and public affairs in both London and Brussels.

Mr. Nitesh Ranjan is the Executive Director of Union Bank of India since March 10, 2021. He is presently leading digital transformation in the Bank, and spearheading strategic shifts in Balance sheet, Customer experience and People development. Mr. Ranjan has been with the Bank since 2008. During his rich tenure with the bank, he has held several important positions like Head of Treasury Operations & Strategy, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Chief Economist, and Regional Head. He started his career with Food Corporation of India as management trainee, and then moved to Andhra Bank. 

He is a member of the Board of Directors of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), SUD Life Insurance Company Ltd and member of IBA Steering Committee on PSB Reforms. Earlier, he was on the board of SBI Global Factors Ltd, and FIMMDA (Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India). He was also a founding member of India Forex Committee (IFXC).

Mr. Ranjan is a post-graduate in Economics and has also completed Leadership Development Programme of IIM Bangalore, curated by the Banks Board Bureau in consultation with IBA and Egon Zehnder International Pvt. Ltd. He also dedicated 100 days for imparting ‘Spoken English Programme’ to underprivileged youth, under Teach-India initiative.