Management Team

Nanda has worked for over 25 years in India's leading Banking, Asset Management, Financial Advisory, General and Life Insurance organizations.

Before he joined the life insurance industry at the beginning of the historical opening of the sector in 1999, he was heading the retail sales at DSP Merrill Lynch. He has also been associated with large organizations such as GIC Asset Management, New India Assurance, Andhra Bank and Indian Oil Corporation before moving to the insurance industry.

At the time of liberalization of the insurance sector, he joined Birla Sun Life to be part of its start up team to set up their financial advisory business followed by the Bancassurance, Alternate Distribution Channels and Group Businesses at Birla Sun Life Insurance. He pioneered bancassurance business in India working with over a dozen large Indian and MNC banks as distribution partners of Birla Sun Life Insurance taking the company to the second position in the industry at that time.

He later joined Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group as President & CEO to set up its life insurance business under the umbrella of Reliance Capital.

Nanda has graduated in Commerce, did his MBA in Finance & Marketing and Ph.D from Andhra University. He is also a Fellow of Institute of Company Secretaries and Fellow of Insurance Institute of India. He has authored a book on financial planning titled "Investors' Handbook" and has also been instrumental in drafting the "Life Insurance Development Plan" in conjunction with the Life Insurance Council.

Nanda has also chaired various industry associations and conferences – both national as well as international. At present he is the Chairman, Insurance Committee, ASSOCHAM and Chairman, Indian Pension Congress 2012.

Nanda has many interests and hobbies - photography, movie making and Indian music are his current passion. He is married to Anuradha and has two children, Abhijit and Madhubala.

Sridhar has over 25 years of experience in Finance, Funds Management and Business Development areas. His strength is his ability to tactfully combine his in-depth experience and knowledge with analytics, common sense and people orientation.

Till mid 2009, Sridhar was the CEO of UTI International (Singapore) Ltd., an investment management Company of UTI AMC Ltd at Singapore. As a CEO of this MAS Licensed fund management company in Singapore, he was responsible for driving the entire investment management business of the company, which included business development, sales & marketing, product development, fund management and investment operations at Singapore. During his tenure at Singapore, he had set up this full fledged investment management company from the scratch and was also managing funds for overseas institutional clients from Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Middle East.

Till July 2007, Sridhar was the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of UTI AMC Ltd., managing the Equity and Debt Funds of Rs. 48,000 crores (USD 10 billion). He has handled various assignments covering diverse facets of investment management industry such as project financing, credit rating, treasury, project financing, infrastructure funding, equity research, business development and corporate planning, in addition to his core area of investment management. He has also extensively contributed on various board level committees on Investment, Product Development, HR, Risk Management and Corporate Strategy.

Sridhar started his career with Price Waterhouse Coppers in 1984. Subsequently, he worked in the finance division of Ashok Leyland Ltd., for three years, before he joined the erstwhile UTI, in Dec 1998. Sridhar was a member of BSE Index Committee, NSE Index Policy Committee and FTSE Asia Pacific Regional Equity Committee. He was also a Director on the Board of ‘Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI)' for more than 3 years, till 2007.

Sridhar is a Chartered Accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Physics from the University of Madras.

He is married to Padma and they have two daughters Manasvi and Esha. He is a voracious reader, listens to varied music and loves travelling.

Chandan carries with him a comprehensive experience of 37 years in Life Insurance, Pension, General Insurance, Re-insurance, Administration, Marketing and Actuarial Education. He was the Appointed Actuary for Aviva India Life Insurance from 2006-2009. Prior to his job in Aviva India, he was FSAVC Pension Review Actuary for Canada Life (UK). From 1997-2000 he held the position of Company Actuary/ Senior Consultant in Zimbabwe Actuarial Consultants/ Fidelity Life Assurance of Zimbabwe Pvt. Ltd.. He was also the Deputy General Manager/ Actuary Kenindia Assurance Pvt. Ltd., from 1994-1997. He worked for Life Insurance Corporation of India as Assistant Divisional Manager before this.

Chandan symbolizes knowledge and humility. He is a Fellow of Institute of Actuaries, London (FIA), Fellow of Actuarial Society of India (FASI), and Fellow of Indian Insurance Institute (FIII). He has a B.Sc. degree with honors in Physics. He is currently a council member of the Institute of Actuaries of India. He has worked in various committees under IRDA and as an examiner of Institute of Actuaries of India examinations. Also, he has worked as a member of the Life Technical Sub-Committee of Association of Kenyan Insurers as well as for General Insurance Technical Sub-Committee of Kenindia Assurance Company. In addition to these he has also been a part time lecturer for B.Sc. in Actuarial Science at the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe.

He is married to Moulika. They have two daughters. He loves watching cricket and reading classics.
 

Kamalakar is responsible for overall sales strategy, planning co-ordination and development across all Sales business groups. In his new elevated role as Director – Sales he would be specifically responsible for enhancing the top line through setting up Multi Channels.

He was earlier the Chief Distribution Officer in the company.

Kamalakar started his career with Hindustan Machine Tools, where he joined as an Engineer Trainee after completing B.E. (Mechanical) from Andhra University. He then moved on to complete his MBA from Osmania University and started his career in management as a Management Trainee in Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd. He was later assigned with the responsibility of setting up retail offices in the South. In his career with Stock Holding he was exposed to various facets of the financial services industry which included Stock Market Operations, Depository Operations, Demat Trading, Derivatives and Retail Sales.

With the privatization of the Life Insurance Industry in India, Kamalakar moved to Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) where he was a member of the core team which setup the Alternate Channels business. Starting as Head – Business Support he setup the entire backend for handling the Alternate Channels business. He grew to become the Chief Manager and Zonal Manager (South) for the Alternate Channels business. During his stint in BSLI he was instrumental in setting up a Franchisee network - Jeevan Chakra and had the Parent Account responsibility for some of the major bancassurance partners of BSLI.

In 2005 he moved to Reliance Life Insurance as Head - Channel Development Associates. It was a new advancement in the industry where Channel Development Associates worked as entrepreneurs in a fully variable model. The channel achieved breakeven in three years and contributed to 16 percent of the company's business. He has an overall experience of 20 years with 11 years in the insurance industry.

He is married to Kavita. They have a daughter, Kavya and a son Kaushik Purushotham. He loves travelling and enjoys interacting with different people.

Karni has over 12 years of experience in the financial industry. His career has covered a wide range of responsibilities covering financial reporting, business strategy & planning, risk management and investor relations.

He started his career with Aetna Insurance in Hartford and followed it with Swiss Re in New York. He moved back to India in 2005 and was part of the founding team of Reliance Life Insurance, where he helped establish the company starting with its acquisition from AMP Sanmar.

Prior to joining IndiaFirst, he was with Reliance ADA Private Equity where he was a founding member and oversaw the establishment of the domestic and an offshore fund for Reliance PE. He was instrumental in the company's fund raising activities and managing investor relations.

Karni holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Delhi University and has a MBA from the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University.

He is married to Megha and they have a son named Adhiraj. He loves good food, impromptu travel and an occasional game of squash.

Mohit likes bringing practicality and logic to things he does. He is responsible for revenue generation and relationship management of the Bancassurance channel of the company. He is also responsible for the retention/ persistency of business generated.

Prior to taking on his new role, Mohit was responsible for setting up the entire operational processes of the company.

He has a diverse experience of over 14 years across functions in the financial services industry, of which 12 he has spent in the Mortgage and Life Insurance sector. He started his career as a management trainee with Dewan Housing Finance Company Ltd. where subsequently he was promoted to Assistant Manager and then Regional Manager. Here, he handled a portfolio to the tune of Rs. 200 crores and was also involved in designing "Credit Rating Module" to rate the clients. He then joined ICICI Home Finance Company Ltd. in 1999 as a Manager and within a short span of time he was promoted as Regional Credit Manager, South. He was responsible for managing a portfolio to the tune of Rs. 400 crores of four states in South, dealing with external agencies for tie ups in all the branches, appointing and training DSAs, audit of portfolio on regular basis and taking corrective actions and managing corporate tie ups in the state.

From 2001-2007 he worked for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company where he started as a Branch Sales Manager for Rajasthan, then moved to head the Quality Initiative for the company on Business Excellence Model (Malcom Baldrige framework) and then he was promoted as the Zonal Manager, Customer Service and Operations for Dehi NCR, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western UP and MP. In 2007 he joined ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd. as General Manager, Customer Service. Prior to working with IndiaFirst he worked with Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd. as Head - Branch Operations.

Mohit holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering (B.E (Electrical)) from Regional Engineering College (now NIT), Bhopal and a Masters in Management Studies (MMS), Finance from Mumbai University. Mohit is married to Monika and they have a son named Ayush. He is passionate about football and loves travelling, listening to music and reading.

Satishwar is Head- IT and Distribution Services. He is responsible for ensuring that we have the best of IT Services in the organization.

He has over 11 years of post qualification experience of which around 10 years is with the life insurance industry. Prior to Joining IndiaFirst Life he was working with Reliance Life Insurance as AVP – Finance where he was responsible for ensuring existence of adequate control over finance transactions emerging directly from the business like premium collection, sales payouts, customer payouts etc. Prior to Reliance Life he worked with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance for around 7 years in various capacities within the finance function right from the inception of the company in roles like Financial Accounting, Planning, Expense Management and Finance Operations.

Satishwar is a Chartered Accountant from ICAI.

He is married to Anjana and they have a five year old daughter, Subhi. He loves listening to varied music and watching movies.

Subhash takes care of people at IndiaFirst. He has an experience of about 14 years in areas of sales and human resource.

Prior to joining IndiaFirst, he was with SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. where he was responsible for the talent management activities of the organization. He was in-charge of compensation and benefits, performance management system and streamlining various HR policies. Here he rolled out and managed a companywide PMS called "PACER", pan India and compensation & benefits for over 5000 employees. Before this he worked with USV Ltd. where he was responsible for talent acquisition/ recruitment and performance management and in launching various welfare activities for the entire workforce. Previously he was the HR coordinator with Authorised Training Center (ATC), Vashi for C-DAC, Pune where he was involved in recruitment, training, performance management, students and staff welfare activities. He also worked for Sarvam Managemnet Services as a sourcing executive and Chemical Laboratories Ltd., as a Territory Manager.

Subhash holds a Bachelors degree in Science (B.Sc) from University of Mumbai and Masters of Human Resource Development Management from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

Subhash is married to Asha who teaches kindergarten students and they have a four year old daughter, Netra. He is passionate about cricket.

Viswanarayan is Company Secretary and Head Governance and is responsible for Legal, Secretarial, Risk, Audit and Claims functions.

Viswais a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary.

Viswa has almost 3 decades of work experience in the areas of Finance, Taxation, Fund Accounting and Operations, Investor Servicing, Secretarial and Compliance in Print Media, Mutual Fund and Venture Fund Companies.

Prior to joining IndiaFirst, he has held senior management positionswith Times of India, DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Real Estate Funds of JPMorgan, Urban Infrastructure and LIC HFL.

He is married to Jayashree & has a son Karthik. He loves travelling, listening to music and watching sports.

Shikha has worked in various capacities and functions in the Indian financial sector for over 13 years. She is responsible for corporate business at IndiaFirst.

She started her career with Bank of America in 1999 and moved on to GE Countrywide Financial Services as Location Head for UP and Uttarakhand. She then worked with ICICI Bank and Reliance Life Insurance handling their Personal Loans and CDA channel respectively. Prior to working with IndiaFirst she was with Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance as Vice President - Zonal Head Sales (Canara Channel) & Group Credit (GLPP).

Shikha holds a B.SC and a PGDBM (Double Major in Finance & Mktg) from IMT Ghaziabad She is married to Vikas and has a daughter Mohini.

She is a food enthusiast (we may use words like bon vivant, epicure or connoisseur) and loves cooking.