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, sales and marketing at GIC Asset Management and managing finance and operational functions at the divisional offices of New India Assurance. He also worked very briefly at 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. Reliance Life Insurance became the fastest growing life insurer to become the 4th largest in a matter of three years.

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 wrote several articles on mutual funds and financial planning for various news papers and journals including Wall Street Journal and authored a book on financial planning titled “Investors’ Handbook”. He has chaired and is a frequent panel speaker in several national and international conferences.

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 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 and reading classics.
 

Kamalakar is responsible for the top-line of the company. His first assignment was 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 Company 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 per cent of the company’s business. He has an overall experience of 9 years in the insurance industry.

He is married to Dr. Kavita Karnena. They have a ten year old daughter Kavya and a four year old 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. His loves good food, impromptu travel and an occasional game of squash.

Mohit has a very practical and logical approach to everything. He has an experience of over 14 years 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 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.  

Rajen, initially trained as a chemical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai), forayed into engineering and management consulting very early in his career. He has a diverse experience of over 15 years based in US and the past 5 years based in India across manufacturing, energy and financial services sectors.

He started his career in operations research with an Atlanta based JV between engineering consulting firms and process simulation & control vendors, where he led and managed cross functional engineering and plant operating teams for Fortune 500 clients in process design, start up and optimization of polymer and pulp & paper plant operations. He then worked for CSC Consulting and later at i2 Technologies, both based in Atlanta, where he consulted for large corporate and B2B start-up clients on developing and implementing e-business strategies including supply chain management and strategic sourcing. Post his MBA, from 2001-2005, he worked with GE, USA where initially he was the M&A Leader with GE Energy in Atlanta where he contributed over USD 1 billion to the top-line and USD 200 million to the bottom-line in acquisition synergies. Later he moved to GE’s reinsurance business based in Chicago where he played a pivotal role in turning around the business by implementing Six Sigma Quality initiative across the globe. Upon returning to India, he joined Reliance Capital Ltd., Mumbai as Vice President, Corporate Planning in 2005, where he drove strategic business planning and execution of the existing and new businesses for the group. Prior to joining IndiaFirst he was the Country Head, India of Nikko Asset Management (a Japan based Citigroup subsidiary).

Rajen holds an M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Idaho, U.S and an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University, Atlanta and has authored several papers in international technical and management publications. He also holds a CFA charter from CFA Institute, USA and a GE Six Sigma Black Belt Certification and a Professional Engineer certification from USA.

He is married to Payal and they have a 12 year old daughter, Isha. He is passionate about travelling around the world, reading ancient Jain scriptures, spending time with family and friends, playing various sports and musical instruments.

Rubina started her career with M/s. Mitesh Shah & Co. in 1998 as an Audit Assistant and after that she joined Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. in 2002 as a Management Trainee - Secretarial and Share Department. She later joined Nagpur Power & Industries Ltd. as Company Secretary and Compliance Officer in 2003. She then joined SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. as Assistant Manager - Legal and Compliance in 2005 till 2007. Most recently, she worked with IDBI Federal Life Insurance Company Ltd. as Manager - Compliance from 2007-2009 where she set up compliance procedure in the company in accordance with IRDA rules, regulations, guidelines & circulars and the Insurance Act, 1938.

Rubina holds a B.Com, L.L.B and a Company Secretary degree.

Satishwar is the financial controller of the organization and he is responsible for ensuring compliance to financial discipline and also maintaining the books of accounts.

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.

Vinayak has more than 16 years of experience in delivering Process Improvement and Information Technology initiatives across Insurance, Financial Services, Retail, Pharmaceuticals and Automobiles industries in India and South East Asia. He is one of the founding team members at IndiaFirst Life and joined the company in September, 2008. Prior to joining IndiaFirst Life, Vinayak held several key positions with organizations such as Reliance Life Insurance, Birla Sun Life Insurance, IBM Business Consulting, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Consulting, and Savvion (now part of Progress Software).

Vinayak is a founder member of the Mumbai Chapter of International Institute of Business Analysis (http://www.theiiba.org). He is a also frequent blogger and blogs at http://techaways.blogspot.com.

Vinayak holds Bachelor of Engineering (Production Engineering), M.M.S. (Finance) from University of Mumbai and CISA certification from ISACA – Information Systems Audit & Control Association, USA.

Vishakha is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the Insurance Institute of India. She started her career in the Indian Insurance industry with New India Assurance Company (I) Pvt. Ltd. in 1987 and has been working in the private sector since 2000. With close to 24 years experience, she has worked across the non life, life and health insurance industry in the public and private sector organizations.

She has been closely associated with the growth of Bancassurance in India and has set up several successful business models. Prior to joining IndiaFirst, Vishakha was the President- Bancassurance, IDBI Federal Life Insurance Ltd.

She is married to Rajesh Maheshwari and they have a son, Ritesh and a daughter, Vrinda.

She loves spending time with her family, reading and likes watching movies too.