Diwakar Gupta is an independent director of Mahindra Susten Private Limited. He has over 48 years of experience in banking and financial services. Mr. Gupta worked in the State Bank of India (“SBI”) for 39 years and held several top executive/ senior management positions. He demitted the office of SBI as its Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer in 2013. Subsequently, he worked for two years as Senior Advisor (Banking Project) in Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited, Mumbai, and as Advisor in India Value Fund Advisors (since rebranded as True North). 

During 2015-20, Mr Gupta worked as Vice President at Asian Development Bank, Manila. In his 5-year stint as Vice President, he oversaw the private sector and public private partnership operations of the Bank and also participated in the Bank’s broader corporate initiatives like launching and operationalizing the biometric based National ID system of Philippines (akin to Aadhaar), and creating ADB Ventures, a donor-funded hybrid venture trust fund. He worked as Chairperson of the Digital Innovation Sandbox, and was a member of the steering committee supervising ADB Ventures’ digital agenda. 

Currently, Mr Gupta is an Independent Director on the boards of CRISIL Ratings Limited, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited, Holiday Club Resorts Oy (its Finland-based subsidiary), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited, and SMFG India Credit Company (formerly Fullerton India Credit Company), and is also a Senior Advisor of True North. He is non-executive Chairman of India Debt Resolution Company Limited. He is also the Senior Advisor (Research) at Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL), a Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) promoted institution. Mr Gupta was also a member of the Expert Committee for Resolution Framework for COVID-19-related Stress, constituted by RBI in 2020. In September 2012, he was the Chairman of the Task Force created by the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, to review consortium / multiple lending, and suggest measures to make it more effective. He was also a member of the High-Level Steering Committee to review Supervisory Processes of Banks, chaired by the Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India in the year 2012. 

During his tenure with SBI, Mr. Gupta had, among various diverse assignments, partnered with Unique Identification Authority of India Limited for rollout of the biometric based unique identification program of Government of India (Aadhaar). He was the Chief Executive Officer of the SBI Cards and Payment Services (2008-09), and Chief Operating Officer of State Bank of Patiala, a subsidiary of SBI (2006-08). He also served for four years at SBI Paris (1993-97). 

Mr Gupta is a post graduate in Physics from University of Delhi and has done his graduation with Honours in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. He is married (his spouse is also a banking professional), and has two children.