PEOPLE

Managing Partner, Mahindra Partners

Mr. Parag is the Managing Partner of Mahindra Partners, the 1Bn USD Private Equity and Venture Capital division of the 20.7 Bn USD Mahindra Group. In a career spanning over 20 years, he has held various positions with the Mahindra Group and has extensive experience in building new businesses, startups, turn arounds, joint ventures and mergers & acquisitions.

He is a Director on several Mahindra Group companies such as Mahindra Logistics (Listed), Mahindra Intertrade, Mahindra Susten, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers, Mahindra Marine, Mahindra Retail & Mahindra Consulting Engineers. He is the Co-Chairman of the Group Diversity Council & is an Executive Committee member of various councils of Mahindra Learning University along with the Group lead for business representation in Israel and is also an Independent Director on the board of HDFC Asset Management Company Limited.

Parag is one of the chief architects of Mahindra Partners, the Division adapts the Group’s unique strengths of constant innovation, prudence and creative business models with a mandate of incubating new ventures for the Group. Mahindra Partners accelerates value creation through a diversified global portfolio of emergent businesses spanning various industry sectors like Cleantech, Logistics, Steel, Retail, Consulting, Media, Healthcare, Boat Manufacturing, Conveyor Systems, AI & Analytics.

Prior to his current assignment, he worked for the Office of the Vice Chairman & Managing Director and was involved in New Business Development and strategy for the Group. Also a Chief Executive Officer of Officemartindia Ltd., a consulting & e-commerce company within the Group. Before joining the Mahindra Group in 1999, he was Managing Director of Systems Marketing India Pvt. Ltd., a private business with interests in Manufacturing, Investment Banking, and Trading.

Holding a BS Degree in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology with special electives in Psychology and Manufacturing Technology; also a graduate of the General Management Program from Harvard Business School.

Parag has been an Executive Committee Member of the CII National Committee on Private Equity and Venture Capital, FICCI Solar Energy Task Force, CII National Committee on Renewable Energy, American Alumni Association in addition to other external associations. He is also an angel investor & is on the advisory board of Trustees of The IndUS Entrepreneurs, Mumbai (TiE).

He has been invited as a speaker at various industry and academic forums globally like IFC/EMPEA, FICCI, BCCI, CII, VCCircle, WILL, Solarcon, AON Hewitt, KPMG, Indo-Israel CEO forum.

Parag has been recognized by Economic Times & Spencer Stuart as India’s Top 40 Business Leaders under the age of 40. He was also featured by India Today as ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ in their anniversary issue.

He is affiliated with various NGO associations such as Sabarkanta Relief Committee and S&G Charitable Trust and has been a Founder Director of “Executives Without Borders”, an NGO based in the USA.

Dr. Anup Shah, aged 42 years, is a Fellow Member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a rank holder at the Inter and Final level of exams conducted by ICAI. He is both a Law Graduate and a Ph.D. in commerce. Furthermore, pursuing Business Consultancy Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute

He has contributed articles/papers to several publications, newspapers and at conferences, delivered talks at seminars and workshops across India and published books and articles in the areas of tax advisory, business restructuring, capital markets regulations, foreign investments, international tax, PE investments, real estate structuring, management consultancy, valuations, property matters and Accounting, having over 20 years of experience.

Dr. Shah is a Senior Partner of M/s. Pravin P Shah & Co., Chartered Accountants, Mumbai

He also chairs the Boards of several public companies.

o Claris Lifesciences Limited
o Jai Corp Limited
o Marathon Nextgen Realty Limited
o JM Financial Capital Limited
o JM Financial Services Limited
o JM Financial Credit Solutions Limited
o JM Finance Home Loans Limited

Ranjanpant holds a bachelor’s degree as a mechanical engineer and is an MBA from Wharton School.

He advises CEOs, being a strategy management consultant and change management expert and brings with him nearly 3 decades of varied work experience.

He is also an independent director on the Board of several companies, along with being on IIM-Indore’s Board of Governors.

Prior to being a part of Mahindra Group, he was a partner at a leading consulting firm, where he spearheaded the worldwide utility practice. He was also director, corporate business development, at a top global conglomerate.

Chandrasekar Kandasamy’s experience spans banking, treasury and corporate finance investor for 38 years!

Currently, he serves as Executive Vice President at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., along with being on several Boards of M&M.

Along with his sheer devotion at M&M, he is also on the Economics Subject Board of KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research. He has previously been associated with the State Bank of India and is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

His pioneering efforts have made him win CFO India Award for Treasury and Finance practice of Risk Management for consequently 3 years, FY’12, FY’13 & FY’14; and Adam Smith Award for Best Financing Solution – Asia 2014 by Treasury Today.

President – Mahindra Partners and Group Legal Member of Mahindra Group Executive Board

Mr. Zhooben Bhiwandiwala currently heads the Mahindra Partners division and additionally overseas the Group Legal function. The Mahindra Partners division is the 1 Bn USD Private Equity and Venture Capital division of the Mahindra Group and is the channel for the Groups diversified new investments.

Zhooben joined the Mahindra Group in 1985, and through a remarkable 32-year career has acquired a wide spectrum of experience across diverse roles in a number of key positions in several business sectors. As a long-standing veteran, he has traversed an interesting path across the Group during the past three decades — in terms of the diversity of roles, their geographic reach and location, as also the industry verticals.

He has, during this tenure, acquired broad-ranging cross-functional experience across several industries, and his active roles have embraced finance, legal, significant cross border M&A, HR, marketing, strategy, and other commercial functions. Zhooben has spent around 7 years on deputation to international assignments in the UK and US through the span of his career been extensively involved in international operations, incubating/investing in new businesses, start-ups, joint ventures, and mergers & acquisitions. He is also an active participant in several Group corporate initiatives and is the Chairman of the HR Academy at the Mahindra Learning University.

Currently, Zhooben is a Director on the Boards of a number of companies of the Mahindra Group including many of its overseas subsidiaries. Among others, he sits on the Boards of Mahindra Logistics, Mahindra Intertrade, Mahindra CIE, First Cry, Scoot Networks USA, Mahindra Finance USA, The East India Company, etc. He is also a member of the Global Advisory Board of i-Probono, UK, and Safe Kids Foundation, India.

Zhooben is one of the chief architects of Mahindra Partners. The Division adapts the Group’s unique strengths of constant innovation, prudence and creative business models with the mandate of incubating new ventures for the Group. Mahindra Partners accelerates value creation through a diversified global portfolio of emergent businesses spanning various industry sectors like Cleantech, Logistics, Steel, Retail, Consulting, Media, Speed Boat Manufacturing, Conveyor Systems, and several other portfolio investments.

While professionally qualified as a Chartered Accountant, he has through these exposures collected a rich basket of experience and made valuable contributions to the Mahindra Group.

Sriram Ramachandran currently serves as Executive Vice President, Investor Relations & Special Projects at Corporate Finance department at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., along with being on several Boards of M&M.

Sriram Ramachandran holds a bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli and is qualified as a Master from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Amid 2011-12, he was deputed to assist the Planning Commission of India in developing the Manufacturing Plan as part of the 12th Five Year (2012-17) for the country.

As a part of this role, he interacted with various stakeholders such as Government departments, Industry Associations, various NGOs and Management Consultants to develop an implementable plan.

Earlier, he was engaged in the conceptualization and initiation of India Backbone Implementation Network (IBIN), a mechanism to facilitate the implementation of the various plans suggested in the Plan as well as to solve other implementation-related issues.

Prior to joining Mahindra, Sriram has 14 years of work experience in the areas of Business Consulting, Innovation Consulting, Advisory Services, Equity Research and managing a petrochemical plant. His work experience includes working with boutique business consulting firm (TechNet), investment banking firm and some large firms such as Reliance and ICICI.

Vice-Chairman & Managing Director – Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, President – Financial Services Sector & Member of the Group Executive Board – Mahindra & Mahindra Limited

Ramesh’s key mandate at Mahindra Group is to drive inclusive growth, aligned to our guiding belief of delivering rural prosperity. He has been instrumental in building Mahindra Finance since 1994 and the experience comes in handy when managing a team of over 30,000 employees, spread across 1,600+ branches in the country. His efforts have led to the creation of a potentially global financial services powerhouse. He has also supported the rapid expansion of Mahindra & Mahindra’s mobility and tractor businesses.

He manages the Financial Services Sector of the Group which includes Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited, Mahindra Insurance Brokers Limited, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Limited, Mahindra Asset Management Company Private Limited, and Mahindra Trustee Company Private Limited. He also overviews the operations of Mahindra Finance USA, LLC., which is a U.S. joint venture with De Lage Landen Financial Services Inc., (DLLFS) a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Rabobank Group. The total Assets Under Management (AUM) of the Sector is around Rs. 62,000 Crores (around 9 billion US$).

Ramesh is a key contributor to the Country’s Financial Services Sector and is an active member of the National Committee on Financial Inclusion and Digitisation of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is also a member of the CII National Committee on Leadership & HR. Ramesh chairs the CII WR Task Force Committee on Human Resources and is also the Co-Chairman of the NBFC Committee of IMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He is an eminent member of the Banking & Finance Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), the Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC) and the Taskforce of NBFCs of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He also serves on the boards of several Mahindra Group Companies. Apart from being on the various bodies of Financial Services Sector, Ramesh is also on the Advisory Boards of various Educational Institutions like IITB-Washington University, Vidyalankar Institute Of Technology – School Of Management, WeSchools’ PGDM-Rural Management Committee and on the College Development Committee of Vivek College of Commerce.

He is a recipient of various prestigious awards like: ‘Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award (APEA) 2017 INDIA’, ‘Best CEO ~ Financial Services Sector Mid Cap’ award by Business Today, ‘CEO – FINANCIAL SERVICES’ at the CEO AWARDs organised by CEO India magazine and was also one of the finalists in the ‘CNBC 15th Asia Business Leaders Awards 2016’ held in Jakarta, Indonesia and was featured in Business Today magazine in the top 40 BFSI CEOs of India.

The Company under his leadership was honored with the Forbes India “Conscious Capitalist of the Year” Award. Mahindra Finance also won the Aon Best Employer Award for 2017 and has featured on the Economic Times-Great Place to Work Institute’s Great Place to Work List for three successive years. Mahindra Finance is ‘amongst the best’ BFSI brands 2018 recognised by The Economic Times. Ramesh holds an MBA degree from Mumbai University and is an alumnus of several management and leadership programs conducted in India, the US, France, and China by institutions like IIM (Bangalore), Michigan Business School, Harvard Business School, and IMD, Switzerland.

He is a contributor at various BFSI forums as a guest speaker, jury member, moderator, and anchor.