Board of Directors

Mr. Ghyanendra Nath Bajpai is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Bajpai is a distinguished leader in Indian business. He has held offices as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Mr. Bajpai is known for his visionary leadership and exemplary integrity. He has served as a Non-Executive Chairman and a Director on various corporate boards in India and other countries. He is the recipient of several awards for unparalleled contribution to business. He is also a published author.

Mr. Bajpai has been the Chairman of the Corporate Governance Task Force of International Organisation of Securities Commissions, Insurance Institute of India and has served on the Governing Boards of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and National Insurance Academy.

He has delivered lectures at London School of Economics (LSE), Harvard University, and MIT and has addressed Stanford University, OECD and IMF seminars. He has received among others the Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Finance award from our Former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Mr. Bajpai holds a degree in Law and Masters in Commerce. Mr. Bajpai was appointed as Director on March 16, 2007 and was further appointed as Chairman of the Company in the Board meeting held on October 24, 2007.

Mr. Kishore Biyani is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Company. Mr. Biyani founded Pantaloons in 1997. He has also established a number of popular retail formats, including Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar, Brand Factory and Home Town, which cater to a wide cross-section of Indian consumers.

In the recent years, Mr. Biyani has led the Group’s transformation into one of India’s leading business houses with presence in capital, consumer finance, insurance, brand development, retail, real estate development and logistics.

A staunch believer in the Group’s corporate credo, ‘Rewrite Rules, Retain Values,’ Mr. Biyani considers “Indianness” as the core value driving the Group.

He was recognised as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 in the Services Sector. He is the recipient of the Lakshmipat Singhania - IIM Lucknow Young Business Leader award by our former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006. He was also awarded the CNBC First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006.

Mr. Biyani holds a postgraduate Diploma in Marketing and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce.

Pankaj has done his MBA from RA Podar Institute of Management, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Pankaj Jaju is an investment banker and the Founder & CEO of Metta Capital Advisors, a boutique investment bank with a strong practice in consumer, retail and fashion sectors. Metta Capital was ranked as the number 4 investment bank in India in CY2020 for M&A with transaction value of USD 3.4 bn.

Pankaj set up Metta Capital in 2016. Prior to this, he worked from 1994 to 2016 with Enam Securities, a leading Indian investment bank and investment house, and with Axis Capital and Axis Bank, after Axis acquired Enam.

He brings to the table a strong understanding of the banking and financial services sector in India, having worked as an investment banker at Enam and Axis Capital, and as a corporate and retail banker at Axis Bank with an over 27 years of experience in financial sector. At Enam, Pankaj built out its investment banking practice in retail, real estate and materials, and had a dominant market share in investment banking transactions in these sectors, emerging as the primary banker to most large players in these sectors.

He worked with a number of large corporates and was involved in all their strategic decisions and initiatives, as an advisor to the CEO and the founders.

At Axis, he led some large corporate relationships including the Aditya Birla Group, Godrej Group, Mahindra Group and Reliance Group during his stint in the corporate bank. He then worked with the retail bank, reporting to Shikha Sharma, then MD of Axis Bank, and Rajiv Anand, the head of the retail bank, and helped build the bank’s relationships with large e-commerce companies and fintechs as part of its digital strategy.

He is also a core volunteer with iSPIRT, a think tank that has created and evangelized IndiaStack, the digital rails that are enabling financial inclusion in India. IndiaStack includes Aadhaar, UPI, eKYC, Digilocker, eSign with the Account Aggregator framework being its fourth layer. In this pro bono role, he worked closely with some of the largest banks in India to help them adopt new technologies in partnership with startups to enable iSPIRT to achieve its objectives of democratizing credit.

Mr. Vivek did his graduation in Business Administration from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He held various leadership positions such as Analyst at Michigan Interactive Investments, Associate Chairperson of Business Student Council and Secretary of the Professional Development Committee.

Mr. Vivek Biyani joined Future Group in June 2007 and currently leads the group's initiatives in Digital business. Prior to this, he was instrumental in setting up the Home Solutions business of the group.

As a mentor to the Digital business, Mr. Vivek Biyani leads strategy and new business development for all digital business of the group. He is tasked with the group's vision of generating a significant proportion of the group revenues on the digital platform. Under his leadership, the group has launched a new vertical called Tathastu which is building a data led consumer ecosystem comprising commerce, Fintech and data monetization platforms.

Earlier to this Mr. Vivek Biyani was part of the leadership team at Home Solutions which ran retail formats such as Home Town eZone etc. He led operations, category management and logistics and was involved with the business almost since its inception.

As Regional Officer, Roberto Leonardi oversees Generali Asia’s insurance operations in both Life and Property & Casualty businesses. Rob has 25 years of experience in Life and Health businesses across Asia, Europe and South Africa.

Prior to joining Generali, he was with AXA Asia where he was responsible for Health & Employment Benefits, Protection, Marketing, Digital and Big Data. Before AXA Asia, Rob worked at Munich Reinsurance where he was Regional Head of the Munich Health overseeing the health reinsurance and insurance businesses with specific focus on Greater China, India, Indonesia and Japan.

He also spent 13 years with UnitedHealth International (a listed Fortune 25 company) where he held several executive positions including Executive Vice President & CEO of UnitedHealth Asia, CEO of Portugal and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer in its joint ventures. During his tenure, he turned around the Asia business and was actively involved in M&A activities in various markets across Asia.

Rob started his career as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in South Africa. Born in Italy, Rob grew up in Denmark and South Africa and currently lives in Hong Kong.

Ms. Jennifer Sparks is the Director on the board of the Company. She is currently the Regional Chief Financial Officer of Generali Asia. She is responsible for the overall financial planning and analysis, accounting, controls, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, treasury, tax and capital allocation for the company, and plays a key leadership role in strategic financial and business initiatives.

Ms. Sparks has over 30 years of experience in the life insurance industry in Asia. She has worked in senior leadership positions with organisations such as Hartford Life Insurance K.K, American International Group (Japan), Manulife Life Insurance Company (Japan) and ERC Frankona Reassurance (a subsidiary of GE Japan). She has been instrumental in managing some key M&A transactions, and played a key role in cultural integration and new business development.

Ms. Sparks has been a specialist in various actuarial and underwriting roles and has significant experience in financial and risk management. Her strong command over both English and Japanese and her participative leadership style has helped her effectively communicate with all levels of management.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia (1986) and has done her B.Sc (Hons) in Applied Mathematics from University of Adelaide (1981).

Dr. B. Samal is the Executive Chairman of Industrial Investment Trust Limited, a Public Listed Company with BSE and NSE and is also the Chairman of its other group companies. He brings with him over 35 years of experience in the banking and finance industry with expertise in rural credit, HRD, capital markets, industrial finance and real estate. He has been at senior positions with banks such as Union Bank of India, Executive Director at Allahabad Bank and later became the Chairman and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank. He was also the Chairman of Industrial Investment Bank of India and All Bank Finance Limited, Kolkata.

He was a Member of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the Department of Economic Affairs. He has also played a key role as part of various Governing Boards such as National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) Pune, Institute of Banking Personnel Section, (IBPS) Mumbai, North Eastern Institute of Bank of Management, (NEIBM) Guwahati, Committee of Economists, Indian Banks Association (IBA), Mumbai, Expert Committee on Rural Credit set up by the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD), Standing Advisory Committee for Small Scale Industries, Reserve Bank of India, and State Level Export Promotion Committee, Government of West Bengal. He has also been a Director on the board of various large companies.

Dr. Samal holds a Ph.D in Economics from Kalyani University, West Bengal. He was one of the highest rankers and a gold medalist in M.Sc. in Agriculture from Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Bank Management conducted by NIBM, Pune

Dr. Devi Singh is an Independent Director on the Board of the Company and a Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. He is a renowned professor in the area of International Finance & Management.

Before joining IIML, he was the Director of Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, for over four years. He has served as a visiting professor at the Faculty of Management, McGill University, Canada for five years. He has also been part of the faculty at the International Centre for Public Enterprises, Slovenia, ESCAP Europe and SKK Graduate School of Business, Seoul.

He is an alumnus Fellow of the Institute of World Affairs, Connecticut and has taught leading business schools in India. Dr. Singh has published and presented research papers at various national/international conferences and has authored three books in the domain of Finance & Management. He has been a consultant to leading Public & Private Sector as well as multinational organisations in India.

He has received several awards including ISTE National Fellow 2007, UP Ratan 2008 and the Ishan National Award for Best Director of a Business School in 1999. He is a member of the MHRD Task Force on Faculty Shortage and Design of Performance Appraisal System, the UPSC Committee on Designing Civil Services Aptitude Test and the Founding Society for National Board of Accreditation.

Dr. Singh holds a Ph.D. in International Finance from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad).

Ms. Bhavna Doshi is the first Independent Woman Director of the Company. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and was recognised as the best lady candidate. She brings with her over 25 years of experience and was earlier a partner with full member firm of KPMG in India. She has been on the board of several listed companies and has served as Chairperson of the Accounting Standards Board as well as the Research Committee of ICAI. In these capacities, Ms. Doshi has been actively involved in the formulation of accounting standards as well as research on accounting interpretation and application guidance.

She was the only person from India to serve as a Member of the Compliance Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Accountants headquartered in New York during 2007-09. Ms. Doshi has been a member of the Technical Committee advising the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASAB) where she was instrumental in advising on formulation of accounting standards for the Central and State Government of India.

Ms. Doshi was the President of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC), a leading trade and industry Chamber in 2011-12  She also served as President of Ladies’ Wing of the Chamber which works towards women empowerment.  She has served as member of   committees of CII and ASSOCHAM and was also a member of Group constituted by the Tax Administration Reforms Commission chaired by Dr. Parthasarathy Shome.  She is also associated with various social sector projects.

"Mr. Abhinandan Jain, with special interest in customer based business strategy and case method of learning, is an adjunct Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) since 2011. He retired as a professor in 2010 after completing 40 years of service having taught a multitude of students pursuing master’s and doctoral level programs.

He has served as member of several high level committees set up by professional and government institutions and on the Board of Governors (IIMA).

Judged as best teacher by participants of several batches of IIMA, Mr. Jain has been felicitated for life time contribution in the area of management education and research by the International Conference on Research in Marketing (2013) (organised by IIT Delhi, XLRI Jamshedpur, and Curtin University, Australia).

He has been a consultant in the areas of marketing and management to a large number of public, private, and government organizations across varied sectors. His publications include three books and a large number of articles and cases on Marketing and Management.

Education: BE (Mechanical Engineering, Jodhpur University), Post Graduate Programme in Management (IIMA), and Fellow Programme in Management (IIMA)"