Hon'ble Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi

Vice-Chairman - Institute of Directors
Judicial Member, Lokpal of India
former Chairperson, Law Commission of India
former Chief Justice, Karnataka High Court

Hon'ble Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi is the Chairman of the Law Commission of India. He was the former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. A leading legal luminary who has had an illustrious journey in the Field of law, Justice Awasthi graduated in law from Lucknow University in the year 1986. Since beginning, his expertise included civil, service and education matters at the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court. Hon'ble Justice Awasthi was also nominated as the Senior Judge at High Court in Lucknow in 2021. Thereafter he was elevated as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in 2021.

During his tenure as a distinguished Judge for more than 13 years, Hon'ble Justice Awasthi decided around 44,000 cases out of which more than 600 judgements were approved for reporting. Most of the cases decided by him had nationwide impact, as well as international relevance.

Vaisshali Babu

MD & CEO - BSE Clearing Limited (BSECL)

Ms. Vaisshali Babu assumed office as the Managing Director & CEO of the Company effective January 1, 2024. Prior to this, she served the organisation in critical leadership roles, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer.

A seasoned capital markets professional with over 30 years of experience, Vaisshali has held influential positions across reputed global & domestic institutions including BNP Paribas, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, State Street, SHCIL, United India Insurance, and Mumbai Port Trust.

A recognised industry contributor, she has been instrumental in shaping key regulatory frameworks in India, particularly in areas such as foreign investments, settlement efficiencies, and debt market development. She is part of various industry committees and working groups, including those on PaRRVA, non-agri derivatives contracts, netting for FPI, ISF for brokers, ISF for MIIs, the Expert Working Group on ETD, the T+0 Custodians Working Group, and agri commodity reforms.

Vaisshali’s leadership has earned national recognition including:

• Being listed among India’s Top 100 Women in Finance by AIWMI (2019)
• Winner of the Best in Custody award at the Women in Finance Asia Awards (2022)
• Honoured with the SBI Visionary Leadership Award 2025
• Honoured with Securities services of the year award from Asia Asset Management awards at Singapore 2026

She holds a master’s degree in commerce from Mumbai University and a Business Administration qualification from Symbiosis. She has completed executive programs at IIM Bangalore, IIM Rohtak, and IIM Calcutta, and is a member of the Institute of Directors.

A strong advocate of education as a vehicle of empowerment, Vaisshali actively supports several NGO’s of education to transform the society.

Her life mantra: “Be Simple; Be Different.”

Vicky Gala

Associate Managing Director - KROLL

Vicky Gala is an Associate Managing Director in the Investigations, Diligence and Compliance practice, based in India.

Vicky leverages more than 15 years of forensic experience in advising clients across the globe on corporate governance, investigations, digital forensics, anti-bribery, crisis management, anti-trust and regulatory matters. He has advised clients across a range of industries, including financial services, life sciences, media and entertainment, consumer products, energy and industrial manufacturing in India, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Africa and South Asia.

Neeraj Jha

Founder & Managing Director - Neeraj Jha Brand & Reputation Advisory, Former Group President & Chief Communications Officer, Bajaj Group, Bharti Airtel Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd.

Neeraj Jha is a trusted advisor to Promoters, Group Chairmen, CEOs and Boards of Directors on matters of corporate reputation, leadership positioning, stakeholder trust and institutional credibility.

Over a career spanning nearly three decades, he has worked at the intersection of business strategy, governance, reputation and public affairs, helping organisations navigate transformation, heightened scrutiny, critical situations and increasingly complex stakeholder environments.

His professional journey reflects an uncommon blend of business journalism, corporate leadership, law and entrepreneurship. During more than eighteen years in senior leadership roles, he worked closely with Promoters, Group Chairmen, Managing Directors and Boards of Directors at some of India’s most respected business institutions, including Bajaj Group, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and Reliance. His work extended well beyond communications to encompass governance, public affairs, reputation risk, leadership positioning and strategic counsel to business leaders.

Today, as Founder & Managing Director of Neeraj Jha Brand & Reputation Advisory LLP, he works selectively with Promoters, Founders, CEOs and Boards on reputation strategy, executive influence, governance, stakeholder trust and leadership decision support.

Sameer Yogishwar

Chief Operating Officer - HDFC Life &
Non-Executive Director (HDFC International Life & Re)

Sameer has been associated with HDFC Life since its inception as one of its earliest employees and has played multiple roles within the organisation. He started his career at HDFC Limited as a Management Trainee and then moved to HDFC Life in 2000 as part of the initial project team. At HDFC Life, he has essayed various roles from being a business/geography head across various distribution channels like Agency, Bancassurance, etc. to steering departments like Branch Operations, L&D, Group Protection & Funds and DPPM. He was also the founding CEO and a current Board Member of our international subsidiary, HDFC International Life & Re. In addition to his current role as COO, he also has oversight over Corporate Communications, PR & Media as well as heads the Strategic Alliances function. Sameer has graduated in Economics and has done his MMS in Finance, both from the University of Mumbai. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.

S. S. Mundra

former Deputy Governor - Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

In a banking career spanning over four decades, Mr. Mundra has held several important positions in banking industry including Chairman & Managing Director of Bank of Baroda and Executive Director of Union Bank of India. Post superannuation as Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Baroda, he moved to Reserve Bank of India as the Deputy Governor and retired from there on 30th July 2017 after completing a stint of three years. During his stint at RBI, he also served as RBI’s nominee on the Financial Stability Board (G20 Forum) and its various committees. Mr. Mundra was also the Vice-chairperson of OECD’s International Network on Financial Education (INFE).

Post retirement from Reserve Bank of India, Mr. Mundra served on the Board of BSE Limited, among others, and vacated as Chairman of the Board, in January 2024, on completion of maximum permissible tenure of 6 years.

Presently Mr. Mundra is serving on the boards of several companies such as DSP Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd., Airtel Payments Bank Limited, Havells India Ltd., PayU Payments Private Limited, PayU Finance India Private Limited and Yashraj Biotechnology Limited as Independent Director and as Non-Executive Chairman of Sammaan Capital Limited (Erstwhile Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd).

Mr. Mundra is a regular presence on various media platforms as also a speaker on various Forums. He has delivered more than 100 speeches/presentations on diverse issues viz. banking, financial inclusion & literacy, MSME financing, audit, Fraud Risk Management, Cyber security, Consumer Protection, Human Resource Management etc. at both domestic and international forums. Many of these speeches have been published on the websites of Reserve Bank of India and that of the Bank for International Settlements. Amity University has conferred the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.), Honoris Causa, upon Mr. Mundra, in recognition of his services in the field of banking and related areas.

Gautam Thakur

Chairman - Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd. & Member Advisory Group of Regulation, RBI

Gautam E. Thakur is the Chairman of Saraswat Bank, the largest Co-operative bank in India and Asia with a legacy of one hundred and six years.

Gautam Thakur took on the Strategic Leadership Role of the Bank as he spearheaded the drive for massive growth. The Bank doubled its Retail Loan Book in 6 years under his leadership and Total Business has grown from Rs. 39,000 crore to more than Rs. 91,000 crore as on 31st March, 2025 – a growth of 133% with 0 % Net NPAs, three years in a row.

Under his leadership, Saraswat Bank was selected as one of the World’s Best Banks and amongst India’s Top 10 Banks by a Forbes survey for four years in a row. It also won the Best Technology Bank for six years in a row at the Indian Banks’ Association Awards. The Bank is also on the Fortune 500 - India list for five years in a row.

He has taken several initiatives like creating important new Departments of Digital Banking, I. T. Security, Data Analytics, and Customer Relations & Experience.

Gautam Thakur is a Civil Engineer from Pune University with a Diploma in Financial Management from IMDR, Pune and has attended various management programmes including Strategic Management from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is also an ISO certified Quality Auditor. To pursue his interests in various fields, he has done courses in Behavioral Economics from Duke University, Political Science from Yale University and Philosophy from University of Edinburgh.

He is also a

- Member of Group of Advisors to the Regulations Review Authority constituted by the Reserve Bank of India.

- Former Director on the Board of National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies Ltd. (NAFCUB).

- Former Vice President of Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture - Mumbai region.

- Former Vice President of Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh

Suresh Balakrishnan

Director - Novo Insurance

Mr. Suresh Balakrishnan is working as an independent Risk Management and Risk Transfer Advisor. He has been a specialist broker for Liability and High Value Risks. He serves as guest faculty at the National Insurance Academy, Pune on Liability Insurance and at the College Of Insurance , Mumbai.

He is a life member of the Institute of Directors.

His expertise includes Largest Directors and Officers Liability Insurance and POSI insurance of its time ; single project professional indemnity policies including ports, airports and metro rail up to 12 year policy periods; FI, Construction and Technology domains.

He is a pioneer in the field of Cyber Security Risk Modelling and Quantification and D&O Liability Risk Quantification. Managing US SEC risk exposure through insurance products is a domain expertise built over the last 25 years.

In the current environment of difficulty in getting Liability insurance claims especially in D&O insurance arming Directors and Officers with the nuances of insurance claims is his passion.

Dharmarajan S. Subrahmanian

MD & CEO - Impactsure Technologies

Dharmarajan is the Founder & CEO of Impactsure Technologies, an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) powered document analytics Web 3.0 SaaS company providing software solutions for Banks and Enterprises.

Dharmarajan has 25+ years of Business Leadership with a mix of Corporate, Family Managed Business and Startup experience, including Board Management & Corporate Governance. He is a Certified Corporate Director by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

He is currently an official member of the prestigious Forbes Technology Council. He contributes to the communities worldwide as part of the Forbes Technology Council through articles on thought leadership in areas of Digital Transformation, emerging technologies and ESG. He is also a member of many Industry Bodies like CII, ICC and more.

He was a National Core member for the Prime Minister’s office (2001-03) in policy development, in the National Policy of Health & Population, through CII. He is currently in the Task Force for Education through CII WR.

Dharmarajan has worked in leadership positions in multinationals like Philips and Johnson & Johnson and the Top management/of an indigenous manufacturing organization Telenet Systems. He is also on the Board of Directors/Advisory Board in MSME companies and Startups. He is a Keynote speaker and a visiting faculty to leading management institutes, specializing in Digital Transformation, Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Small & Medium Enterprises (SME).

Dharmarajan has done his Professional Degree and Master in Management Studies from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He has done specialization programs from IIM Ahmedabad, Advanced Management courses with a Specialization in Entrepreneurship (Online) from Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, and numerous specialization certification courses from reputed institutes.

His mission is to support Enterprises through Technology, Strategy, Corporate Governance and Leadership Development.

Eugene Mayne

Founder & CEO
Tristar Group, UAE

Eugene Mayne is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Under his leadership the group and its entities have grown to become Middle East’s largest privately-owned energy logistics solutions provider.

He has been listed among the Top 25 most influential logistics executives in the Middle East for seven consecutive years by the ITP Media Group. Mr. Mayne has received several recognitions such as being included in the list of 53 individuals who have contributed to the UAE's progress by Khaleej Times in December 2024, the ‘IOD Distinguished Fellow 2023’ by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India, Maritime Personality of the Year at the ShipTek International Awards 2021, Lifetime Achievement Award at the Seatrade Maritime Awards Middle East, Indian Subcontinent & Africa 2020, and the RoSPA Influencer Award at the RoSPA Health & Safety Awards 2020.

Rajesh Patel

Chief Financial Officer - Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL)

Mr. Rajesh D. Patel is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mahanagar Gas Limited, one of India's leading city gas distribution companies. A seasoned finance professional with over 30 years of experience, he has built an accomplished career across finance, accounting, costing, treasury, taxation, management information systems, internal audit, budgeting, and strategic financial planning. He has been associated with Mahanagar Gas since 2009, where he has held several key leadership positions before being appointed as CFO in November 2021.

As CFO, Mr. Patel oversees the company's financial strategy, financial reporting, treasury operations, capital allocation, budgeting, risk management, and governance. He plays a pivotal role in supporting business growth, strengthening operational efficiency, driving digital finance initiatives, and enabling sustainable value creation while ensuring compliance with the highest standards of corporate governance. His leadership has been instrumental in navigating evolving market dynamics and supporting the company's long-term strategic objectives.

Prior to joining Mahanagar Gas, Mr. Patel held senior finance leadership positions with Adani Infrastructure & Developers Pvt. Ltd., Adlabs Films Ltd., Philips India Ltd., and Crompton Greaves Ltd. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (FCA), an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA, CGMA), UK, and an Associate Member of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai and has also contributed to academia by teaching finance-related subjects at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Smita Jhingran

Whole Time Member - National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)

A public service career spanning nearly four decades, my professional journey has been defined by strategic leadership across taxation, regulation, governance, and international experiences. As a senior officer of the Indian Revenue Service (1986 batch), I’ve worked at the intersection of policy, law, and institutional reform -advising, leading, and building capacity within the government of India and allied institutions.

From supervising high-value tax assessments and launching the Faceless Assessment Scheme as Chief Commissioner, to steering international merger reviews as Secretary at the Competition Commission of India, and regulating financial reporting quality as Full-Time Member at NFRA, I’ve consistently taken on roles that required a high degree of judgment, integrity, and stakeholder engagement. I also contributed internationally as a Budget and Finance Officer with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

These roles have shaped a deeply informed perspective on governance, regulatory integrity, and institutional leadership.

Sriram Lakshmanan

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - Genpact Limited

Sriram Lakshmanan is a seasoned Cyber Security Leader with over 25 years of global experience in architecting, implementing and managing enterprise security programmes across diverse industries. He currently serves as Deputy CISO (Vice President) at Genpact, where he leads initiatives across continuous cyber threat exposure management, infrastructure security, ERP security, cyber security assurance, risk management and security governance.

His expertise spans cyber risk, third-party and supply-chain risk, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management, penetration testing, digital risk and security governance, with experience in frameworks including NIST CSF, ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS.

Prior to Genpact, he spent over 11 years with Optum Global Solutions, where he established enterprise security processes, strengthened vendor governance and led ISO 27001 and HiTrust certification initiatives. He has also held information security and risk management roles with CitiFinancial and EXL Service.

A CISSP, CCSP, GIAC-OSINT and GIAC-CTI professional, Sriram is also an author, public speaker and security thought leader. He is the author of CISO Essentials Guide, published in 2025, and has spoken at leading industry and academic forums including RSA, NASSCOM and ETCISO events.

Sitaram Kunte, IAS (Retd.)

Chairman - Institute of Directors, Western Region
former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra & Member Board of Governors, NISM

Mr. Sitaram Kunte is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former Chief Secretary of the Government of Maharashtra. With an illustrious career spanning over three decades, he has served in key leadership roles across urban governance, public policy, and state administration. His career highlights include serving as Chief Secretary in 2021, Additional Chief Secretary handling Home, General Administration, and Higher & Technical Education (2017–2020), and earlier as Principal Secretary in Housing, Planning, Finance, and Environment departments. He also served as the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai from 2012 to 2015 and earlier as Vice President and CEO of MHADA.

Academically, Mr. Kunte holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master of Science in Public Policy from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He also holds a law degree from Mumbai University and has completed a certificate course in Public Policy from Syracuse University, USA.

He is currently a Member, Board of Governors, NISM, Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIM Mumbai and visiting Faculty at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He also serves as an Independent Director on the boards of several companies and is the Honorary Chairman of the Institute of Directors (Western Region), Mumbai. Additionally, he is empaneled as an Arbitrator by the Bombay High Court and NHPC, and is a founder member of CRISP, an NGO focused on achieving Sustainable Development Goal.

His areas of expertise span Public Administration, Corporate Governance, Urban Development and Housing, Public Policy, Higher Education and Arbitration.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay

Indian Business Journalist

Tamal Bandyopadhyay is an award-winning, best-selling author, columnist and one of India’s leading business journalists, with over two decades of experience covering banking and finance. His widely read weekly column, Banker’s Trust, published in Business Standard, offers deep insights into the financial sector and policy developments.

He has worked with leading business publications including Business Standard, Financial Express, Mint and The Economic Times, and served as Adviser, Strategy at Bandhan Bank Ltd. He has authored seven books on banking and finance, including Roller Coaster: An Affair with Banking, Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy, HDFC Bank 2.0 and Sahara: The Untold Story. His books have been non-fiction bestsellers. Sahara: The Untold Story is being adapted into the OTT series Scam 3, produced by Applause Entertainment and directed by Hansal Mehta.

A recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, Tamal’s Pandemonium also won multiple business literature awards in 2021. His latest book is Roller Coaster: An Affair with Banking, with his eighth book scheduled for release shortly. He is currently Consulting Editor at Business Standard and Senior Adviser to Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd.

Nagesh Pinge

Independent Director on Multiple Boards
(Aditya Birla Capital Limited, Hero Housing Finance, Arvind Fashions Limited etc.)

Mr. Pinge is an Expert in Ethics, Corporate Governance, Risk Management and Internal Audit.

A Chartered Accountant and a Law Graduate from India, Mr. Pinge has also completed an Executive Education Program from the University of Michigan, USA.

In his career span of almost 4 decades, Mr. Pinge has worked with companies like Tata Motors as “Chief-Internal Audit, Risk Management & Ethics”, Reliance Retail Ltd & JSW Steel Ltd as “Chief- Internal Audit”, ICICI Bank & its Group Companies as “Chief Risk Officer” & “Group Head-Internal Audit”.

Currently, Mr. Pinge mentors the Boards of many companies like Aditya Birla Capital Limited, Arvind Limited, Goa Carbon, Arvind Fashions, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, Hero Housing Finance, White Oak Capital etc.

He is a recipient of “ACIIA” Award given by “Asian Confederation of Institutes of Internal Audit” for “Outstanding Contribution in Internal Audit” for the year 2017 and “ICAI” Award given by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India for the year 2014. A regular guest speaker at many conferences on Internal Audit and Risk Management in India and overseas, Mr Pinge is a regular faculty at IOD’s “Masterclass for Directors”.

Chitra Byregowda

Senior Vice President & Global Head-ESG - Persistent Systems Limited

As Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sustainability & ESG, Chitra helps strategize and integrate ESG value creation at Persistent across all stakeholders. In this role, Chitra collaborates with business leaders to articulate an ESG strategy that is directly aligned with our business goals. She believes in doing small things that create meaningful change with measurable outcomes for our clients, partners, employees, and communities we operate in.

With a B.E. in Environmental Engineering from Mysore University, Chitra also has a Diploma in Sustainability and CSR from Sweden Institute of Management. She comes with nearly 25 years of relevant experience across the services and manufacturing industries and has led ESG initiatives at global organisations like Cognizant, Mindtree, Wipro, IBM, and GE.

Chitra has extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of sustainability, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), diversity and inclusion, equal opportunity, human rights, women empowerment, health and well-being, and CSR. She is associated with industry forums such as NASSCOM, CII and IFMA and is also a member of several knowledge committees of various industry associations and NGOs.

Chitra is married to Chethan, and they have a daughter.

Dr. P. Anbalagan, IAS

Secretary - Industries, Investment & Services, Govt. of Maharashtra

Dr. P. Anbalagan is an alumnus of the Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) from Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, Master in Dairying from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana and an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Maharashtra cadre (2001 batch).

Currently posted as the Secretary, Industries Department, Government of Maharashtra and is responsible for overall Industrial Development & various policy formulations & its implementations including investments in the State.

Dr. P. Anbalagan was posted as the Chairman & Managing Director, Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited and has the highest overall generation capacity amongst all the State Power Generation Utilities in India, with existing Generation capacity of 13220MW, Thermal 9540MW, Hydro 2580, Gas 672, Solar 428MW.

In his illustrious career spanning over 24 years, he has held several important assignments in Government of Maharashtra, like Joint CEO, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Member Secretary of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and CEO, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation. He also held assignments like Assistant Collector, Solapur & Karad, CEO Zilla Parishad, Nandurbar, Collector & District Magistrate, Ahmednagar.