OUR LEADERSHIP

Rashesh Shah
Chairman & CEO

Rashesh Shah, co-founder, Edelweiss Group, has three decades of diverse experience in the financial markets and has been instrumental in building Edelweiss into one of India’s leading diversified financial services organisations.

Rashesh is passionate about financial services and the role it plays in translating India's vast savings into investments; thereby powering economic growth and development. A regular commentator on macro-economic policies, Rashesh has served as President of FICCI, which is India's apex industry association, in 2017-18.

He has also been a part of the High Level Task Force on Public Credit Registry for India, the Insolvency Law Committee, Executive Committee of the National Stock Exchange as well as the committee to review Insider Trading Regulations set up by SEBI – the country's capital markets regulator.

An MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he also holds a Diploma in International Trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

Venkatchalam Ramaswamy
Vice Chairman

Venkatchalam Ramaswamy, co-founder, Edelweiss Group, has almost three decades of experience in the financial markets.

He has been one of the driving forces in transforming what was once India’s first new age boutique investment bank to a leading diversified financial conglomerate. Amongst his responsibilities, he also co-heads Edelweiss’s Advisory businesses.

Venkat has been instrumental in building a client-need based solutions approach in the Distressed Asset Resolution as well as the Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) business, which is India’s leading ARC.

Using his skills at building and maintaining large institutional relationships including International Pension Funds and Insurance companies, the Alternative Asset Management business has earned the reputation of being among the largest in India.

An MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, United States of America, he also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics Engineering.

Rujan Panjwani
Executive Director

Rujan Panjwani has over three decades of multifaceted domain expertise spanning credit, capital markets and insurance.

Having spent the last 18 years with Edelweiss, he has played a key role in setting up several flagship businesses. Apart from overseeing the Treasury, he has strategic oversight of the Insurance businesses. Additionally, he has helmed multiple functions across the Group such as Risk, Balance Sheet Management and Human Resources.

He is currently a member of the Assets & Liabilities Committee that primarily manages the Group's balance sheet and the Global Risk Committee. He continues to play a fundamental role in several key initiatives including strategy, business development and incubation of new businesses.

Rujan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology.

Vidya Shah
Non Executive Director

Vidya Shah is the CEO of EdelGive Foundation, an organisation set up by Edelweiss Group, with the aim of building the capacities of the not-for-profit sector. With over two and half years of rich industry experience, she has grown EdelGive Foundation into a platform for strategic philanthropy.

Committed to creating sustainable institutions and organisations, she has brought the skills, resources and talents of the for-profit world to the not-for-profit world.

She has been the CFO for Edelweiss Group and has also worked with large financial institutions such as ICICI, Peregrine and NM Rothschild India, as an investment banker.

Vidya has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

P N Venkatachalam
Independent Director

P N Venkatachalam has over four decades of experience in the Banking Sector in India and abroad and has also worked in the software industry in banking and finance verticals.

He joined State Bank of India in 1967 and retired in 2004 as its Managing Director. He was a member of the Interim Pension Fund Regulatory Authority of India.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and is a Certified Associate from the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Berjis Desai
Independent Director

Berjis Desai has rich experience, spanning over three decades. He retired as the Managing Partner of J. Sagar Associates, one of India’s leading law firms and is now an independent legal counsel engaged in Private Client Practice viz. Taxation and Estate Planning, Family Arrangement and Resolutions and Wills.

He has varied experience in the legal field, with specialisation in Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, Derivatives, Securities & Financial Laws, International Business Laws and International Commercial Arbitration.

He holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Navtej S Nandra
Independent Director

Navtej S. Nandra has over three decades of experience. He is Senior Independent Director of OakNorth Bank and serves as Independent Director of Edelweiss Financial Services Limited, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Company Limited and Edelweiss General Insurance Company Limited.

He is a distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore and also serves on boards of the Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations (CGIO), and the Centre for Asset Management Research and Investments (CAMRI). He is also a senior advisor to Insight Guru.

His work experience includes President of E*TRADE Financial, CEO of Morgan Stanley Investment Management Ltd., senior roles at DTZ Holdings, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch Global Investment Banking, Cambridge Group and BoozAllen and Hamilton. He has served on various boards, including Morgan Stanley Huaxin Fund Management, Morgan Stanley International, Nuveen Investments and Merrill Lynch India Technology Services.

He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Delhi.

Kunnasagaran Chinniah
Independent Director

Kunnasagaran Chinniah has more than three decades of experience in the financial sector. He is presently a Director of Changi Airport International, Keppel Infrastructure Trust, Azzela Asset Management, Hindu Endowments Board, Singapore and several other companies.

Earlier, he retired as the Managing Director/Global Head of Portfolio, Strategy & Risk Group with GIC Special Investments (GICSI), the Private Equity arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). He joined GIC in 1989 and has held various positions with the Special Investments Department of GIC in their North American, European and Asian regions.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ashok Kini
Independent Director

Ashok Kini has over four decades of experience in the financial services industry. He joined State Bank of India as Probationary Officer in 1967 and retired as the Managing Director in 2005. In addition to the Edelweiss Financial Services Limited Board, Ashok is on the Board of Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (a subsidiary of the Company), since November 2011.

He has, throughout his career, held important board-level positions across numerous corporates in India Inc., namely IndusInd Bank Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited, UTI Trustee Company Pvt. Ltd. and Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited, to name a few.

He was appointed by the Government of India as Managing Director – National Banking, Chairman of a Regional Rural Bank, Chief Dealer in the Offshore Banking Unit in Bahrain, among others. He also served as an Advisor to the Thorat Committee on Financial Inclusion at the Reserve Bank of India.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Mysore University and a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Madras Christian College, Chennai.

Dr. Ashima Goyal
Independent Director

Dr. Ashima Goyal has over three decades of experience. She is a Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, a part-time member of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and also serves as an Independent Director at IDBI Bank.

She is a specialist in the areas of open economy macroeconomics, international finance, institutional economics and development economics. She has been a visiting fellow at the Economic Growth Centre, Yale University, USA and a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University, USA.

She has an M. Phil., MA and BA in Economics from the University of Delhi and holds a PhD in Economics from University of Mumbai.

Anita Marangoly George
Non-Executive Non-Independent Director

Anita Marangoly George has over three decades of experience. She is Executive Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships – Growth Markets, CDPQ. She joined CDPQ as the Managing Director, South Asia in April 2016.

Prior to joining CDPQ, she was Senior Director of the World Bank’s Energy and Extractive Industries Global Practice. She also held the positions of Director, Infrastructure and Natural Resources of the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and Head of Siemens Financial Services in India. Her various roles have led her to work in several regions of the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

She holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Smith College, Massachusetts, a Masters in Economics and an MBA in Finance from Boston University.

Balagopal Chandrasekhar
Independent Director

Mr. C. Balagopal is the former Chairman of the Board of Federal Bank Ltd. He is also a Trustee of Anaha Trust; Member of the Governing Council of the Centre for Management Development, Trivandrum; Member of the Advisory Board of Fourth Wave Foundation; Member of the Board of TIMed Medical Devices Incubator of SCTIMST. Mr. Balagopal completed his BA and MA from Loyola College, Madras University, and joined the IAS in 1977 and worked in Manipur and Kerala.

In 1983, he resigned from the IAS to promote a venture to make hi-tech biomedical devices for the first time in the country. Acquiring the knowhow from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Trivandrum (SCTIMST) and with the support of National Research Development Corporation and KSIDC, he set up his venture, Penpol Ltd, near Trivandrum.

In 1999, Penpol entered into a joint venture with the Terumo Corporation of Japan. Today, Terumo Penpol Ltd is the biggest manufacturer of blood bags in India and one of the world’s biggest makers of high-tech bio-medical devices. In 2012, he sold his stake in Penpol and turned to investing in startups, mentoring entrepreneurs, writing (four books to his credit), travel, and his many other interests.

Mr Balagopal runs a Trust, which supports social projects in Kerala and Manipur in primary health, primary education, and rural livelihoods.