Board Of Directors

Renana Jhabvala

Chairperson

Renana Jhabvala is an Indian social worker, best known for her long association with SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association). She has been active for decades in organizing women into trade unions in India. She is currently the Chairperson of SEWA Bharat and the national coordinator of SEWA.

A Padma Shri awardee, she has represented SEWA at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other international forums. She was also instrumental in forming HomeNet South Asia and has been one of the founders of WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing). She has been active in many Government committees and task forces in India which have formulated a wide range of policies, National Policy for Urban Street Vendors in India, being a key one.

Manish Thakkar

Director

Manish Thakkar is a qualified chartered accountant and cost accountant. He is currently working with RNT Associates Pvt. Ltd. and has been associated with prestigious institutions viz. Nomura, ICICI Securities Ltd., KPMG India Pvt. Ltd and Infin Equity Services Private Ltd.

He has around 23 years of experience in M&A, capital structuring, project financing, IPO advisory services, bought-out deals and valuation of companies/ businesses across a wide spectrum of sectors like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, infrastructure, textiles, steel, plastic processing, leisure and tourism among others. He also co-founded a platform for underwriting of real estate apartment sales in partnership with promoters of Net Ambit, a platform for distribution of financial products and real estate.

Manjiree S. Jaitly

Nominee Director

Manjiree S Jaitly serves as Senior Vice President – Strategic Investments, HDFC bank. She has been instrumental in leading the HDFC’s investment in HDFC Credila, among other investments. In addition to working on the investment portfolio of HDFC, Manjiree has handled a few innovative fund-raising transactions at HDFC, including the first masala bond issue in the country and some hybrid structures.

Manjiree is a chartered accountant by profession, a certified public accountant and a chartered financial analyst.

Sanjay Kaul

Independent Director

A development policy analyst, author, and former IAS officer, Sanjay Kaul has over four decades of rich and professional experience in both the government and the private sectors. During his long tenure as a civil servant, Kaul worked at senior positions across several development sectors. Kaul worked in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for 28 years (1979-2007) before taking up a leadership position as MD & CEO of National Commodity Management Services Limited (NCML) (2008-19) and later as company Chairman (2019-21). Under Kaul’s stewardship, NCML, a part of the Canada-based Fairfax group, grew ten-fold to becoming a leading agri-business company.

In recent years Kaul’s interest has shifted to policy advocacy in public health, school education, food and nutrition, livelihoods, urban planning and housing. Kaul continues to support to several not for profit organizations and also supports government public policy initiatives as part of committees and advisory groups.

Kaul is chairperson of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Task Force set up by the Government of India. He is also a member of the Karnataka Government’s Education Commission. Kaul is also an Independent Director at SEWA GRIH RIN Ltd. (SGRL), an affordable housing finance company as well as an Independent Director at DIGIGRAIN SOLUTIONS an agri-business entity. Kaul serves as a Trustee of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) Trust in India and a Trustee of the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT). He also serves on the Managing Committee of several DPS schools. Kaul works actively with Mobile Creches, a leading child-rights NGO, on which he has served as its Chairperson (2014-17) and continues on its Governing Council and presently serves as its Treasurer.

During Kaul’s long tenure in the IAS, he led challenging assignments across development and social sectors, including working in the Prime Minister’s Office and serving in various capacities in the Karnataka Government including Chairman Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Commissioner (Health), and Secretary (School Education). Kaul’s last assignment with the government was as Joint Secretary, Government of India, where he headed the Food Policy and FCI division.

A post-graduate in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Kaul began his career as a college lecturer in Economics (1976-78) at the University of Delhi and has retained his interest in academics and writing. His book, “An Alternative Development Agenda for India”, has recently been by published by Routledge, the reputed UK publishing house. Kaul is a columnist in leading print and online publications on public policy issues.

Anirudh Sarda

Nominee Director

Anirudh currently works as an Equity Officer at Oikocredit Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society U.A and leads the equity strategy in India. He is responsible for managing the equity portfolio and assessing new investment opportunities in financial inclusion and agriculture sectors.

He accumulates 11 years of experience in private equity, investment banking and project finance across several countries and sectors. An Indian national, Anirudh is a CFA Charterholder and an MBA in Finance from IMT, Ghaziabad.

R.V. Verma

Independent Director

Mr. R. V Verma is the Housing/Mortgage Industry Professional with experience of nearly 40 years in the mortgage/financial sector and other Regulatory authorities. He is presently working as Chairman of AU SMALL FINANCE BANK since Apr 2020. Previously he has worked with Reserve Bank of India, and NABARD, with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and several other institutions of repute.

He did his Master’s in Economics from Delhi School of Economics and MBA-from FMS, University of Delhi. He has held leadership positions- Chairman & CEO- at several national level Regulatory/Financial, Institutions, viz. NHB, IMGC, CERSAI, PFRDA and dealt extensively with Regulatory and Financing issues, including Funding and Balance-sheet & P&L management. He conceptualized and executed several ground breaking initiatives in low income and informal sector housing and took initiatives in institution-building, formulating schemes and programs for financing, developmental Initiatives for building market infrastructure for affordable housing and designing Regulations and Financing Schemes for sound growth of the mortgage industry etc.

Shilpa Kumar

Director

Ms. Shilpa is currently a Partner at Omidyar Network India, a social impact investment fund Ms. Shilpa has spent more than three decades with the ICICI Bank group (India’s largest private sector bank). A key part of her career was in financial markets, building and shaping what is today the bank’s treasury/global markets business. She served as MD & CEO of ICICI Securities, India’s largest retail broker & a leading investment bank in the country. Shilpa has held board positions in several organisations: ICICI Securities, ICICI Securities Prime Dealership, ICICI Home Finance, Clearing Corporation of India and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.

Shilpa provides overall leadership, including strategy and investments, across the areas of Digital Society, Urban Governance, Access to Justice and Property Rights initiatives. She also leads policy work Financial Inclusion and in development of the Non-Profit sector strategy.

She has also served on regulatory committees including SEBI’s Secondary Markets Advisory Committee, RBI’s Technical Advisory Committee and RBI’s Mohanty Committee on Monetary Policy. She has also held positions in industry bodies like FIMMDA (as Chairperson), FICCI / CII (Capital Markets Committee) besides serving on the Advisory Committees of the National Stock Exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange and National Securities Depository Ltd.

Rajat Arora

Nominee Director

Mr. Rajat Arora has nearly seventeen years of experience across investing, consulting, strategy and operations. He has extensively worked across emerging markets to understand businesses that are built around informal economy and low-income customer segment, and invested in multiple companies that operate in such ecosystem.

Rajat did Masters in Management Studies (Finance) from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai, in 2007. In his current role as Head of Asia and Principal Investment Officer at Women’s World Banking Asset Management (WAM), Rajat leads South and SE Asia investments for the firm. Prior to joining WAM, Rajat was an Investment Director at Elevar Equity, an impact investment firm focused on India and Latin America. Rajat managed a number of financial services portfolio firms at Elevar such as Shubham Housing Finance, Vistaar, WheelsEMI, Sarvagram etc. He also managed the exit transaction of Madura Microfinance which was acquired by CreditAccess Grameen. Previously, Rajat led the investing efforts in India for LGT Group and executed investments in Ummeed Housing Finance, Aye Finance, and Varthana.

Before LGT, Rajat was part of investment team at an early-growth stage focused PE firm, BTS Investments, and advised leading infrastructure companies at CRISIL. Rajat started his career as a member of the CEO cell at Reliance Energy where he helped strategize restructuring of operations of an erstwhile government-owned electricity distribution utility.

Lise Lindback

Nominee Director

Ms. Lise Lindback is having 25 years of experience from asset management and financial markets in different positions, buy side and sell side. Lise joins Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) after nearly 12 years at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the organization responsible for the management of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. Through her role as NBIM’s Global Head of Investment Advice, Lise headed up NBIM’s work on strategy development focusing on questions related to the investment universe, asset allocation and the overall investment framework.

Lise holds a Master’s in Economics and Business Administration, Finance and International Strategy, from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). With a strong background in global investment management spanning over two decades, Lise has previously held positions at Vital Forsikring ASA, SEB, The Norwegian Ministry of Finance, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Lusaka, Zambia. From 2009 to 2017 Lise served as a member of the board of CARE Norge and since June 2021 has held a board seat at Alpha Corporate Finance.

Shruti Gonsalves

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Shruti has over 21 years of expertise in project finance, appraisal, monitoring & evaluation systems and development financing, largely in the domain of microfinance and capacity building of member organizations and their staff.

She has extensive experience of working with various government ministries both at Central and State level, PSUs, Financial Institutions, Multilateral & Bilateral agencies in the area of development finance and financial inclusion; and setting up innovative financial services mechanisms, sustainable livelihoods both in urban and rural spaces. Significant part of her career has been in working with low-income families especially the women working in informal sector. Shruti has leveraged on her entrepreneurial skills by being part of the core team that set up Government of Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company and has also played a pivotal role in establishing SEWA Grih Rin Limited.

Shruti has a B.Sc. in Electronics, an LLB and an MBA in finance and management.