Leadership & Governance

Mr. Hajee Abdoula is the CEO of one of the leading accounting firms in Mauritius. With more than 35 years of professional experience, he also acts as an advisor to many large corporates. His specialisation in transaction services has allowed him to lead large transactions in various sectors, both locally and internationally. Mr. Hajee Abdoula has also been involved in high profile insolvency cases and is one of the leading insolvency practitioners in Mauritius. Mr. Hajee Abdoula has been an advisor for the Government of Ghana in determining the framework for the creation of the Ghana International Financial Services Centre.

Mr. Hajee Abdoula is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA, ICAEW). He is a member of the Mauritius Institute of Professional Accountants and INSOL International, an international association of restructuring and insolvency professionals. He holds an Auditor’s Licence from the Financial Reporting Council of Mauritius, an Insolvency Practitioner’s Licence of Mauritius, and the ICAEW Insolvency and Practicing Licences.

He has also for many years been involved in the global business sector and has acted as Director on various boards of companies and has also advised clients on structuring and tax matters.

Mr. Hajee Abdoula has been a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of Audit Committee of a UK FTSE 100 company at the time of its listing on the UK stock exchange. He is well known for being an innovative and strategic thinker. His extensive professional experience, as well as his broad international exposure, will surely be of value to the Board.

Mr. Hajee Abdoula is an Independent Non-Executive Director and has been appointed as Chairman of SBM Holdings Ltd since 13 March 2020. He is the Chairman of the Board of SBM (NBFC) Holdings Ltd since April 2020.

Mr. Raoul is a seasoned professional, having spent nearly 3 decades in the banking and financial sector.

He started his career as a strategic consultant, restructuring and corporate advisory at PwC in France, East Europe and in Africa. He has been exposed to several studies with the World Bank and European Bank Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) on financial institutions in both developed and transitional economies.

Prior to joining SBM Group, he was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of a renowned bank in Mauritius (The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd), as well as a Director on several of its entities across Africa and the Indian Ocean. He has led the transformations of most of its business lines, bringing them to international best standards and align them with the new digital, regulatory and compliance international trends. He has also been instrumental in developing a strong knowledge of corporate and investment banking, and thus succeeded in growing this franchise on the African continent. He has done his Masters in Economics (specialisation in Finance) and Post graduate diploma in International finance from University of Paris, France. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), conferred by Institute of Internal Auditors, USA and also undergone Advanced Management Programme from INSEAD, France.

Mr. S.K. Bhattacharyya is an astute senior level banker with over 38 years of experience with the State Bank of India, spanning International and corporate banking across geographies, retail banking, credit and risk management, liability management and Human resource management. He donned the position of Chief Executive Officer at three banks i.e. State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and SBI (International) Mauritius. He was a director in Dabur India Ltd, Persistent Systems Ltd, C&S Electric Ltd, H&B stores Ltd, and many more. He holds a directorship in Wanbury Limited. During his tenure at SBI, he had been a member of various board level Committees. He completed hi BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi.

Mrs. Ravi has over 30 years of experience across banking and financial services. Mrs. Ravi was part of the top management team at State Bank of India. She has held the posts of General Manager, Enterprise Risk Management at the Corporate Office, as Chief Representative, Washington DC USA, and as Deputy General Manager in-charge of Chairman's Sect at State Bank of India. Mrs. Ravi joined State Bank of India as a Probationary Officer and has worked across many functional areas of the Bank. Mrs. Ravi is also Chairperson, National Council on NBFCs of ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India). Mrs Ravi holds directorships in Goodyear India Ltd., Alkem Laboratories Ltd. and Enzene Biosciences Ltd. She is also a Nominee Director in Baroda Medicare Pvt Ltd.

A Science and Law graduate and an avid reader, Mrs. Ravi has a keen interest in Education, with sharp focus on Education for autistic children.

Mr. Patel has extensive experience in taxation, and has spent his past few years focusing on tax matters of FIIs, Banks, Mutual Funds, QFIs and FPIs.

Mr. Patel is a partner at Manohar Chowdhry & Associates - a CA firm. He is a member of the Finance & Taxation Panel of CII's Maharashtra Region and in the past was also a member of the Direct Tax Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He is currently also a member of the Journal Committee, International Tax Committee, Indirect Tax Committee, Technology Initiatives Committee and Chairman of Taxation Committee of Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society (BCAS - which is a voluntary body of CAs, with about 9,000 members from across India).

A past president of the BCAS, he was an elected member of its Managing Committee from 1998-99 to 2010-11, and has held various posts viz. Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Joint Secretary for several years. He headed the organisation in 2009-10 as its President.

He is an independent director and member of the audit committee of LIC Housing Finance Ltd. - one of the largest housing finance companies in the country. He is also a Director in Avtar Instalments Pvt Ltd. He was an independent director of B4U Television Network India Ltd and B4U Broadband India Pvt Ltd. and also the chairman of the audit committees of both these companies.

He has been involved in the activities of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India by being part of the Technical Committee of WIRC Regional Conference. He is also a member of the Expert Group constituted to suggest changes in the syllabus for IT related papers of the CA curriculum and has been a regular speaker at various seminars and conferences organised by the ICAI, BCAS, Assocham, CII, private banks, income-tax department's Regional Training Institutes, Rotary Clubs and other bodies.

He is a co-author of several publications of the Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society. His articles have appeared in various magazines and websites such as Money Outlook, MoneyLife, CNBC's moneycontrol.com, Taxsutra, and Journals of the BCAS & ICAI. He has also appeared on several programmes on national television, spoken at international forums, and his views are regularly quoted in newspapers and websites. Moreover, he is very active in various social and professional media networks and has travelled extensively across the world.

Mr. Patel graduated as a Chartered Accountant in 1986 and did his articleship with S.V. Ghatalia & Associates.

Mr. Shyam Sundar Barik is a career central banker with over 30 years of experience in the Reserve Bank of India. He served as Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Guwahati and RBI Nominee Director on the Board of the Bank of India, and superannuated from the position of Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Banking Regulation, Reserve Bank of India, Central Office. He was a member of the Supervision & Implementation Group (SIG), Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS), and various Internal Working Groups of the Reserve Bank of India. He comes with a wide range of experience and expertise inter alia in the areas of regulation and supervision of commercial and urban cooperative banks. He is presently an independent director on the Board of India SME Asset Reconstruction Company (ISARC). Mr. Barik is a Post-Graduate in Economics and CAIIB, Indian Institute of Banking &Finance (IIBF).

Mr. Umesh Jain has more than 25 years of experience in Banking Technology and over 10 years as CIO / CTO role in BFSI including heading technology at Yes Bank as well as National Stock Exchange of India Limited. He also held leadership positions at Citibank and Barclays. He has proven expertise in leveraging technology to transform businesses through technology. Core capability in working with business to align technology strategy, and hands on execution by building technology teams, tools and processes. He possesses in depth understanding of banking especially operations, products, risk, & finance and is also passionate about leveraging technology to drive change through community engagement.

Mr. Sidharth Rath is a senior banker with nearly 3 decades of experience in the financial sector. In his previous stint, Mr. Rath was the Group Executive and Head of Corporate, Transaction and International Banking at Axis Bank. He has headed multiple businesses and product groups which include Client Coverage and Relationship for Corporates, Financial Institutions and Governments, Global Markets, Asset-Liability Management, Trade & Transaction Banking and Capital Markets. He was instrumental in setting up Corporate & Project Advisory Services; Capital Markets and the Investment Banking businesses for Axis Bank. He has been a member of various committees of SEBI, NSE Clearing Ltd. and others, in the past. Mr. Rath is a management graduate from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Mr. Amalorpavanathan, is ex-Deputy Managing Director of NABARD and has more than 35 years of experience. He has completed Bachelor of Engineering (Agriculture) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1981 and has done his Post Graduation in Management from IIM, Bangalore and Masters in Development from Asian Institute of Management, Manila. He is specialised in Finance, Development and strategy and participated/headed several National Committees in these areas during his career. He is currently on the Board of Finblend Development Consultants Private Limited. He is also an Expert Member, Commodity Derivative Advisory Committee, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Mr. Sidharth Rath is a senior banker with nearly 3 decades of experience in the financial sector. In his previous stint, Mr. Rath was the Group Executive and Head of Corporate, Transaction and International Banking at Axis Bank. He has headed multiple businesses and product groups which include Client Coverage and Relationship for Corporates, Financial Institutions and Governments, Global Markets, Asset-Liability Management, Trade & Transaction Banking and Capital Markets. He was instrumental in setting up Corporate & Project Advisory Services; Capital Markets and the Investment Banking businesses for Axis Bank. He has been a member of various committees of SEBI, NSE Clearing Ltd. and others, in the past. Mr. Rath is a management graduate from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Mr. Rajeev Panikath brings with him an experience 35+ years in Technology and Operations. Prior to joining SBM Bank, Mr. Rajeev has worked with Suryoday Small Finance Bank Ltd. as CIO - Head Technology and Operations, and with Axis Bank as CTO and Head - Support Services.

Mr. Panikath comes with a wide-ranging experience in managing technology migrations, system integration and business process reengineering towards centralisation of processes, whilst ensuring compliance and business continuity across geographically dispersed locations.

Mr. Panikath is an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and BS7799 Lead Auditor.

Mr. Narendra Patra is a career banker, who brings 37 years of banking experience with Axis Bank and State Bank of India in the domain of Credit, Corporate Banking, Treasury and Risk Management.

Prior to SBM Bank India , he headed multiple risk functions viz, Credit Risk, Operational Risk, Enterprise Risk, Technology Risk, Risk Analytics, Model Risk Governance, Risk Data Management, Product Approval in Axis Bank; prior to that he headed Money Market, ALM, Foreign Currency Bond Issue and FI products as part of Treasury in Axis Bank. Mr Patra joined as a Probationary Officer in SBI. During his stint with SBI, he worked in India and abroad, in leading roles in Treasury, Corporate Banking and Branch Banking. He also served as the Chief Dealer in SBI Frankfurt overseeing the Treasury and Funding activities. He also had a brief stint with a Bank in Bahrain looking after Treasury and Investment functions.

He is an M.Sc (Chemistry) and gold medallist from Utkal University. Professionally, he is an FRM from GARP and CAIIB from Indian Institute of Bankers.

Mr Patra is a physical enthusiast, Marathoner and takes keen interest in Yoga and Indian Mythology.

Mr. Dipak Agarwal is a Chartered Accountant and has an experience over 20 years in the areas of Business Development, Corporate Relationship management, People Management etc. Prior to joining the Bank, he has spearheaded the North & East Zone for the "Commercial Banking" of Standard Charted bank as MD & Zonal Head. He has earlier worked with AXIS bank for over eleven years in Corporate Banking, and Capital Markets. Mr. Agarwal has a good experience in Credit, Trade, Treasury, DCM, Investment Banking, CMS, Corporate Cards and the like.

Mr. Neeraj Sinha has a work experience of 18+ years in Retail Banking.

Prior to joining SBM Bank, Mr. Neeraj has worked with TransUnion CIBIL Limited as Chief Business Officer. Previously, he was also associated with Axis Bank, Visa India, Deutsche Bank and Citibank India. He comes with an extensive and rich experience in Strategic Account Planning & Business Planning, Key Account Management, Product Proposition Enhancement, Channel Management & Acquisition Support.

He is an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.

Mandar Pitale is a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) charter from Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), New York. He also holds a Certified Treasury Manager (CTM) charter from ACTM affiliated with International Group of Treasury Associations, UK. He brings with him 24+ years of diversified experience in the areas of Treasury, Asset Liability Management, Interest rate trading & Financial Risk Management. In his previous assignment with IndusInd Bank, he headed Treasury ALM function based out of Mumbai.

Mr. Sailesh Shah is a banking professional with over 22 years of experience in Finance & Accounts entailing management information reporting, modelling (planning, budgeting, and forecasting), new product approvals, leading projects, process re-engineering initiatives, auditing, taxation and more, across the Banking & Corporate domain.

Having worked with several international banks like Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, DBS Bank & Rabobank in different roles, he is equipped with expert knowledge in Cost Improvement Initiatives, Profitability Improvement to augment the bottom-line results, Functional Specialisation for Core Banking Solutions & Process Automation.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Degree in Law.

Ms Sajitha Pillai has over 19 years of experience in HR and IR in BFSI sector in Leadership roles. She was earlier associated with UTI Technology Services Ltd and then with Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait as Head of HR. Her 19 years' experience includes setting up business verticals, fostering growth and building scale as business and strategic partner. She has expertise in Strategic HR, Talent Management, Performance Management, Capacity building, Employee engagement for better productivity and managing change.

Ms Pillai holds a Masters degree in Science and an MBA in HR.

Sachindra Kumar Rai is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 Years of Strategic Policies, Regulatory, and Compliance Experience which enables him to contribute to the long-term sustainable success of the Business. He holds degree in LL. B, CS, CISA & CAMS amongst many others which showcase his ardent interest in incessant learning & development. He has worn many hats in his corporate career such as an Internal Auditor, Money-Laundering Reporting Officer, Chief of Internal Vigilance and Compliance Officer at large Financial Services Group including IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, MUFG Bank. In his previous Stint he was the Head of Compliance at Scotiabank. His unique ability to manage multi-disciplinary projects and navigate complex challenges has been his strength.