Ashish is the Founder and Managing Director of Kismet Capital, LLC, a private equity investment firm focused on growth and special situation opportunities in India and ASEAN countries. Since its founding in 2004, Kismet and its affiliates have invested over USD 100 million across industries including real estate, energy, financial services, hospitality and energy services. Prior to Kismet's founding, Ashish was the Managing Director of Think Capital, LLC, a New York based Family Office with diverse interests in areas such as contract manufacturing, energy, real estate, software and IT enabled services. Prior to Think, Ashish has experience at Goldman Sachs & Co. as well as McKinsey & Company. Ashish received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, from Georgetown University.
"With a clear focus on placing its customers first, SKS looks optimistically to a future characterised by more poor families breaking the shackles of poverty and accessing the benefits associated with a modern and prosperous India.
As reflected in our customers’ testimonials, SKS has become a beacon of opportunity for lakhs of families across India. Going forward, we seek to extend this opportunity and access even further and identify new and innovative ways of supporting their dreams and ambitions for a more prosperous life."
Ashish Lakhanpal
Geoff Woolley is the Founder and Managing Director of Huntsman Gay Capital Impact Partners, a platform launching socially oriented investment funds. He is the Chair of Unitus Equity Fund and Unitus Capital, both leaders in microfinance investing and investment banking along with being a Board member of Unitus, the largest microfinance network in India. Geoff is currently launching the Sorenson Housing Opportunity Fund aimed at providing affordable housing to India’s masses. Geoff has worked in venture capital for 25 years founding and chairing Dominion Ventures, Inc. and European Venture Partners (now Kreos) funding more than 700 emerging growth companies, including Ceina, Coinstar, and Hotmail. His non-profit experience includes being the founding chairman of the NAMES Project Foundation, (the AIDS Memorial Quilt) and chairing the University Venture Fund at the University of Utah, the nation’s largest and most successful student led venture fund. His years of venture investing combined with his social focus has created a life devoted to solving major issues through solid investment skills. He holds a B.S. in Business Management from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A from the University of Utah. Geoff Woolley has been on the SKS Board since its inception and is an independent director.
Mr. Pramod Bhasin is an Independent Director of the Company. He has 25 years of experience in corporate management. He is a Chartered Accountant from Thomson McLintock& Co., London, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University. He is the president and chief executive officer of Genpact Limited. Prior to this he was with General Electric for a period of 25 years.
Paresh Patel is the CEO of Sandstone Capital, an India-focused hedge fund. Sandstone is a value-oriented investment partnership focused on long-term opportunities in India, with a preference for deep value, special situations, midcaps and complex opportunities. Sandstone Capital has an office in Boston. Prior to Sandstone Capital LLC, Paresh Patel was the Managing Director of Sparta Group, the private investment office of Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks. At Sparta, Paresh invested with Desh in early-stage ventures in the US and India - including A123 Systems, Indian Lotus, Relicore and Tejas Networks. Paresh is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Boston College.
“At SKS there is a unique opportunity to build one of India’s next great companies, such as Bharti, Infosys or L&T. SKS has the right pedigree of leadership, an enormous market where they possess a superior operating model, a desire to incorporate best practices in corporate governance and a passionate set of employees that are driven by the singular mission of enabling the poor, profitably. Our investment will give some of India’s poorest communities the opportunity to improve their lives while simultaneously providing investors returns that are uncorrelated to traditional finance businesses.”
Paresh Patel
P.H. Ravikumar is currently the head of Invent Assets Securitisation & Reconstruction Pvt. Ltd. He had earlier been the Managing Director and CEO of National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange Ltd. (NCDEX) (2003-2008) and earlier Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank Ltd. Ravikumar has about 37 years of financial services sector experience. He is essentially a commercial banker with about 32 years of banking experience, spanning retail, corporate and treasury banking areas in India and abroad. Prior to his current assignment, Ravikumar was Senior General Manager and Head of Emerging Corporates (SMEs) and Agri Business at ICICI Limited. His responsibilities included business strategy and risk management and he helped this unit become an industry leader in a short span of time. As the Head of Agri Business, his role included similar responsibilities. In its first full year of functioning, the bank emerged as the second largest lender to the agri business sector in India, with disbursements of over INR 200 Crores (USD 42 million). Ravikumar is a Commerce graduate with professional qualifications as an associate of Indian Institute of Bankers and the Chartered Institute of Bankers London. He is also a Fellow of Securities Investments Institute, London and holds a senior diploma in French. He is based at Mumbai and is a regular speaker at institutes of management and other professional forums. He is on the boards of other well known companies in India. He is an independent director on the SKS Board.
Sumir Chadha is the Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India. Sequoia Capital India was formed by merging Sequoia Capital and WestBridge Capital Partners, India's leading venture capital fund, which Sumir co-founded in 2000. Sumir has been investing in the Indian venture capital industry for the past ten years in several industries including offshore services, consumer internet and financial services. Prior to co-founding WestBridge, Sumir was a member of the Principal Investment Area at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he led a number of successful software and services investments. Prior to that, Sumir worked at McKinsey & Co. in New York and New Delhi. Sumir received an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a BSE in Computer Science from Princeton University. Sumir is the co-founder and Chairman of the Global India Venture Capital Association (GIVCA) and also a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
“SKS is a fantastic organisation because it is transforming India by improving the lives of millions of poor people. No other Indian institution is having such a powerful impact on poverty reduction in the country. Sequoia Capital is very proud to be associated with such a wonderful institution.”
Sumir Chadha
Suresh Gurumani is a banking veteran with 22 years of valuable experience. He has a keen understanding of pan India consumer market, emerging opportunities and profitability models.
At Barclays, he launched Retail Banking with many firsts like Mobile Banking, NRI services and Business loans. He was instrumental in launching Barclays Finance, an NBFC to create an alternate distribution.
Suresh worked with Standard Chartered Bank for 9 years as the General Manager, Consumer Finance and SME banking. He was involved in integration of Standard Chartered /Grindlays Bank.
He was part of the India Retail team which was involved in the strategy development for the Bank and identifying opportunities in the market place.
“At SKS we strive to excel by adopting best practices from global leaders and sectors. While doing this we are sensitive to the section of society we serve and the needs that are unique to them. We wish to create an organisation that will help bring better opportunities for our members, a better life for our employees and play a catalytic role in nation-building.”
Suresh Gurumani
Dr. Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, has been a member of the faculty since 1993, where he studies, and works with, multinational and indigenous companies and investors in emerging markets worldwide. He has headed several MBA and executive education programmes at Harvard, focused on strategy, leadership and governance, and currently teaches in Harvard’s comprehensive general management executive education programmes. Additionally, he serves as Faculty Chair of Harvard Business School’s efforts in India. Outside Harvard, he serves on the boards of a number of publicly traded and privately held companies, volunteers time with nonprofits in the US and India, and mentors entrepreneurs in Asia. He earned a Bachelors of Science in Engineering degree from Princeton University in 1988, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1993. His best-selling book, Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours South Asia : Harvard Business Press; Penguin Press.was published in 2008 and has been translated into numerous languages. In 2007, he was nominated to be a Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of International Business.
“I am very proud of my association with SKS Microfinance which is doing good work in often difficult circumstances and making an extraordinary difference to millions of lives. My own professional activities take me to developing countries in all continents, thus I can offer the global view that good organisations are built, as is SKS, through a credible commitment to values and relentless focus on innovating and realising efficiencies. SKS is right amongst the top few in a list of great organisations. Its effect is already being felt worldwide.”
Dr Tarun Khanna
Chandrasekaran is a veteran in the banking industry with an extensive stint at the apex banking institution SIDBI. He has extensive exposure to understanding the needs and potential of the under-developed regions of the country, creating not only income generating avenues for the poor but also rural employment and overall rural economic growth, by virtue of his work at SIDBI. He retired recently as head of credit at SIDBI. He is an independent director on the board.
Previously a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Vikram has over a decade of work and research experience in microfinance. He was a Fulbright Scholar in India, during which he coordinated an action-research project on providing micro-credit for food security. He was also researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, where he wrote articles focused on poverty and development. He has also worked as a community organiser with the Deccan Development Society in India. He holds a B.A. from Tufts, an M.A. from Yale, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the impact of microfinance. He has received several awards for his work with SKS, including the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship. Since we launched SKS Microfinance in 1998, our mission has been to eradicate poverty and empower the poor. That has been the driving force behind SKS’ exponential expansion from serving just hundreds of poor female borrowers in one state in India to millions across the country today.
