BOARD MEMBERS
Mr Ashwani Windlass, 67, has spent more than four decades in top management roles with first-hand experience in both traditional and new age technology companies. With an exceptional track record in value creation, he now mentors top CEOs/Boards.
An MBA from FMS, Delhi University, he holds a B.Com degree with a gold medal and post-graduation in Journalism (B.J.) from Punjab University, Chandigarh.
Since 2008, he has been Chairman – SA & JVs, MGRM Inc., USA, a global research initiative on human lifecycle-based services. He is on the Board of several leading companies, including Hitachi MGRM Net Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited and Jubilant Foodworks Limited. He served on the Board of Max India Limited/Max Financial Services Limited for more than 25 years.
He established and managed dozen-plus new ventures with the world’s leading corporations – Hutchison Group, Hong Kong; British Telecom UK; Comsat Corporation, USA; Avnet, USA; Royal DSM, Holland; Total Group, France; Hitachi Limited, Japan, among others.
He has been the Founder Managing Director of Hutchison Max Telecom (later rechristened Vodafone India Limited) and Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Reliance Telecom Limited & Executive Chairman MGRM.
Having anchored key policy initiatives with several Governments, he regularly contributes editorial columns.
Mr. Gunjan Shah holds a Bachelor of Technology (Computers) from VJTI, Mumbai and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
Mr. Gunjan Shah has extensive experience of working across varied sectors spanning Consumer Durables, Telecom and FMCG. He brings to the table an innate knack for understanding consumers, passion for action, people development experience and clarity of thought and purpose. In his previous role, Mr. Gunjan was the Chief Commercial Officer at Britannia Industries. He spent the early stages of his career working with brands such as Asian Paints and Motorola before moving on to Britannia in 2007.
Mr. Anil Somani is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He has over 25 years of experience in Finance, Strategy, compliance, information management and business development functions. He has worked with reputed organizations like Croma, Walmart, Metro Cash & Carry, etc. at various positions including CFO, Head of Finance, etc. He joined Bata India Limited in April 2023 from Reliance Retail, where he served as an Executive Vice President & CFO for Digital Business. He brings in extensive experience in retail across large Indian and Multinational Organizations.
Ms. Kanchan Chehal joined Bata India Limited as Head – Human Resources in December 2019 from Xerox India Ltd. where she was working as Executive Director – Human Resources, leading HR Operation for the Asia Pacific Region.
Her career spans over 2 decades in Human Resource Management across business sectors including Technology, IT&ITES, Sourcing, FMCG, Telecom and Service industries with 26+ years of experience in the HR domain.
Prior to Bata, at Xerox she was part of the management team as the HR Operation Leader - Asia Pacific responsible for all Xerox Entities in the Region covering Go-To-Market Operations, Global Business Shared Services centres, Delivery and Procurement organizations.
Prior, she worked with GAP Sourcing, as Senior Director-Human Resources covering South East Asia under her remit.
In her earlier career journey, she has worked with other organizations of repute such as PepsiCo International, Bharti Airtel, InterGlobe and Usha India in various roles wherein she led Leadership Development, Careers and Succession Planning, designing, and delivering HR policy frameworks, robust Talent Management, and key HR interventions.
Her expertise in conceptualizing and delivering HR strategy frameworks, Organization Design, driving reward and recognition programs and training and development span many years. She believes in strong HR Business Partnering, building careers, driving transformation projects and on continuous learning.
She holds a PGDBM in Human Resources from the Indian Institute of Planning & Management, New Delhi and BA History (Hons) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
She was appointed as a Whole-time Director of the Company, designated as Director (HR) and CHRO commencing from August 16, 2021. She relinquished her position as Whole-time Director in Bata India Limited effective October 1, 2022 as she was assigned a global role with BATA Group.
Mr Ravindra Dhariwal is the co-founder and Chairman of Sagacito Technologies – a data analytics firm specialising in helping enterprises maximise their revenues. In a career spanning four decades, he has built consumer businesses all over the world.
Before co-founding Sagacito, he was the Group CEO of Bennett, Coleman & Co., India’s largest media entity, with diversified media platforms, including Radio Mirchi, Times Television Network, Times Internet, Times OOH and the world’s largest-selling English newspaper The Times of India.
Mr Dhariwal was also the worldwide President of the International News Media Association between 2011 and 2013. Before joining Bennett Coleman & Co., he was with PepsiCo for 12 years. As its first employee in India, he helped the company establish its presence in the country. He also led the Beverage Business in India, Africa and South-East Asia. Beginning his career with Unilever in India in 1977, he worked in both India and Australia for more than 12 years, mostly in Sales and Marketing management. Mr Dhariwal is an Engineer from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.
Ms. Radha Rajappa is an entrepreneurial business leader with more than 30 years of experience in IT industry handling diverse roles of creating, nurturing and leading businesses from start and scaling existing businesses. She has successfully built and passionately led various businesses in Digital Transformation and IT products and services. She is an ardent believer of building and nurturing high performance teams and excited about carving business opportunities with leading edge Digital, AI and Cloud technologies. She currently serves as the Executive Chairperson of Flutura Decision Sciences and Analytics, an Industrial AI firm. Earlier, she was leading Digital and Services business at Microsoft India. She was a member of the India Leadership team driving the transformation for customers to the Cloud and Digital world. She has served for 16 years as a key member of the Executive Leadership team at Mindtree. She was responsible for building and leading the Global Digital Business as the Executive Vice President and established Mindtree as a significant partner for Global clients to “Make Digital Real” for their businesses. Led Mindtree’ s move to Industry led vertical focus as the leader for Retail, CPG and Manufacturing industry as well as Travel, Transportation and Hospitality.
Ms. Radha is also a Certified Executive Coach helping professionals sharpen their innate potential to deal with the change and realise their true potential. She has also served in IBM India in various capacities and in diverse roles encompassing Sales, Marketing and being responsible for various business lines. She holds degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.
Mr Akshay Chudasama is the Managing Partner of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., heading the firm’s practice in the Mumbai Region. He has expertise in cross-border M&A and Private Equity across varied sectors. He advises both foreign companies entering India and Indian companies in outbound acquisitions. Mr Chudasama holds a degree in Bachelors of Arts (BA) from St Xavier’s College (University of Bombay) and is a Law Graduate from the London School of Economics (University of London), UK.
He is enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, and as a Solicitor with the Law Society (England and Wales). He is also enrolled with the Bombay Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association and is a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Young Presidents’ Organization.
Mr Chudasama has been practising law since 1994. He was a partner at AZB & Partners for more than three years and, thereafter, at J. Sagar Associates (JSA) for almost 10 years. He has addressed several prestigious domestic and international seminars and conferences on various aspects related to his practice. He also serves inter alia as a Director on the Board of Apollo Tyres Ltd.
Mr. Barat is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and a CPA (Australia). He has held senior leadership positions in various Indian and multinational organizations, both in India and overseas. He is on the Board of several other companies and advises businesses on governance, performance and strategy.
He is the immediate past President of the Council of EU Chambers of Commerce in India and also a past President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and currently, a member of the Managing Committee of ASSOCHAM.
A Certified Mediator, Mr. Barat is empanelled with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. He is a regular speaker at public forums, particularly supporting family businesses, start-ups and SMEs from overseas, looking at establishing and growing their business footprints in India.
Mr. Shaibal Sinha is a Bachelor of Commerce, qualified Chartered Accountant and an alumni of International Institute of Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland with more than 34 years of post-qualification experience in different positions in Finance across the globe. Prior to joining Bata in 2004, he worked with Reckitt Benckiser at various levels in Finance in India and United Kingdom.
He joined Bata India Limited in November 2004 as Executive Director – Finance based in Gurgaon and worked till September 2010. He moved to Singapore in 2011 to a Bata group company as the Chief Financial Officer of Bata Emerging Markets. He then took over as Regional Finance Director – Asia Pacific, India and Africa in October 2019 based out of Singapore.
Mr. Sinha was on the Board of Bata India Limited as Non-Executive Director from May, 2015 till August, 2019. He had resigned as he was given additional responsibility of a special assignment by Bata Shoe Organisation (BSO), globally.