Previous Occupation: Assistant Manager – Finance, HCL Infosystems
Present Occupation: Deputy General Manager – Corporate Development, Max India
Sector: Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Healthcare, Clinical Research and Specialty Films
Work Experience: 11 years
Interests – Professional/Personal: Corporate Strategy and Finance / Lawn Tennis, Fitness and Socializing

Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after your under-graduate education including your career progression.
I am a part of Corporate Development team at Max India with responsibilities spanning various corporate finance functions. My role involves capital raising (equity and mezzanine), identifying new business opportunities, mergers & acquisitions, strategic alliances, restructuring, investor relations and other special projects.

In my previous engagement with Max India I was also a part of Finance and Accounts team handling budgeting & financial planning, business analytics, management and financial reporting, business valuations, restructuring and other special projects.

Prior to Max India I was associated with HCL Infosystems. I was responsible for back end support on investor relations before which I handled business analytics and management reporting, budgeting and financial planning, financial reporting as per Indian GAAP and US GAAP and overseeing software operations of foreign subsidiaries of HCL Infosystems from the financial planning, finance and accounts perspective at various points in time.

I am a qualified Chartered Accountant from ICAI and hold bachelor’s degree in commerce and started my career as Audit Manager with a Chartered Accountant firm.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB.
Learning from the experiences and perspectives of 60 successful classmates, who had professional experience spanning 10-30 years, was indeed a memorable experience. Not forgetting my interactions with international faculty and immersion programmes in the US, Brazil and Moscow. On the personal front, I have fond memories of attending gala dinners on campus, where we were entertained with melodious music, and magic shows performed by two of our classmates. I will cherish these sweet memories throughout my life.

With the knowledge and experience gained at ISB, tell us something that you will do differently in your professional life?
ISB has been a transformational experience in structuring our thoughts and giving us frameworks and tools for strategic thinking, leadership and management, decision making, and implementation, etc. This experience has added significant value to my professional abilities and has considerably improved the way I do things.

What are some new trends in your current work industry that can be shared as valuable knowledge-transfer?
The Life Insurance industry is going through a turbulent phase marked by the intensity and pace of implementation of new regulations. Regulators have put a cap on prices and, at the same time, prescribed modifications in product design which puts higher strain on capital. Insurers need to realign and reshape their business models completely to achieve their long-term objectives.

Our organization has taken a lead in realigning our strategy across certain key levers, i.e. by shifting product orientation to long-term savings and protection, driving productivity, improving cost structures by right-sizing the business, amongst other measures. This has increased our profits significantly despite the above-mentioned challenges. This provides a useful insight on certain winning strategies in an industry where there is a cap on prices.

If you have to sum up ISB in one word:
Ameliorate

What are the areas that you can contribute in to ISB?
The biggest contribution that we can make to the School is to market brand ISB through “word of mouth.”We must also enhance the value of the brand by having successful careers. Our batch is contemplating setting up a corpus fund to help economically weaker students fund their fees and living expenses. I also play an active role by participating in events such in counseling candidates interested in the PGPMAX programme. I would also like to engage in other areas where I can add value to the School. Our organization recruits ISB graduates and I am also considering recruiting one candidate for my department.

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