CONTRARIAN

Subrat Mohanty is the Executive Director – Banking Operations & Transformation at Axis Bank Limited. He joined the bank in October 2020 and leads all functions under Retail & Wholesale Banking Operations, Information Technology, Strategy, Business Intelligence, Customer Experience, and Internal Audit. He also serves as a director on the Boards of Axis Max Life Insurance, Freecharge Payment Technologies, Axis Securities Limited, and Freecharge Business and Technology Service Limited. Subrat has over 24 years of cross-industry experience. Prior to Axis Bank, he served as Group President at Manipal Education & Medical Group, and before that as COO at HDFC Life Insurance. He has also held multiple leadership roles at Infosys and began his career with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). He holds a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Rourkela and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Pranav Haridasan is the MD & CEO of Axis Securities and is known for his collaborative leadership style and technology acumen. In a career spanning over two decades, Pranav has been instrumental in expanding businesses and managing critical assignments for domestic and international clients. In his previous role as Managing Director and Co-Head of Equities at Axis Capital, he spearheaded the restructuring of the equities business. Prior to Axis Capital, Pranav was Director & Head of India/ASEAN Execution Services at Citigroup Global Markets and served as Pan Asia Head of Block Trading. He has also held leadership positions at Credit Suisse Securities, IDFC Ltd, and ING Vysya Bank. Pranav holds a Post Graduate Programme from the Indian School of Business and a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Christ University, Bangalore. He is a visiting faculty member at BITS School of Management.

Puneet Sharma is the Chief Financial Officer of Axis Bank, a position he has held since March 2020. He has over two decades of experience in banks, financial institutions, and consulting. Prior to Axis Bank, Puneet spent 12 years at Tata Capital Limited, where he served as CFO of Tata Capital Limited and Tata Capital Financial Services Limited from 2014. Before Tata Capital, he held roles at Citibank N.A. covering structured cash solutions, treasury operations, and risk monitoring, and earlier worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, holds a B.Com from the University of Bombay, and is a graduate of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

K. Raghu is a distinguished Chartered Accountant with over three decades of professional experience. He served as President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in 2014–15 and is the founding partner of M/s K. Raghu & Co., a Bangalore-based consulting firm. He has been a Board member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in New York and holds honorary memberships with the CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand. He has served in leadership roles at the Confederation of Asian Pacific Accountants (CAPA) and the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA). He was also an Independent Director on the Board of Indian Overseas Bank (2016–19) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

Bhumika Batra is a Partner at Crawford Bayley & Co., one of India's oldest law firms. She brings over 15 years of experience in regulatory and legal practice, specializing in corporate law. A law graduate and Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, she received a scholarship from the London School of Economics. She co-authored the book 'Treatise on Company Law' in 2014, is a regular feature writer in India Business Law Journal, and has contributed to publications such as Company Law Ready Reckoner and Asia Business Law Journal. She serves as an Independent Director on the boards of Jyothy Laboratories Limited, Sharp India Limited, Hinduja Tech Limited, Repro India Limited, and Kancor Ingredients Limited.

J.S. Deepak is the Group Director, International Strategy and Public Policy at Bharti Enterprises. A retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, he brings decades of experience in economic policy, having served as Secretary Telecom & IT and as India's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. As Secretary, Telecom, he designed and conducted the first spectrum auction in India in 2010 and pioneered spectrum harmonization and sharing frameworks. As Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), he anchored the Digital India Programme. He was India's Chief Negotiator at the WTO for RCEP and the India-EU FTA. He is currently Chairman of Bharti Hexacom Limited and serves on the Governing Council of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy (ISB Mohali). He holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

Atul Mehra is the Managing Director and CEO of Axis Capital, the investment banking arm of the Axis Group, and serves as a Director on the Board of Axis Securities Limited. A veteran dealmaker with over 35 years of experience, Atul was previously the Joint Managing Director at JM Financial Ltd, where he spent most of his career and led marquee ECM and M&A transactions across domestic and international markets. He brings deep relationships across leading Indian corporates and extensive expertise in equity capital markets and strategic advisory.

Kersi Tavadia brings over four decades of IT expertise, specialising in software development, infrastructure services, and cybersecurity across the financial services, capital markets, and manufacturing industries. As Chief Information Officer of BSE, he transformed the exchange into the world's fastest, achieving a response time of 6 microseconds. He led the implementation of one of the largest open-source data warehouses, incorporated AI and machine learning into surveillance systems, and built BSE's pioneering Cyber Security Operations Centre. He also served as a member of the Technology Advisory Group for the Reserve Bank of India. Currently, Kersi is an Executive Coach and Capital Markets Leader at StatusNeo Technologies, serves on the Advisory Board of Cymmetri, and is a member of the Technology Advisory Committee at CDSL Commodities Repository Limited.

Hemant Patel joined Axis Securities in 2015 and currently serves as Chief Financial Officer, heading Finance & Accounts, Business Intelligence, and Secretarial Compliance. He has over 19 years of professional experience primarily in the financial services sector. Prior to Axis Securities, he worked with leading organizations including Barclays Bank PLC, Angel Broking, PwC, and Deloitte. Hemant is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He was recognised with the Treasury Leadership Excellence of the Year award at the Great Indian Treasury Leaders Summit.

Soonu Wadewala joined Axis Securities from Axis Bank in 2018 and heads Human Resources for the company. She is responsible for driving Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, and enabling business growth through HR interventions. She has 14 years of experience in Human Resources. Prior to Axis Bank, she worked with Indian Hotels Company Limited (Taj Group), Tata Sons, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. She is an Organisational Psychologist and holds an MBA in Human Resources with certification in driving behaviours and performance.

Anuj Shah heads the broking business at Axis Securities with nearly two decades of experience in the financial sector. He is primarily responsible for the offline retail and HNI businesses, including commodity, NRI, and Managed Accounts (NDPMS), and leads the Private Client Group (PCG) vertical offering tailored financial solutions to HNI and ultra-HNI clients. Before joining Axis Securities, Anuj spent five years at Reliance Securities as Business Head. He has also worked with Kotak Securities, Enam Securities, and Destimoney Securities. He has a postgraduate degree from Mumbai University with a specialization in Marketing.

Selven Rodrigo brings over 23 years of experience in Broking, Wealth Management, and Franchisee Channel roles. At Axis Securities, he heads the partnership and alliance function, strengthening relationships with sub-brokers, banks, and fintech companies. Previously he has worked with Edelweiss Broking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ace Commodity and Derivative Exchange, Kotak Securities, Motilal Oswal, Centrum Broking, and Anand Rathi Group. He holds a Post Graduate degree in Finance from the Institute of Technology and Management, Mumbai.

Rajiv Prabhakar serves as Chief Digital Officer at Axis Securities. He brings extensive experience in digital business and capital markets from prior roles at Aditya Birla Money and Sharekhan. He holds an MBA in Marketing from K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (1995–1997).

Rajiv Kejriwal is a seasoned legal and compliance leader with over two decades of expertise in the broking and financial services sector. At Axis Securities, he oversees regulatory adherence, corporate governance, and risk management, ensuring alignment with SEBI, stock exchange norms, and RBI regulations. Before joining Axis Securities, Rajiv held key roles at SBI Securities, Angel One, and Sharekhan, building a strong track record in legal advisory, compliance frameworks, and dispute resolution. He has deep expertise in navigating securities laws and broking operations.

Sanjay Jain brings over 19 years of extensive experience in driving digital transformations and building first-to-market products across start-ups, mid-sized firms, and large enterprises, with expertise spanning Telecom operators, OEMs, and Silicon vendors. Before joining Axis Securities, Sanjay played a pivotal role in the digital transformation at Freecharge, leading the Tech and Product verticals for the DBAT division and creating innovative, scalable products across liability, commercial, SME, lending, credit card, investment, Bharat Banking, and data analytics verticals. He has also contributed to Onskreen, Tinyowl, Hopscotch, Zimmber, and HDFC Life. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).