2009 Speakers

Nick O’ Donohoe

Global Head- Equity Research, J P Morgan
Nick O’Donohoe is Global Head of Research at the Investment Bank responsible for Equity, Credit, Rates and Economic research worldwide. He is also a member of the Global Investment Banking Management Committee and Executive Committee.

Nick joined J.P. Morgan in 1996 as Head of European Equity Sales and moved to head of European Equity Research in 1999. In 2000 he assumed overall responsibility for European Cash Equities and following the merger with Chase, he became Head of Cash Equities for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Nick was appointed Global Head of Equity Research in 2001 and assumed his current position in February 2005.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Nick spent 9 years working for the Zurich branch of Goldman Sachs, first in Institutional Sales and later as Resident Manager. He transferred to the Equity Capital Markets group in London in 1991 and moved to Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 1993 where he became Head of International Marketing in 1995.

Samit Ghosh

CEO, Ujjivan Financial Services
Samit Ghosh is founder & CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services, one India’s leading microfinance institutions. A founding member and the secretary of the Association of Karnataka Microfinance Institutions (AKMI), Samit’s banking career spanning 30 years has taken him across the globe. He has worked both in South Asia and in the Middle East. He started his career with Citibank in 1975 and was part of Citibank’s pioneering management team to launch consumer banking to the middle class in India in 1985-90 and the Arabian Gulf in 1990-93.

Samit has also been responsible for leading the launch of Retail Banking in South Asia and Middle East for Standard Chartered Bank during 1993-96. His last banking assignment was as Chief Executive of Bank Muscat in India from 1998 to 2003.

Prashant Thakker

Global Business Head (Microfinance), Standard Chartered Bank
Prashant Thakker is Director and Global Business Head, Microfinance for Standard Chartered Bank. Based in Dubai, he is responsible for the launch and the growth of the bank’s Microfinance initiative globally in a sustainable manner using the bank’s Development Organisations (DO) client segment platform under the Financial Institutions Group.

Prashant has been with Standard Chartered Bank for the last 10 years in a variety of roles covering Operations, Finance, Project Management, Strategy, Governance, and Corporate and Institutional Banking. Prior to this appointment, Prashant was part of the Financial Institutions business in India and launched the microfinance business for the group. Earlier he was with the RPG Group for 2 years with positions in the Finance and Treasury division.

Suresh Gurumani

CEO, SKS Microfinance
A banking veteran with over 22 years of experience, Suresh Gurumani is the CEO of one of India’s top ranking Microfinance Institutions. Before joining SKS, Suresh was responsible for the launch of retail banking at Barclays. Within a year’s time, Barclay’s Retail Banking achieved leadership position across the emerging markets consisting of Africa, MESA and India Region. He also launched Barclays Finance, an NBFC with 120 branches across 40 cities to create alternate distribution to overcome regulatory challenges.

Suresh also worked with Standard Chartered for 9 years, as General Manager, Consumer Finance and SME banking. He launched SME Banking which currently accounts for significant revenue share of the consumer banking business. He was responsible for the launch of the Sapnay credit card for the lower income group.

Vineet Rai

CEO, Aavishkaar Venture Management Services

Vineet is the Founder and Managing Director of Aavishkaar Venture Management Services, a company that manages Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund and Aavishkaar Goodwell India Microfinance Development Company. Aavishkaar India is a unique micro equity fund that supports socially beneficial small and micro enterprises by way of equity financing. Aavishkaar Goodwell is a venture capital fund focused on making investments in MFIs in India. Vineet is also a Partner at Goodwell BV, Netherlands and a Managing Partner with BYST Growth Fund.

Vineet has over 14 years of experience in leading innovative interventions in development sector and brings crucial hands on understanding of social development, venture capital, micro-enterprises and microfinance investments. Vineet is also the co-founder and Chairman of Intellecap, a leading social investment advisory firm leveraging knowledge to channel social capital to deserving social or rural entrepreneurs. Vineet has been awarded Ashoka Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to the field of Social Entrepreneurship.

P N Vasudevan

Managing Director, Equitas
P. N. Vasudevan, is the promoter and managing director of Equitas, a Chennai based new-age microfinance organization. In a retail finance career spanning over 20 years, Vasudevan rose up the ranks of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited and last served as its executive Vice President and Business Head at Development Credit Bank, Mumbai.

Under Vasudevan’s direction, Equitas has built a reputation of a professional, efficient and transparent MFI. Equitas is widely known in the industry for its various innovations towards operational efficiency. Equitas is also involved in a wide range of social interventions including vocational training and medical camps that have covered over 100,000 members.

Philip Vassiliou

Managing Director, Legatum
Philip Vassiliou is a Managing Director at Legatum, primarily responsible for the Legatum Ventures portfolio and oversight of Legatum’s capital markets activities. Philip earlier held positions at Sovereign Global, in Group Investments and Sovereign Global Development, and with the Dubai Development Investment Authority (DDIA).

Philip previously worked in the Equities & Private Wealth divisions of Goldman Sachs International in New York and London. He is also a board member of the Ubuntu Education Fund.

Xavier Reille

Lead Microfinance Specialist, CGAP
Xavier joined CGAP in 1999 and leads CGAP's capital market Team in addition to chairing the board of directors of the Microfinance Information eXchange. He is also the director of the CGAP MENA Initiative. Before joining CGAP, he was the regional microfinance advisor for Southeast Asia with Catholic Relief Services. Xavier has a master’s degree in international finance from the University of Paris. He speaks French, Spanish, English, and Bahasa Indonesian.

Wim van der Beek

Founding Partner, Aavishkaar Goodwell
Wim is a social venturer with two decades of experience in financial structuring, investment funds and cross border direct investments. In 2005 he decided to "walk his talk" and founded Goodwell Investments, a social investment firm focused on high impact high return investment solutions.

Before launching Goodwell, Wim co-founded and managed an institutional fund advisory company. Prior to that, he was a partner in the financial services international tax practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Amsterdam. He is an advisor to Aavishkaar in India and an Advisory Board member of Social Fusion in San Francisco.

Prakash Bakshi

Executive Director, NABARD
Dr. Prakash Bakshi is the Executive Director of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). He was one of key forces behind the Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme launched by NABARD, which is today the largest and fastest growing microfinance programme in the world.

He was also associated with the Committee on Cooperative Credit Structuring set up by Government of India. He looks after policy issues in the farm and non-farm sectors and institutional strengthening for NABARD as well as its initiatives in the field of financial inclusion.

Ulhas Deshpande

CEO, IntelleCash
Ulhas has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and in various service sector companies. He has worked in healthcare, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), banking and financial services, information technology enabled services (ITES), and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Ulhas started Adventity BPO India Private Limited, a venture funded company, where he was Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Prior to Adventity, Ulhas worked as the Head of Human Resources for IDBI Bank, and with American International Group (AIG) in India in the financial sector domain. He has also held senior human resources positions with Glaxo, Novartis, and Parke Davis in the consumer care sector.

Ramesh Ramanathan

Chairman , Janalaxmi Financial Services
Ramesh Ramanathan is the founder and promoter of Janalakshmi Financial Services, one of India’s fast growing urban microfinance institutions. Ramesh has worked in the Indian microfinance sector for close to a decade, with a special focus on urban microfinance. He is Chairman of Janalakshmi, an urban microfinance institution in India. Ramesh is also the co-founder of Janaagraha, Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation focused on improving urban governance in India. In addition to Janaagraha,

Ramesh works closely with government on urban issues in a pro-bono capacity. His current positions with government include being the National Technical Advisor, Government of India for the Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the largest urban initiative in the country’s history; member of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Finances.

Prior to these social initiatives, Ramesh worked with Citibank in New York and London. Ramesh has co-authored a book titled, 'Urban Poverty Alleviation in India' & writes regularly about public governance issues in leading national publications. He was nominated as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2007.

Harinder Sawhney

Director, PE, J M Financial
Harinder Sawhney is Executive Director of JM Financial's Private Equity Fund. He has been with the Fund for about 3 years and is managing investments in microfinance, retail, farm equipment, offshore logistics, etc. His prior experiences transcends both buy and sell side in India and the US.

Henk Nijland

, FMO
Mr. Henk Nijland has been the Manager Micro & Small Enterprise Finance at FMO for the last 2 years. In this capacity he is responsible for FMO’s EUR 300 million Micro and Small Enterprise Fund (“MASSIF”) and FMO’s EUR 50 million Capacity Development Program (“CD”). His unit is also responsible for microfinance transactions with a global character.

Before his current position Mr. Nijland was a (Senior) Investment Officer for 5 years in the Africa Department responsible for financial sector transactions, mainly in Western and Northern Africa. Before FMO Mr. Nijland was working at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs for a period of 7 years as a (Senior) Policy Officer. He was amongst others engaged in development of investment promotion policy for Eastern Europe and responsible for the technical assistance trust funds of the Ministry at the World Bank, the IFC and the EBRD. Mr. Nijland holds a Masters Degree in Economics from the Dutch University of Groningen.

Mathew Titus

Executive Director, Sa-dhan
Mathew Titus is the Executive Director of Sa-Dhan, the Association of Community Development Finance Institutions, based in New Delhi. Sa-Dhan works with existing community development financial institutions in identifying areas of work that will contribute to the development of the sector. This includes the organizing of training programs, identifying and building industry standards, and bringing together policy initiatives.

Mathew is a Member of the Board, Microfinance Development and Equity Fund, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in Mumbai, and also a member of the advisory committee of INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (IRDA). Some of his recent publications include: Expanding “Secular Growth”: The role for innovations in microfinance and Financial Inclusion:- Does MF demonstrate any lesson for public policy? Titus has done post-graduate research with the Department of Economics and International Development at the University of Bath, England, and has a Masters from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Hanuman Tripathi

CEO & Managing Director, Infrasoft Technologies Limited
Hanuman Tripathi carries 27 years of experience in office automation, telecom & IT industry; of which last 17 years have been in financial industry software solutions. He is a member of several professional bodies and has contributed to form an intellectual IT industry platforms like FIST (Foundation for Information Security and Technology), Bombay Technology CEO’s Club and the first ever e-Panchayat for Mumbai Police. Hanuman extensively participates as a speaker/ panelist in international symposiums on Anti- Money Laundering, Core Banking, Islamic Finance & Risk Management and also HR subjects; in last 12 months he has spoken in finance industry platforms in New York, Berlin, Dubai, Bahrain, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur & Jakarta. He is a Science graduate and carries a post graduate diploma in Marketing and a Masters degree in Management.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay

Deputy Managing Editor , Mint
Tamal Bandyopadhyay is a Deputy Managing Editor of Mint, India's second largest financial daily, brought out by HT Media Ltd in association with the Wall Street Journal. Tamal is part of the paper's senior leadership team since its inception, writes a weekly column on banking and finance every Monday (Banker's Trust) and moderates Mint's panel discussions on finance across cities. He is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Economics in India.

Jun Zhang

Manager, Financial Markets, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Mr. Jun Zhang is Manager, Financial Markets, South Asia Department and is based in the IFC Mumbai Office. He heads IFC's investments in the financial sector in South Asia. He also oversees advisory services in the financial sector in India.

Jun has held various positions in the East Asia Infrastructure Department of the World Bank and East Asia and Global Financial Markets Departments of IFC in Washington, DC. In those capacities, Jun has participated and led IFC’s financial sector investment programs in Indonesia, China, Russia, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mr. Zhang holds a Ph.D. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and M.A. from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).