Board of Directors
Pradeep V Bhide
Pradeep V Bhide, is an IAS officer (retd.) with four decades of rich experience across various State and Central Government departments, during which period he held several senior postings in the Finance and Home ministries including Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
During his tenure as Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Bhide was involved in formulation of the Direct and Indirect Taxation policies including the Direct Taxes Code and the then proposed roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.
Mr. Bhide presently serves on the Board of several large Corporates and listed companies. He is a Graduate in Science and Law and also holds a Masters degree in Business Administration with specialisation in Financial Management.
Pushya Sitaraman
Mrs. Pushya is a law graduate from Madras Law College and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Stella Maris College.
She is a practicing Senior Advocate at the Madras High Court, with over 35 years of experience, specializing in the field of taxation and corporate law.
She has also worked with other corporates and educational institutions
VL Ramakrishnan
VL Ramakrishnan is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary with,20+ years of experience across BFSI and extensive expertise and knowledge in the retail lending (Auto, Housing, PL, MFI) business.
More recently, he was co-founder and CFO at Suroyday Micro Finance. Previously, he was with DCB Bank, GE Capital, Cholamandalam Finance and Modi Xerox.
As Shiksha Finance, as Chief Executive Officer, he leads the overall management of the Business and Investor relations.
Pankaj Raina
Pankaj Raina holds a Masters in Finance from the London Business School and an MBA from IBS.
He oversees Zephyr Peacock’s investment and research program. He has over a decade of experience in the private equity and investment banking industries. Prior to Zephyr, he worked as an Investment Manager at CapAleph Advisors where he focused on identifying and executing early stage buyouts in the consumer segment. He has also worked with Intellecap (part of the Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group) where he was responsible for identifying and executing investments in small and medium enterprises in the financial services, agri, food, and social infrastructure sectors.
Mohamed Saleem Asaria
Mr. Saleem Asaria is a Partner at Lightrock and works with the sector teams on evaluating and underwriting new investments and portfolio value creation as well as playing a supportive role in the healthcare and education sectors. He currently serves on the Board of Lithium, Shiksha and Capital Float. Prior to this, he has spent the majority of his career in the UK building and running healthcare and education businesses of size. He was the founder CEO of the Cambian Group Plc, which grew to become one of the largest behavioural health services company in the UK and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2014. Saleem qualified with an honours degree in Pathology and Basic Medical Sciences from the University of London. Mr. Saleem Asaria is associated with the Company as a Nominee Director since November, 2021.
