NIIFIFL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Nominee Director of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund II

Mr. A.K.T Chari was an Advisor at IDFC Project Finance. A keen Project Finance Specialist, he has over 35 years of experience. Prior to joining IDFC, Mr. Chari worked with the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) for 25 years where he held the position of Chief General Manager/Adviser - Corporate Finance. In this role, his responsibilities included appraisal of projects - infrastructure and industrial, project monitoring and portfolio management in the SME and venture capital sectors. He has been on the board of directors various boards as an Independent Director such as HDFC Pension Management Company Limited.

Job Titles:

• Independent Director
• Member of the Board of Directors
• Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers
• Banker

Mr. Ashwani Kumar is a seasoned banker having an experience of around 37 years. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of Dena Bank for a term of 5 years w.e.f. 1.1.13 to 31.12.17 Before being elevated to the post of CMD Dena Bank he was an Executive Director in Corporation Bank. He was appointed by the Government of India as a Director on the Board of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) where he was a Director for a little more than 5 years. He was also the Chairman Audit Committee and Risk Management Committee, Member of Investment Committee, Executive Committee of LIC. As the Chairman of Indian Banking Association (Sept 2015- Oct 2016), Mr. Kumar effectively liaisoned with the Reserve Bank of India, Government of India and other Statutory bodies to promote sound and progressive banking practices. He was the President of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF), Chairman of Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). He was also a member of Board of Supervision NABARD. Mr. Ashwani Kumar is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He holds a master's degree in science from Lucknow University. He has attended number of training programmes notably at Kellogg School of Management Chicago, NIBM and other reputed institutions. He has also attended on the job training in Bullion at Nova Scotia London and Societe Generale Paris.

Job Titles:

• Chief Business Officer

Debabrata joined the Company in August 2015. He is primarily responsible for business development, fund raising, overseeing the evaluation and delivery of investment and credit proposals and portfolio performance. In a career spanning over 29 years in financial services, Debabrata has worked with leading Indian and global institutions across corporate and project finance, special situation investments, advisory services and investment banking. He has worked on all forms of capital - debt, mezzanine and equity and has been involved in evaluating, advising, structuring and funding of projects with capital outlay of over US$ 10 billion. In his previous role, Debabrata was a Senior Director in the project finance business of IDFC Ltd. where he led debt and structured investments across diverse sectors in the infrastructure domain including transport, social infrastructure, hospitality, industrial and commercial real estate. He also worked on special situation investments and corporate advisory transactions in IDFC, advising infrastructure developers in power, transport and telecom sectors on business plan and investment opportunities, bidding for PPP projects, risk mitigation and financial structuring. Prior to joining IDFC, Debabrata worked in the areas of corporate finance and investment banking and held key positions in ASK Raymond James, BNP Paribas and SBI Capital Markets. He led and managed transactions for several Indian business houses and multinational clients across a wide range of products spanning M&A, equity and debt capital markets and structured finance. Debabrata holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Job Titles:

• Independent Director
• Member of the Board of Directors

Mr. Prashant Kumar Ghose has nearly five decades of experience in finance and industry having worked across sectors including steel, cement, fertilisers, chemicals and consumer. He worked at Tata Steel, where he became Chief Financial Controller (Corporate) and then Chief of Strategic Finance, before moving to Tata Chemicals as Chief Financial Officer. In Tata Chemicals he was elevated to the Board as Executive Director & CFO. He has worked on multiple M&A and fund-raising transactions, domestically and internationally, and he was recognised as CFO of the Year 3 times, twice by IMA and once by CNBC TV18. Mr. Ghose has held multiple board positions including for Tata Chemicals across Europe, North America and Africa, Infinity Retail, Tata Consulting Engineers, Air Asia India and Tata Services. He has also been on international boards - IMACID Morocco and JOil Singapore. Prior to his joining Tata Chemicals he had been in the boards of TAYO ( erstwhile Tata Yodogawa) , Tata Pigments , Stewart's & Lloyd and others. Mr Ghose also was the advisor to the Group Chairman , Tata Group for over 2 years. He currently sits on three Indian National Committees of CII, and is a member and trustee of the CFO Board He is a BCOM (Hons) graduate, a member of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants and the Institute of Company Secretaries, India, and an alumnus of the Advanced International General Management Program of CEDEP, INSEAD. He has attended the Financial Management programme at Wharton School and Strategy at Harvard Business School

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Managing Director and CEO of NIIF Ltd
• Nominee Director of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund II

Rajiv Dhar is the Managing Director and CEO of NIIF Ltd since May 2023. Rajiv has over three and half decades of experience across multiple sectors including Financial Services, Telecom, Oil & Gas (upstream and downstream), Construction, and Real Estate, spanning several countries. With an excellent track record of demonstrated leadership in Strategic Planning, M&A, ESG, Corporate Finance, FP&A, Risk management and Tax, he has led several successful capital raising assignments and has excellent relationships with leading sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, banks and multilateral finance agencies across the globe. He played a pivotal role as the Chief Operating Officer of NIIF since 2017, serving as a member of the Investment Committees of the NIIF-managed funds and setting up the key functions of Investment Operations, Finance, ESG, Legal, Compliance, Information Technology and Human Resources, ensuring the best in class governance framework of NIIF and its portfolio companies. Before joining NIIF, Mr. Rajiv Dhar was the Executive Director of Omzest Group, one of the Middle East's most diversified and respected groups. As the ED, Rajiv was responsible for managing strategy and finance for the holding company and was on the Board and Committees of crucial portfolio companies of the Group. Prior to joining Omzest, Rajiv was part of the esteemed TATA Group for over 15 years. Throughout his tenure, he held diverse management and leadership positions across multiple TATA group companies, showcasing his versatility and expertise in various capacities. Rajiv currently serves on the Board of Aseem Infrastructure Finance Limited, Hindustan Infralog Private Limited and NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited. He is a commerce graduate and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has also completed the Executive Development Program at Wharton Business School and the Leadership Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Job Titles:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Member of the Inter - Ministerial Steering Committee

Mr. Shiva Rajaraman is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited (NIIF IFL). He has over 26 years of experience in infrastructure finance, innovative & sustainable funding, and advisory. In his previous role as founder CEO & Wholetime Director of L&T Infra Debt Fund Limited (L&T IDF), one of India's leading Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDF) with an excellent quality asset base, he built and led a top-notch team in introducing innovative financing and credit enhancement solutions to PPP projects in renewable energy, roads, and transmission sectors. The L&T IDF team was able to procure bond & equity investor funding from key national and international investor groups including long term focussed pension/ provident/ insurance funds. At L&T Financial Services (LTFS), he was part of the leadership team which managed one of India's largest (USD 3 bn) high quality debt-financed renewable energy portfolios aggregating 6000 MW and one of the largest quality road refinance portfolios. Shiva is a member of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC) of the Government of India, set up for implementation of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). He has been a member of several expert groups and national committees, including the Project Finance Sub-Group for the NIP and the Expert Group constituted by the Ministry of Finance for guiding rating agencies to developing a new framework for rating infrastructure projects. He has also been a member of Infrastructure Committees of CII, FICCI, IVCA (industry associations) and a Director on the Board of Feedback Infrastructure (a leading infrastructure services company) and Indian Highway Management Company Ltd (IHMCL), a company promoted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) along with other institutions, which has implemented electronic tolling solutions in India. Prior to joining L&T Financial Services, he worked with India's specialised infrastructure financier IDFC (now IDFC Bank) for nearly 10 years, in various positions in Project Finance and Risk. He started his career with the Equity Group of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (now Commerzbank). Shiva is an established subject matter expert and trainer in the field of infrastructure finance. He has a passion for teaching and conducts training programs for young professionals, senior government and RBI officials. He has a keen interest in history and enjoys playing chess. Shiva holds a Bachelors' degree in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai, and an MBA from Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli, India.

Job Titles:

• Chief Compliance Officer
• General Counsel

Srinivas Upadhyayula is presently the "Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel" of NIIF Infrastructure Financial Limited. Prior to this assignment Srinivas has worked as a Senior Director (Legal & Compliance) in the Special Situations Management Group (SSMG) of IDFC Ltd. Srinivas has more than 30 years of rich experience in legal, documentation of project & non-project finance, corporate finance and infrastructure finance documentation, including litigation management & recovery management in the Banking and Financial sector. He is having expertise in leading the delinquent accounts, recovery planning and in regular reviewing of the non-performing assets of the loan portfolio to identify trends and significant changes for effective recovery and financial restructuring and a structuring of the loans. Prior to IDFC Limited, Srinivas was working with Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (Arcil) (the first Asset Reconstruction Company established in India and is a prominent player in the Distressed Assets) as Senior Vice-president & Group Head - Legal. Srinivas started his career as an Advocate on Civil and Labour side in the District Courts of Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. He then worked with Sterling Tree Magnum (India) Ltd (a Sterling group company), and as Law officer in Canara Bank & as Deputy General Manager (Legal) IDBI Bank Ltd. He has completed his Bachelor of Laws with specialisation in Company Law and Banking Law from Andhra University. He has completed post graduate diploma in Industrial Relation and Personnel Management from Bharatiya Vidyabhavan. He has also completed his CAIIB. His interests include tracking the stock market & reading of various magazines and articles on litigation.

Job Titles:

• Chairman of the Board of Directors
• Cost and Management Accountant
• Founding Member of NIIF

Mr. Prakash Rao, currently the Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer - Indirect Investments National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIF), is the Chairman of our Company since March 2019. He is a seasoned professional with over 35 years of rich experience in the financial services sector. He brings deep expertise in infrastructure lending and investment, corporate finance, project finance, strategic planning and execution and establishing and growing new businesses. As a founding member of NIIF, Prakash was instrumental in establishing the foundation pillars of the company, in developing business strategy, setting up systems and processes, developing policies, fund raising, building the ESG practice and setting up the NIIF Fund of Funds. Prior to joining NIIF, Prakash spent over three decades with State Bank of India (SBI) where he led several key positions. In his last position at SBI, he headed the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry operations as the Chief General Manager. He led a team of 20,000+ employees and managed a balance sheet of USD 30 billion spread across 1,100 branches. Prior to this, he headed State Bank of India's Private Equity and Venture Capital Fund vertical as General Manager. During his stint with SBI, he has also served as the Deputy CEO of the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund (a USD 1.2 billion fund set up as a Joint Venture with the Macquarie Group of Australia), and was instrumental in the fund's investments into airports, telecom towers, thermal power, small hydro, and transportation sectors. Prakash is a Cost and Management Accountant, having passed with a Merit Certificate, and holds a Diploma in Business Finance. He has participated in executive education programmes from the Harvard Business School, Duke University, Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) and the Indian School of Business.

Job Titles:

• Independent Director
• Member of the Board of Directors

Ms. Rosemary Sebastian is a former career central banker with 38 years of professional track record. She was the Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India in charge of its financial supervision function (NBFCs and Cooperative Banks). During her career she has handled various responsibilities in central banking, regulation and supervision of banking and non-banking entities, financial inclusion, consumer protection, public debt management and internal audit among others. She has been associated with the work and recommendations of important Committees of the Reserve Bank. She has served as the Reserve Bank's Nominee Director on the Board of a large public sector bank. Ms Rosemary Sebastian is post graduate from Osmania University and has a law degree from Mumbai University. She is currently on the Boards of two reputed Companies, as an Independent Director.