Management Team

Mr. Ajay Srinivasan
Managing Director

Mr. Srinivasan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Economics from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is the Chief Executive, Financial Services and Director, Corporate Strategy and Business Development at the Aditya Birla Group since July 2007.

In his role as Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, he sets the strategic direction and vision and provides operational leadership for the Group’s Financial Services business. In his role as Director, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, he directs and strategies on business portfolio issues for the Aditya Birla Group focusing on the long-term sustainability, profitability and value creation of the Group’s businesses.

Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Ajay Srinivasan was associated with Prudential Corporation Asia, Threadneedle Asset Management, etc. at senior levels. With a proven track record for building successful businesses, his experience in the financial services industry spans almost two decades.

Mr. Mayank Bathwal
Chief Financial Officer

Mayank Bathwal is the Chief Financial Officer for BSLI. In his current role he provides effective leadership to the finance function towards growing the business of the company and partners the CEO and the leadership team in managing the affairs of the company.

Mayank joined The Aditya Birla Group in early 1994 with over 15 years of industry experience with him. Since then, he has worked closely in various units and projects of the group including fertilizer and copper smelting units, financial services business and power projects.

He joined Birla Sun Life Insurance in December 1999 as part of the project team to set up the life insurance venture and was looking after the business strategy and planning function prior to taking charge of other finance operations of the company. Mayank then moved to take charge as the Chief Financial Officer of Sun Life, Indonesia in June 2006. He moved back to India in June 2007 after his successful stint in Indonesia for a year with the objective of supporting BSLI in its transformational phase.

He is a Fellow member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and an Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

Mr. Amitabh Verma
Chief Operating Officer

Amitabh Verma is the Chief Operating Officer for BSLI. He is responsible for determining the organizational strategies for Operations and IT and reports to the President and CEO of the company. He is with BSLI since February1, 2008

Amitabh is an Engineer and MBA by profession and has over 18 years of experience. He has held senior leadership positions in the IT and Financial Services Industry. Prior to joining BSLI, Amitabh was Vice President with AIG (Asia Pacific Life Operations), Hong Kong.

Mr. Fabien Jeudy
Chief Actuarial Officer & Appointed Actuary

Fabien Jeudy is the Chief Actuarial Officer & Appointed Actuary for BSLI and is responsible for all actuarial functions within the company.

He can rightly be called the father of ‘Unit linked Insurance Plans’ in India amongst the private players. He was actively involved in the architecture/ design of Unit Linked Plans of BSLI that were filed with the IRDA at the time of business commencement in the year 2001.

Fabien is a fully qualified actuary under the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries (United States) and the Institute of Actuaries of India. He received his Bachelor of Mathematics in Actuarial Science in 1990 and is a fellow of the Actuarial Society of India, Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Fabien has 19 years of experience in various parts of the world, including Canada, United States, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong and India.

Mr. Vikram Kotak
Chief Investment Officer

Vikram Kotak is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for BSLI and is with the company since December 2005.

He was a member of the Working Group Committee on investments formed by IRDA and is now a member of Capital Market Committee – Indian Merchant Chambers. He has also served as a Member for Debt Market Committee of Bombay Stock Exchange for the period 2002-03 & 2003-04.

He is a qualified chartered accountant & has over 15 years of experience in debt & equity markets, corporate finance & research. Prior to BSLI, Vikram has spent 6 years with Birla Group Financial Services in the Fixed Income segment

Mr. Chander Chellani
Chief Distribution Officer

Chander Chellani is the Chief Distribution Officer (CDO) for BSLI. He spearheads the Direct Sales Force (DSF) and Third Party Distribution (TPD) function for the company and is responsible for determining the growth strategies for these channels. Chander reports to the President and CEO of BSLI and is based in Mumbai. He is with BSLI since November 14,2007.

Chander is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. Prior to joining BSLI, Chander was Chief Agency Officer with MetLife, India and comes with over 16 years of experience with organizations like ICICI Prudential, ICICI Bank and Citi Financials.

Mr. Rahul Sinha
Chief Marketing Officer

Rahul is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for BSLI. In his role as CMO, Rahul is responsible for determining organizational strategies for the marketing initiatives of the company and its offerings, with the objective of being the target customer’s preferred brand and choice among life insurance companies.

He reports to the President and CEO of BSLI and is with the company since November, 2008.Rahul is also a key member of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) Marketing Council and through this forum, his contributions extend across the ABFSG businesses.

Rahul is a B. Tech in Petroleum Engineering & Post Graduate in Marketing & Strategy from IIM Bangalore. Prior to joining BSLI, he has served as the Group Brand Head with Kotak Mahindra Bank and brings with him over 13 years of experience with organizations like ITC and Kotak Mahindra Group with his exposure in FMCG and Financial Services.

Ms. Vinni Soni
Head Group Business

Vinni heads the Group Insurance business for BSLI. She joins us from Sun Life Financial, Toronto, Canada with over 30 years of experience in Group Benefits.

Over the span of her career, Vinni has led several departments - Financial underwriting, Business Development, Marketing, and Operations. Her expertise is in building sound businesses with a distinct focus on creating value for the customers.

During her previous assignment, she has been successful in creating a new brand in the market called SunAdvantage for SME's in Canada. The business has continued to grow over the past 7 years at higher than market rates while at the same time steadily increasing its profits.Today, SunAdvantage has achived no. 3 position in the market and the brand is widely recognized for excellence in service and products.

Vinni is a Science graduate and holds multiple certificates from prestigious institutions like Harvard and Wharton.

Mr. Saurov Ghosh
Vice President Human Resources

Saurov Ghosh is Vice President, Human Resources. Saurov is an enthusiastic, talented and seasoned HR professional. His subject matter expertise, strong relationship, influencing skills and business HR approach provides a sound basis for success in his role as Vice President Human Resources.

Saurov reports to President & CEO and has a dotted line reporting to Gautam Chainani, CPO Financial Services Group. Saurov is with BSLI since January 2008.

Saurov joins us from Yes Bank, where he was Sr. Vice President Human Capital and was responsible for the Human Capital function for the Retail Banking Business. Prior to joining Yes Bank, Saurov worked with a HDFC Standard Life Insurance since its initial period and had played a major role for implementing the Human Resource strategy to help drive the overall business agenda for the company. He also has varied experience in manufacturing industry with the Kirloskar Group & CEAT ranging to a career span of 15 years in Human Resources.

Mr. Lalit Vermani
Vice President Risk and Internal Audit functions

Lalit Vermani is a Vice-President at BSLI, heading the Compliance, Risk and Internal Audit functions for the company.

He has 17 years of experience in various areas of Financial Services including Insurance, Asset Management and Investment banking. Prior to this assignment, Lalit was heading the compliance function at Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd.

Lalit has an honours degree in Economics and MBA with specialisation in Finance. He is also a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) by Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Mr. Puneet Bansal
Legal & Company Secretary

A gold medalist in Law and a Company Secretary, Puneet’s areas of specialization are setting up of robust legal processes, corporate governance and compliance. Puneet has gained varied experience over 13 years, beginning his career with Radico Khaitan and then completing a 7-year stint with the RPG Group in the areas of Legal, Secretarial and Finance. Thereafter, he spent 2 years with KPIT Cummins where he was actively involved in their M&A activities and creation of a global compliance monitoring process. He was also instrumental in securing a Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for KPIT Cummins and its enlistment among top 25 best governed companies (as per the Institute of Company Secretaries of India), for two consecutive years, during his tenure.