Advisory Board

Mr. Shardul S. Shroff is the Executive Chairman at the Firm. He has over 39 years of experience in General Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Insolvency and Bankruptcy, Securities Law, Disinvestment & Capital Markets. Mr. Shroff heads the Insolvency & Bankruptcy practice at the Firm. He is a leading authority on matters related to Corporate Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Government Regulation and Bankruptcy & Insolvency Law. He has been instrumental in developing these practice domains in the Firm. Widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of Corporate Law, Mr. Shroff has participated in the training and drafting of several important economic legislations and company law reforms in India. He was a member of the Insolvency Law Committee, constituted by the Government of India, to review the implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Mr. Shroff was also a member of the Committee constituted to review decriminalisation of offences under the Companies Act and the Committee on cross-border insolvency, both headed by Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Under Mr. Shroff’s leadership, the Firm has been recognised as ‘Best in Insolvency’ at the Asialaw’s Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Awards 2018. Mr. Shroff has been on a number of other high-powered committees appointed by the Government of India including the JJ Irani Committee for amending the Companies Act, the Expert Committee on maintenance of Cost Records and Cost Audit in 2014, the Eradi Committee involved in the insolvency provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, the second Naresh Chandra Committee appointed to look into aspects of SMEs and simplification of Company Law and the Valuation Committee. As a preeminent expert of his field, Mr. Shroff has been appointed as an independent director on significant boards of Indian companies. He is a member of the US-India Business Council, Vice Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee of the IPBA Council, the Union Internationale Des Advocats, and the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Shroff was elected as the Chairman of the CII National Committee on Legal Services and Arbitration in 2017-2019 and was also a Member of the CII National Council on Services 2018-2019. Mr. Shroff was a member of the CII Task Force on the Ease of Doing Business, 2017-2018. Mr. Shroff has been the Chairman of the FICCI Committee on Stressed Assets a member of the Capital Markets Committee since 2019. Mr. Shroff has also been appointed as the Senior Vice President on the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF). Mr. Shroff has been consistently rated as a leading lawyer by several international fora and publications, including the Who’s Who Legal, AsiaLaw, Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, Euromoney, International Financial Law Review (IFLR) etc. He has been recognised as Star Individual in Corporate/M&A by Chambers and Partners Asia pacific 2022, a Legal Icon in IBLJ -The A list Lawyers 2021. He is also part of the Hall of Fame for Banking and Finance by The Legal 500 2022 and Leading Lawyers of Restructuring and Insolvency by The Legal 500 2022. Mr. Shroff has been recognised as the Thought Leader – Global Elite for M&A and Global Leader for Corporate Governance and Project Finance by Who’s Who Legal, 2021 and for M&A and Corporate Governance in 2020. Mr. Shroff has been recently recognised as one of ‘The Game Changers of India, 2018’ by The Economic Times for championing high impact legal services. He is also a recipient of the National Law Day Award from the President of India, which commends Mr. Shroff as a leading corporate lawyer, ‘for his unique contribution to the field of corporate law and leadership in its practice’ and for being ‘instrumental in advancement of India’s corporate law practice at international standards.’

Harshavardhan Neotia hails from a distinguished family that migrated from Rajasthan to Kolkata more than 100 years ago. He is an Entrepreneur, and presently Chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group. The Group operates across four business verticals: Real Estate – covering the entire gamut of housing, retail and commercial spaces, Hospitality – including hotels, resorts, clubs and restaurants, Healthcare with multispecialty hospitals, and Education. Headquartered in Kolkata, the group’s projects are mostly located in Eastern India. Harsh did his schooling from La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata. He graduated with a B. Com (Hons.) degree from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and went on to complete the Owner President Management Programme (OPM) from Harvard Business School, USA. His work in social housing earned Harsh Neotia the honour of being conferred with Padma Shri from the hon’ble President of India in 1999. He is also a recipient of the YPO Legacy of Honour Award. He was recently conferred the D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) by the Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, and ‘Honorary Life Fellowship’ by AIMA (All India Management Association). He is an active Member and Past President of FICCI and also Past President of AIMA. He is presently member of the National Culture Fund, India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) Trust, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), and Chairman of National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research (NITTTR). He has also formerly been on the board of IIM Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur, and a member of The Court of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He heads Jnana Pravaha, a Centre for Cultural Studies and Research in Varanasi, as its chairman and is one of the trustees of Shree Somnath Trust that manages and maintains the Somnath Temple in Gujarat. He also serves as the Honorary Consul of Israel in West Bengal.

Winner of 5 President of India awards, 4 Limca world records, 3 International Awards, 68 national & state medals, 23 international medals. Dr. Deepa Malik is India’s first paraplegic woman biker, swimmer, rallyist & India’s first ever female Paralympic medalist. Dr. Deepa is a member of PM Modi’s High Level Committee for celebrating 75 years of India’s independence.Dr. Deepa has also served as a citizen ambassador to New Zealand, appointed Sir Edmund Hillary PM’s Fellow by Hon. Jacinda Ardern. Dr. Deepa Malik has been appointed as a member of the Government’s All India Council of Sports and is currently serving as the President of the Paralympic Committee of India. The Indian team has won the highest number of medals in history at Tokyo Paralympics, under her leadership, for this historic feat Dr. Deepa Malik has been conferred the ASIAN ORDER 2022, the highest honour among all Asian countries participating in para-sports. Dr. Deepa Malik has been working tirelessly to empower and enable underprivileged persons with disabilities through her foundation Wheeling Happiness. Awarded Padma Shri, Khel Ratna & Arjuna Award First Indian Woman Paralympic Medalist President – Paralympic Committee of India Disability Affairs Advisory Committee Member – Govt. of Uttar Pradesh Member – All India Council of Sports Brand Ambassador – Swachh Bharat NDMC Brand Ambassador – TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

Nandita Das has acted in more than 40 feature films in 10 different languages. Her directorial debut in 2008 was Firaaq which brought her many accolades and appreciation, both in India and abroad. She was conferred the ‘Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters’ by the French Government. Manto, Nandita’s second directorial film premiered in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival and can be watched on Netflix. Her first book Manto & I chronicles her 6-year-long journey of making the film. Nandita was the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work and is a strong advocate for social justice. She has been supporting the campaign, ‘Dark Is Beautiful’ and to further the conversation, she directed and produced a short in 2019, called India’s Got Colour. During the lockdown, Nandita wrote, directed, produced and acted in a 7min. film called, Listen to Her, which shed light on the increase in domestic violence and overburden of work that women faced during the pandemic. Her third directorial venture, Zwigato explores the life of a food delivery rider and his family. The film is produced by Applause Entertainment and Nandita Das Initiatives. After premiering at various festivals, it will be released in India on 17th March 2023.

Shivakumar or Shiv as he is popularly known is currently Group Executive president at Aditya Birla group for Strategy and Business development. He joined the ABG group in January 2018. Prior to this, Shiv was Chairman and CEO for PepsiCo for four years and before that with Nokia as CEO for India and later Emerging markets for nearly a decade. Shiv has been a CEO for half his career and was one of the youngest CEOS in India. Shiv worked in HUL for a number of years, mostly in marketing. Shiv has worked with over 50 brands in his career and seen many business transformations. Shiv writes and teaches regularly on Innovation, leadership, Followership, Business Models, Digitization etc. across the leading business schools in the world. Shiv is an avid sports watcher, a great fan of Manchester United and Barcelona football teams, John Mc Enroe and Roger Federer in tennis. Shiv is a believer in giving back to society. Shiv has been on the Board of Governors of IIM Ahmedabad between 2012 and 2017 as well as being on the Board of Godrej Consumer products Board between 2009 and 2017. He was the President of the All India Management Association in 2012-2013. He was Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association from 2014 to 2019 and Chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India for 2018-19. He is currently on the board of XLRI and IIM Udaipur. Shiv has been awarded many times in his career – Best CEO, Best brand builder, for leadership, for Turnaround et al. The awards most dear to him are the two distinguished Alumnus awards he got from IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta. He is one of twenty people in India to have distinguished alumnus awards from both IIT and IIM. Shiv is married to Hamsini, who runs her own brand, innovation and Semiotics consulting company. Shiv is the best selling author of THE RIGHT CHOICE, a book on career dilemmas.

Laxmi Narayan Tripathji is Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Kinnar Akhada, she is a trail blazing transgender and human rights activist. She is a pioneer having represented the Asia Pacific region in the UNAIDS civil society task force, she has been the founder member of the Asia Pacific Transgender Network, the national network for transgender, hijra, kinnars and arawanis, the integrated network for sexual minorities, bar dancers and tribal associations. She was a key impleader in the pathbreaking NALSA vs Union of India case which awarded transgender equal rights in India. As a subject matter expert, she is on various committees established by the Ministry of social justice and empowerment GOI, National AIDS control Organisation GOI, Women and Child Policy drafting group Govt of Maharashtra, and several international groups. She is passionate about gender equality and women’s rights. Her life is portrayed in Bollywood films and in two autobiographical books – Mi Hijra Mi Laxmi, and Red lipstick the men in my life. She has been part of key mainstream TV shows – Big Boss, Dus ka Dum, And other reality shows in Hindi and regional languages. Her gift for language and building arguments was apparent in high school, where she was an award-winning debater and orator, she continues to advocate on women, transgender empowerment and Sanatana Dharma in various public discourses and events. She is a fine arts curator, an accomplished Bharat Natyam Dancer and teacher, and a music enthusiast. She has received numerous awards in recognition for her work from the government, NGOs and private foundations.

Preeti Bajaj is the newly appointed CEO & MD at Luminous Power Technologies and is responsible for all company operations. Founded in 1988, Luminous has over the last 33 years, grown into one of India’s most trusted brands in the power back-up, and residential solar space. With experience of nearly two decades in the Australian and global business environments, she holds expertise in developing and executing strategies to set the pace for sustainable growth across a range of enterprises (multinationals, ASX listed corporates and startups). Over the years, Preeti has built a career at the intersection of technology and transformation. In her last stint, Preeti headed the Adecco Group as the Australia & New Zealand CEO and MD for Modis Australia. She was the startup CEO of Clipsal Solar (a venture by Schneider Electric), with the sole mission of using renewable technologies to enable customers to achieve purposeful living. With nearly two decades of experience, Preeti has worked for various firms, including Brookfield Multiplex, Metcash (Top 100 ASX), Intuit Real Estate Solutions, Vision Software, and Schneider Electric, in business development, general management, operations, strategy, and transformation. Driven to stay relevant in a fast-changing world, Preeti has forged a path in commercial leadership through tenacity, raw drive, and a highly strategic mindset that is comfortable and confident in defining future business vision. In 2011, Preeti won the AFR’s Young Executive of the Year award. Never afraid to push a boundary, Preeti has also championed many firsts during her career as a young and successful professional. She was also awarded the Scholarship for the Authentic Leadership Program at Harvard by Chief Executive Women in 2017. Preeti completed her MBA from Swinburne University and her Master’s in Applied Finance from Macquarie University, Australia. She is passionate about diversity and actively supports emerging leaders through her contribution as an advisory member of Chief Executive Women.

Schwab Social Innovator 2020 (Sister Org Of World Economic Forum)  Ashoka fellow (2005) Business Today Most Powerful Women (2017) Global Amazing Indian award from President Pranab Mukherjee (2012) National Award from President Pratibha Patil (2010) Hindu Business Line Change Maker Award from Vice President Naidu (2020) Speaker at World Economic Forum (2020) Faculty @ IIM | Board of Workability International, Governing council of Skill Council for Persons with Disability Rich grassroots experience of over 16 years working across 14 disabilities. Pioneered disability livelihood models, methodologies and frameworks and innovative workplace solutions. Enable India is a pioneering international award winning organization which works on livelihoods across 14 disabilities and impacted 2,20,000 stakeholders and their work has reached 1050 locations in 28 states and whose influence and reach has reached Mauritius, Sweden, Ethiopia and many more.

Vani Manja joined Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) UK & Ireland as Country Managing Director and Head of Human Pharma effective February 1, 2023, following successful strategic roles within BI in India, Germany and the USA. Most recently, Vani was General Manager and Head of Human Pharma for BI India. She was formerly the Global Head of BI’s Go-To-Market and Business Steering organization, based in the Company’s headquarters in Germany. Vani joined BI in the US in 2011, working across Strategy & Operations, Marketing and Sales leadership roles before moving to Ingelheim in 2016 as Regional Business Manager for Japan. Her global experience spans over two decades across McKinsey & Company, Becton Dickinson, and BI, and is characterized by strong global mobility, and cross-functional leadership roles across Healthcare and Management Consulting. She brings extensive experience across strategy, marketing, sales, business development, general management, and business and cultural transformation, and is passionate about tackling healthcare inequalities and advancing sustainable healthcare. Prior to embarking on her international career, she served as a commissioned officer in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps. Vani holds an MBA and MA in International Studies from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and a bachelor’s degree with Honors in Chemistry from Delhi University. Vani’s husband and 15-year-old son have joined her in the UK. Vani enjoys reading and travelling, especially with her family. Between work and leisure, she has traveled to about 40 countries across six continents.