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Office Bearers

Sanjiv Mehta
President

Sanjiv Mehta is the CEO & Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever  Limited (HUL), President, Unilever South Asia & Member, Unilever Leadership Executive (Global Executive Board) which is India's largest 'fast moving consumer goods' (FMCG) Company and one of the most valuable corporates in the country. Sanjiv also heads Unilever's business in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Nepal) having a turnover of $7 billion as President, South Asia. Sanjiv is also a member of the 12 member 'Unilever Leadership Executive' team which runs global Unilever. 

Sanjiv has done his Bachelors in Commerce (India), Chartered Accountancy (India) and has also completed his Advanced Management Program (Harvard Business School). 

Sanjiv has been with Unilever for 27 years and for the last 18 years he has led businesses in different parts of the world. He has been Chairman and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh Limited (2002 - 2006), Chairman and CEO of Unilever Philippines Inc. (2007 - 2008), Chairman of Unilever - North Africa and Middle East (2008 - 2013) and from October 2013 he assumed his responsibilities of heading Unilever's business in India and South Asia. 

During his six years at Hindustan Unilever, the market capitalization of the Company has increased from $17 billion to over $60 billion making HUL one of the most valuable companies in the country. In this period, HUL has won the prestigious Economic Times 'Company of the Year' & 'Corporate Citizen of the Year' awards and Business Standard's 'Company of the year' award. Forbes has rated HUL as the most innovative company in India and the 8th most innovative company in the world. Aon Hewitt in a global study rated HUL as the 3rd best company globally for building leaders. 

Sanjiv is a Director on the Board of Indian School of Business, a member of the Breach Candy Hospital Trust and South Asia Advisory Board of Harvard Business School. He chairs Xynteo's 'India 2022' a coalition of top Indian and MNC companies, FICCI's FMCG Committee, CII's National Committee on MNCs and Co-chairs the Advisory Network to the High Level Panel for a 'Sustainable Ocean Economy'. 

Sanjiv was conferred the honorary degree of "Doctor of Philosophy in Business Management" by Xavier University (Xavier Institute of Management) Bhubaneswar, was recognized as "Business Leader" of the year by the All India Management Association and was conferred the prestigious Economic Times "Business Leader of the Year" award. 

A firm believer that 'doing well' and 'doing good' are two sides of the same coin he propagates the cause of compassionate capitalism. Sanjiv is married to Mona who too is a Chartered Accountant by training. They have twin daughters Naina and Roshni who have studied at MIT, Cornell and Harvard Universities.

Subhrakant Panda
Sr. Vice President

Mr Subhrakant Panda is a business leader who has a thorough understanding of the nuances of government policies and their implications at the ground level. He joined IMFA Group in 1993 and has handled various responsibilities over the years. 

In 2006 he was appointed Managing Director of the flagship company Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (estd 1961; www.imfa.in) the country's leading, fully integrated producer of ferro alloys and his current role is to define strategic goals including growth & diversification plans. 
 
He is actively involved with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and is a Member of the Steering Committee and Chairman of the National Manufacturing Committee, having earlier served as Chairman of the Odisha State Council. 

Mr Panda was President (2017-18) of the International Chamber of Commerce - India Chapter and is only the 3rd Indian to have been elected President (2013-15) of the Paris-based International Chromium Development Association (ICDA). He graduated with honours summa cum laude from the Questrom School of Business, Boston University with a dual concentration in Finance and Operations Management. 

He has been recognised for his outstanding scholastic achievement by being named to the Beta Gamma Sigma Honour Society for Collegiate Schools of Business, Golden Key National Honour Society and Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges (1993 edition).

Mr Panda is a voracious reader and his interests include technology.

Dr Anish Shah
Vice President

Dr. Anish Shah is the Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He joined Mahindra Group in 2014, as Group President (Strategy), and worked closely with all businesses on key strategic initiatives, built capabilities such as digitization & data sciences and enabled synergies across group companies. In 2019, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Group CFO, with responsibility for the Group Corporate Office and full oversight of all businesses other than the Auto and Farm sectors, as a part of the transition plan to the CEO role.

Anish was President and CEO of GE Capital India from 2009-14, where he led the transformation of the business, including a turnaround of its SBI Card joint venture. His career at GE spanned 14 years, during which he held several leadership positions at GE Capital’s US and global units. As Director, Global Mortgage, he worked across 33 countries to drive growth and manage risk. As Senior Vice President (Marketing and Product Development) at GE Mortgage Insurance, he led various growth initiatives and played a key role in preparing the business for an IPO, as a spinoff from GE. In his initial years with GE, Anish also led Strategy, eCommerce and Sales Force Effectiveness and had the unique experience of running a dot-com business within GE. Anish also received GE’s prestigious Lewis Latimer Award for outstanding utilisation of Six Sigma in developing a “Digital Cockpit.”

He has diverse experience with global businesses beyond GE. He led Bank of America's US Debit Products business, where he launched an innovative rewards program, led numerous initiatives in payment technology and worked closely with various teams across the Bank to enhance value for the customer.

As a strategy consultant at Bain & Company in Boston, he worked across multiple industries, including banking, oil rigs, paper, paint, steam boilers and medical equipment. His first role was with Citibank in Mumbai, where he issued bank guarantees and letters of credit as Assistant Manager, Trade Services.

Anish holds a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business where his doctoral thesis was in the field of Corporate Governance. He also received a Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon and has a post-graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has received various scholarships, including the William Latimer Mellon Scholarship, Industry Scholarship at IIMA, National Talent Search and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Uday Shankar
Immediate Past President

Uday Shankar has three decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry. Until recently, he was the President, Asia Pacific of the Walt Disney Company and the Chairman of Star and Disney India. 


Uday led charge for Disney's transformation into a direct-to-consumer company in the most exciting region of the world. Within a year, he led the launch of Disney+ in five countries, making Disney the leading streaming company in Asia Pacific. His successful strategy to launch Disney+ in India through home-grown Hotstar created a new template for Asian markets, which resulted in the subsequent launch of Disney+ Hotstar in South-East Asia. Very few traditional media companies have made a leap to digital as effectively and rapidly as Star and Disney have in India and Asia Pacific.


Prior to his role at Disney, Uday was the President of 21st Century Fox for Asia and the Chairman & CEO of Star India. He took over the leadership of Star India in 2007 and since then transformed Star into one of the largest and most successful media companies in Asia. A believer in the power of local, Uday led the company's aggressive foray into regional and local language programming, transforming Star into a content behemoth. He helped fundamentally redefine India's sports ecosystem by launching domestic sports leagues in Kabaddi and Football and creating a thriving multi-sports culture.  Under Uday's leadership, Star also disrupted the country's digital landscape with the launch of Hotstar, and subsequently Disney+ Hotstar, which is India's largest OTT platform for professionally produced content and has gone global in its footprint. With its strong technology muscle, Hotstar has guided the evolution of Star beyond a traditional media institution into a leading consumer technology company. 


In addition to his leadership of Star and Disney, Uday has played a key role in shaping the media and entertainment industry in India. He has been at the forefront of landmark reforms for the industry and its consumers including self-regulation and digitization of the television distribution ecosystem. Currently, Uday is the President of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), being the first media & entertainment executive to lead FICCI. He has earlier been the President of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and the Chairman of FICCI's Media and Entertainment Committee. 


A trained journalist, Uday also pioneered the development of TV news ecosystem in India. Prior to Star India, he was the CEO and Editor of Star News, which was the first 24-hour news channel in India. He was also the Editor and News Director at TV Today Group, where he spearheaded the launch of Aaj Tak, a leading Hindi news channel, in 2000 and Headlines Today, a leading English news channel, in 2003. Uday holds an M. Phil in Economic History from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Arun Chawla
Director General

Mr. Arun Chawla is Director General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), India's apex business chamber representing industry and trade.

Mr. Chawla is a post-graduate with a degree in Law from the University of Delhi.  He has over 35 years of work experience, most of which have been gained while holding charge of important verticals at FICCI. He also has to his credit a long stint in the corporate sector prior to joining FICCI. 

FICCI was set-up in 1927, under the inspiration of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. It today represents over 250,000 enterprises and nearly 300 Chambers and Associations spread across the country. 

Mr. Chawla has witnessed the unfolding of economic reforms in India through the prism of business and industry and has steadfastly worked to deepen the reform process across sectors and states. His legal acumen has enabled him to identify the core competencies of various states and sectors of India, thus helping to channelize domestic and foreign investment flows into the thrust areas. He has spearheaded FICCI's efforts at facilitating ease of doing business by striving to promote harmonious corporate relations.

He has travelled extensively worldwide to showcase the economic opportunities in India to potential investors. This has contributed immensely towards building strong Public-Private Partnerships in many key areas of the economy. 

He serves as a member on several Government constituted committees at the Central and State levels and has also been a member of many overseas Ministerial delegations representing FICCI.

Mr. Chawla has authored many articles for the national dailies of India on legal, social, and political-economy issues.