Leadership Team
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Shan Bala, Chief Executive Officer
Shan Bala, Chief Executive Officer

As the CEO of Birlasoft, the global IT services arm of CK Birla Group, Shan Bala strategically leads Birlasoft’s strong domain and technology strength in the verticals Birlasoft operates in combined with delivery excellence and process orientation, to continuously deliver value to customers. Prior to becoming CEO, Shan was heading Global Sales and Marketing for the organization.

Shan has held many senior leadership positions in the past including with Satyam Computer Services (later known as Mahindra Satyam). At Satyam, Shan was the Global Head of a group of verticals in the Retail & CPG, Travel, Logistics & Distribution space. In his career spanning over two decades, primarily in the IT Industry, Shan has led global businesses across multiple verticals in developed economies and also successfully made inroads into emerging markets.

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Preeti Das, Chief Operating Officer
Preeti Das, Chief Operating Officer

As the Chief Operating Officer at Birlasoft, Preeti Das leads the functions of Global Delivery, the Technology Centres of Excellence, the 3 Vertical Practices, as well as the Pre-sales function reporting to her. Operating from the Corporate Headquarters in Noida, India, Preeti is responsible for creating high performance and high-impact teams, delivering quality solutions and nurturing strong client relationships. Her key focus areas include operational excellence, delivery management and capacity growth.

Preeti has 25 years of experience with multiple large organizations in the Technology and Insurance industries, which includes key positions of responsibility held with Oracle Financial Services Software, i-flex, Microsoft, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and New India Assurance. In her previous tenures Preeti has managed acquisitions and organic growth for many organizations. She also has experience in creating, marketing and growing Software Products and Consulting Services businesses in various parts of the globe - North Americas, Asia Pacific, South Africa and UK. An influential industry speaker, she has participated in many panel discussions, seminars and webinar on Business and technology challenges.

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Suresh Raman, Head – Human Resources
Suresh Raman, Head – Human Resources

Suresh Raman, as Head – Human Resources at Birlasoft, is responsible for managing the entire HR function and supporting and implementing overall Talent Management, Learning and Leadership Development strategy.

Suresh comes with over 22 years of varied experience in the field of human resources across multiple industry verticals. His rich experience and significant contributions in transformation management and change processes has enabled Suresh to carve out a distinct place for himself in this domain. Some of Suresh’s key accomplishments include creating a world class Talent support center in India, Leadership Academy for Leadership Development, Compensation Strategy and Benefits Administration and creating a sourcing centre of excellence.

Suresh joins us from Deloitte where he was the Vice President Human resources for the US and India Support Center and was based out of Hyderabad. He has in the past successfully lead Talent acquisition, Talent Development, Operations, Delivery and Total rewards operations in some of the country's most reputed companies like GMR Group, IMR Global, RPG Enterprises, SSI Technologies etc.

Suresh is a Management graduate from Symbiosis Pune with Bachelors in Science and Law.

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Dr Prakash Challa, Head -  Business Relations
Dr Prakash Challa, Head - Business Relations

Dr Prakash Challa, as Head of Business Relations at Birlasoft, is responsible for managing strategic relationships and business transformation for key global customers and ensuring high growth results for the company.

Dr. Prakash Challa, brings with him over two decades of significant expertise in managing global businesses spanning sales, account management , client engagement and business strategies. Dr. Challa is a recognized subject matter expert in the Application Development and Management, Quality and Testing practice and a champion in selling and implementing long term large high offshore based multi-year fixed price ADMS, BPO, ERP, Quality and Testing solutions.

Prior to joining Birlasoft, he was Vice President – Retail at HCL America managing all Strategic Clients and Relationships. He has also held senior leadership positions in leading organizations like Satyam, TCS, Wipro, IMRglobal/CGI in the areas of Strategic Sales, Quality management, ADM services and M&A initiatives.

Dr Prakash Challa has a Ph.D in Software Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

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Ashit J. Shah, Global Head - Banking & Financial Services
Ashit J. Shah, Global Head - Banking & Financial Services

Ashit J. Shah (AJ) heads the Banking & Financial Services Vertical globally and is based out of New Jersey, USA. He is responsible to develop flexible business and delivery models for the global Banking & Financial Services’ clients so that they get more out of their IT investments and with greater speed.

A business leader with over 25 years experience in Technology Strategy and Transformation and an expertise in leveraging Business Process Management for business transformation to deliver early business benefits. His extensive experience spans across creating niche consulting business; creating a Strategic Tier-1 Banking client relationship from scratch; establishing process maturity in a Citicorp startup and creating an ODC from a blueprint for a large Japanese conglomerate client.

Prior to joining Birlasoft, AJ held a leadership position at Oracle Financial Services managing their niche Consulting business in the Americas and leading its Global Consulting Practices in IT Strategy, Architecture and Program Management for BFS clients.

With an academic background in Financial Management and Business Management from Bombay, he has also completed a comprehensive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.His passion for social causes recently also turned him into a social entrepreneur focused on creating a social ecosystem of academic and corporate institutions to help underserved communities get access to professional education and coaching.

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Srinath Kashyap, Head - Manufacturing
Srinath Kashyap, Head - Manufacturing

Srinath Kashyap as Head of the Manufacturing practice is responsible for fuelling business growth in the manufacturing vertical for Birlasoft.

Srinath has over 20 years of experience working with large organizations in the Engineering Services and Manufacturing sales space such as, Godrej & Boyce, Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Satyam. Srinath's last assignment was with Satyam as Head of Global Accounts and Sales - Industrial. Prior to that, he was Head of Product Lifecycle and Engineering Solutions, North America with Infosys, where Srinath spent over a decade, and was responsible, & credited, for building their Engineering practice. Srinath further established the vertical in Automotive and Aerospace. He has successfully set up large Global Sourcing Centers for Fortune 500 manufacturing companies through long term multimillion dollar deals. He has lead diverse teams of professionals involved in multiple business lines in industries such as Aerospace, Automotive, and Discrete Manufacturing, Hi-tech and Retail areas.

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Prasanna Gundi, Head - Europe
Prasanna Gundi, Head - Europe

Prasanna Gundi, based in our London office, is responsible for driving the overall business and providing strategic leadership in the Europe region.

He brings with him over 20 years of rich and diversified experience in Outsourcing (IT Services), Consulting and Engineering Services across the verticals of Manufacturing and BFS&I. Prior to joining Birlasoft, he held the position of Vice President – Europe, L&T Infotech and was responsible for building and managing their manufacturing business in Europe. Prasanna has also worked in many leadership roles with the Tata Group, Capgemini and T-Systems. He is a Mechanical Engineer from COEP, Pune (India) and has an MBA from Said Business School (University of Oxford).

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Manoj C Jain, Head - India & Middle East
Manoj C Jain, Head - India & Middle East

Manoj Chandan Jain as Head of India and Middle East operations is responsible for growing Birlasoft’s business in IME region. Manoj will provide leadership to the sales organization and will drive the overall business in this strategically important Geography for Birlasoft.

Manoj comes with a career spanning almost 18 years. Prior to joining Birlasoft, he was working in Oracle India as Director-Sales for Middleware. Manoj was a key member in starting Satyam's India Business in 2002; he played a major role in growing it to a 60+ Mill USD business. His last assignment with Satyam was as the Business Head for South Asia before he decided to move on in 2009. Manoj has helped Satyam to win many large multi-million, multi-year outsourcing engagements across different verticals like BFSI, Manufacturing, Telecom, Energy & Utilities and Government.

Manoj is associated with many organisations and governments bodies in an advisory capacity. He is also a strong supporter of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Manoj has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bhopal University and a post graduate degree in management from Fore School of Management, New Delhi.

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Basu Dutta, Head - Banking and Financial Practice
Basu Dutta, Head - Banking and Financial Practice

Basu Dutta heads the Banking vertical at Birlasoft and is responsible for promoting business growth across this vertical, while strengthening existing customer relationships and forging new ones.

Basu has about 29 years of experience in delivery and general management in IT, with special focus on BFS for the past 20 years. He has nurtured an India-based ODC (Offshore Development Center) of a MNC bank, to an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) with product centric delivery model, with International presence. Prior to joining Birlasoft, Basu worked for 9 years in the Banking Product Division of Oracle Financial Services (formerly known as i-flex). During this period, he managed various assignments across delivery, customer relationship, vendor development and product management, apart from heading the Brokerage SBU. Basu has also worked with companies such as ANZIT (the IDC of ANZ Bank) and Citicorp Overseas Software Ltd (COSL).

Basu acquired his Masters in Statistics from Bombay University, and has done the Sr. Management Program from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata, apart from a PMP. Basu is also an active member of PMI- Bangalore Chapter and has also served on the Managing Committee of CSI Bangalore Chapter.

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Ravi Kathuria, Head - Marketing and Alliances
Ravi Kathuria, Head - Marketing and Alliances

Ravi Kathuria, in his role as Head Marketing and Alliances at Birlasoft, is responsible for employing best practices to deliver new customers, productively manage existing customer life cycle and provide strategic insights that contribute to the overall achievement of Birlasoft's business and financial objectives.

An acknowledged IT marketing expert, he specializes in Branding, Market Research & Consumer Insights, Analyst Relations, Public Relations, etc. With a highly successful 20- year corporate career, Ravi has been involved in the IT industry for a decade and has held responsible positions in various companies including SSA Global, a Chicago-based MNC, where he held the Asia-Pacific charge; Invensys, a Fortune 500 UK-based company; and BAAN, a Netherland-based MNC.

Ravi completed his B. Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and MBA from Punjab University, Chandigarh.

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Maneesh Agarwal, Senior Vice President- Finance
Maneesh Agarwal, Senior Vice President- Finance

As Senior Vice President of Finance, Maneesh is responsible for all controller functions, business performance management, tax, treasury operations, for the Americas. He is instrumental in the design and oversight of the global Budgeting, planning and financial reporting in the company. Maneesh has been closely involved in all the strategic investment deals by Birlasoft. Maneesh is known for his creative solutions particularly in deal structuring.

Maneesh has over 17 years of rich and varied experience in the areas of Financial Management, corporate governance, Strategic direction and business consulting. Maneesh has been associated with Birlasoft since 1996 and is its longest serving member. Before Birlasoft, Maneesh worked with Ernst and Young, New Delhi, Birla Kent-Taylor and ABB. He had been associated with IMT and Indira Gandhi National Open University in the capacity of visiting Professor.

Maneesh is a Delhi university graduate with Honors and a rank holder in Chartered Accountancy. He is also a certified Cost and Management Accountant and holds a law degree (LLB). Maneesh takes keen interest in current affairs, helping others with investment planning and Indian music. He holds professional integrity, commitment and hard work as mantras for success.

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Indradeb Pal, Head - Business Excellence
Indradeb Pal, Head - Business Excellence

As Head - Business Excellence, Indradeb Pal is responsible for formulating and implementing new processes, business transformations and tool(s) implementations, for core business processes and support/administrative functions.

Indradeb joined Birlasoft with 21 years of cross-functional quality, delivery and consulting experience. Prior to Birlasoft, he was with PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd, where Indradeb headed Quality Management Group- Performance Improvement for India business unit. Prior to PwC, Indradeb has worked in leadership capacities at Keane, General Electric, Hewlett Packard & Texas Instruments and in Process & Management Consulting roles, at Quality Assurance Institute.

Indradeb is a Six Sigma DFSS Master Black Belt from GE, one of the first CSQA in India. He is an SME in CMMI, an ITIL Foundation Expert and I-TRIZ practitioner. In addition, he has been a Master Trainer in prior organizations in Six Sigma, Project Management and various Software Engineering courses.

Indradeb is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, in Senior Management Program (SMP). Highly qualified, he is a B.Tech & M.Tech in Computer Science from Indian Institute Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

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Shankar Dutt Kabdal, Head - Presales
Shankar Dutt Kabdal, Head - Presales

Shankar Dutt, in his role as Head - Presales, Birlasoft, is responsible for employing industry best practices to deliver, develop succinct and customer focused business proposals that show understanding of the customer’s vision and issues.

His role also include to consistently formulate and articulate powerful sales messages, offer clear & discriminating value propositions and manage proposal development & review processes to ensure delivery of the right proposals. He has about 25 years of rich & varied experience in the IT industry (in both user and IT organizations) in different functions like Presales, Global Delivery Management, Quality Management, Accounts Management, etc. with clients in different industry sectors such as Financial Services, Transportation, Logistics, Education, etc.

Before joining Birlasoft, Shankar was with Wipro Technologies Ltd., where he was managing Pre-engagement Quality function across Service Lines. Prior to Wipro, Shankar has worked in senior management roles at Vmoksha Technologies, Keane India, NIIT Technologies, Mastek and Indian Ports Association.

Shankar holds Master degrees in Operational Research and Business Administration from University of Delhi, Delhi, India.

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Strategic Advisor

William B. Aimetti, Strategic Advisor and Member of Birlasoft America Advisory Board
William B. Aimetti, Strategic Advisor and Member of Birlasoft America Advisory Board.

As a Strategic Advisor, William B Aimetti is responsible for assisting in the formulation and implementation of Birlasoft’s overall strategy for Banking and Capital Markets in Americas.

Bill Aimetti was formerly the President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and is an acknowledged leader in the financial services industry and has pioneered the Operations & Technology required to support the ever changing capital market landscape, with an emphasis on Efficiencies, Controls, Risk Management & Quality.

Prior to joining DTCC, Aimetti was associated with Nomura Holdings America, Inc./Nomura Securities International, Inc., where he was Executive Managing Director – Operations, Technology and Corporate Services, reporting to the CEO. He also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Nomura International Trust Company. He joined Nomura in 1994.

Previously, Aimetti was a Division Executive for Citibank, where he was responsible for all operations and technology for North American Global Finance. He has also served as Chief Operating Officer of Wall Street Clearing Company and as the Group Head for the Securities Services Group at Chase Manhattan Bank. In addition, Aimetti has chaired the Securities Operations Division of the SIA (now SIFMA), and served on the board of CEDEL (now Clearstream).

Aimetti holds a B.A. from Seton Hall University and a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

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