Swadhaar FinAccess has a team of motivated trainers, financial health workers, tele-callers who have a mission to empower the communities with knowledge and skills to overcome the various economic issues they face. Many of our trainers are themselves from the communities, hence they can relate with the people from the community, providing them the guidance, counseling and support in their journey to financial inclusion.
Veena Mankar has over 4 decades of experience in banking and financial services. Her expertise is in trade and structured finance, finance for MSMEs and financial inclusion. She is the founder of entities under the Swadhaar name, a non-profit and an MFI, focused on financial inclusion. The latter was acquired by RBL Bank.
During the course of her career Ms. Mankar has worked with leading financial institutions from India and abroad, that included West LB Germany, Emirates Bank International, Dubai and FIM Bank Malta. She has led NBFCs as the Managing Director and been India Country Head of the representative office of a German Bank.
Ms. Mankar is currently a Director on a few Boards, including RBL Bank and IDFC Foundation and has served in the past on several Boards, including IDFC First Bank Limited, Liberty General Insurance Limited, non-banking financial entities, industry associations and non -profits.
She has a BA in Economics from Lady Shree Ram College, Delhi and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
VIKAS MANKAR
Director
Mr. Vikas Mankar has over 45 years of experience in financial, project and general management. An alumnus of IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Mankar is the Managing Director of a Mumbai-based company, engaged in providing customized fund accounting and research services to overseas Fund Management companies. He is also a co-promoter of a firm which provides consultancy in business strategy and product development in the financial services industry. Prior to establishing these companies, he has worked in top management positions with leading business houses in the Middle East. Earlier, he was Vice President of a large Indian corporate, with responsibility for spearheading business strategy.
GULAM VAHANVATY
Chairperson of the Board
Mr. Gulam Vahanvaty has worked with the prestigious Tata Administrative Services (TAS). He then joined his family business of Scrap Processing and Ship Breaking. Mr. Vahanvaty has now diversified into other businesses as well.
Mr. Vahanvaty is an active Rotarian and has been President of his Rotary Club and Governor of his Rotary District 3140. He has been appointed Trustee of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International from 2018 to 2022. The Rotary Foundation Board consists of 15 members from different parts of the world and he is the only Indian on the Board.
In addition to this, Mr. Vahanvaty is a member of the Governing Board of 'Mumbai First', a high powered group committed to improving the quality of life in Mumbai. He is a Trustee of 'The Mohalla Committee Movement Trust' (MCMT) and the 'Public Concern for Governance Trust' (PCGT), that work toward improving the quality of life, promoting and maintaining communal harmony, and mobilizing public opinion and activism for honesty, transparency and accountability in governance.
RAMYA RAJAGOPALAN
Director
Ramya Rajagopalan heads the Corporate Development team at Edelweiss Financial Services. In this role, she looks after Investor Relations, M&A and Corporate Strategy at Edelweiss Group and is a member of the company’s Management Council.
Ramya is a seasoned professional whose career spans roles in corporate finance, derivatives structuring across equities, credit and fixed income, strategy and investor relations across London, Singapore and Mumbai. Her client experience includes issuers and investors in India, UK, European Union and South East Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand).
She was previously Group Head of Corporate Strategy at L&T Finance Holdings. In this three-year stint, she led the team that worked on the private placement of equity and warrants with marquee investor Bain Capital, and on the strategy transformation plan with McKinsey as a condition of the investment. She was also part of the team that worked on the sale of L&T General Insurance to HDFC Ergo general Insurance and on other inorganic opportunities for the Group.
Her prior associations have been with the National Stock Exchange (India), JP Morgan Chase (Singapore & London) and ICICI.
Dharini Mathur
Independent Director
Dharini Mathur is a lawyer by profession. She has 20+ years of experience, initially with a leading corporate law firm in California, USA, then a leading law firm in India - Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, followed by The IFC at its India office. Her experience has been in development finance in India and other developing markets. She currently advises clients in new areas, including climate change and finance. She also mentors/advises a non-profit that helps improve diversity in legal education and is the India Co-chair of the Harvard Law Women’s Alliance.
She did her B.A. LL.B. from the prestigious National Law School of India University, Bangalore, B.C.L. from University of Oxford, UK and LL.M from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.