Our People

Mrs. Vinatha M. Reddy

Chairperson and Whole time Director

Mrs. Vinatha M. Reddy has been in the developmental field since 1995. She is the founder of Grameen Koota, that started as a micro credit program of T. Muniswamappa Trust, in 1999. Mrs. Reddy has 3 years’ experience in NBFC. A trained Montessori teacher, she manages a school for rural and semi-urban children called Gurukul.

Since 1996 Mrs. Reddy has focused on microcredit, studying the Grameen Bank model. Additionally, she has also studied ASA (Activists for Social Alternatives) and SHARE (Society for Helping, Awakening Rural Poor through Education), the two leading Grameen replicators in India. In 1998 Mrs. Reddy attended the Grameen International Dialogue Program (Dhaka), a two-week immersion training course on the Grameen methodology. Thereafter, she submitted to the Grameen Trust, a pilot-phase project proposal which was immediately accepted for seed capital funding.

After guiding Grameen Koota through a successful pilot growth phase, Mrs. Reddy is exploring strategies that will enable the company to expand its outreach beyond Karnataka. She has attended the Microcredit Summit Conferences in New York City, Delhi, and Dhaka.

Mr. Suresh K. Krishna

Managing Director

Mr. Suresh K. Krishna has been at the helm of activities at Grameen Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. since its inception in 1999. He has a background in teaching and entered the field of development in 1997. Previously, he worked for an NGO that focused on micro enterprise development, non-formal education and also on the promotion of women self-help groups. He has also founded and run small business enterprises in computer education, industrial safety products and consultation in local area networks in companies. He has over 11 years of experience in microfinance and 3 years’ experience in NBFC.

Mr. Suresh has studied and observed the nuances of microcredit at various leading international microfinance institutions and has been able to make effective contributions to the development of the Grameen Koota microfinance model. He has studied international microfinance models and strategies from several reputed establishments including Grameen Bank, Bankakademie, Germany and Harvard Business School, USA. He has been a panelist in several national and international microfinance conferences.

Mr. Suresh has guided the company through a very successful growth phase, playing an integral role in GFSPL's transformation from an NGO to an NBFC. Under the guidance of Mr. Suresh, the organization was the first MFI to introduce automation using the open-source technology, MIFOS. He was instrumental in raising the first round of equity (US$ 4 million) and debt of nearly US$ 100 million. His knowledge and understanding now leads the business towards expanding its country outreach to 2 million poor households by 2012.

Led by Mr. Suresh's focused efforts, the organization initiated the setting up of The Association of Karnataka Microfinance Institutions (AKMI). He is also the Chairman of Microfinance Focus, an online portal and monthly publication with the latest microfinance news and trends. He is on the board of Sa-dhan (The national body of MFIs) and Sadhana Innovative Financial Products and Services Ltd.

Apart from microfinance, Mr. Suresh takes a keen interest in micro housing, financial literacy, client education, alternative energies, waste management, livelihoods for the poor, organic and modern farming.

Mrs. Daksha Niranjan Shah

Independent Director

Mrs. Daksha Niranjan Shah has been in the field of development since 1998. Prior to this, she worked as the Production and Finance Manager in a cotton textile mill in Ahmedabad and Managing Director in an Intermediate Dye manufacturing unit. She has over 30 years of experience in microfinance.

She has attended various workshops and seminars on microcredit, including a training program, conducted in Mauritius, on Delinquency Management as a representative of FWWB at Women's World Banking in New York, a microfinance course conducted by Economic Institute at Colorado, USA and workshops by NABARD and SIDBI.

Mrs. Shah's resourcefulness and deep understanding of development has not only helped her in evaluating microfinance organizations but also in guiding them on a growth scale.

Mr. Pradeep Pathiyamveetil

Nominee Director

Mr. Pradeep is the Chief Investment Officer of Aavishkaar Venture Management Services. He has over 15 years of operational and investment experience in sectors including farming and allied activities, agroprocessing, ICT, renewable energy, manure and fertilizers. He has been associated with Aavishkaar since its inception in early 2002.

Prior to that, Mr. Pradeep worked for a period of 6 years with Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals Ltd., where he had been closely involved in the financial structuring for new greenfield sugar projects, valuations and takeovers as well as a VC-funded refined sugar project in Vietnam. Mr. Pradeep started his career at Apple Credit Corp Ltd. that focused on hire-purchase and leasing of automobiles.

He holds qualification of MBA (Finance) from TAPMI (Manipal) and is a Bachelor in Applied Sciences (Engineering) from PSG College of Technology (Coimbatore).

Mr. Paolo Brichetti

Nominee Director

Mr. Paolo Brichetti joined the Board of Directors of GFSPL in November 2009 representing MicroVentures SPA, Italy and MicroVentures Investments SCA, SICAR (Luxembourg) jointly referred to as "MicroVentures Funds". He founded Micro Ventures that focuses on investment in micro finance space in 2006. He has over 15 years of experience in microfinance sector.

Paolo is the Managing Director of CTM altromercato, a leading European fair trade and sustainable finance company, and has been the President of Microcredit scrl. He also holds Board-level positions in several, prestigious MFIs in Italy, Luxembourg and India.

Mr. Christian Banno

Alternate Director to Mr. Paolo Brichetti

Mr. Christian Banno joined the Board of Directors of GFSPL as an Alternate Director to Mr. Paolo Brichetti. He graduated in Economics at University of Verona, Italy, and has Master's in Social Change and Development at University of Wollongong, Australia.

He has more than 12 years' professional experience in the corporate development and Microfinance sector. He is the CEO of MV Microfin Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Aditya Bhandari

Nominee Director

Mr. Aditya Bhandari joined the Board of Directors of GFSPL in May, 2010 representing IIM Impulse 2, Belgium. He also holds Board-level positions in many promising MFIs in India.

Mr. Bhandari joined Incofin (IIM Impulse 2) in 2009. A private equity expert, Mr. Bhandari is managing Incofin's investment portfolio in India where he is in charge of analyzing and negotiating the private equity transactions of Incofin's pool of funds. He has over 5 years of experience in investment banking, venture capital and corporate finance. His professional repertoire includes working with Aavishkaar Venture Capital, Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Bank.

Mr. Bhandari holds an associate degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Madras. He has also attended an executive program on private equity education organized by the Indian School of Business.

Mr. Anal Jain

Independent Director

Mr. Anal Jain is presently holding a position of CEO at Bodhi Technologies. Mr. Jain has 4 years of experience in Microfinance Sector. He worked as Managing Director in MV Microfin Private Limited, CEO at Birlasoft, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, India, VP-Marketing at Wipro Infotech Ltd, Wipro Information technology, Sales & Marketing at Wipro.
Mr. Anal Jain has done his B. Tech from IIT Kharagpur and M.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Mr. R. Prabha

Independent Director

Mr. R. Prabha is retired General Manager of Canara Bank and presently serving on the Board of Sa-Dhan. Mr. Prabha has wide and deep understanding of Microfinance sector and lending to the poor through SHGs/NGOs and CBOs. He has also served as the secretary for the informal group set up by RBI in 2005 for regulatory framework for the MFI sector. He has done his M.Sc. in Agriculture.

Management Team

Mrs. Vinatha M. Reddy – Chairperson

Mr. Suresh K. Krishna – Managing Director

Mr. Udaya Kumar – Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Ramchandra T. Vaidya – Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Diwakar B. R. - Chief Financial Officer

Department Heads

Mr. Gururaj Kumar K. S. Rao – Head, Internal Audit

Mr. Ashwin Mahabaleswara - CFA, CIM, Head, Finance & Treasury

Ms. Haridarshini A. - General Manager, Accounts & MIS

Mr. Sharathkumar Shetty N. – Head, Maarg

Mr. Arun Kumar B. – General Manager, New Initiatives & Customer Grievances

Mr. Raghavendra Rao – Head, Administration

Banner Image

Our People

Who We Are