Ms Aparna Nair

Aparna is a founding member of the Kautilya Leadership Centre and brings over 25 years of experience in leadership development, talent strategy, and organisational consulting. Since 2016, she has played a pivotal role in building the institution by nurturing client relationships, developing proprietary content, and strengthening organisational capabilities.

She advises Boards and senior leadership teams on leadership bench strength, culture alignment, and people strategy. Aparna has designed and facilitated numerous leadership interventions for CXOs across industries and has developed psychometric tools and frameworks to support talent and performance management.

A certified MBTI practitioner and accredited facilitator from SMR, Malaysia, Aparna brings deep expertise in psychometrics, the Balanced Scorecard framework, and executive coaching. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles at ICICI Bank and Blue Dart–FedEx and has consulted for organisations such as Godrej & Boyce, ICICI Prudential, NCML, and WNS.

Aparna holds an MBA in Marketing and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce.

Usha Shankar

With over 30 years of diverse professional experience, Usha Shankar is a customer-facing leader with deep domain knowledge and strong techno-functional expertise. Her career has been built on driving business transformation through technology, fostering trusted client relationships, and delivering value-driven solutions. A seasoned mentor, she guides teams, nurtures talent, and shares insights gained from decades of hands-on experience across functional and technical domains. Her blend of strategic thinking, customer empathy, and practical execution has consistently enabled successful outcomes in complex, dynamic business environments.

Jaya Janardanan

Jaya is a successful an accomplished bank tech professional with 27 years of experience in the banking industry. She has held leadership roles for the last 10 years. She was the was the Chief Operating Officer of Ujjivan small finance bank and Aditya Birla Payments Bank.  She was part of the core team that set up ICICI Bank and worked with other banks like ING Vysya, Bank of America, Dhanlaxmi bank. She is an industry veteran in Banking operations and Technology, Digital transformation, Customer service.  She has led strategy and execution of large-scale projects blended with technology for the banking industry such asrobotic process automation, BOT, digital onboarding process, core banking transformation. She was a part of a core team in building a digital payments bank and executed a digital payment solution from a cash driven process and many other projects. She built a call centre with a new model of it being managed by Back to work women enabled with BOT technology. She is a management graduate in Finance, an alumni from Oxford and a Sought after speaker at major Fintech, BFSI forum.

Vidya Shivkumar

Vidya Shivakumar is a seasoned operations, customer service, and project management professional with over 19 years of experience in the financial services industry, having worked with prominent companies such as American Express Bank, IBM, and Aditya Birla Payments Bank. She has successfully led initiatives to expand teams, improve operational efficiency, and enhance service quality. As an entrepreneur, she founded Tiny Teddies Playgroup and Activity Center and Money Marvels, demonstrating her leadership and innovation in the education sector. Vidya is driven by a passion for learning and new challenges, balancing her professional life with being a multitasking mom who loves to travel.

Sanket Shinde

Sanket Shinde is a seasoned banking and finance professional with over 18 years of experience spanning retail, SME, and wealth management domains. He currently serves as Head – Strategic Alliance at Finxecute Solutions Pvt. Ltd., where he leads key partnerships, business collaborations, and process transformation initiatives within the financial services ecosystem. Sanket’s expertise lies in relationship management, credit and branch operations, and digital process re-engineering. He has played a pivotal role in designing and implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), and digital onboarding solutions for leading banks and financial institutions across India. With a strong focus on operational excellence and customer-centric innovation, he brings deep domain understanding and strategic insight to every engagement. Sanket is known for his structured approach, leadership acumen, and ability to drive impactful outcomes through collaboration and execution excellence.

Suraj Harchekar

Suraj Harchekar is an accomplished banking professional with extensive experience in operations, digital transformation, and customer service within the financial sector. As Business Head at Finxecute Solutions Pvt. Ltd., he leads strategic initiatives focused on enhancing operational efficiency, customer onboarding, and process excellence for leading banks and housing finance companies. Prior to this, he held key leadership roles with Fincare Small Finance Bank and Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, where he successfully drove business growth, strengthened service delivery, and ensured adherence to regulatory and audit standards. Suraj possesses a strong foundation in banking operations, due diligence, and team management, with a proven ability to streamline workflows and improve productivity. His expertise lies in building high-performing teams, implementing digital process transformations, and fostering a culture of customer-centric excellence. Suraj continues to contribute to the financial services domain through strategic leadership and process innovation.