Sanjay Purohit

Sanjay Purohit is the Whole Time Director and Group CEO of Sapphire Foods. He has more than 30 years’ experience in creating and growing profitable businesses across consumer product categories – food and apparel retail, packaged food, paints, oil and gas and has a track record of delivering high impact business results in every role. Sanjay is able to combine deep consumer understanding and a strong strategic orientation with execution excellence.

Sanjay is passionate about building high performing teams & an enabling work culture rooted in the foundational values of Excellence, Courage, Integrity, Empathy and Personal Accountability that he espouses. He was the Managing Director for Levi Strauss & Co India, handling the India operations for 6 years for the iconic American jeans wear company. Before Levi’s, he was with Cadbury India for 11 years as Executive Director and Board Member and has also worked with Mobil Peeves (a joint venture of Exxon-Mobil), Asian Paints and Kansai Nerolac Paints.

Sanjay is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Surathkal and an alumnus of The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Vinod Nambiar

Vinod joined “More” in April 2020. He has done 30+ years across transformational leadership assignments at Hindustan Unilever India, and Colgate Palmolive. He has built and grown businesses across geographies spanning India, Romania, Italy, Greater China and the broader Asia Pacific region. In his various roles at Colgate over last 21 years, Vinod has scaled growth opportunities in diverse geographies through transformative leadership. He built strong JV and customer partnerships while building an inspiring organizational culture and team.
Vinod brings a unique combination of inspiring leadership and first principles-based problem solving approach with passionate customer obsession. His strategic clarity coupled with a strong execution bias shall drive exceptional results in the years to come.
Vinod has done his MBA in Marketing from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Rohit Gothi

Rohit has 30+ years’ experience in creating and growing profitable businesses across various product categories which includes paints, fmcg, telecom, beverages and bicycles with a track record of delivering revenue growth, high impact customer experience and creating a best-in-class teams in every role.

Combining his experience of various industries where he has worked Rohit brings in strong strategic orientation combined with execution excellence.

He was the CEO for Hero cycles (world’s largest bicycle manufactures) for 5 years before joining ESME in November 24.

Prior to Hero he worked as Executive Director with HCCB (Coca-Cola) for Indian operations for 4 years and has also worked in Bharti Airtel, Marico, Kaya, Yardey and Shalimar paints in various leadership roles across geographies and different functions.

Rohit has done his MBA from Lucknow and has done leadership course from Harvard Business School.

Sudhakar Balakrishnan

Sudhakar Balakrishnan is presently the Group CEO at FirstMeridian Business Services comprising of three portfolio group companies specialising in human capital solutions including General Staffing, Professional Staffing, Permanent Recruitment, Managed Services and HR Tech and Automation.

Sudhakar brings along 36 years of work experience from his entrepreneurial/professional journey across streams including Sales, Marketing, HR, Strategy Formulation and P&L Management, of which 25 years experience is within the Human Capital business, with entities like Adecco India/Middle East, SIFY and ABC Consultants among others.

During Sudhakar’s 14 years of leadership at Adecco India as the Managing Director and CEO, Adecco India had the distinction to become the first HR services provider in India to cross the 100,000 head count mark in temporary staffing.

Sudhakar is a post-graduate from Madras School of Social Work. He has attended Management Development Program at IIM Kozhikode, Senior Leadership Program at INSEAD, Fountainbleau, France and Leadership Development Program at IMD Business School at Lausanne, Switzerland. He is an Investor, an avid reader and plays tennis in his spare time.

Dr. Raajiv Singhal

Dr. Raajiv Singhal is a seasoned global professional with a deep and diverse experience in healthcare spanning over three decades in India, Asia and Africa. He is a post graduate from the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and served the Indian Army for over 13 years as a General Surgeon before joining the corporate world. He has been a Hospital Administrator, Medical Director, CEO and a Board Member of well-known hospital groups. His last stint was as an Operating Partner with Abraaj Healthcare fund wherein he also shouldered the responsibility of being the Group CEO of Care Hospitals.

Anil Khubchandani

Anil Khubchandani is the MD & CEO and a Board Member at Sekhmet Pharmaventures. With over 32 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals industries, he has demonstrated leadership in various businesses, commercial, & technical domains.

Since May 2023, Anil has been spearheading Sekhmet Pharmaventures (An API platform) in its Transformation journey & Growth Vision. Anil along with his CXOs and Leadership, is working to meet its ambitious growth targets and ESG / sustainability goals by fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, trust, and integrity. His goal is to establish Sekhmet as a globally admired company for API offerings, supported by cutting-edge innovation, strong business processes, and a diverse product portfolio.

In his previous role as Co-CEO & WTD and Board Member at Jubilant Ingrevia, Anil served as a strategic business leader, developing high-performing teams, and overseeing the company’s solutions and offerings to global customers in the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, special chemicals, and antimicrobials industries. He also led several Global CDMO assignments and new business initiatives for pharmaceutical and agrochemical customers, for both in-patent and generic products.

Anil has an exemplary academic track record and is an alumnus of prestigious institutes such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), and Kellogg School of Management.

Gautam Gupta

In a career spanning over two decades, Gautam has deep experience in consumer businesses across multiple sectors. First decade of his career was with marquee FMCG companies – Reckitt Benckiser and ITC where he donned various responsibilities in sales, trade marketing and brand management areas. His association with Samara started in 2010 with pharmacy chain – Guardian Lifecare, where he was the CEO before moving to food services sector within Samara portfolio. He was the CEO of Pizza Hut business at Sapphire foods during its early integration phase. Currently he is the CEO of Paradise Biryani, Hyderabad – the largest Biryani player in the country with presence across 10 cities and growing.

Gautam holds an MBA degree from Indian institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and also received his B. Tech. degree from the Indian institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Deepak Taluja

A Hotel Management graduate, Deepak started his career as a Team Member, and grew to hold several senior positions for over 2 decades, across Domino’s Pizza (Jubilant Food Works), Fun Multiplex (Essel Group), with his last assignment being COO at Café Coffee Day. At Sapphire Foods, he steered growth for Pizza Hut Business as CEO since 2015 before taking over the mantle of Chief Executive Officer for KFC Business in 2019.

In his leisure time, you will find him on a cricket pitch or behind the wheel for a long drive.

Supratim Banerjee

Supratim joined More Retail in July 2019. He has 20 years across buyouts and business transformation assignments at India Equity Partners ($ 350 million India focused private equity fund), Kearney and KPMG. He led the buyout, transformation and eventual sale of businesses in the logistics and consumer products sectors in India. Specifically led the turn-around of an express logistics business, partnering with the executive leadership team, to drive 3x revenue growth in 6 years and EBITDA loss of -9% inn 2012 to +9% EBITDA in 2018. The company was eventually sold the business to Samara Capital at a 7x multiple of invested capital.

Supratim brings a unique combination of experience with turning around private equity owned businesses and first principles-based problem-solving approach through extensive use of technology and analytics.

Supratim has done his Master’s degree in Finance and Market graduating from the founding batch of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Ganesh Sabat

Ganesh has been the CEO of SMT since 2013. Prior to this, he has held the position of CFO and Strategy Head in SMT. He is credited with making SMT a global name to reckon with in the stents industry and emerging as the leading stents company of India.

Ganesh is currently also the President of the Indian association of Medical Stents Manufacturers. He has cross-cultural as well as global exposure in medical devices, life sciences, chemical and financial services industry.

Vikrant Vohra

A Hotel Management graduate, Vikrant has been associated with major hospitality brands such as The Park, Hyatt, Taj and Marriot International for nearly 2 decades. At Sapphire Foods, he successfully led Operations at Karnataka, Kerala & West India Markets for KFC before leading the Pizza Hut Business in India as Chief Operating Officer.

He enjoys Golf, EDM & Trekking. He is also passionate about giving back to the society and is closely associated with an NGO called Round Table India.

M Vasanth Kumar

Vasanth Kumar is a Senior Advisor at Samara Capital since Jan 2021 and advises multiple portfolio companies. He was earlier Managing Director of Lifestyle International till June 2020 and headed Lifestyle and Home Centre formats in India.

Prior to that till 2018, as Executive Director of Max Fashions India, Vasanth has conceptualized and led the brand’s aggressive growth plans since its inception in 2005. Max is now the largest omni-channel mono brand in the Value Fashion segment with close to 400 stores across 120 cities.

Vasanth also conceptualized Easybuy retail format, a home-grown value apparel concept for Tier II cities in India in 2015 and mentored it to become profitable. Easybuy is distributed across 100 exclusive stores and Spar Hypermarket shop-in-shops in the country.

Prior to 2005, he spent a decade with Madura Garments (marketing premium brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen and Allen Solly) and has successfully established Peter England as one of the largest selling apparel brands. He has also worked with Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in Sales and Marketing early in his career.

Vasanth was recognized amongst the “TOP 100 Retail Icons over the past 25 years“ by IMAGES in 2019. He had also been awarded “Retail Professional of the year” by CMAI in 2015 for his contribution to the outstanding growth of Max Fashion India and also got “Retail Leadership” award at Indian Retail Congress in April 2016.

Vasanth is a certified “CEO Coach” (from CFI) and a “Team coach” (Marshall Goldsmith SCC). He is also a “Business Model Coaching” practitioner (Bruce Hazen).

Vasanth is a B.E from Anna University (CEG), has an M.Tech from IIT , Chennai and a MBA in Marketing & Finance from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Tarun Ramrakhiani

Tarun joined SMS in January 2021. He has 18 years of professional experience in Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Strategic Marketing, Business Management and Company Management across the Geographies of India & the Middle East.
He has spent nearly 14 years in the Facility Services / Building Management domain ; with extensive expertise in Mechanical, Electrical and Control Systems (as well as Managed Services) that make buildings (commercial, industrial and residential) healthy, safe, secure, sustainable and cost effective (productivity, operational efficiency, energy efficiency).
Prior to this current role, he was the Chief Executive Officer for Writer Corporation’s Relocations Business.
Tarun is an MBA from SIBM, Pune and a B.E (Electrical) from Pune University.

Rubina Toorawa

Rubina Toorawa, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds a BSc (Hons) from the University of Manchester. She has over 30 years’ experience in accountancy, auditing, tax and consultancy. She specializes in fund structuring, set up and administration. She also serves as a director of global business companies and investment funds. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer of SANNE Mauritius. Prior to joining SANNE Mauritius in March 1999, she was a Senior Manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Mauritius), with particular exposure in the financial, textile and tourism sectors, including management of overseas projects financed by international financial institutions such as the World Bank. She had previously worked for KPMG (Manchester) for 6 years, where she specialized in the Banking and Finance sector and Value for Money audits.

Dilshaad Rajabalee

Dilshaad Rajabalee is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) of UK. She majored in Human Resource Management at the University of Mauritius and also holds a Diploma in Public Relations. She has also completed an LLB Honours programme with the University of London. Dilshaad is an Associate Director at SANNE Mauritius, and is leading a team of nearly 20 people, managing a portfolio of companies which include collective investments schemes, closed-end funds, investment holding companies and trusts. She is also involved in fund structuring and set-ups. As part of her scope of work, she sits on the Board of global business license companies. Prior to joining SANNE Mauritius in April 2003, Dilshaad was in the Audit and Assurance Team of PricewaterhouseCoopers Mauritius. She handled audits mainly in the fields of telecommunications, health, tourism, manufacturing, services and financial services sector.

Imrith Ramtohul

Imrith Ramtohul is Senior Investment Consultant at Aon Hewitt Ltd. Previously, he worked for Mauritius Union Group, where as Senior Investment Manager, his team was responsible for managing investment assets of nearly Mauritius Rs 8 billion. He has also held positions at subsidiaries of South African banking groups Rand Merchant Bank and Nedbank and at the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. He currently serves on the board of Innodis Ltd, a listed company involved in food production and distribution. He is also a member of the Investor/ Consultant Subcommittee of Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS). Imrith has more than 19 years’ experience in the financial services sector. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants UK (FCCA). Imrith graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) degree.

Moussa Taujoo

Moussa Taujoo is a retired fellow Chartered Certified Accountant and has been serving as board member of Samara Capital since December 2012. Prior to that, he was the Director of Audit of Mauritius (and as such CEO of the Government Audit Office) for 13 years. He also spent about 5 years with UNICEF (initially as a Regional Auditor, subsequently as Senior Internal Auditor at its New York office). He was Chairperson of the Board of Auditors for the audit of SADC institutions from 1997-98 to 1999-2000. Recently, he has also served as a Deputy Commissioner of the Independent Commission against Corruption in Mauritius. Since 2008, he is the Chairperson of the Audit Practice Review Panel of the Financial Reporting Council, a regulatory body for the accounting and auditing profession in Mauritius.

Sateeta Jeewoolall Jessoo

Sateeta Jeewoolall-Jessoo is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK and a Bachelor of Science in Economics (Honours) from the University of Mauritius. She has been serving as a board member of Samara Capital since November 2015. She is an Associate Director at SANNE Mauritius. At SANNE Mauritius, she headed a group responsible for administration and accounting of Private Equity Funds and global business companies for several years, and then joined their Onboarding and Structuring team. Prior to joining SANNE Mauritius in September 2003, she was with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Mauritius) in the Audit department. Over the years, she has developed in-depth knowledge of the financial services sector coupled with practical know-how on the operations, regulatory and compliance aspects for global business entities.

Mudit Verma

Mudit Verma has experience in financial services industry and has worked in family Industrial business as owner and operator. He has been serving on the board of Samara Capital since January 2012. As a Director of Samara Capital, he has been involved in various aspects of investment management and portfolio related work across multiple industries. He has done his business education from Canada.

Fredrik Stenmo

Fredrik Stenmo is a board member of Samara Capital and has been involved with Samara Capital since its inception in 2007. As an owner-operator and investor, Fredrik has over 25 years of relevant global experience of transforming and managing international businesses. Fredrik is Chairman & CEO of CELOX Group, a large single-family office and he is a second-generation family member. He is Chairman of MEDICOVER Group, a leading healthcare services business in 15+ countries (incl. India) and +45,000 employees and listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange, and Chairman of ORESA, an investment company focused on CEE region. Prior to CELOX Group, Fredrik was partner at FSN Capital, a private equity fund focused on the Nordic region. Fredrik holds a Master of Laws and a degree in Business & Finance from Lund University, Sweden.