Mr. Analjit Singh

Founding Chairman

Mr. Analjit Singh is the Founding Chairman of The Max Group, a $5-bn Indian multi-business enterprise, with interests in life insurance (Max Life), real estate (Max Estates), senior living (Antara). The Max Group is renowned successful joint ventures with some pre-eminent firms including Mitsui Sumitomo & Toppan, Japan; New York Life Insurance Company; Bupa Plc, Life Healthcare, SA; DSM, Netherlands, Hutchison Whampoa; Motorola, Lockheed Martin, and others.

Amongst privately held family businesses, Mr. Analjit Singh is the founder of Leeu Collection, a group of leisure boutique hotels in Franschhoek, South Africa; The Lake District, UK; and soon to be opened in Florence, Italy. The Leeu Collection also includes a significant presence in wine and viticulture through Mullineux Leeu Family Wines in SA.

Mr. Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, by the President of India in 2011. An alumnus of The Doon School and Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi, Mr. Analjit Singh holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Management, Boston University. He has been conferred with an honorary doctorate by Amity University. He is serving as the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of San Marino in India.

He served as a Director on the Board of Sofina NV/SA, Belgium. And till August 2018, he was the non-executive Chairman of Vodafone India.

Mr. Singh is a member of the Founder Executive Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB), India’s top ranked B-School and has served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Indian Institute of Technology and The Doon School.  Mr. Singh has served on the Prime Minister’s Indo US CEO and Indo UK CEO Council.

He has been felicitated by Senator Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State, on behalf of the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness for his outstanding achievement in presenting the international community with an understanding of a modern and vibrant India and for creating several successful joint ventures with leading American companies and promoting business ties with the USA.

He has been honoured with the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Service Category) and the Golden Peacock Award for Leadership and Service Excellence. In 2014 he was awarded with Spain’s second highest civilian honour, the Knight Commander of the Order of Queen Isabella, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University.

Ms. Malini Thadani

Independent Director

Malini Thadani is the Executive Director of World Monuments Fund India Association, an affiliate of World Monuments Fund, a leading global independent organization devoted to safeguarding the world’s most treasured places to enrich people’s lives and build mutual understanding across cultures and communities.

She serves as an independent director on several corporate and not-for-profit Boards and helps businesses design and operationalize the effective integration of ESG and Sustainability into their strategic vision to help to future-proof them.

She is a Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Development Management, where she teaches a course on CSR, Sustainability, and ESG.

Malini has been a Strategic advisor on matters related to Sustainability and ESG. As a Leader of high-level stakeholder groups, she has held positions on international and regional Boards for industry bodies and not-for-profits.

She was a civil servant of the Indian Revenue Service, with 14 years’ experience in various Indian Government Ministries. She worked for 22 years at HSBC at first in India where she headed the financial services group’s Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability work. She moved to Hong Kong to lead the Bank’s Sustainability teams across 19 markets in Asia where HSBC had a presence, designing, developing, and implementing large-scale, complex, cross-border sustainability projects in partnership with global and regional think tanks, not-for-profits, and academia, specializing in areas including sustainable finance, environmental resource security, livelihoods, employability and entrepreneurship.

Presently, Malini serves as an Independent Director on the Corporate Boards of Max Estates Limited, AU Small Finance Bank and Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India) Private Limited, and the following not-for-profit Boards - Access Development Services, Lighthouse Communities Foundation and is a Trustee of Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), Apnalaya and Shoshit Seva Sangh.

Mr. Jai Arya

Independent Director

Mr. Jai Arya is a member of the Board of the UK based research consultancy, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF). He is also Adviser to the Dean, NUS Business School, Singapore, as well as their Head of Executive Education. In addition, Mr. Arya has also been a Senior Adviser for Asian banking to a global consultancy firm, and has also consulted on a project basis for the Asian Development Bank.

Prior to this, Mr. Arya worked for Bank of New York Mellon for 27 years and Bank of America for 10 years, in various Asian locations. Before leaving BNY Mellon in April 2014, Mr. Arya was an EVP and global head of their business with sovereign institutions, as well as a member of the bank’s Global Operating Committee as well as Asia Executive Committee. Earlier roles included head of Asia client relationships and Asian country offices.

Mr. Arya received an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University and a BA(honours) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.