Management Team

Mr. Sanjeev Nautiyal is the MD & CEO of our Bank.. He is a banker with over three decades of extensive strategic domain expertise in Retail, SME, Financial Inclusion, Operations, HR, International Banking, and Treasury. He earlier held significant roles as Deputy Managing Director, Financial Inclusion & Micro Markets, SBI and MD & CEO, SBI Life Insurance. He was serving as an Independent Director of Life Insurance Corporation and as an advisor in various organisations. Mr. Nautiyal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. He is also a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Ms. Carol Furtado is a Whole-Time Executive Director of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. She comes with 29 years of banking experience in Retail Banking and NBFC domains with expertise in leading Business, Banking operations, Credit, People functions and Service Quality. Ms. Carol is a key member of the leadership team that laid the foundation and built Ujjivan. She was instrumental in the recognition of Ujjivan as a certified great place to work. She has previously worked with the ANZ group, Bank Muscat and Centurion Bank Ltd. In 2009, Ms. Carol was the recipient of the Financial Women’s Association award by Women’s World Banking in recognition of her demonstrated professional commitment. She is a post graduate from Mount Carmel Institute of Management, Bangalore, and has been part of strategic leadership programs conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Harvard Business School, Boston.

Martin is the Chief Operating Officer of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. He comes with over 25 years of experience covering Retail Banking operations, Retail Asset and Micro-finance Operations, with expertise in set-up and implementation of new processes. More importantly, he’s known for leveraging technology for operations innovation to create delightful customer experiences. After early stints with ANZ Grindlays Bank and Bank Muscat, he predominantly worked in the space of Operations and Customer Service at the Centurion Bank of Punjab , Centillion Solutions & Services. He joined Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd in 2009 as Regional Operations Manager, before taking charge as the Head of Operations, a post he held until January 2017. Consequently, he was appointed as Head of Operations of Ujjivan SFB in February 2017, where he channelled his vast experience in setting up the Operations vertical for the bank. Martin is a Computer Science Graduate from St. Joseph’s College of Arts & Sciences, Bangalore.

Brajesh Cherian, has a total experience of 24 years in the banking domain, Operational Risk, Corporate Banking, Retail Banking and Treasury. Starting his career with the South Indian Bank ,he later on worked with Axis Bank in India and UAE where he handled various roles including Deputy CEO for Dubai Operations. Before joining Ujjivan in 2016, his last assignment was as Vice President - Compliance and Risk with Axis Bank, Mumbai. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Dr MGR Medical University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from SMU. He is a Certified Associate of Indian institute of Bankers.

Ashish Goel is the Chief Credit Officer of our Bank. He holds a bachelor of technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra and is a post graduate in Marketing & Finance from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. He was previously employed at Godrej & Boyce, Marico Industries and ICICI Bank. He joined Ujjivan as Chief Credit Officer in February 2021.

Rajeev Pawar joined as the Head of Treasury on January 20, 2020. He has previously worked with American Express Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Edelweiss Finance in India, Singapore and Dubai. He is an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and a Physics Major from the University of Mumbai.

Qualification: MA in English from University of Mysore

A career banker with over 27 years of experience; worked for India's premier MNC and private sector banks prior to joining Ujjivan. He has managed diverse roles, having had stints in credit cards, collections, retail branch banking, retail operations, trade finance, operational risk management, audit, process re-engineering, operations control, training etc. He joined Ujjivan in July 2016 and has held the positions of Regional Manager- Branch Operations and National Manager - Regional Processing Units earlier, prior to taking up the key responsibility of Head of Operations.

Balakrishna Kamath is a qualified CA and CS with over thirty years of experience in corporate finance and corporate governance. He has multi-functional experience of around 27 years of working in Tata Group out of which 18 years in various Senior positions (CFO/Company Secretary/Compliance Officer) across key group companies (Tata Consumer products Ltd/ Indian Hotels Company Ltd/ Tata Capital Housing Finance Ltd. He has worked with Credit Access Grameen Ltd. where he was designated as the CFO from 2020 till August 2024. He has robust experience in MFI, NBFC/HFC, Hospitality and FMCG sectors and has effectively managed financial and cost management, corporate affairs and Investor relations of several listed and unlisted large corporates. He has expert knowledge in corporate finance, accounts and controllership, budgeting, capital funding and investor relations.

He is a qualified Company Secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and holds a bachelor’s degree in Law and a Diploma in Business Management. He also received NSE's Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM) for Compliance Officer (Corporate) Module. He has a corporate and investment banking experience of over 18 years and his last employment was with Ujjivan Financial Services Limited where he was last designated as the CEO & Company Secretary.

Vibhas Chandra is an experienced hand in Ujjivan with a career spanning 14 years in multiple roles and managing various geographies. Joining as part of Ujjivan’s first Management Trainee batch, Vibhas was entrusted with responsibilities to launch Ujjivan’s micro-finance footprint in multiple states in its initial years. He was later hand-picked to establish their individual lending program, where he successfully built up a sizable portfolio. He led Ujjivan’s East region and played a key role in Ujjivan’s transition to a Small Finance Bank. Before being appointed as the Business Head of Micro-banking, he was leading the Asset Products for Micro-banking and Rural Banking. 
An expert in micro-finance, Vibhas is an MBA graduate (PGDM-RM) from Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB).

Chandralekha joined Ujjivan in Apr, 2008 as part of the institution’s first batch of Management Trainees. Since then she has been instrumental in setting up and handling various positions across the organization. She was instrumental in setting up of the Credit function in the Eastern region for the organization. She has then worked in the Western region in Credit Microbanking team as Regional Credit Manager before moving as the Regional HR Manager for the same region. Post that she has managed the role of National Manager for Talent Acquisition and integration in HR. She holds a Law degree from Symbiosis School of Law and PG certificate in Human Resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Vijayalaksmi is a seasoned banking professional with over 33 years of experience in the State Bank of India (SBI). She began her career with State Bank of India in October 1992 and has since held several key positions since then across diverse geographies and functions. Over the course of her career, she has gained extensive expertise in credit, foreign exchange, international banking, corporate relationship management, risk management, compliance, and internal audit. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of SBI’s Chicago office, where she was an integral member of the Regional Credit Committee for U.S. operations. During her tenure, she developed a strategic plan for the Chicago branch, which was subsequently adopted as a template for SBI’s global operations. She holds a Master of Arts in Economics and has completed several advanced professional courses in banking and finance.

Umesh Arora has over 25 years of rich experience in the banking and financial services sector, having held senior leadership roles in Retail Lending, Credit, and Asset Businesses across reputed institutions like Axis Bank, IDBI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. His deep domain knowledge and sharp business acumen will play a pivotal role in driving our growth across key emerging segments. He holds an MBA from IIM Kozhikode, an Advanced certification in Digital Transformation from IIM Lucknow, is a CAIIB, and a B.Com (Hons.) graduate from Hansraj College, Delhi University.