In recent times, the role of a CFO in an organization has undergone vast changes. A CFO is not only just a financial authority but a strategic partner to the CEO, supporting in the crucial decision-making and application of strategic methods in the company. Besides making responsible decisions about investment, CFOs today are expected to remain updated with the latest technologies. At present, Indian companies are gearing up for global competition and their outlook is extremely futuristic. With this outlook in hand, the role of CFOs is even more significant. India is one of the best countries in Asia in terms of its Geography, culture, and heritage. In the business sector, it has improved significantly over time. Listed down are the top 10 CFOs in India based on their performance, credibility, and talent.
01. Alok Agarwal
Mr Alok Kumar Agarwal serves as Chief Financial Officer of Reliance. Mr. Alok Kumar Agarwal heads the Wholesale Group at the Company which includes the corporate and financial inclusion business. Mr. Alok Kumar Agarwal started his career in 1989 with Reliance Industries Ltd. as an Engineer. He later worked with ICICI Ltd. for 9 years in project finance department before shifting to ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited. Currently in Reliance, he focuses on global risk management projects besides handling finance related projects. Mr Agarwal has done his B.Tech in Electronic Enginering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and His MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. With a rich experience in the field, Mr Agarwal is definitely an extremely efficient officer and one of the best in the country.
02. Samir Seksaria
Mr Samir Seksaria, is the Chief financial officer of Tata Consultancy Services. He has an experience in the IT industry of nearly two decades and he has taken significant financial decisions in the company, TCS. Before this, he was in charge of the Business Finance function for TCS, where was responsible for the financial management of the company’s individual operating units and was also responsible for the corporate financial analytics and planning of the company.Samir began his career in TCS in the year 1999 and spent his initial years in consulting assignments involving regulatory compliance, M&A spin offs, amongst others. In his earlier responsibilities, he has played a key role in the Initial Public Offering of TCS in 2004 and subsequently in various other financial transformation journeys such as simplification, straight through processes, early closures, and improved cash management. Mr Seksaria is an NMIMS, Mumbai graduate and he also finished his Chartered Accountancy from ICAI, Mumbai. Samir takes pride in having learnt from premiere TCS leaders including N Chandrasekaran, Rajesh Gopinathan, V Ramakrishnan and S Mahalingam. Mr Seksaria is an extremely loving and caring family man. When not working, he often travels with his family.
03. Ritesh Tiwari
Mr. Ritesh Tiwari is the Executive Director, Finance & IT, and Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever Limited. He is also the Vice President, Finance for Unilever, South Asia. At present, Mr. Tiwari is the VP of Finance – Global Performance management. He’s based out of the UK. He finished his Chart Accountancy from ICAI, and thereafter joined HUL in the year 1999 as a management trainee. Sanjeev Mehta, the Chief managing director of HUL said that Tiwari’s purpose-driven leadership has taken HUL’s business to new heights. Some significant implications by Tiwari such as GST and GSK consumer healthcare have brought transformational changes in the company’s business, he added. For the past two decades, he has led teams both within and outside India at Unilever in the core finance sector and as a business partner to front-end sales, categories and supply chain. His most recent and commendable role has been in the UK as the Vice President, Finance, Global Performance Management for Unilever and CFO for Unilever International, where he is credited with bringing digital transformation, simplification and leading projects with high business impact. Despite the attack of the second wave of Covid, HUL reported profit growth of 12% and underlying growth of 9% in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2022.
04. Nilanjan Roy
Nilanjan Roy is currently the Chief Financial Officer. Before this, he was the Global Chief Financial Officer of Bharti Airtel Ltd. and was responsible for the financial operations across India and Africa. He has held different leadership positions at Bharti Airtel for the last thirteen years. Before this, he worked with Unilever for nearly 15 years in their global operations across India, Europe, and the US. Mr Roy is undoubtedly an established financial officer, who has extensive and rich global experience including shareholder value creation, ESG and corporate governance, business partnering, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and funding, investor relations, cost management, taxation, financial accounting and reporting. Nilanjan Roy is a student of Commerce from Delhi University, and he also is a chartered accountant. He has extensive and rich Global experience and has an amazing record in work. As the CFO at Infosys, Roy’s total compensation is approximately $53,600,000. There are only three executives in the company who get paid more than him.
05. Soumen Ray
Soumen Ray is the new CFO of Bharti Airtel. He is an extremely efficient Chartered Accountant with an experience of more than twenty three years in in financial planning, management accounting, factory commercial, treasury and corporate accounts. Before joining Bharti Airtel, he was the CFO of Bajaj Auto Ltd. He has been associated with the company since 2018, and has worked in the taxation, finance and treasury sectors. He has also worked for Viacom, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Eveready Industries and Airtel etc where he has held senior positions. Gopal Vittal, the CEO of Bharti Airtel said that “He brings in the right mix of domain expertise, commercial acumen, strategy and business partnering,”
06. Jaimin Bhatt
Jaimin Bhatt is the Chief financial officer as well as the president of Kotak Mahindra Bank. He is the head of the Centre division as well as the Support Division at Kotak Mahindra Bank. His work involves finance, tax, strategy, secretarial, Internal Audit, Management Accounts, legal and compliance. Mr Bhatt joined Kotak Mahindra finance in the year 1995 in the proprietary investment section.
07. Shobinder Duggal
Mr Shobinder Duggal is the Director of Finance and Control and the CFO of Nestle, India. He has a working experience of nearly 35 years with Nestle, both in India and Switzerland. Before becoming the CFO and a board member of Nestle in 2004, he handled various corporate responsibilities such as VP corporate control, heading the internal audit, consolidation & Reporting to the Group and for India entity handling important assignments at the Nestle group headquarters in Switzerland, Assisting on Investor Relations; Insurance; Controlling; Costing; Overseeing the Treasury function; Payroll; Fixed Assets Management; Operational & Financial audits. Between May 2004 and February 2020, he was the CFO of the South Asian region of Nestle and has also handled various IS and IT responsibilities. Mr Duggal is the Chairman of the Risk Management Committee and also member of the Stakeholders Relationship Committee of Nestlé India Limited. Besides, he is also on the Board of Nestlé Lanka PLC since January 2014. He is a student of Economics from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and a student of ICAI, Mumbai. He also attended a programme for Executive Development from IMD Lausanne, Switzerland. Other than that, he has also been a part of several international courses from Nestle training Centre, Lausanne and Switzerland and London Business School, UK. He really is one of the best we have in the industry.
08. C.S Muralidharan
Mr C.S Muralidharan is the chief financial officer of Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries pvt ltd. Mr Muralidharan is well-known for his excellent service in providing operational and financial leadership. After finishing his higher secondary in Commerce at DTEA Secondary School, he graduated from ICAI. He also attended an executive development program from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr Muralidharan expertises in Global Compliance, Capital restructuring and merging and acquisitions. After remaining the country head of the company named Allergan in Mumbai for nearly nine years, he joined Teva Pharmaceuticals where he remained the Group chief financial officer for a year. After that, he joined Sun Pharma in the year 2017, and is still the group chief financial officer there.
09. Parag Parekh
Mr Parag Parekh is the Chief Financial officer of Adani gas. He has been responsible for Business Development, Strategy, Bidding, Project Finance, Corporate Finance,Public & Private Equity, IPO, Investor Relations, Head of Roads Business, Operations to interim Chief Executive Officer over the years. He did his Bachelors in commerce from University of Mumbai and then went on to pursue his MBA from MET League of Colleges, Mumbai. Mr Parekh is extremely skilled at handling project finance, infrastructure and restructuring. Before joining Adani Gas, he remained the group head of finance at GMR Group, Mumbai. He has been the chief financial officer at Adani Gas since 2019.
10. Manish Saxena
Mr Manish Saxena is the current CFO of Adani Group’s India Mining Business. He is a highly qualified Chartered accountant having an experience of close to thirty years. He has attended various leadership and focused training programs in the fields Risk Management, Coaching, Analytical Skills, Train the Trainer on ISO 9000 Certification and Economic Value Add. Business World and YES Bank had recognized him with the “Most Promising CFO” award in 2016. He has an experience in the manufacturing and service sector in various large companies in India like ICI India Limited, Bharti Airtel, Ballarpur Industries Limited, Reliance Communications and even abroad.He is an extremely skilled professional with a perfect balance of strategic and operational skills. He has come across various types of crisis in his professional journey that is really inspirational and quite commendable.