Board of Directors

Vijay K. Thadani

Vice-Chairman & Managing Director
NIIT Limited

Vijay K Thadani is the Co-Founder of NIIT Group and serves as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NIIT Ltd, a leading Global Talent Development Corporation. He is also the Co-Founder of the not-for-profit NIIT University, established with a vision of being the role model of learning, research, innovation and sustainability for the Knowledge Society.

He  also serves as the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NIIT Learning Systems Limited.

In the past, he served as President of the Indian IT industry association, MAIT and as Chairman of the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET), under the aegis of the Quality Council of India.

As an active member of CII, he served as the Chairman of CII Northern Region as also chaired CII’s National Committee on Higher Education.

In addition, he served as the Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, Chairman of the Board of Governors of MN National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Chairman of All India Board of Technician Education constituted by AICTE and as a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Currently Vijay serves on the Governing Council of All India Management Association (AIMA) , is a member of Board of Governors of Management & Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Council (MEPSC) and co-chairs the CII Centre for Digital Transformation.

He also serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Triveni Turbine Limited.

He has received the recognition of ‘Distinguished Alumnus” from his alma mater, the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He has also received Bank of India award for Excellence in Management.  In addition, he was honoured with the position of ‘Economic Consultant’ to Chongqing, world’s largest city in the People’s Republic of China.

Parappil Rajendran

Joint Managing Director
NIIT Limited

Parappil Rajendran, Joint Managing Director and Co-Founder of NIIT Ltd., is a member of the core team that developed and brought the organization to its present position of global standing, since its inception in 1981.

He received his degree in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India and joined KELTRON, a Kerala government startup electronic products company, where he worked for eight years in marketing, product management, sales of electronic industrial products and design, installation and commissioning of electronic automation and control of thermal power stations.

Rajendran also serves on the Board of Management of the not-for-profit NIIT University in Neemrana, Rajasthan. He is also actively engaged with the not-for-profit NIIT Foundation, which addresses the skilling and livelihood needs of youth from the underserved segments of the society.

Rajendran was associated with the apex industry association, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for over a decade, serving on their Information Technology, Human Resources & Higher Education committees. He has served on the Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund for eight years. He is a life member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, USA.

IITDelhi Alumni Association recognized his professional contributions by conferring the “Outstanding Contribution to National Development” Award in the year 2020.

Sapnesh Lalla

Non-Executive Director
NIIT Limited

Sapnesh Lalla is a non-executive Director of NIIT Ltd, a global leader in skills and talent development and a leading provider of managed training services, offering broad-based education and training solutions to corporations, institutions, and individuals in over 40 countries.

He is also Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIIT Learning Systems Limited.

Sapnesh has served in NIIT India and USA for over 30 years. He started his journey as a Project Lead in the Learning Content Development Team and over the years, has held various Management and Leadership roles in Product Management, Customer Support, Channel Development, Sales and Support functions. He has worked on a number of critical initiatives including NIIT’s expansion into North America & Europe and has led significant acquisitions including Cognitive Arts and Element K. He was selected to the Managing Director’s Quality Club (MDQC) in 1997 and received the coveted Global Leadership Award in 2001 and 2010. In 2010, he joined the board of NIIT(USA), Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He led the enterprise business of the company outside India and helped create and grow unique solutions in the areas of Learning content, learning administration & learning technologies. Among others, he led the conceptualization and growth of Managed Training Services outsourcing which are now being delivered to many global firms in the Fortune 500.

In 2017, Sapnesh was appointed CEO of NIIT Ltd. and in August 2021, he was re-designated as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIIT Limited. During this period, he had taken charge, learned the role, improved the business and order book, organically & inorganically, streamlined the Stackroute business in India and led the company through the recent difficult pandemic times with determination and perseverance. Since then, he has passionately driven the digital transformation of the company and the agenda to scale up the business on company’s new NIIT Digital platform. He became non-executive director of NIIT Limited on May 24, 2023.

Sapnesh is an Electronics and Communications Engineer from Bangalore University and received his Executive Education at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

Avani Vishal Davda

Non-Executive Independent Director

Avani Vishal Davda, a passionate business leader, has led businesses across consumer, retail and hospitality sectors. She has experience of business strategy in consumer and retail business of more than 19 years. Her strengths lie in developing business strategy and the ability to execute with a sharp focus on business sustainability through growth and profitability.

Currently, Avani is Advisor at Bain & Company and also serves as an independent director in various large organizations across manufacturing and services such as  Mahindra Logistics Limited, Persistent Systems Limited, Wellness Forever Limited and Emami Limited. Earlier, she was the Managing Director of Godrej Nature’s Basket Ltd- a 100% subsidiary of Godrej Industries Ltd. and prior to that she was the Founder Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Ltd., the joint venture of Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL).

Her professional career took off when Avani joined the Tata Group’s coveted leadership program - Tata Administrative Service in 2002 where worked in Tata companies including TAJ Luxury Hotels, IHCL and Tata Consumer Products Ltd.

Avani featured in “ET & Spencer Stuart Women Ahead” 2019. She was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Geneva in 2014, ranked 13 on “The Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink” list in Fortune and Food & Wine and listed in Fortune US’s annual global list of “40 under 40 leaders” in 2013.

She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce with Honors (Advertising & Media) from H.R. College, University of Mumbai and Master’s degree in Management Studies (MMS) from NMIMS, University of Mumbai (Gold Medalist).

Udai Singh Pawar

Non-Executive Non-Independent Director

Udai Singh Pawar did his undergraduate studies at IIT Kanpur graduating in 2005 with an Integrated Masters in Physics.

After interning at the MIT Media Lab, Boston and ARRI Cinema R&D, Munich, Udai worked at the Microsoft Research Lab in Bangalore, focusing on Technology for Education. There he earned two US patents, and published over a dozen research papers on his fieldwork in rural government schools. Microsoft USA developed one of his innovations further with his involvement, and released it commercially worldwide, as an SDK for educational software.

Shifting to film-making in 2010, he was the Chief Assistant Director to prominent filmmaker Sudhir Mishra on multiple projects, including India’s first fully-digital feature film. Following this, as Associate Director for the successful war movie ‘Airlift,’ his responsibilities included planning and execution of the scheduling and logistics, and balancing the budget against creative requirements by novel use of CGI, as well as deep logistical planning & systems that were fresh and innovative for the film industry ecosystem.

Recently, he wrote and directed the acclaimed Netflix Original film ‘Upstarts’, an in-depth look at the Bangalore start-up ecosystem, based on personal experiences as well as research and close interactions with dozens of start-up founders.

With his passion for inter-disciplinary technology and art, Udai is also involved in angel investing in some start-ups, while he works on his future film projects, focusing on OTT platforms.

Ravindra Babu Garikipati

Non-Executive Independent Director

Ravi Garikipati is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in technology and business leadership roles spanning e-commerce, deep tech, fintech and consumer tech businesses. He is also an active angel investor, board member and advisor.

Ravi is Independent Director at Axis Asset Management, guiding the team in building a digital transformation agenda for the business.

As an Independent Director at 5Paisa Capital, he is guiding the leadership team in building a highly personalized  and scalable Trading and Discount Brokerage Platform for retail investors.     As Advisor to ICICI Lombard General Insurance, he is helping in their digital transformation across several areas including customer engagement, CRM, technology infrastructure scale-up and user experience.

He co-founded Davinta, a tech driven NBFC where his focus was  on digital financial inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid, specializing in the financial services industry, providing breakthrough FinServ and FinTech solutions.

Earlier, as Chief Technology Officer at Flipkart, he defined and executed shared technology & services vision and roadmap with focus on cloud infrastructure, platform engineering and overall application architecture for the company.

He was President & CTO at 247.ai Innovation Labs, leading global product and technology groups to build one of the largest omni-channel customer acquisition & engagement platforms driven by predictive modelling hosted in the cloud.

Ravi held various senior engineering management positions at Oracle and Covansys. He has patents in omni-channel predictive experience. Ravi holds a Master of Science degree in Software Engineering and a Masters in Management from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India.

Srikanth Velamakanni

Non-Executive Independent Director

Srikanth Velamakanni is the Co-founder, Group Chief Executive, and Executive Vice Chairman of Fractal, one of the leading players in artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Since Srikanth co-founded Fractal in 2000, the company has raised more than USD 300 million from private equity investors and has empowered more than 100 Fortune 500 companies with its AI, data, and analytics-driven business strategies. Under his leadership, Fractal has developed several product lines within the company, including Cuddle.ai, Eugenie.ai, and Qure.ai. Srikanth serves on the board of Qure.ai – which has recently received 16MM USD in funding less than three years after incubation.

Srikanth is also a Co-founder and Trustee of Plaksha University, which focuses on core engineering, AIML, and mathematics, and promotes interdisciplinary learning by bringing together science and liberal arts. In addition, Srikanth is a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council, where he serves as a subject matter expert on data and AI. Prior to co-founding Fractal, he was an investment banker, working on structured debt and CDOs.

He is also an Independent Director on the Board of Metro Brands Limited and ideaForge Technology Limited

Srikanth’s passion for AI and analytics has made him a thought leader in the space and an admired public speaker. He considers himself a lifelong student of mathematics, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and consumer behavior.

Srikanth completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and holds an MBA in Management, Finance and Marketing degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Sanjiv Kumar Chaudhary

Non-Executive Independent Director

Sanjiv Kumar Chaudhary is an experienced finance professional. He is a practicing Chartered Accountant with over 41 years of rich experience in India and domestic/ international tax advisory and consulting including transfer pricing & taxation of cross border transactions. 

Sanjiv has worked closely with Senior legal counsel for matters in Supreme Court & High Court. He has handled corporate tax and expatriate engagements in both advisory and compliance matters, including compensation structuring, Foreign Exchange regulations, Employee Stock Option Plans and worked on both inbound expatriates and outbound assignees in respect of various Indian and overseas Companies.

He was earlier Partner in Tax and Regulatory practice of BSR & Co. LLP (Sub licensee of KPMG) for more than two decades and worked with RSM & Co. and PwC in tax practice from 2006 to 2009.

He has served as a Board Member of International Ethics Standard Board for Accountants (IESBA) – an independent standard setting board that develops and issues, in the public interest, high-quality ethical standards and other pronouncements for professional accountants worldwide, for a period of 5 years from 2019 till December 2023. He is also an Insolvency Professional from Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Law Graduate and CPA Australia.

Sonu Halan Bhasin

Non-Executive Independent Director

Sonu Bhasin is one of the early and senior women professionals in the industry. In her career of over 30 years, she set up and managed large businesses, and diverse teams, across financial and non-financial sectors in India and overseas.

Sonu Bhasin led various businesses in senior leadership positions during her corporate career. She began as a TAS (Tata Administrative Service) Officer with the Tata Group and spent 13 years with the Group before becoming a Banker. As a Banker, she was a Director at ING Barings, President-Axis Bank and Group President Yes Bank. Later she moved to the leadership team of Tata Capital Limited as Chief Operating Officer. 

She is serving as Director on Boards of well-known and reputed domestic and multinational companies like Whirlpool of India Limited, Sutlej Textiles and Industries Limited, Berger Paints India Limited, Indus Towers Limited, PNB Metlife India Insurance Company Limited, Max Life Pension Fund Management Limited and others.

 She is now an expert on family businesses and is the Founder of FAB – Families And Business. Sonu has worked extensively with both the patriarchs and the inheritors of family businesses and has enabled them to focus on building multi-generational businesses. As a Business Author, she has published five books on families and entrepreneurs behind top successful brands in India which are best sellers.

She is also a columnist with The Economic Times, the leading financial daily of India. Her YouTube provides her meaningful conversations with a cross section of successful people – including family business owners.

She was named as one of the Global 100 most Influential individuals for family enterprises in 2020 and inducted into the FBU Family Business Hall Of Fame in 2022.

Sonu Bhasin received her B.Sc (Hons) Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.