Management Team

Mr. Rajesh Sud was appointed CEO and Managing Director with effect from November 1, 2008 of Max New York Life Insurance, the first Indo - American joint venture business to start operations in 2001 when the insurance sector was opened to private participation. A founder team member, Rajesh was amongst the first few management team members to join Max New York Life Insurance.

He leads the company towards achieving its vision of being the most admired life insurance company in the country.

Prior to this, Rajesh was responsible for establishing a multi channel distribution network for the individual life business. Rajesh has successfully established Agency as the core channel for the company with strong focus on process, training and productivity. These strong foundations have allowed Max New York Life Insurance to rapidly grow to pan India presence with a professional and trained sales force, which is widely regarded as the best in the industry.

Apart from his distribution role, Rajesh has also worked on many cross-functional projects and Played a key role in defining Max New York Life’s business strategy and growth plans.

Prior to joining Max New York Life Insurance, Rajesh was the Head of Asset Finance business at the largest foreign bank in India, ANZ Grindlays Bank and was seconded as the CEO and MD of the Bank's subsidiary finance company, Esanda Finance and Leasing Ltd. Rajesh started his career with Bank of America and held various positions of increasing responsibility. Rajesh was part of the transition team that managed the successful sale of Bank Of America's consumer banking business to ABN Amro Bank and served as the Head of Consumer Banking Sales.

Rajesh completed his Advanced Management Program from Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. He also has a Management post graduation degree in Marketing and Finance from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.

Mr. Rajit Mehta is the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Max New York Life, a leading private life insurance company in India. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Company, and is on the Policyholder Protection Committee of the Board besides being an invitee to the Audit Committee of the Board as well. Rajit represents Max New York Life on the Consortium Board of School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) a unit of Grow Talent Co. Ltd. co-created by a group of leading companies from across Industry verticals that aims to build competent, compassionate and inspiring leaders. He is also a trustee of the Max Foundation - the CSR arm for the Max Group of Companies.

Rajit is a founder member of the Company and has seen it through its formative years. His current responsibilities include Customer Service and Operations, Information Technology, Business Excellence and Infrastructure And Facilities. He was also involved in Project Max Vijay, an innovative Retail business model aimed at providing protection and long term wealth creation opportunities to the underserved segments in India.

He has recently taken over additional responsibilities as the Chief Transformation Officer for the company. The Transformation office has been setup to facilitate the organization to realize its new strategy over the next 2-3 years.

Rajit has been instrumental in building the company’s Human Capital, recruiting and retaining a strong management team, creating a positive work environment and culture and ushering "best-in-class" HR practices. Max New York Life was amongst the Top 20 Best employers in the first Great Places to Work survey, ranked 7^th in the Business Today - Mercer Best Employers study in 2008 and has also been awarded the 2009 Gallup - Great Workplace Award.

He has successfully led several projects to achieve Service Excellence and Operational Efficiencies to support business strategy. This entailed putting a Service Blueprint in place, reconfiguring the Organization Design, Technologies, Front-end Service delivery system and introduction of Self-Service mechanisms to improve Customer Experience.

Max New York Life is a proud recipient of the CII Certificate of Business Excellence 3 years in a row, Quality D-Shaw Award and the CIO Award 3 year in a row as well.

As part of the Transformation initiatives, Rajit has been involved in finalizing of the Strategic blueprint for the company over next 2-3 years, rationalizing the cost structure substantially to improve profitability and laying down a comprehensive Change Management agenda to support the new strategy.

Rajit has played a strategic role in helping the company expand its distribution footprint across India including facilitating a project to "Revamp Sales processes". This entailed gathering first hand insights from customers and agents, doing 360 degree diagnostics, aligning the sales team to potential solutions and setting up mechanisms to monitor execution and progress. The project culminated in Rajit co-authoring a book titled "Growth Leadership Practices at Max New York Life".

The Max Vijay initiative - a unique Retail Insurance endeavor was recognized with the Golden Peacock Award at London in September 2008 and Asia Insurance Industry Award - Innovation of the year at Singapore in November 2009. Max Vijay has also been taken up as a case study at the Wharton Business School and as a thesis subject by the Emylon Business School in France. This project entailed putting in place a viable business model, designing appropriate products, installing a robust backend process through an outsourcing arrangement with IBM, designing a Marketing strategy and recruiting a management team to take the innovation to the market. The project has had mixed results and is currently not being pursued actively.

Rajit is part of the Core Strategy Team at Max New York Life, and has overseen large change management initiatives including 2 CEO transitions. Prior to Max New York Life, he was the Director - Personnel at Bank of America and has also worked with HCL. His total experience spans 25 years. At Bank of America, he was part of the team which set up the Retail Division and was also involved in managing two large exit programs including sale of the Retail division to ABN Amro Bank. He helped set up the training function for the Asia Region of the Bank.

Rajit is a graduate in Commerce, post graduate in Human Resources and has also attended an Advanced Management Program at INSEAD - France. He is the recipient of the Chairman’s Award for Excellence at Max New York Life.

Mr. Ashish a Mechanical Engineer from IIT - BHU, and post graduation in Management from IIM – Bangalore is Senior Director And Chief Distribution Officer at Max New York Life. As the Chief Distribution Officer he is instrumental in maintaining the company’s distribution footprints across the nation and acquiring key partnership and bank distribution alliances. He has a well rounded experience of over 21 years spanning marketing, sales, product and business roles in the financial services And manufacturing industry.

Ashish spent 10 years with Eicher Motors and was responsible for Network expansion, Channel and Dealer development, Sales of vehicles and Service. He then moved onto Citibank N.A. for 5 years in various roles such as Regional Manager (South), Sales Head for the Asset Based Finance Business, Product Head for Channel Finance for Citibank and finally as Vice President And Business Manager - Asset Based Finance before moving on to his next assignment in 2005.

Ashish’s last assignment was at Fullerton India Credit Corporation Ltd as Business Manager, Commercial Mass Market. As a Founder team member at Fullerton Ashish was heading the P and L responsibility for Commercial Mass Markets and helped Fullerton to successfully capture the retail finance opportunity in India by building a network of 500 branches, 8000 employees, 225000 customers and Rs. 1600 Cr of portfolio in a short span of 3 years.

Ashish is known for his ability to seamlessly partner and build shared goals with team members. He is a firm believer in the fact that deliveries happen through people.

Mr. Shailesh Singh is Chief People Officer at Max New York Life Insurance. He is responsible for developing and implementing successful Human Resources strategies that support long term growth and transformation of the organization.

Shailesh is a Graduate from Delhi University and a post graduate from IRMA, Gujarat and carries a rich experience across diverse industry sectors. Prior to joining, Max New York Life Insurance, he worked as Country HR Leader for GE India Supplychain comprising all its manufacturing operations, sourcing, materials and logistics. He headed HR responsibility for GE Energy – India operations. He was earlier the Regional HR Leader for GE Energy (Africa, India and Middle East). He had earlier led the HR function for GE Capital Transportation Financial Services. He has also worked for NDDB, Eicher Tractors and SRF Finance.

Ms. Anisha Motwani is the Director and Chief Marketing Officer at Max New York Life Insurance. She brings with her over 20 years experience in building consumer brands in highly challenging environments. During her career in advertising & marketing she has developed memorable and effective campaigns across a range of industries - from automobiles to beverages to life insurance.

Anisha joined Max New York Life in 2007 and is responsible for Brand & Marketing, Research & Insights, Customer Value Management, Corporate Affairs & Direct Sales.

Under her leadership, Max New York Life brand made significant advances in establishing itself in a highly crowded and competitive industry environment. The genesis of this transition was rooted in breaking the traditional concept of insurance - from a sense of responsibility to building aspirations.

In less than three years, Max New York Life Insurance has progressed to being recognized as a Super Brand in 2009, Power Brand 2010 and Star Brand 2011 - omnipresent, relevant, trusted and highly respected. MNYL brand awareness moved from 58% to near universal awareness levels today. All imagery parameters of the brand have shown positive movement and today Anisha is well on her way to make Max New York Life the most admired brand in the Industry.

Prior to joining Max New York Life, she worked as Director Marketing with General Motors India, where she was instrumental in establishing Chevrolet as the face of GM in India.

Anisha has been recently conferred the 'Women at Work Leadership Award' for 2011 Asian Confederation of Business. She has also been voted as one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business' by Business Today for three consecutive years from 2009. She has also been recognized as 'CMO council - Marketing Super Achiever' in 2010.

Anisha is a graduate from Sophiya College, Ajmer and has done her management studies from the University of Rajasthan. Anisha has a keen interest in consumer behavior & insights and decoding trends from day to day events of life. Anisha is a regular contributor to many business publications and takes time out to teach as a visiting faculty at some management institutes. She is on the advisory board of Asia Brand Congress & Global Youth Forum.

Mr. Prashant Tripathy is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Max New York Life Insurance and is responsible for leading the overall financial strategy of the company. His key responsibilities include overseeing financial planning and costs structures in alignment with company’s strategic plans, management and coordination of all financial reporting activities for the organization including Company’s revenues, expenses, and balance sheet reports. He is also responsible for financial and accounting systems, processes, tools and control systems, including Investments' Risk Management and Accounting, Business Performance, Business Analytics and Procurement functions. Prashant is also engaged in supporting Max India, our parent company, in managing the Investor relations and communication.

Prior to assuming his current role, Prashant was Director - Strategic Planning & Business Development and has ably anchored strategic projects for redefining the company’s strategic posture and business plan, including shareholder/board reviews and communications.

Prashant holds a Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and has completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Bangalore. He has over 17 years of work experience, which includes exposure to Business Strategy, Financial Planning, Finance Operations, Customer Management and Project Management. Prashant was previously with GE and Genpact for 8 years in India and UK. Prashant’s last role was Vice President and Global Operating Leader for Finance and Accounting Clients in Genpact. Prashant also headed the Financial Planning and Analysis team for GE Commercial Finance in UK. Prior to this, Prashant worked with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur where he was involved in managing a plant operation.

Mr. Rajiv joined Max New York Life in January 2010 as Director Legal and Compliance and Company Secretary. He is a Fellow Member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India and an LLB from Delhi University besides being an Associate Member of the All India Management Association and has a Post Graduate diploma in Industrial Relations. Rajiv brings with him experience of over 24 years in Legal Compliance And Regulatory Affairs functions with various Organizations

In his previous assignment Rajiv was in NDTV, where he was Group Head - Legal and Company Secretary. He was deeply involved in NDTV’s expansion and re-structuring exercise in the International markets and also established its Compliance and Regulatory framework.

Rajiv has also spent about 9 years with Gillette India as General Manager (Corporate Affairs) And Group Company Secretary, where he was involved in the restructuring initiatives of the group besides being head of Legal And Compliance with Bhilwara Group for more than 9 years in his initial years of working.

Mr. Sanchit Maini is the Appointed Actuary for the Company in terms of Indian insurance Regulations. He is responsible for all areas of actuarial work including financial reporting and risk management. In addition he provides high level support to the Product Management Group and also to the CFO on shareholder and investor relations.

Prior to joining Max New York Life, Sanchit worked with BNP Paribas Assurance in Paris on matters ranging from market entry, business planning, product development and M and A. He has also worked with Watson Wyatt (now known as Towers Watson), an actuarial consulting firm, in various roles and geographies mainly in Asia.

Sanchit is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and India. He read Statistics at the University of Delhi and Actuarial Science at the University of Melbourne. Sanchit is involved in various activities with the actuarial profession and is currently the Chair of the ERM Advisory Group of the Institute of Actuaries of India and a member of the Enterprise and Financial Risks Committee of the International Actuarial Association.

Mr. V Viswanand is a BITS Pilani, Master in Management Studies and joined Max New York life after working in the sales and branch management function of ANZ Grindlays Bank for 9 years.

A founder team member, V Vishwanand joined the company in Nov 2000, and set up the company’s Agency distribution channel in South And East India, and thereafter launched the Bancassurance and Direct Sales Distribution channels. Over the past six years, both channels have evolved to become significant strategic contributors to Max New York Life's growth. Today, the Bancassurance channel has established exclusive tie-ups with over 30 banks with a network spanning over 1750 branches, including Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Barclays Finance, top Urban Cooperative Banks. On the other hand, Max New York life Direct team (Customer Advisory Team) has completed it's transformation to predominantly focus on SOW initiative on Max New York Life's DCS customer base and inbound leads.

Since May 2008, Viswanand has also been leading a core group to improve the company's Persistency ratio and Renewal Income growth, by driving a cross-functional agenda across distribution channels, renewals and recovery teams. Today the company has an industry best-in-class conservation ratio of more than 82% for the fourth consecutive financial year.

Since January 2010, V Viswanand has taken charge of the Product Management Group and is responsible for new product development, launch and life cycle management.