APAC is promoted by Mr. Gunit Chadha, who has more than 35 years of experience in financial services across prominent leadership roles & entrepreneurship. After leading Deutsche Bank’s franchise in 16 countries across Asia Pacific (including India sub-continent, ASEAN, Greater China, Korea, Japan & ANZ), Mr. Chadha returned to the financial services industry in India in a new entrepreneurial avatar, as Founder of APAC Financial Services, a phygital lending platform focused on micro & small enterprises.  

Previously Gunit was MD & CEO, Deutsche Bank India (2003-12) and earlier MD & CEO, IDBI Bank (2000-03). He also held various senior level positions at Citibank in India and New York. Mr. Chadha has been credited for launching / building several new businesses like retail banking, mortgages, SME financing, asset management, investment banking and structured finance. He has been awarded “Banker of the Year”, amongst other honours.  

Mr. Chadha has served on the Board of the Association of Merchant Bankers in India, on the Managing Committee of Indian Banks’ Association and on several committees of the RBI, CII & FICCI. Mr. Chadha is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.  

Mr. Chadha has an economics degree from St. Stephen’s College Delhi, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and an advanced management program from The Wharton School, USA. His interests include travel, sports & wildlife. 

Sankar is the Joint CEO of APAC and comes with 22 years of diverse experience across business, digital lending, credit, risk and management across micro & SME lending in semi urban and rural India. Sankar expertise is in starting up, growing and managing a high-quality granular book, while innovating on product, assembling a dynamic team and consistently improving the APAC customer experience.   

Prior to APAC, Sankar was the Business Head for Adani Capital, with overall P&L responsibility for 4 products: MSME, supply chain, CV and farm financing. Adani was Sankar’s second start up stint before APAC, as he helped build Adani’s product, team, processes and drove growth across products. Prior to this, Sankar was a founding team member at Vistaar Financial Services, where last held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Sankar has also been responsible for end-to-end P&L responsibility and business management for Vistaar including new state and branch expansion, recruitment and training, sourcing customers and collections. Prior to this, Sankar has held multiple roles across credit and sales at Fullerton India Credit, Axis Bank (erstwhile UTI Bank) and Coromandel Fertilisers.   

The origins of Sankar’s passion for & career in the semi urban/rural segment can be traced to his educational foundation. Sankar did his Bachelor in Horticulture Science from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and is a Gold Medalist – 1st Rank in PGDM – Rural Management from Xavier Institute of Management. Sankar is multilingual, loves to read books daily and is a keen cyclist.

Nikhil is a strategic and business-oriented technology leader with 25 years of experience. He has lead enterprise IT & developed scalable architecture by leveraging latest technology trends relevant to the lending business to accelerate business growth. Nikhil leads APAC’s technology, digital and operational initiatives and has built technology programs that streamline operations, drive innovation, reduce TAT and improve efficiency.

Prior to APAC, Nikhil was CIO and Head of Business Operations at Vistaar, where he led a futuristic transformation of the technology architecture and systems across customer journeys, payments, core lending system, analytics and operational processes. He also led day to day operations for Vistaar and pioneered process improvements to reduce TAT and costs, while improving FTR rates and efficiency. Prior to this, Nikhil worked with Tata AIA Life in Mumbai as Head IT Applications and Patni Computers (now Capgemini) in Pune & US. He has managed global technology initiatives in multiple roles ranging from developer to program management. 

Nikhil did his B.E. (Electrical Engineering) from BIT Bhilai and PG program in Finance from Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai. Apart from his interest to read about new technology trends across sectors and geographies, Nikhil enjoys long road trips and playing racket sports. 

Sanjay has 30 years of rich experience across technology, people management, operations, innovation and successfully starting up large companies. Sanjay, a founding team member & the Chief People Officer at APAC, is responsible for talent management, development, performance management and developing APAC’s culture. He has lent his rich experience in digital transformations to our human resources function and is responsible for APAC's end-to-end digital HRMS and learning platform.  

Prior to APAC, Sanjay was Head of Technology, Innovation & Customer Fulfilment at RBL Bank, where he was responsible for developing the tech and IT vision in accordance with the business strategy of the bank. 

Before RBL Bank, Sanjay was the CEO & Managing Director of IDBI Intech, a technology company operating in the BFSI sector, having clients in domestic and overseas markets. During Sanjay’s tenure, IDBI Intech was transformed from a captive subsidiary to a specialized tech company providing an array of services to BFSI clients in both Indian and overseas markets.    

APAC is not Sanjay’s first start up gig. Sanjay was part of the core group that set up IDBI Bank in 1995. He played a key role in setting up the technology backbone, processes and products for the bank and wore various hats before becoming CIO, where he established IDBI Bank as a technology leader in the BFSI sector. 

Sanjay was part of various apex-level Banking Committees/working groups formed by IBA and Ministry of Finance and was instrumental in conceptualizing the ‘India Pay Card’ (known as RuPay card). He was also a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of NPCI (constituted for setting up of financial payment infrastructure for the country) and the High Level Committee setup by RBI to draft guidelines on information security, electronic banking, technology risk management and cyber fraud. Sanjay was also an ex-independent director of Stock Holding Document Management Services Limited.

For his contribution in the technology space in the banking segment, Sanjay has received the coveted IBA award for ‘Outstanding Achiever of the Year 2007.’ Sanjay has done his Masters in Applied Physics with a Specialisation in Microwave Electronics from SGSITS Indore. In his free time Sanjay likes to draw cartoons and listen to good music. 

K. Selvaraj comes with 25 years of experience in the legal domain within the banking and finance industry. Selvaraj is instrumental in setting up legal, compliance, secretarial and internal audit functions within APAC Group, which consists of APAC Financial Services and APAC Housing Finance. Prior to joining APAC Group, he was with IDFC Bank Limited, IDFC Limited, ING Vysya Bank and Canara Bank in varied roles across the legal functions.   

Selvaraj had practiced as an Advocate in the office of Govt Pleader-cum-Public Prosecutor for about four years after completion of his law degree.  He was part of the team which set-up end to end legal processes & other processes across IDFC First Bank when it was founded.  He was also part of the team which setup Legal & Compliance function at ING Vysya Bank when ING had taken over control and management of Vysya Bank. 

Selvaraj holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore and Law degree from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. He also holds a post graduate diploma in Intellectual Property Rights from National Law University, Bangalore. He had also attended a one-year Executive General Management Program from IIM Bangalore.  

Shankar is a seasoned banking and finance professional with over 40 years experience in banking and industry, the bulk of which was in senior leadership positions. In addition to being of our Directors, Shankar is one of APAC's founding team members and is instrumental in setting up our high-quality finance team & processes, as well as contributing immensely to our strategy & corporate governance.  

Previously, Shankar has set up and managed the Indian operations of three international banks in India as CEO and has also served as the CFO of a large company in the Tata Group. Shankar's experience covers investment, commercial and private banking including lending, capital markets, corporate advisory, M&A and private client advisory. Shankar has substantial experience in general management, strategy and corporate governance. 

Shankar is a BSc. (Hons) from Calcutta University and subsequently qualified as a management accountant from ICMA (London). He loves reading, music and travel and is an amateur cook. 

S Vijay has 25 rich years of experience across Credit Underwriting, Risk Management, Credit and Risk operations, Loan Administration and Sales. As APAC’s Chief Risk Officer, Vijay comes with a proven track record in Credit – particularly in the rural MSME segment – which is demonstrable in APAC’s robust risk framework design and strong credit quality outcomes. Prior to joining APAC, Vijay was Senior VP at Fullerton India Credit Company, where he headed credit for Fullerton’s entire Rural Business across MSME mortgage, personal and microfinance loans. He led a nationwide credit team of 800+ members across 10 states and maintained strong credit quality as the portfolio grew from Rs. 150 crores to Rs. 5,000 crores under his leadership. Among several initiatives, he drove credit productivity and quality by developing underwriting scorecard models, implementing segmentation and risk-based pricing, and continuously improving credit processes. Vijay also has diverse experience across Credit and Sales roles in leading lending companies including HDFC Bank, Manappuram Finance and Sundaram Finance, where he started his remarkable career as a Relationship Manager. Vijay has done Executive Management Program – IIM Ahmedabad, the Management Program from Indian School of Business Management. He is multilingual and has a passion for singing and training.