Ajay Harinath Singh Greatest Brand Leader 2018-2019

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powerful
Shachindra Nath
Making a Mark in the Financial Services Space
A distinguished corporate leader, Mr. Shachindra Nath is the Executive
Chairman & Managing Director of U GRO Capital (formerly known
as Chokhani Securities). In his rich career spanning three decades,
Mr. Nath has been influential in building diversified financial services
including Insurance, Asset Management, Lending and Capital Market
106 | india’s greatest leaders 2019-20 |
An Illustrious Career
Belonging to the historic city of Varanasi,
he spent his early life growing up in a
nurturing environment. Mr. Nath, a
lawyer by education, is a university rank
holder from Banaras Hindu University.
He began his career as a commercial
trainee and spent many years working in
the carpet industry. Over these years, he
travelled extensively across rural India.
After many years he made a transition to
the financial services industry and there
has been no looking back ever since.
Mr. Nath has diversified financial
services experience wherein he has
been part of multiple financial services
startups and reached to leadership
role–in his previous roles he has been
instrumental in setting up Insurance
Companies, Global Asset Management
Businesses, Capital Market and Lending
Institutions.
Exploring
eNTREPRENEURSHIP
Nearly three decades into his professional
career, Mr. Nath took on the role of an
entrepreneur by acquiring control of a
listed NBFC called Chokhani Securities
Limited in 2018. The company has
simultaneously raised capital of INR
9500 million under his leadership.
This is believed to be one of the largest
institutional capital raising feats for an
NBFC.
Mr. Nath intends to build an SME
lending business that would focus on
Healthcare, Education, Chemicals, Food
Processing/FMCG, Electrical Equipment
Components, Light Engineering and
BFSI segments. U GRO Capital in its
one year journey is now recognized a
platform driven by the combination
of ‘Knowledge +Technology’ and its
impeccable governance framework.
Career Milestones
Throughout his illustrious career, he
has been instrumental in building two
insurance companies, a large asset
management company and an NBFC.
Some of his biggest achievements
include successfully leading the IPO
process for Religare in 2007 as well
as establishing new business verticals
alongside foraying successful joint
ventures and partnerships for the group.
Religare had transitioned into a
performance-centric, bottom linefocused
organization. He became
famous as the gladiator who blew the
loudest whistle on governance and had
to leave when his voice was not heard.
A Futuristic View
A man of many great qualities, Mr. Nath
is known to be an influencer and a
hands-on leader who trusts his instincts.
At present, Mr. Nath is focused on the
SME credit gap in India. The segment
roughly contributes to around 30 per
cent of the country’s GDP and yet the
capital gap within the sector is estimated
at USD 650 billion. Currently, he is
passionate about solving India’s SME
credit problem.
Unlike many other techpreneurs, Mr.
Nath is not interested in developing a
dotcom company and selling it in a few
years. Instead, he wants U GRO Capital
to be as technology-driven as any other
fintech start-up but wants it to be a
business that stands the test of time. As
financial services is a growing sector in
a country like India, Mr. Nath considers
himself fortunate to have the requisite
experience to be the torch bearer at U
GRO Capital. Under his able leadership,
there brand identity is now looking to
build its very own technology platform,
which can be integrated with other
technologies in the same space.
“A man of many great
qualities, Mr. Nath
is known to be an
influencer and a handson
leader who trusts his
instincts. Presently, he
is focused on the SME
credit gap in India”