Management Team

Udaya Kumar Hebbar

Managing Director

Mr. Udaya Kumar Hebbar is the Managing Director at CA Grameen and a veteran in the microfinance industry who established that inclusive finance could succeed with a market-based model. He has been the architect behind the transformational journey of building the CA Grameen brand as the leading microfinance institution in India.

He is a seasoned banker with over 35 years of rich experience spanning across operations, including rural, agriculture, and micro-banking fields. Prior to joining CA Grameen, he held various leadership positions including Head of Commercial Banking and Payment Operations at Barclays Bank PLC. and successful stints of over a decade each in Corporation Bank and ICICI Bank. Mr. Udaya holds a Master’s degree in Commerce from Karnatak University, Dharwad, and is a certificated associate from the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Mr. Hebbar also currently serves as the Chairperson of the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN).

Ganesh Narayanan

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Ganesh Narayanan has rich experience of 25 years, spanning strategic planning and spearheading several key businesses in large financial institutions. He was earlier associated with ICICI Bank Ltd, Fullerton India Credit Co. Ltd (now SMFG India Credit) and Yes Bank Ltd. and has an extensive experience in rural & agri banking, microfinance and financial institutions space.

He was last associated with Yes Bank for nearly a decade in the Indian Financial Institutions Group. Before joining CA Grameen, he worked with the bank as the Group President & Deputy National Head – Indian Financial Institutions (IFI) Banking, heading multiple business segments covering NBFCs, Cooperative Banks, Capital Market clients, Full-Fledged Money Changers & Fintech clients.

Mr. Ganesh Narayanan joined CA Grameen in January 2020 as Chief Business officer and was re-designated as Dy. CEO & CBO in June 2021. He has been managing Microfinance & Retail Business, Centralized Operations, Human Resources, Operational Excellence, RF Product, Administration, Govt & Public Relations in his portfolio during this tenure.

Mr. Ganesh Narayanan holds a master’s degree in management and a graduate degree in electronics.

Balakrishna Kamath

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Balakrishna Kamath is the Chief Financial Officer at CA Grameen. He comes with 30 years of experience in finance, treasury, fundraising, corporate governance, and compliance functions. He has held various leadership positions throughout his career from 1993 to 2020 across various industries, in the largest multinational conglomerate of India, Tata Group covering Indian and Global markets. Before joining CA Grameen, he held the position of ‘CFO & Compliance Officer’ in Tata Capital Housing Finance Ltd., Mumbai. Mr. Kamath is a qualified chartered accountant.

Gururaj K S Rao

Chief Audit Officer

Mr. Gururaj Rao, Chief Audit Officer at CA Grameen brings more than 20 years of auditing experience in the Middle East and India. With his association with the company for over 12 years, he has laid the foundation of the internal audit function with his eyes on a detailed approach enabling cost-effectiveness and excellent operational controls. Before joining CA Grameen, he was associated with Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo W.L.L and Mallya Hospital, Bangalore. Mr. Gururaj holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Bangalore University and is a Certified Internal Auditor from the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Firoz Anam

Chief Risk Officer

Mr. Firoz Anam, Chief Risk Officer at CA Grameen has close to two decades of experience across various banks and NBFCs. His risk management expertise spans financial products including mortgages, credit cards, personal loans, microfinance, and small business loans. He is also a trained data scientist with extensive experience in developing advanced analytical solutions. Firoz has managed credit & operational risk functions within institutions like IDFC Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and Citibank. In his last role before joining CA Grameen, Firoz worked as the Chief Risk Officer with Indie Home Loans. Firoz has a B.Tech. degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA degree from IIM Bangalore.

Sudesh Puthran

Chief Technology Officer

Sudesh Puthran is the Chief Technology Officer of CA Grameen and is responsible for leading the function of Information Technology at the company. He has 30 years of extensive work experience in the IT industry. Prior to joining CA Grameen, Sudesh has worked with various prominent organisations in the leadership role including Aditya Birla Group as CTO, HDFC Bank as Executive Vice President, and was the Head of Digital – Technology & Innovations, CIBIL as CIO since its inception and was instrumental in building the first and largest credit bureau in India. He was also a CTO at CRISIL. He has obtained a degree of B.E (Electronics and Telecom) and MFM (Master’s in Financial Management) from Mumbai University.

Narayanan M

Chief Integration Officer

Mr. Narayanan is the Chief Integration Officer at CA Grameen. He comes with over 25 years of experience in the banking industry where he has held key positions as Head of Treasury at Bank of Madura and Head of Treasury at the GMR Group, Bangalore. He has also led the operations at Madura Microfinance Ltd prior to its amalgamation into CA Grameen.

His earlier career led him through a variety of significant roles at Bank of Madura including Head of Mumbai region – the main and the largest branch of the bank, and AGM of Cash Management Services, Merchant Banking and Corporate Banking. Mr. Narayanan has also served as an active member of various committees including Strategic Planning, Investment, Forex and ALCO. Following the merger of Bank of Madura with ICICI Bank, he took on the role as the VP of Corporate Banking. He has also worked briefly at Union Bank of California and at ING Vysya Bank.

He is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).

M. J. Mahadev Prakash

Company Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer

Mr. M. J. Mahadev Prakash is the Company Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of Mysore and a bachelor’s degree in law from Karnataka State Law University. He also holds a Master’s degree in Commerce from Karnataka State Open University and a Master’s degree in Business Laws from National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, New Delhi. Prior to joining CA Grameen, he was associated with EY, J. Sagar Associates, Janalakshmi Financial Services (now called as Jana Small Finance Bank), RMZ Corp, BPL Ltd., and Bal Pharma Ltd. Mr. Mahadev Prakash joined our Company in December 2019.

Ravi Rathinam

Chief Information Security Officer

Mr. Ravi Rathinam is Vice President of Technology, and Chief Information Security Officer at CA Grameen since February 2022. He holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Applications and has completed an Executive General Management Program from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.  He is also a Java and Oracle Certified Professional in development and has cleared the CISA certification examination, from ISACA.

With more than 25 years of experience in IT & Banking industries, he is vastly experienced in implementing technology solutions for Core, Retail and Wholesale Banking, Auditing, domains, etc. He has an ardent interest towards structuring and adopting a process-oriented approach from thinking, designing, implementing, and maintaining technology solutions. Prior to joining us, he was associated with Fincare Small Finance Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Oracle Financial Software Ltd.

Gopal Reddy

Business Head – Group Lending

Mr. Gopal is the Business Head of the Group Lending unit (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa ) of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bangalore University. He has been an integral part of the organisation since the beginning with over 22 years of hands-on experience in microfinance operations.

Srivatsa H N

Business Head – Retail Finance and Group Lending

Mr. Srivatsa is the Business Head of the Group Lending unit (Karnataka) and Head of Retail Finance (pan India). He holds a pre-university certificate issued by the Education Department, Government of Karnataka. Srivatsa HN has been associated with us since 2002. He has over two decades of experience in microfinance operations.

Manjunatha

Business Head - Group Lending

Mr. Manjunatha is the Business Head of the Group Lending unit of our company for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry. He has been associated with CA Grameen for over the last two decades. He has played an integral role in maintaining pristine asset quality across various business cycles given the experience of nurturing high-touch interactions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts from Mysore University.

Venkat Naik

Business Head - Group Lending

Mr. Venkat Naik is the Business Head of Group Lending unit of our company for the eastern zone (Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts from Bangalore University.

Mr. Naik has been associated with us since 2000 and has an extensive work experience in the microfinance industry. Prior to his appointment as the Business Head, he has held various positions in the company and his expertise has been invaluable in bolstering our operations and grievance redressal mechanism.

Arun Kumar B

Head – Strategy, Innovation and Analytics

Mr. Arun is the Vice President, Strategy, Innovation, and Analytics of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree of technology in textile technology from Allagappa College of Technology, Guindy, Chennai, and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. Prior to joining our Company, he was associated with Infosys Technologies Limited and Barclays Bank PLC. Mr. Arun joined our Company in November 2010.

Sundar Arumugam

Head - Digital Lending and Retail Finance Products

Sundar is the Head of Digital Lending and Retail Finance Products at CA Grameen. He comes with over 20 years of experience in product management, marketing, strategy and business development in financial services and technology. He is passionate about financial inclusion and is a focused problem solver, keen to leverage technology and data to solve real world problems. Prior to CA Grameen, he was with CreditAccess Asia (CAA) where he led business innovation for the group including, exploring, piloting new business / revenue streams, enabling technology and data driven process transformation to drive competitive differentiation for the group companies. Prior to CAA, he headed product management at Equifax India where he led the creation of one of the two mainstream credit bureaus for microfinance segment. He was a part of original start-up team that setup Equifax India in the country and also was instrumental in launching many analytics driven products for the company. Sundar started his career with Infosys where he led portfolio of engagements for customers in health insurance space.

Nagananda Kumar K N

Head – Centralized Operations

Mr. Nagananda is the Vice President, Centralized Operations of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bangalore University. He joined our Company in April 2001 in the Department of Information Technology and served until March 2012. He worked with Sysfore Technologies from 2012 to 2016 before re-joining our Company in March 2016.

Haridarshini A

Head – Operational Excellence

Ms. Haridarshini has close to 20 years of experience in the development sector. She joined the Company immediately after pursuing her B. Tech, in the finance and analysis team in 2003. Thereafter, she worked with APMAS-Technical Institution, focusing on ratings for Self-Help Groups (SHG) and training in Accountings, Delinquency Management, and Financial Analysis. She re-joined CA Grameen in May 2007 and since then she has been associated with us. She has worked with various departments including MIS, Planning and Monitoring, Finance & Account, and Human Resources. Currently, she is heading CA Grameen’s Operational Excellence Department. Haridarshini holds a degree in B. Tech from REC-Warangal and she also holds a certified Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt.

Nilesh Dalvi

Head – Investor Relations

Mr. Nilesh Dalvi, Senior Vice President – Investor Relations at CA Grameen comes with an enriching work experience of over 14 years spanning India, United States, and Europe markets. In his previous role as the CEO of Dickenson IR, he provided investor relations advisory services to over 50 corporates across diverse industries like BFSI, Media & Entertainment, Jewellery, Textiles & Apparels, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, Infrastructure, etc, backed by his strong equity research capabilities and understanding of equity capital markets.
In his early years, he worked as a credit analyst with Bank of America (Corporate Debt) covering fortune 500 companies in the Oil & Gas sector in the United States and the Power sector in Europe. He has also worked with Tata Consultancy Services supporting a leading global telecommunication client. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from CFA Institute, USA, holds Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification from Global Association of Risk Professionals, USA, holds a Master’s Degree in Finance and Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics from Mumbai University.

Manian RHS

Head- Human Resources

Manian RHS is the Head of Human Resources at CA Grameen. He has close to 18 years of experience of which over 15+ years in BFSI HR. He holds diverse experience across Talent Acquisition, L&D, Employer Branding, Performance Management & Centre of Excellence (COE).

Prior to CA Grameen, he was President – Human Capital Management at YES Bank, where he was leading COE for Retail Businesses and Business HR for South & East. Before YES Bank, he was associated with Standard Chartered Bank and CitiFinancial. Manian holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering & Post Graduate Diploma in Management.