Chennai: API Holdings Ltd (API Holdings), the parent co. of India’s Largest Digital Healthcare Brand, PharmEasy has announced that it has made fresh appointments of 5 Independent Directors to its Board, in line with the highest standard of Corporate Governance. The fresh appointments bring a great amount of cognitive diversity to the Board, with luminaries from the world of public service, technology, pharma, medical fraternity, and the consumer sector.
Following the approval by its shareholders along with the resignation of several Investor Nominee Directors, API, the board has a total of 12 members including 5 Independent Directors. These directors are:
· Vineeta Rai, IAS (Retd) Officer who was the Ex-Revenue Secretary of India.
· Subramanian Somasundaram recently retired as the CFO of Titan Company Ltd.
· Ramakant Sharma, Founder and COO, Livspace and one of the most successful angel investors in India.
· Dr Jaydeep Tank, a leading Gynaecologist based in Mumbai is the Secretary General, FOGSI.
· Deepak Vaidya, with decades of experience in the field of Pharmaceuticals, Micro-Finance, Healthcare and Private Equity.
A brief profile of each of the Independent Directors is as follows:
Vineeta Rai, IAS (Retd) 1968 batch from AGMUT Cadre, was a fellow in public administration at Queen Elizabeth House Oxford University. She has extensive experience in the field of health administration and finance and has been associated with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Finance, United Nations besides working with various state administrations and public sector undertakings. She retired as the Revenue Secretary, Government of India.
Ramakant Sharma, Founder & COO of Livspace, is an IIT Kanpur and ISB Hyderabad Graduate, continues to play a pivot to all technology driven decisions and has led the operations at Livspace. Before founding Livspace he a was an operating partner at Jungle Ventures and a core team member and Vice President at Myntra. He is an active seed capital Investor with 46 investments across E-Commerce, Software, Marketing & Analytics, Freight, Dental, Supply Chain segments and mentors more than 80+ technology start-ups namely Lamdatest, Edureka, Pitstop, Andor Technologies, Lemnisk and Workspace.
Dr. Jaydeep Tank, MBBS, MD is one of the most leading Gynaecologist and Obstetrics in India, based out of Mumbai. He is the Secretary General of The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, the leading apex society of all Gynaecologists and Obstetricians in India. He is the renowned global authority on Gynaecology and is a speaker at several global summits and serves in various global bodies, apart from being member of several bodies of the Government of India.
Subbu Subramanian, a chartered accountant and cost accountant has over 35 years of experience in finance, strategy, and business roles. Until July 2021, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Head IT, at Titan Company Ltd, a NIFTY 50 Company, and part of the Tata Group. Before joining Titan, he was in the telecom industry for over a decade as a CFO of BPL Mobile Group then taking over as CEO of BPL Mobile. He also took on the mantle of being CFO of the telecom vertical in Essar Group and has also served at various well-known corporations like ITC Group, A F Ferguson & Co, VST Industries and Mannai Group in Doha, Qatar.
Deepak Vaidya is a veteran from the world of private equity. Deepak has invested and mentored several companies in his lifetime and is a member of several boards. He has deep expertise in the fields of finance, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Deepak is the Non-Exec Chairman of Spandana Sphoorty, one of the leaders in the field of micro-finance and is also a member of the Board of Directors of Unit Trust of India Private Equity. Deepak is also on the Board of Strides Pharmaceuticals, Sequent Scientific amongst others.
Commenting on this development, Mr Siddharth Shah, Co-Founder & CEO, API Holdings said, “We are delighted to welcome such eminent personalities to our Board. This is yet another step in our journey of being the best in class of Corporate Governance and lead the way for times to come. The diversity will help us provide integrated, digital healthcare solution across the length and breadth of India benefiting all stakeholders. We have luminaries from the field of public service, a leading doctor, a tech wizard & angel investor, a pharma veteran and someone who has seen consumer business very closely. This diversity will help us bring a paradigm shift with rapid digitisation of healthcare and enable across the board doctor consultation, diagnostics labs and the supply chain for delivering medicines. With diverse experience of our board, our platforms will continue to significantly invest to improve access to affordable healthcare. We remain resolute in our mission to offer affordable healthcare across every single zip-code of India, be it consultation, tests of treatment within a 24-hour TAT, and contribute to the Indian Healthcare ecosystem.”