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Chaitanya Sampara
Managing Director
Chaitanya Sampara
Managing Director
Dr. Chaitanya Sampara is the Manging Director at Viridis Chemicals and handles
new product development, scale-up and operations. He also handles marketing of
specific products in Viridis’ portfolio. He obtained his doctoral degree at the
University of Michigan in the area of emissions catalysis. There he worked in
collaboration with General Motors R&D to develop diesel oxidation catalysts for
light and medium duty applications. He then worked at Nanostellar, a California
based Start-up Company where he developed and patented a Palladium-Gold
based catalyst that rivals conventional Platinum catalysts. The technology has
been commercialized at Audi and Fiat. He then worked as a Senior Scientist at the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, where he
worked on several catalyst technologies for automotive emissions abatement and
fuel reforming funded by the Department of Energy (DOE). At PNNL he developed
and scaled-up an alternating channel geometry that comprised of CO2 absorbing
material and mixed metal oxide catalyst for reforming bio-oil; a projected funded
by ARPA-E. At PNNL he also developed various acid catalyst materials and
mathematical models for gasoline and diesel afteratreatment and worked in
collaboration with General Motors, Bosch, Oakridge National Laboratory and
Paccar. Prior to PNNL, he also served as a visiting research scientist at the
University of Houston where he worked in collaboration with Prof. William Epling.
Umang Khagram
Director
Umang Khagram
Director
Mr. Umang Khagram handles raw material procurement and heads the technical sales division at Viridis. Umang brings nearly 10 years of experience in refinery sales and materials procurement. Umang has a Master’s degree from the University of Florida in Chemical Engineering.
Advisors
Ajay Aggarwal
Ajay Aggarwal, an accomplished professional, brings over 42 years of experience in
Management Skills Development. With a Bachelor's degree (Hons) in Science from Bombay
University and additional diplomas in Multi-Track Recording Tech. and Financial
Management, his educational background complements his expertise.
He serves as an Independent Director with SpiceJet Limited and holds Directorships in Multi
Media HRD Pvt. Ltd. and Viridis Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., alongside being a designated partner
in Smart Ensemblé LLP.
Chetan Mehra
A Serial Entrepreneur with over 39 years’ experience in Textile exports, Full-fledged
Money Changing, International Money Transfer, Financial Inclusion – Domestic
Remittances & Payments, Housing & Consumer Finance, and Wind-farm / Hydro-
power development.
He has overseen the Weizmann Group’s steady growth and ensured its profitable
business record. He has been responsible for financial tie-ups in the form of capital-
infusion in housing finance by international financial institutions and public sector
banks. He has also successfully promoted Weizmann Homes Ltd. till the divestment
of its stake in favour of New York Based AIG, the world's largest insurance group.
He nurtured Weizmann Forex Ltd since its infancy and spearheaded the Growth of
both Money Changing and International Money Transfer Business (IMT). He steered
the Company to great heights and guided tie up with over 30 Scheduled Banks
including most of the leading Public and Private Sector Banks and over 18,000 big
and small entities to be sub-agents of the Company in the IMT business leading t
about 60,000 outlets across India marketing IMT business on behalf of the Company.
He was instrumental in tie up with all leading Money Transfer Entities globally like
Western Union, Money Gram, UAE Exchange, Ria Financials and Transfast. At the
right time Weizmann Forex was acquired by Atlanta based Ebix in February 2019.
He successfully acquired PPI license and guided in tie up with banks and built a
Financial Inclusion – Domestic Remittances & Payments platform JaldiCash under
Weizmann Impex Service Enterprise Ltd in 2015, the platform reaching out to the
unbanked through a network of over 25000 Banking Correspondent Agents. The PPI
license and related business was subsequently carved out and divested in favour of
General Atlantic backed Uni Orbit Technologies in 2022.
He has been active for about three decades in mentoring other Weizmann companies
who are engaged in the renewable energy sector – both Wind and Hydro, he has also
engineered financial and technical JVs with leading business houses for wind-farm
development and manufacture of wind-electric generators.
He is the President of the Renewable Energy Developers Association of Maharashtra
(REDAM), Ex-Secretary of the National Council of Indian Wind-power Association
and the Chairman of the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE). With his
considerable experience in the financial services and renewable energy sectors, He
has served on the financial services and energy sub-committees of the CII and was
the Chairman of Laxmi Finance and Leasing Companies Commercial Premises Co-
operative Society Ltd. which implemented the commercial project in the prestigious
Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai. He is also an ex-Chairman of the CII-GBC Sub-
Committee for Development of Wind Energy.
He has been selected as Co-Chair for International Remittance by Payment Council of
India, (PCI) committee.
Anish Modi
Anish Modi brings over 25 years experience in corporate finance and strategy to Viridis. He
was previously a partner at ADM capital where he managed a fund of over 500 mn$ with
focus on investments in the manufacturing sectors in India. He has a Master’s from the
London School of Business and Bachelor’s from Delhi School of Economics.
Pranabh Mody
Mr. Pranabh Dinesh Mody was part of the family that were the promoters of JB
Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a listed company on the stock exchange in
India. He was part of the second generation of the family and besides his role as
the Director of the company, in an operational role, was the President of the
Company. He has experience of 35 years with J. B. Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
Ltd. (JBCPL). Mr. Pranabh Mody has contributed immensely to JBCPL in his
capacity as President and Whole Time Director. In his role as President, he was
responsible for the company performance. Departments like Finance, Marketing
Strategy Planning, Supply Chain, etc reported into him. He was a Board member of
the company from start to finish.
The family have recently sold their company shares to KKR Inc in a transaction
which was widely reported. Pranabh Mody was the key architect in making this
deal happen. JBCPL valuation at the time of the sale was about Rs 5700 crs and
was generating a revenue of Rs 1800 crs with a profit after tax of over Rs 200 crs.
After the sale of the shares of the company Pranabh has resigned from the board of
JBCPL. The company, especially the departments that Pranabh was responsible for,
have reported growth numbers in significant excess of the market average. In
addition to outperforming peers, the company has put in a stellar financial
performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to his role in JBCPL he is also a Non-Executive Director of Sasken
Communication Technologies Ltd. Sasken is listed on BSE and NSE. The market
cap of the company is Rs 1450 crs. He is one of the Promoters of the company. In
adiditon to his board position he has also been a member of the audit committee of
the company for 16 years. In addition to that he is a member of the renumeration
committee for 12 years. He is also a member of the Investment committee and the
Strategy committee of the company.
He attained his Bachelor Degree in Pharmacy from Bombay College of Pharmacy in
1984 and has Masters in Business Administration from Oakland University, USA in
1986. He also completed an Executive Education Program from Harvard University
in USA in 1995.