Board
Chairman
Amit Jatia
From 1987 to 1995 Mr Jatia was involved with Houghton Hardcastle (India) Limited, a financial and technical collaboration with Houghton International Inc., becoming Managing Director in 1993.
Since 1995, he has been the managing director of Hardcastle Restaurants, a joint venture company with McDonald's for the establishment and operation of McDonald's restaurants in India. He has been responsible for all aspects of the establishment of McDonald's in west and southern India including site location and acquisition; site development and equipment installation; supply chain and product development; marketing strategy; and local government liaison.
He has been recognised for his achievements with the awarding of the "Young Achievers Award" by the Indo-American Society in 2003, Business world's "Most Respected Company" award for the Food Sector in 2005, for the third consecutive year, as well as Images "Retailer of the Year" award in 2004 and 2005. He was a member of the Managing Committee of the Indian Merchant's Chamber and a board member of the Young Entrepreneur's Organisation and is currently a member of the Young President's Organisation, Mumbai.
He holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration (Finance Major) from the University of Southern California and has also completed a programme on Management Control Systems at the Indian Institute of Management as well as the Strategy, Leadership and Governance programme at Harvard Business School.
Vice Chairman
Jayant Sohonie
West Pioneer Properties (India) Pvt Ltd
Mr Sohonie holds substantial senior management and marketing experience in the Indian retail and consumer goods sector. Prior to joining the Group he held a variety of positions at Hindustan Lever Limited, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever, including marketing and sales manager roles for some of Unilever's branded products. He was seconded to Quest International, a Unilever subsidiary, as divisional Business Manager where he went on to hold the position of Whole time Director and Chief Executive on formation of Quest International India, a joint venture between Unilever and ICI.
His accomplishments include the investment of approximately US$20 million in the establishment of new factories and operational systems; the formation of the necessary internal controls and operations; and the implementation of key marketing initiatives in Home and Personal Care products.
He holds a B.Sc. in Statistics and Economics from Mumbai University and Master of Management Studies from the Bajaj Institute of Management Studies at Mumbai University.
Executive Directors
Ajay Gupta, Chief Executive Officer
Mr Gupta has been associated with West Pioneer since early 2009 as a valued member of the management committee involved in leading the Company's strategic planning process. He also has extensive experience within the retail sector having been associated with Hardcastle Restaurants, the McDonald's India joint venture in the West and South of the country, as well as with Global Trendz Ltd, the Master franchise for Disney Kids Wear in India.
Mr Gupta joins West Pioneer from Astrum Consulting ("Astrum"), a management and strategic consultancy business, which he co-founded in April 2000. As Chief Executive Officer of Astrum, Mr Gupta helped increase the client base to include some of the world's leading blue chip businesses, including HSBC, Vodafone, Astra Zeneca and Unilever.
Nitin Dattani, Executive Director
Mr. Dattani joined the Board in June 2007. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1994. Since 1998, he has owned and managed a niche accountancy and business advisory firm based in London, Dattani Chartered Accountants, during which time he has been involved in advising a number of early stage and small and mid-sized companies in the UK and internationally. Nitin was also an advisor to the West Pioneer board as well as its India subsidiary, Westfield Retail Private Ltd, in the period leading up to the Company's admission to AIM.
As a member of the board, he will be primarily responsible for co-ordinating the Company's activities outside of India, in particular in relation to financial and investor relations matters
Non-Executive Directors
Ian Greenstreet
Mr. Greenstreet is a UK national with over 25 years of financial experience and extensive knowledge of risk management. He was previously at ABN AMRO Bank where he was the Country Risk Officer for London responsible for the credit approval, evaluation, structuring and mitigation of risk for complex structures relating to real estate lending and asset securitisation as well as other products such as financial market and equity derivatives, leverage finance, project finance and infrastructure. He has held senior positions at a variety of financial institutions such as Midland Montagu (now HSBC) and Henderson Fund Management Group. He has also delivered speeches and chaired conferences on several topical credit subjects. He is ACA qualified, having trained with Touche Ross in London.
Hugh Sandeman
Mr Sandeman has extensive financial experience which includes 2 years spent working for the London Stock Exchange, where he was responsible for substantially increasing its market share of equity capital raised by Indian companies on international stock markets. Prior to that he spent 13 years in investment banking at Dresdner Kleinwort, where he managed a number of high profile deals in the telecommunications and utilities sectors.
Mr Sandeman is currently a senior advisor of Langham Capital Limited and during the past five years has also been a managing director of investment bank Jefferies International Limited, where he spent much of his time advising on India based transactions and helped build a locally based India team.
Mihir Thacker
Mihir is currently with Economic Research Asscoiates Limited based in Abhu Dhabi. He is responsible for the company's practice in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian Sub-Continent.
Previously he was Director of Development at Intercontinental Hotels based in Dubai. He is responsible for the strategy and growth of the various IHG brands in emerging markets across Africa and the Middle East.
Prior to joining IHG, Mihir established the regional development office for Shangri-La Hotels in Dubai where he was responsible for the growth of Shangri-La across North Africa, Middle East, Indian Ocean and the Indian Sub - Continent. Previously he obtained extensive real estate led consulting experience with the international consulting firm - Knight Frank and established the Hospitality practice for the firm in India. He advised clients on their acquisition, valuation and disposal strategies across various asset classes.
Mihir is an international speaker at various industry forums across the Middle East and South Asia as well as having served on the advisory board of the Arab Hotel Investment forum in 2005 and 2006.
He is an alumnus of the Hotel Management School - Les Roches, Switzerland.
Page last up-dated: 4 March 2010