Ashish Bharat Ram

Chairman & Managing Director

Ashish Bharat Ram is the Chairman & Managing Director of SRF Ltd. Under his leadership, SRF Ltd. has grown into a major global conglomerate with operations in four countries across India, Thailand, South Africa and Hungary.

Today, the company’s diverse portfolio spans Fluorochemicals, Specialty Chemicals, Performance Films & Foil, Technical Textiles, and Coated & Laminated Fabrics, commanding market leadership both in India and internationally. SRF currently has a market capitalization of over USD 9 billion.

Prior to joining the SRF Group, Ashish worked with the American Express Bank in India and the Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. Ashish led the successful divestment of SRF Finance to GE Capital in 1997.

Ashish has been studying the dynamics of family businesses for a while now and regularly speaks on the subject at Indian and global platforms. He has also authored articles on subjects related to India’s economic scenario and entrepreneurship in leading publications. Ashish has served as the Regional Chair for South Asia for the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is an active member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

For his outstanding contributions to entrepreneurship and leadership, Ashish has received several prestigious accolades. He was honoured with the AIMA (All India Management Association) Managing India Award as the Emerging Business Leader of the Year in 2024. Business Today, India’s leading business magazine, recognized him as India’s Best CEO in the Emerging and Mid-Sized Companies categories in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Additionally, in 2020, the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability conferred upon him the Transformational Leader Award in the Mid-Cap Company category.

Ashish’s strategic vision and deep understanding of SRF have propelled the company to earn numerous accolades, including The Economic Times Family Business of the Year Award in the Large Companies category in 2019 and the inaugural Moneycontrol Indian Family Business Award in the Giga Category in 2021.

He holds a degree in Economics from Delhi University and earned an MBA from The Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University.

Ashish is a single-digit handicap golfer and an avid follower of sports. He and his wife, Vasvi live in New Delhi with their two daughters.

Kartik Bharat Ram

Joint Managing Director

Kartik Bharat Ram is the Joint Managing Director of SRF Ltd., a diversified chemicals conglomerate engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates. The company’s business portfolio covers Fluorochemicals, Specialty Chemicals, Packaging Films, Technical Textiles, Coated and Laminated Fabrics.

He also serves as Chairman of KAMA Holdings Limited, which owns a majority stake in SRF Ltd., and is a Director at Shri Educare Limited, a company dedicated to school education consultancy. Kartik is a Co-founder of the KARM Trust, an initiative committed to empowering women leaders through higher education, mentoring, community engagement, and life skills programs. The Trust focuses on creating pathways for women to thrive in leadership roles, fostering inclusivity and social impact.

A strong advocate for industry leadership, Kartik is a Fellow of the India Leadership Initiative at Aspen Institute India. He currently chairs the CII Northern Region Family Business Network Committee and is the immediate past President of the Indian Chemical Council (ICC), which represents the interests of India’s chemical and petrochemical sectors. His previous leadership roles include serving as President of the Indian Blind Sports Association and Chairing the CII Delhi State Council (2007–08).

Kartik holds a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University, California, and an MBA from Cornell University, New York. Beyond business, he is passionate about golf, chairs the Caddie Welfare Trust, and has won several pro-am tournaments.

Vellayan Subbiah

Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director

Vellayan Subbiah is the Managing Director of Tube Investments of India since August 2018. Vellayan holds a B. Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras and earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

He has rich experience of over 23 years in consulting, technology and financial services in different positions across various industries viz., McKinsey & Co, 24/7 Customer Inc, Sundaram Fasteners and Laserwords. He was earlier the Managing Director of Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company Limited.

Vineet Agarwal

Independent Director

Vineet Agarwal is the Managing Director of Transport Corporation of India Ltd. which is one of India’s largest logistics companies. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and the Owner President Management program from Harvard Business School.

He is ex-President of ASSOCHAM, a leading Chamber of Commerce in India and on the Board of the National Start-up Advisory Council. Mr. Agarwal is the Chairman of Transystem Logistics International Limited (a joint venture with Mitsui & Co.) and the Chairman of TCI CONCOR Multimodal Logistics Ltd (a joint venture with CONCOR India Ltd.).

Ira Gupta

Independent Director

Ira Gupta leads an HR Advisory practice focused on leadership coaching, succession and culture. She brings 27 years of experience as an HR leader and coach, and believes in the ability to scale impact for organisations and people through helping leaders achieve their full potential.

She has been the CHRO at Microsoft India and South Asia and led an HR organisation that spanned product engineering, development centres, services delivery, consulting, research labs, and sales and marketing in these geographies. Prior to 12 years with Microsoft, she was an HR leader at GlaxoSmithKline. Across Tech, Pharma and FMCG sectors, she has worked extensively on succession and talent management, leadership coaching and development, organisation transformation and culture. She is a Director on Company Boards and NGOs, an Advisory Board member for educational institutions including XLRI, a member of committees at both CII and FICCI.

Bharti Gupta Ramola

Independent Director

Bharti Gupta Ramola holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Physics from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She was a partner at PwC during 1984-2017.

She was a part of the founding team of varied advisory businesses (Corporate Finance and Recovery, Project Finance, Sustainability) for PwC in India. She currently serves on the Governing Body of the Lady Shri Ram College for Women and is a part of the Advisory Council of Transform Rural India (a Tata Trust initiative), Advisory Committee of Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at IIT Delhi and the Committee of The Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Delhi University. She is a member of the Board of Feedback Infra Pvt Ltd.

Puneet Yadu Dalmia

Independent Director

Puneet Yadu Dalmia is a B. Tech from IIT-Delhi and a gold medallist MBA student from IIM Bangalore. He serves as the Managing Director of Dalmia Bharat Group and has been the driving force behind the exponential growth witnessed by the group in the last decade.

He has a keen interest in education and serves as a Founder and Trustee of Ashoka University and is also a Board Member of Central Square Foundation (CSF).

Yash Gupta

Independent Director

Yash Gupta is an MBA from Harvard Business School and BSC in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University. He has global work experience across Asia, US and Europe. Before founding YG Real Estate and BlueSky Ventures, he established and led Hines as its Country Head, India and Senior Managing Director.

Previously, he has served as CEO at Silverglades – a mid-sized residential developer, CEO at Doorvani Cables – wire & cable manufacturer, Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company and Staff Consultant at Price Waterhouse. In addition to his participation on several company boards, he is the South-Asia Chair, YPO Real Estate Network; Founding Board Member, HBS RE Alumni Association; Member RE Committees of FICCI and CII; Ex-chair USIBC Real Estate Executive Committee and Advisory Board Member, GRI.

Raj Kumar Jain

Independent Director

Raj Kumar Jain founded Bounce Inc. in 2020. Bounce Inc. is a boutique management and operations consulting firm helping clients with India market entry, operating efficiency improvement and ‘phygital’ transformation initiatives.

Prior to founding Bounce Inc., Raj was Chief Executive Officer Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times Group), India’s largest Media Company across Print, Television, Out of Home and Digital Business. In year 2006 Raj spearheaded entry of Walmart Inc. into India through a JV with Bharti Group. He led the business to establish a Pan India Wholesale Cash & Carry, Multi-format Retail and Supply Chain Business. Raj holds an Engineering Degree from Delhi College of Engineering and MBA from Kellogg School of Business.

Pramod Gopaldas Gujarathi

Independent Director

Pramod G. Gujarathi is a B. Tech. (Chemical Engineering) from IIT Bombay and a Postgraduate in Management Studies from the Bombay University. His work experience of more than 4 decades has traversed many reputed multinational firms.

He has been working with SRF Limited since 2017 as Director (Safety & Environment), where he is responsible for compliance with the laws relating to safety, health and environment at the factories of the company, present and future. He continues to act as person in charge for the business of SRF Limited under Legal Metrology Act, 2009. He also discharges such other responsibilities as are entrusted to him by the Chairman, Managing Director, Deputy Managing Director and/or the Board, from time-to-time.