Board of Directors
Prakash Apte
Chairman (Independent Director)
Mr. Prakash Apte, has a B.E. (Mechanical) degree from the University of Pune and holds Diploma in the Business Management from The University of Mumbai. He has attended various executive & leadership development programs at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and IMD.
Mr. Apte’s professional career spans over 41 years, most of which has been with global multinationals viz; Ciba Geigy, Novartis and Syngenta in various positions related to Specialty Chemicals, Pharma & Agri business industries respectively. He was the Country Head & Managing Director of Syngenta India for over a decade from 2000 to 2011 & thereafter its Non-Executive Chairman till September 2021.
Mr. Apte takes keen interest in developmental initiatives. He was instrumental in setting up Syngenta Foundation India focusing on providing resources to poor farmers & rural entrepreneurship in 2005. In 2016, he catalyzed setting up of the Indo Swiss Centre of Excellence which aims to provide world-class training in advanced vocational skills. Mr. Apte has served on the Boards of both these not-for-profit entities till mid 2021.
Mr. Apte served as a Non-Executive Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited till December 31, 2023. Mr. Prakash Apte serves on the Boards of Fine Organic Industries Limited, GMM Pfaudler Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited and Kotak Mahindra Prime Limited.
Balfour Manuel
Managing Director
Balfour Manuel has assumed the role of Managing Director w.e.f. May 16, 2019.
Balfour Manuel, a Blue Dart veteran of over 35 years, has been instrumental in the success of Blue Dart from the very beginning of the company’s inception. A longtime employee of the company, Mr. Balfour Manuel prior to his appointment as Managing Director was Chief Executive Officer of the Company w.e.f January 23, 2019. He was also Senior Vice President in charge of Blue Dart’s business-to-business customers, a cornerstone of Blue Dart’s customer base and had also held a key general management position where he was responsible for the growth and development of Blue Dart’s business in the Western region in India.
Balfour holds a Masters in Business Management in Marketing from University of Mumbai.
Air Marshal M. McMahon (Retd)
Independent Director
Air Marshal M. McMahon (Retd.) has wide experience in the Aviation Industry. He was commissioned as a fighter pilot and served in the IAF for 42 years. On graduating, he stood first in Flying. He underwent the T - 33 / F- 86 Advanced Gunnery Course in the USA and was awarded certificates for standing first in Low Level Strafe and Low Angle Bombing. He was an A2 Qualified Flying Instructor and was winner of the Chief's of Air Staff trophy for standing first in flying during the QFI course. His important staff appointments were Director, Air Staff Requirements, Asst. Chief of Air Staff (Operations), Inspector General of the IAF and Vice Chief of Air Staff. He is a recipient of the Param Vishist Seva Medal, Ati Vishist Seva Medal and Vishist Seva Medal.
R. S. Subramanian
Director
R S Subramanian is currently the SVP & Managing Director, DHL Express India, a member of the DHL Express Asia Pacific Management Board and a Director on the Board of Blue Dart Express India Ltd.
With over 30 years of experience in Product-led as well as Service Industry, Subramanian has extensive knowledge across areas of business strategy, Marketing, Team development and Customer Management.
He joined DHL Express India as the Head of Sales, subsequently moving up to the position of Vice President for South Asia Cluster (RoSA) wherein he was managing DHL Express operations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. He was instrumental in restructuring and developing DHL operations in these markets.
Subramanian assumed the role of Managing Director, DHL Express India in 2010.
India business grew manifold to a leadership position in the last decade with investments in best in class infrastructure, state of the art technology and strong people processes.
Under his leadership, DHL has won many accolades and is today recognized and respected as a best practices organization. DHL Express has consistently featured in the India’s Great Places to Work list by GPTW since 2013. DHL Express ranked No 2 globally, and has been in the Top 5 Great Places to Work for the past three years. The company was named as a Top Employer by the Top Employer Institute - six times in a row.
Prior to DHL, Subramanian spent 14 years with Hindustan Unilever Ltd in a variety of Sales, Brand Management and Export Management roles.
Subramanian is a Graduate in Industrial Engineering and a Masters in Management from IIM – Bangalore. He is Gold Certified in First Choice which is DHL Group's internal quality program based on the Six-Sigma DMAIC methodology.
Subramanian is Member of the Management Committee of Express Industry Council of India (EICI) and Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC). He is also a member on the Governing body of Logistics Sector Skill Council (LSC) under Ministry of Skill Development and promoted by CII.
Kavita Nair
Independent Director
An award winning and dynamic leader, Kavita Nair has proven success in managing a wide range of leadership roles. She has spent majority of her working years with Vodafone Idea . Her career spanned 22 years here where she held leadership roles in diverse functions across both consumer and enterprise domains. In her last assignment, Kavita was the Chief Digital Transformation and Brand Officer of Vodafone Idea Limited, India’s leading telecom service provider. As a member of the National Leadership Team, Kavita led Digital Transformation across all functions for the organization and drove the strategy, course and communication of Vi – the newest brand in Indian telecom industry. She was the driving force behind Vi – a brand that emerged with the integration of two of the iconic brands – Vodafone and Idea. She has a strong track record of building some of the most admired telecom brands of the country and Vodafone’s iconic Zoozoos were born during her tenure as the Brand Head at Vodafone India. Her areas of expertise include marketing, digital, retail, pricing, product management, channel and customer operations.
Her talent and success has been acknowledged at several prestigious forums - Economic Times included her in its 25 Rising Women Leaders of India Inc. in 2015; Business Today voted her as one of the Hottest Young Executives to watch out for in 2011 and Brand Equity named her amongst the 8 Marketing Premier League Icons in 2009.
Kavita is an alumnus of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), M S University, Baroda where she did her MBA in Marketing and has also completed Senior Leadership Programs from London Business School and IIM Ahmedabad.
Florian Ulrich Bumberger
Director
Florian Bumberger is the divisional CHRO of DHL eCommerce, member of the DHL eCommerce Global Management Board as well as DHL Group HR Board. Florian holds a Diploma in Business Administration and is a Certified Institutional Investment Analyst (CIIA).
Florian started his career as an Investor Relations professional and earned numerous awards like Institutional Investor & Thomson Extel IR Survey. Thereafter, he transitioned into Strategic, business development and Financial positions. He led numerous strategic programs from greenfield market entries, cost optimization programs, working capital management initiatives in a €16bn turnover and 200k employees division to several M&A transactions. For many years he was the Chief of Staff to the divisional CEO and was furthermore responsible for Communications as well as Compliance. Since 2017, he’s closely engaged with Blue Dart Express and has a deep understanding of the business and organization.
Florian has also had a leading role in the carve-out and creation of a new business division, within DHL Group, including necessary ‘change management’ and ‘communication initiatives’.
Sebastian Paeßens
Director
Sebastian Paeßens, is the CFO of DHL eCommerce, a business division of Germany based DHL Group. He started his professional career as the Management Consultant for Finance and Controlling related projects.
Sebastian joined DHL Group in 2008 and held various management positions in the DHL Express division, the German Post and Parcel division and in the Corporate Controlling department. In October 2017, he assumed the role of CFO DHL eCommerce. In October 2018, Sebastian was appointed CFO DHL eCommerce and DHL Parcel Europe, before moving on to his current role in January 2019. He is a member of DHL Group’s Finance Board.
Sebastian holds a Master of Science degree in Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering.
Dr. Vandana Aggarwal
Independent Director
Dr. Vandana Aggarwal, has been a civil employee and economist for about 36 years. Dr. Vandana joined the Indian Economic Service in 1986 after her studies at the University of London and University of Delhi, including at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the Delhi School of Economics and the Department of Financial Studies & Business Economics. Dr. Vandana Aggarwal’s Ph.D. thesis was on Investment and Regulatory Aspects of Deep-Sea Mining.
Dr. Vandana Aggarwal last served as Senior Economic Adviser (Additional Secretary) in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. She handled key reforms and policy formulation, implementation of schemes and economic regulation, as well as security and crisis management (including the Covid-19 pandemic). Dr. Vandana has also served on the Boards of Directors of central public corporates and councils viz; AAI Cargo Logistics & Allied Services Limited. (AAICLAS) and Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC).
In a large and diverse developing country like India, Dr. Vandana has worked in various Central Government Ministries (Civil Aviation, Finance, Commerce, Industry, Cabinet Secretariat, Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Planning Commission, Ninth Finance Commission, and the Permanent Mission of India to the World Trade Organisation at Geneva, Switzerland) handling core reforms in India across industry, infrastructure, trade and taxation sectors, implementation of schemes, economic regulation, climate change matters as well as national security and crisis management.
Dr. Vandana Aggarwal is currently serving on some high-level governmental bodies as Member, Advisory Committee on Maritime Studies and as Lead Expert for Course Consolidation both at the Indian Maritime University and as Chairperson of various committees for seeding greenfield businesses at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India’s GIFT-City, such as Aircraft as well as Ship Acquisitions, Leasing and Financing under Projects Rupee Raftaar and SAFAL respectively. Dr. Vandana is also a Member on the Advisory Committee of the Air Cargo Forum India, a non-profit, nongovernmental, nationwide trade and logistics forum.
Dr. Vandana Aggarwal’s dossiers inter-alia includes mainly viz; the 1991 New Industrial Policy, agriculture sector reforms, PPPs in Power Transmission, National Air Cargo Policy, Krishi Udaan Scheme, development of a fixed-wing Regional Transport Aircraft and the Light Utility Helicopter and an ecosystem for Manufacturing Aircraft in India, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) including convergence between defence aerospace and civil aviation, National Logistics Policy, Indirect and Direct Taxes (including Goods and Services Tax), Competition Issues, environment and forest (ENVIS) Centres, and investment, capital markets and external debt matters. She has been India’s trade negotiator on the Doha Development Agenda, has handled settlement of inter-Governmental disputes under international laws, and been a standing panelist for adjudications in the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. Dr. Vandana has also dealt with corporate arbitrations as a Member of the Governing Body of the Indian Council of Arbitration. She has also represented India at the UNFCCC on climate change matters.
Currently, Dr. Vandana Aggarwal is an Independent Director on the Board of Blue Dart Aviation Limited, material subsidiary company of Blue Dart Express Limited and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Delhi Cargo Service Center Private Limited.
