SFI Panel Discussion: India June 22, 2011 Biography Panel Participants Naina Lal Kidwai Head of HSBC of India and Member of the Board of Directors of Nestlé Naina Lal Kidwai is Executive Director on the Board of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and Country Head of HSBC India, which employs 35,000 people comprising Banking services, Insurance, Asset Management, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets, Retail broking, HSBC Software Development (India) Private Limited and the Global service centers (BPOs servicing HSBC s operations in the UK, EU and USA). An MBA from Harvard Business School, she has been recognised in India and abroad with several awards and listings for leadership and business. Repeatedly ranked in the Fortune global list of Top Women in Business, in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times Global Listing of Women to Watch and listed by Time Magazine as one of their 15 Global Influentials 2002. She received the Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contribution to Trade and Industry. Her international engagements include being a non executive director on the board of Nestle SA, Chairman City of London s Advisory Council for India, Global Advisor Harvard Business School. She is on the Governing Board of NCAER, Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and on the National Executive Committee of CII and FICCI. Her interests include microfinance and livelihood creation for rural women and environment.
Franz Probst Chairman Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce (SICC) Franz Probst (born 1955) is the Senior Partner of PROBST RECHTSANWÄLTE (Attorneys at Law), a Swiss based law firm focusing on corporate and commercial law which he founded in 1995. Franz Probst has extensive professional experience in advising companies (including new ventures), entrepreneurs, organisations and non-profit entities in legal and business matters. After graduating from the University of Berne and passing the bar exam in 1983, Franz Probst joined the Swiss Federal Office of Intellectual Property (today the Institute of Intellectual Property). He received a Masters of Law from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor in 1989, and went on to work at large law firms in Palo Alto, San Francisco and Zurich. Later, he served as the first Parliamentary Ombudsman of Winterthur for five years. In 1995 he founded his own law firm. Franz Probst's life has been significantly influenced by a three-year stay in India (1965 to 1968), where he went to school in the Nilgiris (South India). Strong professional and private ties to India grew out of his experience living and studying in the country at such an early age. Today, Franz Probst has over twenty years of experience advising Swiss and European companies and entrepreneurs on their operations and activities in India and visa versa. His office has a dedicated 'India Desk' run by an Indian attorney out of Winterthur and Zurich, and he has long standing working relationships ith various law firms, accountants and other service providers in India. Since 2005, Franz Probst has served as Chairman of the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce (SICC), the leading bilateral organisation of the Swiss and Indian private sector (www.sicc.ch). SICC has offices in Zurich, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and over 350 corporate and individual members in both countries. Franz Probst is regularly involved in non-profit activities and currently heads the pilot project launched by the Swiss Federal Office of Professional Education and Technology (OPET) to introduce vocational education and training in India. He is keen to develop an approach that permits a rapid but sustainable expansion of this well-known dual based education and training system, and to contribute to skills development in other countries as well. He was recently elected President of the Swiss Cinema Association. Franz Probst is married and has 2 adult children.
Hansruedi Pfeiffer Regional Advisor, Private and Financial Sector Development, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), South Asia Division Hansruedi Pfeiffer made an apprenticeship in a savings and credit bank and worked in private banking in the 1970s. He then took up studies in Bern and London for a master s degree in economics and business administration. After a few years of teaching in a college, Hansruedi Pfeiffer joined SDC in 1982 as a project manager for the establishment and development of a vocational training centre in Nepal. Following this practical development experience, he took the responsibilities for policy development and advice in technical education and vocational training at SDC's headquarter in Bern and thereafter as a Deputy Country Director in India during the 2nd. half of the 1990s. Over the last 10 years, Hansruedi Pfeiffer focused his work on financial and private sector development (policy, knowledge management and advisory services for the whole of SDC). With the aim to move closer to operations again, he joined SDC's South Asia Division in 2008 as a Regional Advisor for financial and private sector development programs of SDC in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Waseem Hussain Managing Director of MARWAS AG, Zurich He works as a consultant and interim manager for companies with a special interest in doing business with India. A Swiss citizen, Waseem Hussain is of Indian origin. He was raised and educated in Switzerland, and completed an onward study in international management. He is fluent in German, English, Urdu and Hindi. He is a regular lecturer at a number of Swiss universities and business schools on the topic of doing business with India. He is a keynote speaker as well as an occasional author on the same topic. Waseem Hussain started his professional career in marketing and electronic publishing before working as a freelance South Asia correspondent for leading Swiss and German media. After this, he led a Swiss-Indian joint venture in the field of offshore software development and later was a business manager with the Swiss branch of a multinational corporation with operations in India. www.waseem-hussain.com and www.marwas.ch.
Alastair Guggenbühl-Even CEO and Chairman of the BTS/Monterosa Group Alastair Guggenbühl-Even is the founder, CEO and chairman of the BTS/Monterosa Group, which is specialized in financial advisory services for the Indian market. He holds a law degree from the University of Zurich and an MBA from INSEAD. After three years as management consultant with McKinsey & Co. he undertook various consulting assignments in the financial service industry, before founding BTS Belvoir AG in 1996. Since then he has been fully devoted to developing BTS and subsequently the Monterosa Group companies in Switzerland, Mauritius and India, which today employs close to 100 people. The funds managed by the Monterosa Group have invested close to USD 4bn in the Indian market and hold participations in more than 200 Indian companies. Accordingly, Monterosa is one of the largest independent foreign investor in India. BTS Investment Advisors Ltd. is active in the private equity sector and has successfully invested in 28 Indian small and mid-sized companies and negotiated 12 exits. The total fund volume is more than USD 100m. Besides several wellknown institutional investors, such as ADB (Asian Development Bank) and CDC (CDC Capital Group), the Swiss government also belongs to its shareholder base. Furthermore, in June 2010 BTS Investment Advisory Ltd. launched its first public fund to enable private investors to participate in India s growth story. Alastair Guggenbühl-Even is also a member of the board of the Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce. www.monterosagroup.com and www.btsadvisors.com