> Board of Directors
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala - Chairman
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is a chartered accountant by qualification and one of India’s leading equity investor. He manages his own portfolio as a partner in his asset management firm – Rare Enterprises. In 2010, Forbes estimated his net worth to be US $1.0 billion, making him India’s Top 50 richest people. He started dabbling in stocks while in Sydenham College and plunged into investing as a full time profession soon after completing his education. He started his career with in 1985 when the BSE Sensex was at 150 points. He has been profiled as one of India’s Five Best investors by Business India magazine in 1998.
Rakesh is the Chairman Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and of Aptech Limited. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Prime Focus Ltd, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, Bilcare Ltd, Praj Industries Limited, Provogue India Limited, Concord Biotech Ltd, Innovasynth Technologies (I) Ltd, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd, Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd, Viceroy Hotels Ltd and Tops Security Ltd.
Neeraj Roy - Managing Director & CEO
Neeraj Roy is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Under his leadership, Hungama today is South Asia's largest digital and mobile entertainment company. He is also the Chairman of the Asia Board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), and was recently voted amongst the 'Top Ten mobiThinkers' and '50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment' globally. Neeraj was also awarded the Sun Microsystems-Economic Times Young Leader award in 2001 and voted as 25 young leaders in the new millennium by Business India. He has been nominated four times in a row, to the list of 'Top 50 Executives in Mobile Content' by the ME magazine in the UK. He is also an active speaker at various international forums and on several domestic and international committees advising on the global Mobile Entertainment opportunity.Neeraj began his career in the hospitality industry with the Taj Group of Hotels. After a successful decade in the service industry, he moved on to establish hungama.com in 1999. Today Hungama is the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of Bollywood & South Asian entertainment content in the world, having worldwide exclusive rights to over half a million music and video titles.
Neeraj always wanted to be an entrepreneur right from his early days in business school. After 16 years in industry, today, Neeraj is known as an innovator, and is sought for his vision in the digital and mobile entertainment industry. Neeraj has built a business that is at an inflection point and a team that is highly motivated and believes in his vision.
Ashish Kacholia - Director
Ashish Kacholia is one of the Co-founders and a Director on the Board at Hungama. In April 1999, he was one of the four individuals who set up the digital promotions company. Since then Ashish has been instrumental in giving the company strategic direction to help it become South Asia's largest digital entertainment and marketing company.Ashish is Director- Research at Lucky Securities Pvt. Ltd and an independent portfolio manager for high net worth individuals. Ashish began his career with Prime Securities Ltd. in 1993, in the proprietary trading business. He later grew with their broking business, to become Head of Research. He then moved to Edelweiss Capital Ltd. where he was responsible for business development and deal orientation for private equity.
Ashish holds a Bachelor's degree in Production Engineering and a Master's in Management Studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.
Hiren Ved – Director
With over 20 years of experience in the Indian equity market, Hiren Ved is the CIO at Alchemy Capital Management Pvt. Ltd, and heads the fund management function at the firm. He also set up the asset management business for the group, and co- managed the private equity investments of the group from 1999- 2001.Prior to joining Alchemy Capital Management, Hiren began his career with K R Choksey & Co, where he quickly rose to Head of Research in 1993.
He thereafter joined Prime Securities Ltd. in June 1994, where he was responsible for investing the proprietary funds of the firm. He was actively involved in investing and managing the firm's asset book in both listed and private equity investments. During his tenure, the firm's asset book saw an increase from USD 6 million to USD 40 million. Hiren also worked with the investment banking team for deal origination at Mergers & Acquisitions, at Prime Securities.
Hiren holds a post- graduate degree in Management Accountancy from ICWAI and Bachelor's degree in Accounting form the Bombay University.
Rajiv Agarwal - Director
Rajiv Agarwal is a Managing Director with Rare Enterprises, the asset management firm owned by Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. His role is to look for new investment opportunities and growing Rare Enterprises' strategic investments in diverse sectors such as Education, Biotechnology, Digital Entertainment, Healthcare delivery, Hospitality & Oil Drilling.Rajiv has been actively involved in shaping the future direction of Hungama by providing strategic inputs and developing strategic alliances for the company. He has been associated with Hungama since 2006. He is also on the Board of several companies such as Care Hospitals, Aptech Ltd, Viceroy Hotels Ltd, Concord Biotech Ltd and John Energy Ltd. He is also an observer on the Boards following companies KLT Auto, Tops Security and Nandan Biomatrix.
Prior to Rare Enterprises, Rajiv was responsible for sales and delivery of Strategy & Operations consulting work at Accenture, a global management and technology consulting firm. He spent over 12 years with the firm, and has advised with over 100 companies across different countries such as India, Hungary, UK, US, UAE and Indonesia.
Rajiv graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Benares Hindu University in 1993.
Ralph Simon - Director
Ralph Simon is regarded as one of the founders of the modern mobile entertainment industry. Over the last decade he has been a prominent global trailblazer and innovator, growing the mobile entertainment and content industry, and playing a central role in its impact and presence worldwide.Ralph heads the London-based Mobilium International Advisory Group, which provides high level strategic advice and guidance to mobile operators, handset and technology companies, media companies, movie studio & TV networks, brands, ad agency groups, and platform providers around the world.
He is the founder of the influential Mobile Entertainment Forum – Americas (MEF), the global voice of the international mobile entertainment industry. Prior to his leadership in the mobile entertainment industry, Simon co-founded the independent Zomba Group of music companies (and record label, Jive Records) in London in the 1970s, building it into the music industry's leading independent music company. In the mid-90s, he came to the US as Executive Vice President of Capitol Records and Blue Note Records in Hollywood and started EMI Music's global New Media division.