Sanjay Nayar, a well-known name in the global financial markets and Founder and Chairman, Sorin Investment Fund has taken over as President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). Nayar with extensive experience in international finance replaces Ajay Singh, completing his tenure at the Chamber.
Nayar brings an experience of four decades in global financial and capital markets, including 25 years at Citi and nearly 14 at KKR, before retiring last year. He established KKR India operations in 2009 after leaving Citigroup. At KKR, Sanjay led investments of around USD 14 Billion in Private Equity, Real Estate, Infrastructure, and Credit with Private equity being the largest at approximately USD 10 billion valuation.
Sanjay worked across senior leadership positions in Citigroup for 25 years in India, UK, and USA. He served as the CEO of Citigroup’s Indian and South Asian operations and was a member of Citigroup’s Global Management Committee and Asia Executive Operating Committee.
He serves as a Non-Executive Director at the new-age E-commerce company NYKAA founded by him and his wife Falguni Nayar. Sanjay was recently appointed as a non-official member of the Board of Trade, Government of India, representing the private sector, and is a member of the National Startup Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Board of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), the Governing Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB), a member of the Advisory Board of Habitat for Humanity, Chairman of Grameen Impact Investments India (GIII); and Founder – Board Member of Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP).
Nayar said, “It is indeed a great honour for me to be elected as the President of ASSOCHAM, the apex institution with a history of over 100 years in its service to the Nation. During my Presidency, my ASSOCHAM colleagues and I will work closely with the government on the visionary goal of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for India to become a developed nation with a multi-fold increase in the country’s per capita income and continuation of bold economic growth. I look forward to supporting the efforts being made by the industry to achieve the country’s sustainability goals.”
“India remains a bright spot in the global economy and we must leverage this position further. Given the recent success of Startup Mahakumbh led by ASSOCHAM, I look forward to catalyzing the startup culture backed by private and public savings”, he added.
“ASSOCHAM would continue to play a pro-active role in the endeavour of nation building. Aligned with its four growth pillars, I look forward to furthering efforts to facilitate the MSME segment, through improved financing and digitization. The Chamber would remain an active partner of the government in the policy formulations for inclusive growth with a sense of social responsibility”, said Nayar.
Extending a warm welcome to the new President, ASSOCHAM Secretary General Deepak Sood said “Sanjay’s leadership would help the Chamber strengthen its four pillars of growth. In the coming year, ASSOCHAM will lean on Sanjay’s experience and network to further facilitate the growth of the MSME segment, especially the use of emerging technologies such as AI. The chamber has been working passionately on the four pillars of Sustainable, Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, and Digitization. He said the chamber would work towards realizing the avowed objective of India joining the status of a developed country in the next two decades.”