Management

Dr. Tara Thiagarajan, Chairman

Dr. Tara Thiagarajan is the Chairperson and Managing Director of Madura and a Director of Microcredit Foundation of India. She is primarily a scientist whose interests encompass understanding complex systems and using a science based approach to solve large scale human problems through scalable for-profit enterprise. She is also currently a visiting scientist at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore where she works on understanding how dynamical structures of distributed electrical activity give rise to integrated perception and behaviour. She has a PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University where she worked on how neurons adapt to changes in their ability to communicate with one another. Her post doctoral work was at the National Institutes of Health where she worked on understanding neural network dynamics and emergent structures in the electrical field.

In her pre-science life she did a BA in Mathematics at Brandeis University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management where she was an Austin scholar. She has previously worked in the textile industry in India and in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States in various roles including marketing, project management and strategic planning. She blogs at the physicsofpoverty.blogspot.com.

David Appasamy, Executive Director

David brings to Madura a unique combination of business management experience, marketing and communication expertise and knowledge of information technologies along with a deep interest in using this expertise to build information and financial access networks in rural communities.

He has previously been Sales Manager of one of the largest hotels for ITC Ltd: General Manager of the well known advertising firm Mudra DDB: and Chief Communications Officer at Sify Technologies where he was responsible for marketing, corporate communications and investor relations.

David is a member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group to the UN Secretary General on Internet Governance. He is also Co-Chair of the of the IT, Telecoms & Infrastructure Task Force of the eBusiness, IT & Telecoms Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce. In these various roles he has spoken extensively on the digital divide, and been involved in studying the socioeconomic benefits of broadband penetration.

David has also been Chair of the Governing Council of a home for the mentally handicapped in Chennai for seven years, and is Trustee of the Appasamy Trust which facilitates microfinance to 197 villages in South Tamil Nadu.

M. Narayanan, CEO

Narayanan has 25 years of experience in the banking industry where he has held key positions as Head of Treasury at Bank of Madura and Head of Treasury at the GMR Group, Bangalore. His earlier career led him through a variety of significant roles at Bank of Madura including Head of Mumbai - Main, the largest branch of the bank, and AGM of Cash Management Services, Merchant Banking and Corporate Banking.

He was also an active member of various committees including Strategic Planning, Investment, Forex and ALCO.

Following the merger of Bank of Madura with ICICI Bank he took on the role of VP of Corporate Banking. He has also worked briefly at Union Bank of California and at ING Vysya Bank.