Green Sanitation
To become the largest provider of technology driven, decentralized, faecal sludge management products and services in India in the next 5 years and create a significant presence in international markets.
Nirgandh will provide water saving affordable WASH* (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) systems for healthy sanitation practices that save lives and increase economic activity potential.
I also owned MST Associates, a kitchen and facility design company working with leading business houses and architects with projects all over India.
My interests are in photography and travel and I am fortunate to have traveled to five of the six continents on work and vacation. Life styles, natural beauty and handicrafts catch my attention. I look for things we can adopt in India for tourism, education and funding NGOs. I am currently a mentor in an organization called ‘GreenTara’ wherein we help Social Enterprises work to their potential.
A 1969 Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi, I went ahead and completed my MBA in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University, USA. 1971;
I believe that a majority of human kind is good and caring. I came to this conclusion as a student hitch hiker from Delhi to London and back in 2 months with a total expense of US$200.00 in 1966. I have been constantly thinking of various issues and challenges faced by our countrymen and of possible solutions.
My belief in mankind and the fact that it deserves more that it currently has, has helped define the path for Nirgandh. In my want to constantly learn and to contribute to society, I have been certified by British Council in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) from British Council New Delhi on behalf of Cambridge University, England. My certification for Independent Directors from a Institute of Directors, Delhi helps ensure good corporate governance for the team and working of Nirgandh.
Launching Tata Docomo mobile services in Haryana and heading the zone helped me discover my entrepreneurial mindset and my stint as the country head of a mobile handset company helped me hone the skill.
The entrepreneur in me encouraged me to launch a fintech start-up, in 2017, bringing the financial products closer to the credit seeker through its unique model of online and offline distribution for offline distributor.
A commerce graduate, I have done my Masters in International Business from Lucknow University.
Being a driving enthusiast I have participated in ‘Raid de Himalaya’. It is considered to be the world's highest rally raid and the reputation for being the toughest motorsport event in India. I landed on the podium with ‘Never Say Die Attitude’ award. This spirit flows into all my endeavours and keeps me going.
Currently representing Nirgandh and enhancing my entrepreneurial skills at the Milestone Makers Cohort organized by NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center.
I have worked as a capability professional for the last 25 years. My focus has been Learning and Development, Capability Building for Business Results and Organizational Development Interventions. I have worked with The Oberoi group of hotels for 8 years and various learning and business consulting organizations for over 16 years. The exposure across industries has helped broaden the horizon of understanding and nuances of various businesses and capabilities required to make them into success stories.
In my entire career of capability development I have worked on Culture building initiatives, engagement and quality initiatives. I have been actively involved in leadership pipeline development through Coaching and Mentoring across industries.
My need to be a catalyst and help drive a change has helped businesses achieve measurable results impacting the top and bottom line.
A passout from Modern School, an arts graduate from Delhi University and Masters in HR has contributed to my passion for working with people. To further understand the human mindset I went on to get certified on the Thomas Profiler, train on Emotional Intelligence and GENOS (Emotional Intelligence Tool). My certification as a Gallup trainer helps me identify individual motivators.
In my life experience I have come to this realization that only mindset shift leads to a behaviour change. My want to go to my roots and give back has taken me back to the interiors of Bundelkhand. I currently work with teams on creating awareness on gap areas around, education, health , employment opportunities etc. The endeavor is to work with the underserved and help empower.
And this passion of wanting to make an impact gets me excited about my association with Nirgandh.
I started my career at IBM heading its Financial Services Group for the ASEAN region. I followed that up with 18 years as CFO & COO at a leading Paper, Chemicals & Engineering Group. I have also served as the Founding CEO of ING – Barings first India PE fund before taking over as CEO of Essar Telecom and pioneering the consolidation in the industry with a merger with Hutchison Whampoa (and later Vodafone).
As the Founder Chairman of Mahindra Aerospace , I have helped pioneer the design, engineering and manufacturing of utility aircraft in India and Australia.
After 20 years at Mahindra &Mahindra as CXO in different line and staff functions, I have elected to step down to be able to better focus on my responsibilities as Advisor to Clayton, Dubilier & Ricea Global $ 50 bn PE Fund. I continue as a Senior Advisor at Mahindra CIE ( MCIE ), one of the three companies I founded and chaired for Mahindra & Mahindra. Mahindra Engineering (MES) and Mahindra Aerospace (MAPL) are the other two .
I am on the Board of several companies and serve as Senior Advisor to Mahindra & Mahindra and Tech M, companies with a market cap of US$ 12 bn and US$ 10 bn respectively. I have served as an Advisor to Temasek the Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Government of Singapore and am now an Advisor to Clayton Dubilier & Rice. At CD&R, I am charged with creating large (>$500mm) cross border (between Asia and Europe /North America) opportunities in IT, Business Services, Healthcare, Industrial and Consumer & Retail to complement the strategy of CD&R Portfolio Companies
I am an alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1970) and of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program (AMP115, 1994). I am also the Managing Trustee of Lina Luthra, foundation created in the memory of my late wife and have served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children. I am an active supporter of SPIC MACAY, a society to preserve and promote a respect for the traditional arts of India amongst the student community .
My extended exposure to establishing and nurturing new ideas and businesses and passion to work for causes that benefit the society in general ensures that I keep looking for new and innovative ventures.
On Professional Tennis Circuit, I played all the Grand Slam events including 12 times at the US Open and beattop world no 2 & 4 ranked players in different tournaments. I played a pivotal role in beating Australia and taking India to Davis Cup finals in 1974. Unfortunately India defaulted in the finals to South Africa due to Apartheid. I was just honoured as a Davis Cup hero by International Lawn Tennis Club of India.
After Tennis career, I joined Wall Street in New York as an Investment Banker for the next 35 years. I worked for some of the largest financial institutions like Sanwa Securities (UFJ) and UBS selling US Bonds to the Central Banks (RBI), Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA), Sovereign Funds in the Middle East (ADIA), Japanese Insurance Companies for their reserves. I later joined Vega Asset Management, then one of the largest Hedge Funds in Europe and later started my own Consulting business in Dubai, Shoreline Global Investments offering some of the best hedge funds from the US and Europe to Middle East and Far East financial institutions.
Over 35 years of experience in Institutional Fixed Income Sales (US Bonds), Alternative Investments (Hedge Funds) and Wealth Management, covering some of the largest financial institutions in the world helped me to develop deep insight into businesses, assessing risks and return on investments.
After passing out of Modern School, I went to the US on a full Tennis Scholarship at the age of 16 years to University of Notre Dame. After I completed my MBA from New York University, I ventured into the world of finance.
Today I continue to focus on giving back to tennis and the business world. In tennis I help youngsters with strategies to win matches and to be competitive. In the business world I work with entrepreneurs and budding businesses to help them define their business strategies and be relevant to the market.
I went back to my home ground, Caterpillar, and headed their Global Engineering Design Center in Chennai, growing the Center from 400 K engineering hours per year to 5 Million Engineering Hours per year managing teams in Centers in US, India and China.
Foundation of my business leadership has been two-fold – First - Develop a clear vision and well-thought out plan to make progress towards it. Secondly win the hearts and minds of the team members of your organization by clarity of thinking, transparency and fairness in your actions. This motto helped me take the plunge to start an engineering services company primarily driven by desire to provide meaningful employment to engineers in India who were graduating in thousands without engineering jobs and develop them to global standards.
Having done my bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi and Master’s and Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon University, I have managed to synergize concepts of engineering with people relationships to create success stories in business.
Being an ardent fan of Pittsburgh Steelers and having a passion for Golf and Bridge, has helped develop patience
and insight for mentoring Social Entrepreneurs and work with them to create their own success stories.
Richard Keenan is a lawyer, with broad experience in complex commercial litigation and mediation, and from 1993 to 2108 was actively involved in the wine business - as an investor, grape grower and winery owner.
Richard received a B.B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1974, where he majored in accounting. Richard received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1977. He then served as a law clerk for the late Judge William W Schwarzer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
In 2008, Richard retired from 31 years of active trial practice in San Francisco. He began there with Morrison & Foerster and in 1981 joined the law firm of Folger Levin & Kahn. He represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of complex commercial litigation matters and has been admitted to appear before courts in California and many other jurisdictions.
In addition to his degree in accounting and almost 30 years of work as a trial lawyer in San Francisco (with several out of state trials), Richard started three wine related businesses. For clients and for his own businesses, Richard has drafted or advised on a wide variety of legal agreements. He has also used or evaluated a wide variety of technology services and apps for both law and the wine business.
Richard now is a pro bono attorney with Catholic Charities San Francisco’s Immigration Services and also with Kids In Need of Defense. Richard also continues to serve as a mediator, particularly for the wine industry, and he is on the Mediation Panel of the U.S. District Court or the N.D. of California.
Richard received a B.B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1974, where he majored in accounting. Richard received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1977. He then served as a law clerk for the late Judge William W Schwarzer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Richard was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Virginia. He has lived in San Francisco, California, since 1977. Richard married his wife, Kathy, in 1982. He is an active sailor, swimmer and runner. He completed three Ironman 70.3 events in recent years.
Our commitment to leaving a world worth living in for future generations by providing products and services that reduce the human impact on our environment.
Delivering happiness to all associated in the process and quality being the prime motivator to ensure this happens (Will need to rephrase)
