Directors

Nikhil Gandhi

Chairman

Nikhil is the Chairman of Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited, and also the Group Chairman of SKIL Infrastructure Limited. Nikhil is a first-generation entrepreneur with business interests in infrastructure, defense, oil & gas and education. He has over 25 years of experience in conceiving, developing and operating several path-breaking infrastructure projects in India including India’s first private sector port & logistics facility, the first private sector railway line, first private expressway, special economic zone and most recently India’s largest and world class integrated defense shipyard.

Lord Flight

Non-Executive Director

Lord Flight joins MPL with significant experience operating both, in the City and in India, and has long campaigned for closer commercial relations between Britain and India. He has acted as Chairman of Arden Partners and Joint Chairman of Investec Asset Management. He has held Directorship in Panmure Gordon and Co, and has been joint founder and Managing Director of Guinness Flight Global Asset Management. Lord Flight has enjoyed a successful political career, acting as Conservative MP for Arundel for eight years. During this time, he held positions as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Shadow Paymaster General and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

John Fitzgerald

Non-Executive Director

John is an experienced Director working in the UK and global ports business. His 30 year career working for the two largest privatised port businesses Associated British Ports and Peel Ports, culminated in running the UK's largest and most commercially successful ports complex ABP Humber Ports. Heading up ports large and small John has pioneered many significant long term business development schemes, and managed large scale capital projects both enhancing existing and creating new infrastructure, generating significant shareholder value, and delivering economic value-add to the regions he has worked in. He has recently served as regional Chairman for Confederation of British Industries

Andrew Henderson

CFO

Andrew is a member of the ICAEW and has over 15 years' experience acting as an accountant and financial advisor to private and public companies, both in the UK and internationally. Previously, Mr Henderson worked at Deloitte and Grant Thornton before setting up his own consultancy practice.

Pavan Bakhshi

Managing Director

Pavan joined the SKIL Group from Askar Capital, a Nordic Investment firm with a key focus on emerging economies, where he was a Managing Director and head of their Indian operations. Pavan built Askar’s presence in India and oversaw the deployment of significant proprietary capital for Infrastructure projects in India. Prior to Askar Capital, Pavan was at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. in its Strategic Finance Group working both in New York and London. Pavan is a graduate from the University of Edinburgh.

Jay Mehta

Director

Over 13 years’ experience in port operations and management, port marketing and logistics planning. Formerly worked for Merrill Lynch in New York, Jay holds a Diploma in Port, Shipping and Transport Management from the International Maritime Transport Academy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and MBA (Finance) from Fordham University, New York.

Jeremy Warner Allen

Non - Executive Director

Jeremy joined MPL in December 2018. Mr. Warner Allen has over 25 years’ experience in capital markets. He is currently a Non-Executive Deputy Chairman of OPG Power Ventures PLC and a Non-Executive Director of TP Group plc. Prior to that he was an Executive Director, Board Member and Head of the Growth Companies team at Cenkos Securities plc, where he advised a number of AIM companies over a period of 11 years.

Karanpal Singh

Non-Executive Director

Karanpal joined MPL in December 2018. Mr. Karanpal Singh is an Indian based entrepreneur with extensive investments across a range of sectors including steel, iron ore, gold mining, power, transmission and technology. Hunch Ventures, in which Karanpal is a founder, is a substantial shareholder in MPL. Hunch Ventures is a leading investor in India’s growth and has a key focus on its investment in Karanja and scaling MPL.