Srikumar Misra
Founder & Director
Sri started Milk Mantra in 2009 with the vision of creating an exciting, pure and healthy dairy products brand in India, whilst creating sustainable impact amongst network farmers - especially in Odisha... Know more
Biswajeet Acharya
Head - Projects & Compliances
With 20yrs of dairy sector experience, Biswajeet brings a ton of dairy manufacturing & processing knowledge to Milk Mantra... Know more
Debasish Kundu
Financial Controller
With a keen eye for detail, Debasish heads the Finance & Accounts function at Milk Mantra. His extensive experience of 21years’ coveringareas of Factory Accounting, Branch Commercials, Corporate Know more
Rashima Misra
Co-Founder & Executive Director
At Milk Mantra, Rashima heads the role of Brand Development devising and implementing brand architecture framework and its portfolio for the growth. Know more
Anil Burman
Sourcing Head
Anil has been associated with Milk Mantra since it's inception and has a deep understanding of our sourcing and processing functions... Know more
Anil Burman
Head - Quality & Projects
As Head - Quality & Projects, Anil Burman leads operations at the Moo Factories in Gop and Sambalpur, as well as the manufacturing facilities ...... Know more
Murali Kumar
Head of Production
Murli Kumar is our Head of Production leading our Moo Factories. A seasoned dairy industry professional with 20 years of experience in manufacturing, planning, quality assurance, process engineering and product development, Murli Know more
Laxmee Kanta Sahoo
Head - Sourcing and Inward Logistics
Laxmee Kanta Sahoo is our Head - Sourcing and Inward Logistics, responsible for milk procurement from farmers and managing supply chain operations.... Know more
Pradeepta Kumar Jena
CFO
Pradeepta Kumar Jena is our CFO. A Chartered Accountant by qualification, he has worked with organizations like Tirumala Milk Products.... Know more
Asim Katakwar
Head Food Safety
Asim is our Head of Food Safety, responsible for ensuring strong adherence to Milk Mantra's stringent food safety norms.... Know more
Avipsa Mishra
Head Human Resources
Avipsa Mishra leads HR at Milk Mantra, strengthening the purpose and performance-driven culture.... Know more
Kailash Chandra Gahir
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
With his experience of working with large teams and ‘making things happen’ Kailash is Milk Mantra’s MD & CEO. He has headed various functions since 2019 with Milk Mantra – from Sales to Production, to Supply Chain & Sourcing and has over 28 years’ experience in leadership, business strategy & operations traversing all functions including sales, marketing, manufacturing, corporate, and P&L ownership across sectors like dairy, telecom, rural services, and FMCG. He has led & established Amul in Delhi. Kailash graduated from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology and did his post-graduation from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He has an active interest in Table Tennnis, Cricket and socio-environmental issues.
Kailash Chandra Gahir
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
With his experience of working with large teams and ‘making things happen’ Kailash is Milk Mantra’s MD & CEO. He has headed various..... Know more
Subhendu Mishra
Chief Finance Officer
Subhendu brings a sharper focus to all financial processes and accounts at Milk Mantra... Know more
Eight Roads
Eight Roads is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. Eight Roads focuses its long-term patient investment approach on ventures, principal investments and real estate.
Aavishkaar Venture Trustees
Aavishkaar Venture Trustees Pvt. Ltd. is one of the very few, and the leading early stage VC investor in India. Conscious capitalism is an underlying theme for Aavishkaar – they believe in investing in focused commercial ventures which have a developmental impact as well.
IDBI Bank
IDBI Bank is one of the largest banks in India and has been a financing partner of some of the largest corporates and highly successful green-field ventures in India.
Angels
ANGELS - Milk Mantra has benefitted greatly by the faith and money invested in it by individual angel investors – from professional investors to family to friends and acquaintances and believers.
Neev Fund
Neev Fund is the country’s first low-income state infrastructure equity partnership with co-investment from Department for International Department (DFID), UK and State Bank of India (SBI). It is focused on making equity investments in infrastructure sub-sectors such as urban and social infrastructure sector, renewable energy, agricultural supply chain and roads, while seeking to invest in the developing states of India.
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is America’s development bank. DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today.
Srikumar Misra
Founder & Director
Sri started Milk Mantra in 2009 with the vision of creating an exciting, pure and healthy dairy products brand in India, whilst creating sustainable impact amongst network farmers - especially in Odisha. He left a highly successful global corporate career in 2009 to pursue the Milk Mantra! Having spent 8 years with the TAS, group leadership resource of the Tata Group, he went on to become Director of Mergers & Acquisitions of the Tata Tea / Tetley business. With extensive experience in setting up new market operations, brand sales & marketing, joint ventures & M&A, Sri has worked in geographies across the world from China, to South Africa to UK & Europe. In 2012 Sri was nominated as a fellow of the India Leadership Initiative (ILI), a flagship program of The Aspen Institute, a global think-tank. In 2013, as part of the Aspen Institute he was invited to be part of the delegation of Track2 dialogue between India & Israel.
Rashima Misra
Co-Founder & Executive Director
At Milk Mantra, Rashima heads the role of Brand Development devising and implementing brand architecture framework and its portfolio for the growth. She has earlier worked in India, South Africa and London in areas of Employment Law, Organization Structure, Recruitment and Employee Relations. Degrees include B Com from Jadavpur University and an MBA from XIMB.
Murali Kumar
Head of Production
Murli Kumar is our Head of Production leading our Moo Factories. A seasoned dairy industry professional with 20 years of experience in manufacturing, planning, quality assurance, process engineering and product development, Murli resonates with our ethos of being ‘truly pure’.He joins us from ITC Limited, and has earlier worked in Danone, Britannia and Hatsun. He has a B.Sc. in Dairy Technology and did his M.Tech, also in Dairy Technology, from the prestigious National Dairy research Institute, Karnal. Murali has keen interest in practicing yoga and he loves listening to music.
Laxmee Kanta Sahoo
Head - Sourcing and Inward Logistics
Laxmee Kanta Sahoo is our Head - Sourcing and Inward Logistics, responsible for milk procurement from farmers and managing supply chain operations. He is a supply chain veteran who has worked in diverse industries over the past 26 years. He joins us from Baani Milk Producer Private Limited, Punjab, and has earlier worked with MNCs like Asian Paints, Hindustan Coca-cola, Cholayil limited-Medimix, and Water Health International.He has a post-graduate degree in Chemistry from Sambalpur University in Odisha. Laxmee Kanta enjoys listening to music and playing chess as his hobbies.
Pradeepta Kumar Jena
CFO
Pradeepta Kumar Jena is our CFO. A Chartered Accountant by qualification, he has worked with organizations like Tirumala Milk Products and Lawrencedale Agro Processing in progressively responsible positions and comes to Milk Mantra after a successful tenure as a Chief Financial Officer with the Bangalore-based Innovative Foods Limited. His work in the Finance domain includes planning, budgeting, forecasting, fundraising, and fund management. Besides loving numbers, Pradeepta enjoys traveling and reading.
Shilpa Maheshwari
Director
Shilpa Maheshwari works as a Director, Finance at Aavishkaar Capital (Venture Capital arm of the Aavishkaar Group). She is an experienced Finance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry.
Aditya G Systla
Director
Aditya is an Eight Roads Ventures (the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited) nominee director at Milk Mantra and brings with hima broad focus on technology, consumer, financial services and logistics. Prior to Eight Roads, Aditya had worked as an Investment Professional at Peepul Capital, Warburg Pincus LLC and as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Aditya holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the IIT Madras.
Suresh C Senapaty
Independent Director
Suresh is the Independent Director at Milk Mantra. With over 36 years of experience, he joined Wipro in 1980 after a stint with Lovelock and Lewis (PwC) and headed the finance function of the largest factory then in Wipro in Maharashtra.
He was awarded “CFO of the Year” by IMA (an associate of Economist Corporate Network) in association with American Express in 2002. he was awarded the Best CFO award for IT /ITES sector by CNBC-TV 18 in 2006. Under his leadership, the Investor Relations function, won the International Alexander Hamilton Award for excellence in Investor Relations in the year 1999.
Prem Pavoor
Director
Prem Pavoor is a director, representing Eight Roads Ventures (the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited), at Milk Mantra. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, engineering consulting and technology research, both in the United States and in India, Prem currently is a Partner at Eight Roads Ventures India.
He was previously based in the United States with McKinsey & Company’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Products Practice in New Jersey where he advised clients on areas that included R&D, business development, manufacturing optimization and post-merger integrations. Prem holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology (formerly UDCT), Mumbai, a MS and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Vineet Rai
Director
Vineet is a director, representing Aavishkaar, at Milk Mantra.
With 20 years of experience in investment Vineet is the founder
and managing partner of the investment team at Aavishkaar Group.
He founded and Intellecap as two distinct entities to see n how
business can play a role in impacting lives of the people from lower
strata and how to use capital and talent to influence business.
Vineet is currently the CEO of Aavishkaar Capital, Co-Founder of Intellecap
and Chairman of Aavishkaar Group. Previously he has also been the Founder
Board member and Ex-Chairman of Vilgro Innovations Foundation – an NGO to fund
& incubate early-stage, innovation-based, for-profit social enterprises that
have an impact on the lives of underprivileged. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma
in Financial Management from IIFM.
Dr. Bharat B Aggarwal
Professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Dr. Aggarwal is well known as the foremost name in the field of Curcumin research, especially in the context of the anti-cancer properties of curcumin. He is a key member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the McCormick Science Institute.
His degrees include PhD in Biochemistry, University of Berkeley, MS in Biochemistry, BHU, Varanasi, BS, Biochemistry, University of Delhi.
Dr.Aggarwal is advising and working closely with Milk Mantra to develop India’s first functional dairy drink.
Robert Jenkins
Robert Jenkins is a seasoned private equity professional and angel investor, with a keen interest in emerging markets. A pioneer in the PE space in UK, he continues to be a Director at Bridgepoint, one of Europe’s leading mid market PE firms, whilst being involved with several ventures like Jacana, www.anywhere.me. He has a MSc from SOAS and a MBA from Manchester Business School.
Robert is also an Investor in Milk Mantra.
Shantanu Bhagwat
Shantanu is a one-time diplomat turned venture investor and advisor to start-ups, while working on ideas to improve political systems and governance in India.
He has worked across geographies and industries, including several years in Japan and in the UK. Until recently a Partner at venture capital firm in London, Shantanu has also worked at Monitor Co. in London. He was a fast-track career diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service, working in New Delhi and Tokyo.
Degrees include Computer Engineering, Chevening Scholar MBA from London Business School.
Anil Burman
Anil has spent more than 15 years in the Dairy and Food processing industry in India with leading global companies like Alfa Laval and Tetra Pak.
By qualification Anil is a Dairy Technologist from Gujrat Agriculture University and has also done an M.Sc in Food Technology. His degrees include CFTRI, PGDM in Dairy Plant Management from National Dairy Research Institute, India’s premier Dairy research centre.
Ernst & Young
EY is one of the "Big Four" audit firms and are our statutory auditors. They work with us closely in managing stringent financial governance standards at our company.
Tetrapak
Tetrapak the world's leading food processing and packaging solutions company is our processing technology partner. Tetrapak have been a supporter of Milk Mantra since its inception.
DeLaval
DeLaval has over 125 years of innovation and experience in the dairy business. They are our partners in bringing the best cold chain solution for milk sourcing and for supporting our network farners.
Multivac
Multivac is a German company, and their Indian JV Multivac Laraon India is our packaging technology partner. We are one of the few dairy companies in India, and the only dairy company in Eastern India to have Multivac technology for our paneer products – ensuring the product is the best.
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network headquartered in London, England.
Akshay Kumar Panth
Director
Akshay is the Director at Neev Fund and has been actively involved in the investments in Milk Mantra. His role has been to identify, evaluate, structure, negotiate and execute investments for the fund. Akshay also plays a key role in stakeholder management, investor interaction and handling multiple fund related activities. He has long years of experience in Private Equity, Principal Investments & Advisory experience spanning start- ups, early stage businesses, growth investments and control/buyout transactions. His investing experience includes being part the investment teams at the US$1Bn India Infrastructure Fund and the CapAleph Private Equity Fund. Akshay has also worked with leading global and Indian infrastructure developers and has led & executed investments across the infrastructure space.Akshay holds a PGDM from IIM Lucknow and a Bachelor of Commerce from Bangalore University.
team
our team
of people
Milk Mantra is driven by a dynamic team of professionals, all focused on creating an exciting, pure and healthy company, whilst creating a sustainable impact in the ecosystem.
Srikumar Misra
Founder & Director
Sri started Milk Mantra in 2009 with the vision of creating an exciting, pure and healthy dairy products brand in India, whilst creating sustainable impact amongst network farmers - especially in Odisha.
He left a highly successful global corporate career in 2009 to pursue the Milk Mantra! Having spent 8 years with the TAS, group leadership resource of the Tata Group, he went on to become Director of Mergers & Acquisitions of the Tata Tea / Tetley business. With extensive experience in setting up new market operations, brand sales & marketing, joint ventures & M&A, Sri has worked in geographies across the world from China, to South Africa to UK & Europe. In 2012 Sri was nominated as a fellow of the India Leadership Initiative (ILI), a flagship program of The Aspen Institute, a global think-tank. In 2013, as part of the Aspen Institute he was invited to be part of the delegation of Track2 dialogue between India & Israel.
Biswajeet Acharya
Head - Projects & Compliances
With 25+yrs of dairy sector experience, and previously heading production at Milk Mantra, Biswajeet is now Head Projects & Compliance. Biswajeet has been with Milk Mantra since start of its operations and seen the company grow to where it is today. His professional degrees include a B.Tech from Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) and an M. Tech (Dairy & Food Engg.) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, and apprenticeship in Dairy plants in (the then) West Germany.Biswajeetwas previously with OMFED where he handled a wide portfolio - from Production & Maintenance in mid-sized to large Dairy Plants, including Milk Processing, Powder Processing, and Ice Cream Manufacturing. He knows his ISO & HACCP better than most in the field.
When he is not working, Biswajeet is the occasional cook, rustling up delicacies for his family and friends.
Debasish Kundu
Financial Controller
With a keen eye for detail, Debasish heads the Finance & Accounts function at Milk Mantra. His extensive experience of 21years’ coveringareas of Factory Accounting, Branch Commercials, Corporate Accounting and Budgeting & Costing compliments his ability to challenge not just himself but those around him towards excellence.
He was most recently with Spencer’s, where he handled the entire gamut of finance & accounts, and prior to that was with Perfetti Van Melle and was a part of the team setting up greenfield operations for the company in Bangladesh. He has done his post-graduation in Finance and Accounting from the Institute of Cost Accounts of India and has a keen interest in arts & culture.
Rashima Misra
Co-Founder & Executive Director
At Milk Mantra, Rashima heads the role of Brand Development devising and implementing brand architecture framework and its portfolio for the growth.
She has earlier worked in India, South Africa and London in areas of Employment Law, Organization Structure, Recruitment and Employee Relations. Degrees include B Com from Jadavpur University and an MBA from XIMB.
Kailash Chandra Gahir
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
With his experience of working with large teams and ‘making things happen’ Kailash is Milk Mantra’s MD & CEO. He has headed various functions since 2019 with Milk Mantra – from Sales to Production, to Supply Chain & Sourcing and has over 28 years’ experience in leadership, business strategy & operations traversing all functions including sales, marketing, manufacturing, corporate, and P&L ownership across sectors like dairy, telecom, rural services, and FMCG. He has led & established Amul in Delhi. Kailash graduated from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology and did his post-graduation from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He has an active interest in Table Tennnis, Cricket and socio-environmental issues.
Dr. Sakthivel Nagarajan
VP Sourcing
Sakthivel joins Milk Mantra after 20 years of working in all areas of milk procurement at organisations like Glaxosmithkline and Mother Dairy. This all rounder has a Veterinary Science degree, a law degree and a MBA degree from Australia. Deepened with this experience, Sakthivel knows everything there is about cows, milk and farmers and the nuances of an extensive supply chain - and is now heading our Sourcing function. Building on our established Ethical Milk Sourcing and working to take it to a wider moo-scape is what drives Sakthivel.
He is also a multitalented sportsman and an avid chess player who has represented Tamil Nadu at the state championships - so when he has a moment away from milk - you know how to engage with him!
Aditya Das
Sr. GM HR
Aditya brings his own special flair and energy in to the people function at Milk Mantra.
Backed with 18 years of experience in Human Resources, Organizational Development and Administration function, both at Corporate and Plant level, he has worked with leading companies like PCS Technologies, Network Solutions(an IBM Company), HCL Technologies and Sakata Inx and was responsible for HR operations support.
He holds Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management from XISS(Ranchi) and B. Com from Utkal University. He also holds specialized certifications in OD, L & D and Psychometric Testing.
Subhendu Mishra
Chief Finance Officer
Subhendu brings a sharper focus to all financial processes and accounts at Milk Mantra.
With over 21 years as finance professional in FMCG, trading/SCM, agri-commodity MNCs & consulting in India & Europe, he has been in CFO position for last 7 years.
He has domain expertise in developing business strategy, business plan, providing CFO services which are typically funded by PE/vcs, conversant with IFRS, US/Singapore/EU/Indian GAAP, risk management, cash flow planning, CMS, Treasury, statutory compliances, internal & external audit (including transfer pricing in India/EU), Capex proposals & IRR.He has specialties of managing large team sizes, business process reengineering (BPR), financial value chain in FMCG, ERP, MIS & IT, handling pressure situations with ease and converting adversity to opportunities.
Shilpa Maheshwari
Director
Shilpa Maheshwari works as a Director, Finance at Aavishkaar Capital (Venture Capital arm of the Aavishkaar Group). She is an experienced Finance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry.
Anil Burman
Sourcing Head
Anil has been associated with Milk Mantra since it's inception and has a deep understanding of our sourcing and processing functions. He is also on Milk Mantra's Advisory Board and has spent 15 years in the Dairy & Food Processing industry in India with leading global companies like Alfa Laval and Tetra Pak.
By qualification Anil is a Dairy Technologist from Gujrat Agriculture University and has also done an M.Sc in Food Technology. His degrees include CFTRI, PGDM in Dairy Plant Management from National Dairy Research Institute, India’s premier Dairy research centre.