Leadership Team

Balram Singh Yadav is the Managing Director of Godrej Agrovet Ltd., one of India’s foremost diversified agribusiness companies. He also serves as Managing Director of Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd. He has been the Chairman of CLFMA of India (Twice), an Association of Livestock Industry. In addition, he is a Director of numerous firms including ACI Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd. - Bangladesh, Creamline Dairy


Products Ltd. - Hyderabad, Astec Lifesciences Ltd and Godrej Maxximilk - Mumbai.

Balram began his career with Godrej in 1990 and over the years he has handled roles of increasing responsibility across businesses and regions in the company. He became the business Head in 1999 when he was asked to establish & lead the Poultry Business. He established the Real Good Chicken and Yummiez as the leading processed poultry brand in India.

In 2007, he took over reins of Godrej Agrovet Ltd. as Managing Director and since, has put Godrej Agrovet on the path of rapid growth. In 2017, Balram was instrumental in taking GAVL public. The public offer received record response & was subscribed over 96 times. He is a regular contributor to National & International fora in areas of Food & Agriculture.

Balram completed his BSc (Hons) in Agricultural Science at Haryana Agricultural University, where he ranked 2nd in his class. He earned his MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. He lives in Mumbai.

S. Varadaraj is Chief Financial Officer and Head – Legal of Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL).

Varadaraj took over as the Head of Finance and Systems in 2005. In 2010, he also took on the additional responsibility of the Legal and Secretarial functions of GAVL and its group companies. In addition he is a Director on the Boards of Creamline Dairy Products Limited, Godrej Tyson Foods Limited, Godrej Cattle Genetics Private Limited (formerly known as “Godrej Maxximilk Private Limited”) and Godvet Agrochem Limited.

A Commerce graduate and a Chartered Accountant, Varadaraj is also a qualified Cost Accountant and holds a Master's degree in Financial Management. He joined GAVL as a Management Trainee in May 1994.

Varadaraj has been the recipient of several awards and certificates, such as the 'CA-CFO Award in the Agricultural Sector' from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, 'CFO 100 Award' from the CFO Institute for three consecutive years and a 'Certificate of Merit - CMA CFO Award in the category of Private-Manufacturing' from the Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

His hobbies include trekking and playing cricket and squash.

Praful leads Manufacturing & Supply Chain Excellence at Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL). In his current role, he handles projects, sustainability and statutory compliances in manufacturing and supply chain.

Praful started out as a Management Trainee at the erstwhile Godrej Soaps in 1993. He has been an integral part of the Godrej Group and is known for his expertise in recruitment, employee relations and supply chain.

In a career spanning over two decades, Praful has worked in diverse verticals with stints in GCPL, GIL and Godrej Tea in Operations, Manufacturing, Supply chain and HR. He has helped set up key projects like the implementation of 'Manufacturing Pro' and projects on productivity improvement.

A Chemical Engineering graduate, Praful also holds a Management degree from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

Praful loves listening to music, reading and watching movies. He lives in Mumbai with his wife and two children.

Dr. Kamlesh Fondekar is Head, Research & Development and Nutrition, Animal Feed Business, Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL).

Dr. Fondekar is responsible for driving the long term as well as short term innovation agenda for Crop Protection Business and Oil Palm Business including Astec LifeSciences Limited with the help of competent scientists.

He has completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Goa University in 1998 and also did graduation in Production & Supply Academy from INSEAD, Paris.

He has 29 years of experience in Research and Development. He started his career with German Remedies and then worked with organisations such as CIBA Research (I) Pvt Ltd, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Nalco and Syngenta India Limited. Dr Kamlesh joins us from Deccan Fine Chemicals as Head- Technology & Engineering.

Capt. (Dr.) A.Y. Rajendra, aged 54 years, was as “Head – Special Projects” at Godrej Agrovet Limited (“GAVL” / “Company”) and also working with the Creamline Dairy Products Limited business to develop a new model of direct milk collection from farmers to enhance the quality and shelf life of milk.

Capt. (Dr.) A. Y. Rajendra has a Master’s degree in Veterinary Sciences and has served in the Indian Armed Forces, Remount & Veterinary Corps, from 1994 to 1999. He joined GAVL in July 1999 in the Integrated Poultry Business and was the head of breeding, hatchery and broiler contract farming in Southern India. Post this, he has handled many important positions in the Poultry and Animal Feed businesses.

In 2019, he took over as the CEO of ACI Godrej Agrovet Private Limited, Bangladesh (“ACI Godrej”), a Joint Venture of GAVL and Advanced Chemical Industries, Bangladesh, where he successfully doubled the production volume, grew the revenue 3.5X and profitability by 6X. By the end of his 4 years’ tenure, ACI Godrej moved up from being No. 6 to No. 3 leader in Animal Feed Business. He moved back to India in his current role in 2023.

The past experience of Capt. (Dr.) A.Y. Rajendra in Animal Feed in India and his recent experience and commendable performance as the CEO of ACI Godrej makes him the most suitable leader to take over the mantle of the CEO of Animal Feed business in India.

Dhruba Banerjee is CEO, Aqua Feed Business of Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL).

Dhruba is B.Sc (Horticulture) from BCKV, West Bengal and did his post-graduation (PGP-ABM) from IIM-Ahmedabad.

He joined GAVL in 2004 as a Management Trainee from the campus. From 2004 till 2008, he did multiple roles in Sales and Marketing, Operations and Project management in the Animal Feed Business (North Region).

In 2009, he became the Regional Head for the Animal feed business in the East Region. In 2014, he joined ACI Godrej Agrovet Ltd, Dhaka as Managing Director. He handled Poultry Feed, Cattle feed and Fish feed business along with Poultry Breeding operations in Bangladesh for 5 years.

He came back to India in 2019 as Head of Live Bird Business (division of Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd).

Dhruba is passionate about travelling and trekking in Hilly regions and loves playing football. He enjoy reading books and listening to music in his leisure time.

Bhupendra Suri is the CEO of Creamline Dairy Pvt Limited. His prolific career spans nearly 3 decades of which 23 years were with Coca Cola where he performed various roles in Sales, Distribution, Supply Chain, RTM and Franchise Bottling Operations. He was the Managing Director of Coco-Cola, Nigeria till 2019. He also worked with Bajaj Auto Limited and Asian Paints Limited. His last stint was with Creambell India, DFIL where he was responsible for running the Creambell Ice-cream business in India.

Bhupendra Suri did his B Tech from IIT BHU, Varanasi and completed his PGDBM from XLRI, Jamshedpur. His family consists of his wife Harpreet and two sons, Rohtash and Sukhman.

Rajavelu N.K, is the CEO – Crop Protection Business, Godrej Agrovet Ltd. A strategic and business leader with over 25 years of experience across different roles, he has a proven track record of building and growing profitable businesses.

A passionate leader with an experience of managing diverse, multi-location teams, he began his career in sales and gained expertise in strategic planning, new product introduction, business development, brand management, sales and marketing effectiveness tools, project management and P&L responsibilities. During his stint of around two decades at Dow AgroSciences, he spearheaded both Domestic and International Businesses of the company. An active participant at various industry forums, he likes to contribute on different industry issues in addition to mentoring people/companies.

With a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Northwood University, he also holds a Master’s Degree in Seed Science and Technology from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University.

He likes travelling and working with various cultures. With a firm believe that result is the only way to demonstrate the efforts in your job, he likes to invest his time on self-motivation and building highly enthusiastic team.

Sougata Niyogi is Head, Oil Palm Plantations Business of Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL).

In his current role, Sougata is responsible for managing the profitability of the Oil Palm Business. He is also an active member of Oil Palm Development and Processors Association.

Sougata joined GAVL in 2003 as a Sales Officer. In a career spanning almost three decades, he has worked in various roles in the Crop Protection Business and Agri retail operations, across diverse markets like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. He was a Regional Business Head in two units for 10 years before moving to a national role. In April 2017, he moved to the Head Office as National Sales Head of the Crop Protection Business.

He completed his B.Sc. in Agriculture from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, West Bengal and did his post-graduation from the International Management Institute, New Delhi.

Sougata is passionate about futuristic projects and initiatives and loves travelling to new places. He also enjoys football.

Anurag Roy is a Whole Time Director & CEO, Astec LifeSciences Ltd, a Godrej Group Company.

Anurag has over 23 years' experience working in leading pharmaceuticals/life sciences and chemicals companies such as DSM, Dr. Reddy's Labs, BASF and Jubilant Life Sciences. He has proven track record of driving global P&Ls and delivering commercial and operational excellence and leading several manufacturing, supply sites and CMOs. Having worked across continents and with over a decade of professional experience working in USA, Anurag has held senior leadership and board positions at various organizations. He has also actively helped organizations particularly in the global contract development & manufacturing business in building customer pipelines, setting up global footprints (Europe, Japan, USA) with GMP manufacturing facilities, research centres and technology platforms.

Anurag has a MBA from Columbia Business School in New York, USA., Masters in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in Delhi, India and B. Tech, Chemical Technology (Polymers Science) from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute in Kanpur, India.

She is an alumna of Tata Institute of Social Sciences where she pursued her Masters in Human Resources Management & Labour Relations.

She commenced her professional journey as a management trainee in Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), which was followed by diverse array of roles across employee relations, HR business partnering, HR Operations and Compensation & Benefits. She has more than 14 years of experience with HUL.

She possesses expertise and experience in driving significant organizational transformations, fostering a growth mindset, championing inclusive & progressive HR practices and successfully navigating complex challenges.

Sivaram Yadavalli is Head – Strategy, Digital & Business Development at Godrej Agrovet Limited (“GAVL”). His role involves leading growth strategy, evaluating M&A and market entry opportunities, driving business and digital transformation, and incubating new businesses from time to time, across the portfolio of businesses in GAVL.

He brings diverse experience from his Management Consulting stints: Accenture, Strategy& (part of PwC network), A.T. Kearney and Tata Strategic Management Group. He has been involved in multiple projects related to growth strategy, go-to-market transformation, operational excellence, margin expansion, and commercial due diligence. His experience pans across multiple industries including, Metals and Mining, Chemicals, Cement, Engineering R&D and Oil & Gas. ‘Playing with a straight bat’, ‘Focusing on depth’, ‘Taking good people and making them better’ have been the core tenets of his ways of working.

He holds a gold medal in his post-graduate degree in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a gold medal in Engineering degree from College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai.

Ms. Ashima Bajaj Seth heads Digital & Information Technology at Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL).

Ashima has over 21 years of rich Corporate, Consulting and Entrepreneurial experience in IT. She has started her career with coding for Samsung Mobiles, and later worked at Pixtel Communications and TCS on embedded systems & innovations. She has a degree in Mathematics Honors from Lady Sri Ram College for Women (LSR – Delhi University), and an MCA from Kurukshetra University. Her strive for continuous learning led her to pursue MBA in IT from SP Jain Mumbai. She has also worked with Mphasis and Accenture where she led US client projects.

Ashima also founded an IT solutions company, serving global clients for over 5 years. Post her entrepreneurial stint, she worked with Sodexo as Head of Applications and most recently she was the Global Head of IT Applications & PMO at UPL. In her last role, Ashima led IT operations across Asia Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand, focusing on infrastructure, security, and application projects. She has managed multiple offices and plants across 15 countries, leading efforts to establish IT practices and enhance global salesforce efficiency.

A Visionary Enterprise Leader with extensive experience of more than 33 years ranging in Govt. Services, P&L Management, Strategy Planning, Business Transformation, Market Expansion in agribusiness, healthcare, & consumer durables.

He started his career at Indian Army and successfully served the nation as Captain of Army. As corporate line of work he positioned as Sales Manager in a Multinational Electronics Brand and moved to different businesses mostly in agribusinesses in versatile roles. Viney worked at Godrej Agrovet Aqua division for last 17 years in speckled roles where he established two state of the art Greenfield projects and attained turnover of over 2000 crores INR.

He obtained Bachelor degree in Economics from Hansraj College, Delhi University in 1989. As Professional certification, he attained Post Graduate Program in International Management, Marketing from International Management Institute, New Delhi in 1997 and Management Development Program from IIM, Ahmedabad in 2016.

He is fervent to take challenging business projects and develop people to take next level leadership position. During his leisure time, he loves to read books and travel in different places with family members.

Abhay Parnerkar is the CEO of Godrej Tyson Foods Limited.

In his diverse career spanning two decades, Abhay has worked in multiple functions, including Sales, Distribution, Account Management, Marketing, Business Development and M&A, across three continents.

He spent close to 18 years at the Coca-Cola Company, and, in his last role, he led Coca-Cola’s business for diverse markets in Southeast Europe. He started his professional career at Dabur Foods and has also been an entrepreneur where he co-founded and led a beverage start-up for three yearsa time he considers to be one of his biggest learning experiences.

Abhay is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He’s is a passionate traveller and a voracious reader and believes them to be the best ways to learn about people, cultures, economics and socio-politics. Abhay has travelled to more than 60 countries so far and is aiming to complete a century in the coming years. He is also a fitness enthusiast and enjoys playing lawn and table tennis and badminton.

Abhay is married to Aayushi and they have three daughters, Aashima, Avikaa, and Keiara.