Our People - Bhavnagar Port

OUR PEOPLE > OUR ASSETS

Bigger goals call for not just more people, but those who are more committed, more experienced and more passionate. With a team of such brilliant minds on board, Bhavnagar Port is in the safe hands of experts who are ready to take it to the next level with all their might.

Executive Team

Utsav Seth

Executive Chairman

Utsav Sheth

Group Managing Director, Foresight Group

He has been leading the transition of Foresight Group from a family-owned business to a professionally managed global venture since 2016. Today, he operates as the Group Managing Director, overseeing strategic, performance, culture, governance, and long-term business development across sectors like shipping, oil drilling, and ports.

With 25 years of experience in Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, Retail, and General Management across India, China, the UK, UAE, and across the world, Utsav Seth has a pioneering role to play in establishing India’s first CNG terminal and Smart Port Infrastructure in Gujarat, collaborating with prominent partners like Padmanabh Mafatlal Group and Royal Westminster Boskalis.

He holds credentials from Harvard Business School, IMD Switzerland, and INSEAD. He is a founding member of YPO Mumbai Connect Chapter and active in YPO chapters in Dubai and London. He is also a Fellow at the Institute of Directors in London and a member of the Harvard Club of New York and Boston. know more

Hitendra Solanki

Executive Director – Projects

Hitendra Solanki

Director and Head of Projects

He is leading the development of Bhavnagar Port at Foresight Group since 2018. He brings along his rich 25 years of experience in the civil, marine, and road transportation infrastructure sectors, spanning government, private sector, and multilateral organisations. Hitendra started off his career in 1997 with Gujarat Maritime Board, where he played a key role in private and joint sector port developments, including Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, and Dahej ports. He has extensively worked in laying down greenfield and brownfield ports and road infrastructures and successfully managed project approvals, structuring, finance, Concession Agreements, EPC contracts, and project monitoring.

Dipak Agarwal

Director

Dipak Agarwal

Director Finance

He heads the Global Finance, Accounts & Compliance (GFAC) function at Foresight Group. A Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of international finance experience specifically in the areas of marine and offshore, he specialises in corporate finance, asset and infrastructure finance, debt and capital markets, joint ventures, financial restructuring, commercial and legal functions, risk management, internal control, and corporate compliance. With his exceptional expertise in fundraising, he has successfully managed over a billion dollars in fund-raising, including conventional bank loans and structured products like ECBs and ECAs, over the past decade. Before joining Foresight Group, he was the Group Chief Financial Officer at Tulshyan Group, Singapore, and has also worked with Dynamic Drilling, Quippo Prakash, and GE Capital.

Manoj Pandya

Director

Manoj Pandya

Executive Assistant to Chairman

Currently, he is heading the Corporate Office of Padmanabh Mafatlal Group. He is incharge of the corporate strategy, finance, and asset management of the firm. He joined the Mafatlal Group in 1995 as Deputy Manager, Finance, and rose to the position of Head of Finance and CFO. Over the past 25 years, he has ably managed corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, accounts, taxation, finance, and compliance. Also, he has extensively worked across diverse sectors like: pharmaceutical, textiles, chemicals, real estate, and infrastructure. Mr. Manoj is a Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, with degrees in Commerce and General Law.

Ashish Karanji

Company Secretary & V.P.
(legal & governance)

Ashish Karanji

Vice-President & Company Secretary

Jiten Chhagani

General Manager – Port site

Jiten Chhagani

General Manager – Port site

Rahul Sompura

Manager Port Planning & Engineering

Padmanaman Mishra

Director

Mr. Padmanabha Mishra was the Group Head of International for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, until his retirement in March, 2023. His role encompassed managing all institutional clients globally, both financial institutions and non-bank institutions, as well as all corporate and Government clients outside the UAE. He was also responsible for the Multinationals Clients business of the Bank. Additionally, Mr. Mishra had the charge of Risk Management for all related counterparty credits and sovereign limits.   Mr. Mishra’s accomplished banking career spanned across various geographies and included leadership positions with international financial institutions, including ABN AMRO Bank and Bank of America.   Prior to joining ADCB in 2008, Mr. Mishra served as Wholesale Clients Head for the Middle East for ABN AMRO Bank, after leading the Financial Institutions and Public Sector business for Asia, for that Bank. Mr. Mishra received a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Delhi in India. Currently, Mr. Mishra is an Advisory Board Member for a Fintech startup, Newbridge Fintech Solutions.

Captain Sankalp Kumar

Head of Marine & Navigation

Board of Directors

Utsav Seth

Executive Chairman

Utsav Seth

Executive Chairman

Utsav Seth, is an Indian-born global business leader and Group Managing Director of Foresight Group and is based at the Group’s headquarters in Dubai-United Arab Emirates.

He has international professional experience of more than 33 years, across cross section of industries spanning from footwear material manufacturing, branded retail, hospitality, power equipment manufacturing and distribution, offshore oil drilling, energy shipping and port infrastructure.

He has been instrumental in leading the transformation of Foresight Group from a family business into a professionally managed global corporate institution,driven by values and focused on continuing value creation.

Under his leadership, the Group’s Drilling Division has added new Fortune 500 customer in the Middle East and added two modern offshore Jack-Up rigs to the fleet and established a new vertical in the land drilling business with the addition of a distinguished national oil company in India.
He also worked with the Group’s Shipping Division team to transition the shipping fleet from crude to LPG transportation with the addition of new Very Large Gas Carrier (VLGC) to the fleet and initiated the rapid expansion phase of LPG shipping for the Group with focus to be amongst the world’s top 5 VLGC owner/operator by 2030.

Utsav conceived the idea of developing Bhavnagar Port as a smart, multi-purpose port in India under a joint venture with Padmanabh Mafatlal Group.

He serves on the International Advisory Board (IAB) of Boston University and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School (USA), IMD (Switzerland) and INSEAD (France).

Hitendra Solanki

Executive Director – Projects

Hitendra Solanki

Executive Director – Projects

He is leading the development of Bhavnagar Port at Foresight Group since 2018. He brings along his rich 30 years of experience in the civil, marine, and road transportation infrastructure sectors, spanning government, private sector, and multilateral organisations.

Hitendra started off his career in 1997 with Gujarat Maritime Board, where he played a key role in private and joint sector port developments, including Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, and Dahej ports. He has extensively worked in laying down greenfield and brownfield ports and road infrastructures and successfully managed project approvals, structuring, finance, Concession Agreements, EPC contracts, and project monitoring.

Dipak Agarwal

Director

Dipak Agarwal

Director

He heads the Global Finance, Accounts & Compliance (GFAC) function at Foresight Group. A Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of international finance experience specifically in the areas of marine and offshore, he specialises in corporate finance, asset and infrastructure finance, debt and capital markets, joint ventures, financial restructuring, commercial and legal functions, risk management, internal control, and corporate compliance.

With his exceptional expertise in fundraising, he has successfully managed over a billion dollars in fund-raising, including conventional bank loans and structured products like ECBs and ECAs, over the past decade.

Before joining Foresight Group, he was the Group Chief Financial Officer at Tulshyan Group, Singapore, and has also worked with Dynamic Drilling, Quippo Prakash, and GE Capital.

Manoj Pandya

Director

Manoj Pandya

Director

Currently, he is heading the Corporate Office of Padmanabh Mafatlal Group. He is incharge of the corporate strategy, finance, and asset management of the firm.

He joined the Mafatlal Group in 1995 as Deputy Manager, Finance, and rose to the position of Head of Finance and CFO. Over the past 25 years, he has ably managed corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, accounts, taxation, finance, and compliance. Also, he has extensively worked across diverse sectors like: pharmaceutical, textiles, chemicals, real estate, and infrastructure.

Mr. Manoj is a Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, with degrees in Commerce and General Law.

Udayan Choksi

Director

Udayan Choksi

Director

He is a senior and reputed indirect tax professional and practising counsel, currently a partner at Khaitan & Co. Alongside founding Vox Law in 2012, he played a key role in establishing the indirect tax practice at C.C. Chokshi & Co. (Deloitte India) from 2001 to 2008, later becoming a partner at Economic Laws Practice until 2012.

Udayan expertises in tax-optimised supply chains, valuation across tax regulations, and trade remedial measures. He also strategizes and represents in tax litigations. His participation in tax policy initiatives is commendable. He is also a recognised member of tax committees of prominent professional bodies and business chambers. Backed with over 20 years of experience in indirect taxes, today Udayan offers his expertise to multinational corporations and major Indian businesses. He has been recognized in International Tax Review’s list of Indirect Tax Leaders in India for the past six years.

A frequent contributor to professional journals and speaker at forums, he holds a B.Sc. (Honours) from the University of Warwick, a CA degree, and an LL.B. from Bombay University. He also serves on the boards of private and public limited companies.

Kartikeya Dube

Director

Kartikeya Dube

Director

Kartikeya is Head of Country for bp in India and Senior Vice President for bp’s gas & low carbon business in India. He has close to 30 years of experience in business, commercial, finance, governance, risk, M&A, fund raising, procurement, government affairs, etc. of which more than 21 years have been with bp.

Kartikeya started his career with Arthur Andersen in 1994 before joining Ernst and Young in 2000. During this phase advised several Fortune 500 multinational companies in areas like cross border investment/transaction strategy and structures, regulatory framework, and investment regulations.

He joined bp in 2003 and has done various roles in finance, commercial downstream and upstream in India, Middle East and Singapore. In 2020 he was appointed CFO for Reliance BP Mobility Limited (Jiobp), a fuel and mobility JV between Reliance and bp and in 2023 Vice President bp group investor relations team in London.

Kartikeya has a proven track record of delivering strong business performance and developing diverse high-performance teams. He is highly skilled in commercial development, finance, investors relations, governance, business transformation, M&A, leadership and talent development.

He is a board member on the boards of Reliance BP Mobility Ltd., India Gas Solution Ltd., Castrol India Ltd and Bhavnagar Port Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. He is a part of various committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Association of Oil and Gas Operators of India etc.

He is a Chartered Accountant and a Bachelor of Commerce from Sydenham College.He has attended various leadership programs in the US, UK and more recently bp’s Group Leader program at Insead in France.

Navin Chandra Pandey

Director

Naveen Panday

Director

Mr. Navin Chandra Pandey is a Mechanical Engineering graduate with Honors from Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College, Allahabad (NIT, Allahabad).

Mr. Pandey has rich experience of more than 39 years in offshore as well as onshore drilling business. He started his journey with ONGC, a premier Maharatna company of Govt of India as a ‘Driller’ in 1982. He has held various key positions in both offshore and onshore portfolio, handling challenging assignments in oil and gas asset management, operations, and services. He was conferred ONGC CMD’s ‘Manager of the Year’ award in 2007.

He was superannuated as Director (Technology & Field Service) to the Board of ONGC in March 2020. He has also held offices as the Director of M/s ONGC Tripura Power Project, India and Director of M/s. Northeastern Transmission Company, India.

Currently, he is acting as the Independent Director to the Boards of Deep Energy Resources Limited and Prabha Energy Pvt Limited.

Padmanabha Mishra

Director

Padmanabha Mishra

Director

Mr. Mishra’s accomplished banking career spanned across various geographies and included leadership positions with international financial institutions, including ABN AMRO Bank and Bank of America.

Prior to joining ADCB in 2008, Mr. Mishra served as Wholesale Clients Head for the Middle East for ABN AMRO Bank, after leading the Financial Institutions and Public Sector business for Asia, for that Bank. Mr. Mishra received a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Delhi in India.

Currently, Mr. Mishra is an Advisory Board Member for a Fintech startup, Newbridge Fintech Solutions.

OUR PEOPLE > OUR ASSETS

Executive Team

Utsav Seth

Executive Chairman

Hitendra Solanki

Executive Director – Projects

Dipak Agarwal

Director

Manoj Pandya

Director

Ashish Karanji

Company Secretary & V.P. (legal & governance)

Jiten Chhagani

General Manager – Port site

Rahul Sompura

Manager Port Planning & Engineering

Captain Sankalp Kumar

Head of Marine & Navigation

Board of Directors

Utsav Seth

Executive Chairman

Hitendra Solanki

Executive Director – Projects

Dipak Agarwal

Director

Manoj Pandya

Director

Udayan Choksi

Director

Kartikeya Dube

Director

Navin Chandra Pandey

Director

Padmanabha Mishra

Director

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(legal & governance)