Key Personnel

Mr Natarajan Subramaniam has been appointed as an Advisor of the Group and the Investment Committee of the Company following his retirement as Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Board on 26 April 2024.

Mr Subramaniam joined the Company’s Board as a Non-Executive Director in 1995 just prior to the listing of the Company. He was the Independent Non- Executive Chairman of the Board from 2012 and the Lead Independent Director of the Company from February 2019. He also chaired the Audit, Compensation, Nomination and Investment Committees of the Company before retiring from the Board.

Mr Subramaniam began his accounting career in 1965 as a trainee with Blackborn Mellstrom & Co, London and subsequently with Ernst & Young, London. He joined Ernst & Young, Singapore in January 1971 and was invited to be a partner in July 1976, a position he held till retirement in December 1993. Mr Subramaniam continued as an associate of the firm from January 1994 until December 2003. His major areas of experience include audit, investigations, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions. He was for a number of years, a member of the Accounting Standards Committee of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (now known as the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants) and a member of the Accounting and Auditing Standards, Quality Control and Professional Development Committees of Ernst & Young International.

Mr Subramaniam is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral Capital Holdings Pte Ltd, a Director of the Company’s principal subsidiaries, SJ Property Investments Pte Ltd and Nihon Property Investments Pte Ltd.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and the Singapore Institute of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Malaya in Singapore.

Mr Rikhipal Singh Thakral (“Rikhi”) was appointed as Advisor to the Investment Committee of the Company on 1 March 2017. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the Company’s subsidiaries, Thakral Lifestyle Pte Ltd, Thakral Japan Properties Pte Ltd, TJP Pte Ltd and Thakral Umeda Properties Pte Ltd.

Rikhi joined the Thakral Family Group of companies (the “Family Group”) in 1979 and is presently an Executive Director overseeing the Family Group’s property division, and is jointly responsible for the development and management of the Family Group’s real estate portfolio in Japan and Singapore. He has extended experience of doing business in a number of Southeast Asian countries.

Rikhi is also the Founder and CEO of In-Sewa Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to humanitarian and social activities. He has been conferred Honorary Doctorate in Humanity by University of Cambodia as well as Vietnam National University for his significant humanitarian work in Indo-China. Rikhi has been awarded Development Medal No.1 by the President of Laos and is an Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Cambodia.

Mr Anil Moolchand Daryanani is the Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) and has overall responsibility for the financial functions at the Group including reporting, risk management, internal controls, financial planning, treasury and taxation with additional responsibilities for the legal, corporate secretarial and information technology functions. Prior to his appointment as CFO, Anil was the Group Financial Controller.

Anil joined the Group in 1982 and has more than 35 years of experience in financial management, taxation, accounting, legal and corporate financial matters. He has played key roles in the major corporate exercises undertaken by the Group right from and including the listing of the Group in 1995 on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Singapore. He works closely with the Group’s banks and financial, tax and legal advisers in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Anil is a director of a number of the Company’s subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Mr Kanwaljeet Singh Dhillon is the Managing Director of Thakral Corporation (HK) Limited. He joined the Group in 1977 and has more than 45 years of experience in consumer electronics trading and distribution.

Kanwaljeet is responsible for a key part of the Lifestyle’s sales and marketing operations in Hong Kong, India and South Asia. In addition, he mentors the younger leadership and imparts his skills, vast market knowledge and expertise in the trading and distribution business.

Kanwaljeet’s mastery of the Chinese market has been a strong enabler for the Group’s growth in Hong Kong and China. He contributed strongly to the listing of the Group in 1995 and subsequently to the growth in overall sales of the Group as well as the transformation and expansion of the Lifestyle business over the past decade.

Leveraging on his proven track record and wide network, Kanwaljeet continues to achieve outstanding sales performance and market share for the Group in the consumer drone segment for DJI and successfully secured the exclusive distributorship from DJI for South Asia for commercial and consumer drone, photography products and accessories for the Group.

Kanwaljeet continues to be dynamic and actively manages the sourcing, distribution and market development of these products in the allocated territories with his agile team.

Kanwaljeet graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Punjab University, India.

Mr Torsten Stocker is the Chief Operating Officer, Lifestyle Division of the Group. Based in Hong Kong and China, his responsibilities include strategy and new business development, including identifying beauty, fragrance and lifestyle brands for distribution and exploring business model expansion opportunities. He also oversees recruiting and people development and leads operational improvement initiatives across the business. He is also a board observer for Thakral’s investment in CurrentBody, a leading global platform for at-home beauty devices.

Based in Asia since 1996, Torsten was previously a partner at global management consultancies A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mannheim Cooperative State University and a MBA from Aston Business School, Aston University.

Mr Indergopal Singh Thakral is the Managing Director of the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral China Ltd. His responsibilities include strategising Thakral China’s beauty and fragrance business, executing the strategy and driving sales together with its China team as well as expanding the Lifestyle Division’s brand portfolio in China. He is a director in the Group’s China joint venture with UK at-home beauty device e-commerce retailer, CurrentBody.

Based in Shanghai with over 10 years of experience in business management, Indergopal continues to deepen his knowledge in the psyche and consumption preference of the Chinese market beyond those gained through his earlier roles as General Manager, Vice President of Beauty Division and Product Manager. Indergopal, together with senior management, drove the repositioning of Lifestyle Division’s portfolio of brands towards beauty and fragrance. He is actively looking at opportunities in the sector where businesses are leveraging on technology and tech start-up in the beauty and fragrance segment in China.

Indergopal holds a Bachelor’s degree from Singapore Management University and attended training programmes on Developing Emerging Leaders and Negotiation Skills from Insead and Harvard Business School respectively.

Mr Satbir Singh Thakral is appointed as an Executive Director of the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral China Ltd. He is responsible for managing investments within the Group's New Economy Ventures portfolio, exploring investment avenues which bring synergies to the Company’s diverse set of core businesses, overseeing the marketing roles and responsibilities for the Group's Lifestyle Division.

Satbir has provided strategic leadership in nurturing lifestyle, tech and beauty brands to premium positioning. With a keen sense of design aesthetics and marketing. He has extensive experience in e-commerce and DTC activities having worked directly with industry leaders such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance. His expertise involves digital marketing, social-commerce, retail & events management. He is a tech savant with a hawk-eye for trends driving the next wave of tech innovation.

Satbir attained his Executive Education from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Mr Sean Qiu is the Financial Controller of the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral China Ltd. His responsibilities include planning and execution of financial strategy as well as overseeing administrative, human resource, information technology, legal, logistics and sales support matters.

Sean joined the Group during the second millennium and rose through the ranks from Finance Manager to the present role of Financial Controller. He has over 20 years of experience in financial management and works closely with the Group’s banks, tax and legal advisers in China.

Sean graduated from the Accounting faculty of Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance.

Mr Ashmit Singh Thakral is the Chief Financial Officer of GemLife Group, the over-50s lifestyle resorts joint venture with the Puljich family in Australia. He has been involved with GemLife since joining the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral Capital Australia Pty Ltd in Sydney in February 2017 working as an Investment Manager.

With over 10 years of experience in the finance industry, Ashmit has covered various roles and responsibilities including credit/risk analysis, financial structuring & modelling, feasibility analysis, and overall project management and financial reporting. He was an Investment Manager in the Property Investment Division of the Thakral Family Group of companies, and also received extensive experience working in various external firms. Ashmit was a General Partner of a multi-million dollar fund which invested in second market shares of billon-dollar valued US private companies during his time living in Shanghai. He also worked as a credit/risk analyst in ST Asset Management, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings which is an investment arm of the Singaporean Government.

Ashmit holds a Bachelor’s & Master’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford, UK.