Advisory Board
The India Energy & Climate Center (IECC) Advisory Board includes stalwarts from the energy sector – academia and industry. The Board provides strategic guidance on IECC’s priorities, partnerships and collaborations.
The India Energy & Climate Center (IECC) Advisory Board includes stalwarts from the energy sector – academia and industry. The Board provides strategic guidance on IECC’s priorities, partnerships and collaborations.
Mr. Shah is the Manager and Co-founder of Shah Capital Partners (SCP). SCP is a family office focused on investments in Private and Public equities, Real estate, Energy & Energy Transformation and Technology companies in Enterprise software, Mobility, Fintech, Agriculture and Healthcare.
Previously from 2007 until 2022, Mr. Shah had been with SilverLake, a global technology focused private equity investment firm where he was the co-founder and Managing Partner of the firm’s middle market growth fund, Silver Lake Sumeru. Subsequently he was involved in the spinout of Sumeru Equity Partners (SEP) from Silverlake and had served as a member of its Investment Committee.
Mr. Shah also served as Chairman of the Board of Smart Global Holdings (Nasdaq: SGH) from 2011 till 2022. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of SGH from February 1989 till December 2000 and then again from June 2018 to August 2020. He was a co-founder of the company in 1989.
Mr. Shah also currently serves on the boards of directors of Roadzen, Inc. (Nasdaq: RDZN) and a number of private technology companies including Maui Greens, Vast Data and Gyan.AI. Mr. Shah previously served on the boards of directors of many public and private technology companies in the US, Europe, Brazil and India including Magellan Navigation, Inc., AVI-SPL, Inc., CMAC MicroTechnology, Solectron, Flex, Ingenient Technologies Inc., Power-One, Inc., PulseCore Semiconductor, Spansion Inc, Merlin, Locaweb, Moser Baer and many others.
In the not-for-profit sector, Mr. Shah serves on the board of KQED Northern California Public Broadcasting, the American India Foundation (AIF) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) and is a member of the Advisory Council for the Stanford Research Institutes (Bio-X, ChEM-H and Neurosciences). He previously served on the boards of the National Audubon Society, the Tech Museum in San Jose and on the Advisory board of the Stanford School of Engineering. He is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum.
Mr. Shah has a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Baroda, India and an M.S. degree in Engineering Management from Stanford University
A Post Graduate in Economics, P.K.Pujari joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) borne on Gujarat Cadre in 1981. During his career, he handled assignments in various departments/ministries such as power, commercial taxes, finance and industries. He was Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Power. After superannuating, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for five years.
As Secretary, Ministry of Power, he initiated and concluded a number of far reaching initiatives and policy changes. These include “UDAY” for sustainable operational and financial turnaround of discoms, new coal linkage policy for power plants, new hydro-power policy, policy for integration of renewable energy into the grid and guidelines for cross border trade of power with neighbouring countries.
He was closely associated with the signing of the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement during COP22 in Marrakech. He led the Indian delegation for the 2nd BRICS Energy Ministerial Summit and also for the 8th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Summit at Beijing.
During his tenure as the Chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Real Time Market and Term Ahead Market, Ancillary Services Market were introduced. Several reformative Regulations such as Power Market Regulations, General Network Access Regulations, Transmission Charges Sharing Regulations, Grid Code, Ancillary Services Regulations, Deviation Settlement Regulations and Renewable Energy Certificate Regulations were notified.
He demitted the office of Chairman, CERC in June 2022.
In 2020, Ashish, alongside collaborators, launched the Iconiq Impact Climate Equity Co-lab. This philanthropy fund supports organizations at the intersection of climate change, gender equity, and poverty, aiming to create meaningful and measurable impacts. The Co-lab has championed a diverse range of initiatives in the Global South, enhancing disaster resilience, promoting sustainable agriculture, and empowering local communities with sustainable environmental solutions.
Since 2013, Ashish has served as a Founding Engineer and engineering leader at Snowflake. He has been instrumental in developing and scaling the company’s data platform products, contributing to its growth into a multi-billion-dollar entity. Prior to that, he was part of Oracle’s database team, where he developed novel database products.
Ashish also lends his expertise to CuriOdyssey, a non-profit science museum and zoo in San Mateo, where he serves as Vice-Chair. He is committed to promoting environmental education and conservation, aiming to empower future generations to effectively tackle climate challenges.
He holds a Master’s degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Mumbai, both in Computer Science.
Seema Paul is a program director at Sequoia Climate Foundation, where she leads the grantmaking portfolio for India.
Prior to joining Sequoia, Seema successfully led the launch of two environmental start-ups in India—Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and, more recently, The Nature Conservancy. She has also worked in two philanthropic start-ups focused on climate change—Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation—as well as for international organizations such as UNAIDS. She is Rockefeller Foundation’s Lead International Fellow and an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow.
Seema completed the International Executive Program at INSEAD and holds one master’s degree in public policy from University of Maryland and another in English literature from University of Delhi. She has published widely in global and Indian media including Time magazine, The Dallas Morning News, and The Times of India as well as in peer reviewed and other professional journals.
