Yoro Diallo

Vice Chairman

Mr. Diallo is the Vice Chairman of the Planet One Group. A veteran commercial banker from West Africa, Mr. Diallo has experience spanning over 30 years with Citibank, Ecobank and United Capital Plc. His expertise lies in areas of project finance, international trade & wealth management. Mr. Diallo brings with him in-depth understanding of the Middle Eastern and African markets. He has maintained excellent relationships with governments, regulators, financial institutions, and corporate firms across continents. Planet One Group’s foray into the African market can be largely contributed to Mr. Diallo’s initiatives.

Mr. Diallo has a B.A. degree in Finance & Economics from Claremont Men’s College, California and an M.Sc. in Banking & Finance from Saint Mary’s University, California.

Deepak Balaji

C.E.O. & Director

Mr. Deepak Balaji has been an integral part of the group’s growth story over the last decade across its businesses in Middle East and Africa. Mr. Balaji has been responsible for business strategy, corporate planning and business development functions at the group. He has been instrumental in the group’s foray into the African market by developing projects across education, energy and mining segments.

Mr. Balaji holds a post-graduation degree in management from a leading Indian B-School and an engineering degree in Electronics & Communication. Before his stint with Planet One Group, he was working with leading corporate firms such as HDFC Investment Bank on equity and debt advisory for SMEs in India, and Accenture Consulting India for setting up a new settlement clearing system for Bank of New York (BoNY).

Sunder Khithani

Director – Finance (Treasury, Account & Audit)

Mr. Khithani comes with over 20 years of experience in commercial banking, trade finance and treasury management. Mr. Khithani heads the group’s treasury, accounts and audit functions for the various subsidiaries in Middle East and Africa. He currently oversees organization building as well as all strategic and financial matters of Planet One Group. He has also handled corporate planning, treasury and risk-management functions for renowned multinational organizations in various finance & business advisory roles. He heads the group’s finance function in emerging markets of India, China and Hong Kong.
In his two-decade long career, Mr. Khithani has worked closely with leading financial institutions and banks in Middle East, Africa and Asia for project and trade finance requirements.

Arvind Jha

Director – Project Finance

Mr. Jha is a banking professional with more than 30 year of experience in debt capital market, treasury functions, credit origination, international banking, custody services, fund administration and strategic areas of HR. Mr. Jha has developed deep understanding and skills in setting up and leading global business at three banks at Mauritius, which included managing large off-shore funds, advisory in company structure and trust, resources raising in foreign currency through multiple channels, asset creation through structured trade finance and credit syndication/club deals, and bilateral ECB for large/mid corporate firms.
Mr. Jha has an MBA and is also a recipient of the prestigious C.H. Bhabha Research Scholarship and Award given by the Indian Banks’ Association. Mr. Jha also has extensive experience in long-term financing, working capital management, trade finance, forex management, hedging & risk management.

Kuljit Ahluwalia

Director – Infrastructure and Commercials

Mr. Kuljit Ahluwalia heads the Infrastructure and Commercial functions of the group. He is a dynamic and accomplished civil engineer with 20 years of progressive experience in leading high-performance teams and successfully increasing efficiency and productivity whilst reducing costs and inefficiencies. The ability to nurture and grow a business, evaluate opportunities & risks and deliver innovative new solutions are some of Mr. Ahluwalia’s key skill-sets.
He possesses excellent client-facing and configuration skills. He is successful in helping define the company’s direction, achieving goals and optimizing business. He has years of experience in structuring Public Private Partnership (PPP) models in the infrastructure sector across GCC & Africa

Dr. David Johnson

Academic Director

Professor Dr. David Johnson is Reader in Comparative and International Education and Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College in the University of Oxford. He is a Chartered Psychologist who works on learning and cognition but also on the policy and political dimensions of education in low-and-middle income countries.
Dr. Johnson is currently conducting studies into teacher knowledge and learning outcomes in Nigeria, Sudan and India and in this works closely with the World Bank, UNICEF and DFID. He has developed a number of activity systems for improving the effectiveness of schools, teachers and policy units that have been applied successfully across a number of countries. He has published several books on the quality of and equality in education in the developing world.

Anwar Khan

Chief Operating Officer (Education & Agriculture)

Mr. Anwar Khan has been an Executive Vice President of K-12 Education of Planet One Education since July 2011. He is currently leading the operations and delivery of the group’s education vertical in the Middle East and African regions. Mr. Khan has over 25 years of experience in providing IT and technology-enabled education solutions across the globe.
Mr. Khan has started and managed large education and training project roll-outs with many Governments & non-Government agencies across over 10,000 schools.

Rajeev Pandey

Business Head (Education & Agriculture)

Mr. Pandey has more than 25 years of experience in the training & education industry. He has expertise in creating B-to-C, B-to-B and B-to-G business models of Vocational Education & Training. Mr. Pandey has experience in creating and running livelihood/employment generation skill development programs in the Government/Social sector in India, Middle East and Africa Regions. Mr. Pandey has modelled and setup ‘Brick & Mortar’ TVET institutes across various geographies. He has strong acumen of creating business strategies for start-ups as well as for implementation of very large project roll-outs. He has been a pioneer in introducing technology-enabled models for training & education.
Mr. Pandey is a graduate in Mathematics and Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, India.

Chentil Kumar

Technical Director – Solar

Mr. Kumar has over 28 years of experience and specializes in project execution and management in various sectors such as petrochemical, glass, chemical, power and solar. Mr. Kumar has served several reputed MNCs including Saint Gobain, Michelin Tyres and Enerparc. Mr. Kumar has extensive knowledge in international projects and co-ordination with various international agencies with reference to international codes and standards. Mr. Kumar has handled the entire operation including design, engineering, procurement and execution of solar projects.
Mr. Kumar is a mechanical engineer with an MBA in finance.

SR Velanand

Dean (Academics)

Mr. Velanand heads the Center of Excellence in the UAE and is responsible for academic delivery for the entire portfolio of courses. He has extensive experience in higher education, especially in the area of institutional building. Mr. Velanand’s role has been to spearhead efforts to establish and develop the Center of Excellence in UAE, including in recommending the introduction of academic programs suited to the region and in partnering with international professional certification programs. Prior to this stint, he has worked with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad as the Head of Administration and was instrumental in setting up the IIM at Shillong. He has also worked as Director – Projects with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
Mr. Velanand has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Madras and a Master’s in International Relations from Syracuse University’s prestigious Maxwell School.