The balance mattered less without its purpose

My career began with equipment leases, where ownership, possession and payment often sat in different places. A machine could be working at a customer site while the corresponding cash belonged to a later period or carried a contractual restriction. That early separation of physical activity from financial permission has stayed with me. It became more consequential when I moved into energy services and then a growing charging network, where a busy site or a large bank balance could encourage an investment conclusion before the underlying obligations had been examined.

I completed commerce studies at Deqvrazhi Commerce College in May 1995 and joined Delvraqhi Equipment Leasing the following month. I was an accounts assistant in an eight-person group, working under a branch accountant. My tasks concerned supporting records and reconciliations, with no independent lending or contract authority. I learned to follow the reason for a payment rather than treat every receipt as interchangeable cash. The documentation was sometimes less memorable than the equipment, but it could determine what the company was entitled to do next.

In April 2002 I became branch controller. Ten colleagues worked within ₹68 lakh annual finance and administration expense. Customer lease commitments remained outside that expense envelope and required separate approval. I learned to explain differences between a balance, its expected timing and its permitted use to managers whose immediate concern was keeping assets productive. The role also taught me that control was not completed by showing a correct total. The total had to be presented in a way that did not invite an unsupported operating decision.

Vezlqathi appointed me finance manager in April 2012. At that stage the company provided power-asset and metering services; it did not have today’s charging footprint. I led twelve colleagues within ₹1.4 crore annual function expense. The move introduced service obligations that continued after an asset had been installed. I worked with operating colleagues to distinguish project outlays, recurring service costs and the resources needed to fulfil the customer arrangement. As the business entered charging ownership, that experience should have made me more alert to the complete site-cost account.

I became financial controller in April 2018, with seventeen colleagues and ₹2.4 crore annual function expense. The following year I supported a forecast for twenty-eight charging sites that excluded ₹2.2 crore of contractual demand charges. The omission turned a projected positive contribution into a deficit when corrected. I withdrew the model from a proposed fourteen-site expansion recommendation and helped fund its reconstruction. I had not simply missed a line in a spreadsheet. I had allowed a partial cost view to carry a decision it could not support.

Since April 2022 I have been CFO, reporting to Arman Qerzvami. Three heads lead twenty-one finance employees, including the controller function supported by Seema Vaqzerli. A treasury exercise required us to separate ₹18 crore of restricted reserves from a ₹42 crore bank balance before scheduling supplier payments. A later leased-site review required us to keep restoration obligations visible beyond the period of active operations. Neither case was solved by a larger headline number. We needed an account of what could be committed, under which conditions, and what remained unresolved.

The company now employs 180 people across a network of 420 connectors at 215 sites. FY2025–26 revenue was ₹60 crore and charging delivery 24 GWh. The revenue comprises charging income and operating services, which should not be confused with a universal electricity tariff or connector utilisation. Founders own 44 percent, an infrastructure investor 41 percent and an employee vehicle 15 percent. I hold no equity or beneficial interest. My ₹3.2 crore finance-function envelope does not confer unilateral authority over borrowing, investment or accounting policy.

I have no statutory directorship and do not present executive reporting as board service. A future outside contribution would require learning, eligibility assessment and a calendar agreed around the continuing CFO role. I would want a chair who values scrutiny of the assumptions behind a commitment, without expecting a director to become the finance team’s informal model builder. The account I would bring includes a mistake of my own: the organisation relied on a forecast I had supported, and I had to change both the number and the decision it was being used to justify.

Open to Board appointments · Executive opportunities

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