With over 15 years of experience in mid-market banking, small business banking, and trade finance, Nilanjan currently leads the Corporate & Commercial Finance division at Finance House.
His expertise spans credit analysis, client acquisition, and product management, complemented by a proven ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. Passionate about fostering long-term partnerships, he thrives in multicultural environments and is committed to driving impactful results through teamwork and strategic planning. Leveraging a collaborative approach, he empowers clients with tailored financial solutions that align with their business goals.
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilanjan-ray-mba-61b0404/
Q. Tell us about your School and College before you came to IIFM. How was your experience there? And how did IIFM happen?
A. My school and most of college days were spent in boardings. My father was in the Army, and my parents did not want my studies to suffer due to relocations. I did the usual round of applications straight out of college and the choice was between pursuing a master’s degree in economics at JNU or Delhi School of Economics or pursuing IIFM. I did spend a couple of weeks at JNU and something in my mind told me I am just not cut out to be an academic so I rode the TN Express to Bhopal.
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM so far?
A. The journey has not been anything like I would have imagined when I graduated.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Q. How has been your experience in your current Organization?
A. I work with the largest and oldest NBFC in UAE leading their Corporate and Commercial Finance. I started this role earlier this year after a few years with Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto.
Q. What is the most satisfying part in your career?
A. I think the most satisfying aspect would be seeing many of my team members reaching great heights professionally. Many are in senior roles, mostly in banking and being a part of their growth is probably what I find most satisfying.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. Yes, the multidisciplinary approach at IIFM helped me a lot to look for ideas outside the box in many of my roles later in life. The concept of blending management and forestry opened my thought process to infuse inputs from various disciplines into core banking domain.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles.
A. I consider myself fortunate to be part of banking sector in India at a time it was going through its Cambrian explosion. Early in my career, I was privileged to be working with some of the smartest minds at ICICI Bank and later with HDFC Bank. ICICI really threw me at the deep end when I was sent to Jamshedpur as part of a two-member team to set up a branch at a ripe old age of 26. All the roles I worked in for ICICI and later with HDFC were very intra-preneurial in nature. This really set me up for success when senior roles came my way later in Middle East.
I would say to freshers and IIFM graduates that each of those early roles (and the senior roles later) came at high risk. In most of these roles I was the first incumbent, or I came in to restructure and relaunch what was a failing business line within large, fast-growing organizations. Grabbing those opportunities head-on and building a strong support network within the organizations helped me deliver on challenges and being rewarded as a result.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. Oh, that’s got to be the midnight birthday parties, particularly those with abundant supply of a potent punch that some of us specialized in :-)!
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. I credit my first OT at Grasim (Harihar Polyfibers) under tutelage of Ashish Mishra, our Alumni working there and my work with the OT & Placement committee as early inputs in shaping me up as a professional during my IIFM days. I used to be a shy person pre-IIFM and IIFM went a long way in shaping my personality.
I am also thankful to Prof P K Biswas for introducing me to Sanjay Ghosh, now a senior official at NABARD when I took up an offer to work with AFC, Mumbai office. As a rookie, Sanjay’s guidance was pivotal in me fighting it out in my early days as a professional.
And I will be forever grateful to Dr Debashish Debnath for all his support during my early days at IIFM.
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. We have a Whatsapp group that has most of the people from our batch. All those in the group remained close friends all these years later. One of us recently celebrated his 50th birthday and a lot of us including some of our juniors had a chance to get together. I met most of these folks more than 25 years later and we did not skip a beat.
Tidbits are more like a deluge but one that I still use occasionally, is one of our Professors ( who will remain unnamed) using another Professor’s ( who will also remain unnamed) scooter to explain depreciation!
Q. As an alumni, what’s your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. Focus as much on soft skills as you would on academics. Learn to develop network and cultivate strong friendships. And learn to take risks early in your career.
Q. What would be your advise for recent graduates who look for changing their sector after working for couple of years?
A. Learn to take risks. Best thing that ever happened to me professionally when I was sent to a new city by ICICI, not knowing a soul there to set up a branch but also build a business from scratch while the branch was still being set up (yes, working from home – before it was ever a thing)!
Q. What was your typical day at the work? And how does it look like while you are on a break?
A. A lot of facetime with clients. Break during workday is typically a nice cuppa while checking football scores from around the world.
Q. And how about weekends, hobbies, family and anything else you want to add?
A. Weekends mean more football when in season being a die hard Messi and FC Barcelona fan. Me and my son just celebrated his 15th birthday ticking off items from bucket list at San Diego. If I am not watching football, you will find me with kids on drive up the mountains or visiting Salmon runs nearby or a long walk by riverside trails.
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors?
A. Fountainhead , Ayn Rand. Taleb and As Good As It Gets and a Bengali book – Chander Pahar ( Mountain of the Moon). I like to say it is this Bengali book that planted early seeds for my wanderlust.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students? Your engagement with IIFM Placement or OT/SI?
A. I used to be very active in OT and Placement Committee for my batch. Once in my professional journey, by the time I moved on to senior roles, I had already moved to Middle East and worked in Banking. So, there was not much opportunity to engage at that time. I would be very happy to contribute in any way I can to support any OT/ Placement efforts.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? When was the last time you visited IIFM?
A. I guess the campus is way busier now! We used to be about 25 in each batch in the PFM programme, and the campus would really be quiet post sun set. Unfortunately, last time I was at IIFM was a few months after I passed out in 1998. So, I am surely in for lot of surprises when I get a chance to visit.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. Sudipta Das Mohapatra, Kunal Mangal, Neeraj Negi.
