BSE Limited appointed Dr. Santanu Paul as a Public Interest Director for a three-year term earlier this month, effective January 14. The approval for Dr Paul’s appointment from the Securities and Exchange Board of India came on January 7. The appointment brings to the exchange’s board a senior technocrat with extensive experience spanning technology, financial services, entrepreneurship and regulatory advisory roles.
Dr. Paul currently serves on the boards of companies across the financial services and design systems space, including Vivriti Capital Limited and Shubham Housing Development Finance Company Limited. As per the BSE release, he is also a member of the advisory boards of Lok Capital and July Ventures.
In addition, he continues to serve on SEBI’s Committee on Financial and Regulatory Technology (CFRT), reflecting his ongoing engagement with policy and innovation at the intersection of finance and technology.
Technocrat with deep fintech experience
A technocrat and entrepreneur by background, Dr. Paul was the founding chief executive officer of TalentSprint, a digital upskilling platform he led from 2009 to 2024. Under his leadership, TalentSprint developed advanced software bootcamps and deep-tech programmes in collaboration with leading universities and global technology companies.
These programmes focused on areas such as software architecture, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, cybersecurity and innovation.
Dr. Paul has also held several prominent board and institutional roles. He previously served as an independent director on the board of the National Payments Corporation of India and NSDL Payments Bank and was a distinguished fellow at the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology for a decade.
From IBM researcher to boardroom leader
Earlier in his career, Dr. Paul was Senior Vice President for Global Delivery Operations at Virtusa Corporation and served as Chief Technology Officer at Openpages Inc and Viveca Inc in Boston. He began his professional career in 1995 as a research staff member at IBM TJ Watson Research Center.
Dr. Paul holds a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently co-authoring a book on India’s fintech revolution.