Siply, a Bangalore based fintech company, today announced that it has appointed Admiral William Owens, the former Chairman of NYSE Asia, to its board of directors, Admiral Owens has served as Vice-Chair of the Joint Chief of Staff of the United States of America.
The appointment was arranged by Waterfront Ventures LLP sister concern of The Goldstein Roth Group, as a part of its investment strategy to accelerate the journey to unicorn and beyond for SIPLY. The firm focuses on companies that perform a social impact as well as have the potential to scale.
Admiral Owens was a four-star admiral, the highest achievable rank in the US Navy, and as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff was the second highest ranking military officer in the United States, after which he was CEO of Notel Communications, Chairman of NYSE ASIA, and Chairman and CEO of AEA partners, the oldest private equity firm in the world, where he focused on Asia out of Hong Kong.
Admiral Owens also served as a member of the board of various companies and held several leadership positions in multi-billion dollar companies including Wipro, Nortel Networks and Science Applications International Corporation. William Arthur Owens is the founder of Red Bison technologies.
Said Owens, “I am honored and pleased to be associated with Siply, a company that is both doing well in business and doing great things for the people of India. There is no better way to do business! It’s simply a wonderful model, has a great future, and will give millions of people the chance to participate in a truly remarkable economy.”
Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim, co-founder of Waterfront Ventures LLP, said “By serving the bottom of the pyramid and giving them the same access to savings and lending, Siply has successfully tapped one of the largest markets in the world. Credit for this goes to Sousthav and Anil, the founders, and we endeavour to support them in every way to get to the next stage, including bringing on more iconic talent into Siply as well as easier access to international and domestic capital and partnership.”
Said Sousthav Chakrabarty, CEO and co-founder of Siply, “We at Siply are honored to welcome Admiral Owens on our board of directors. Admiral William Arthur Owens’ depth of experience across sectors like private equity, real estate, technology and stock markets will be of huge value to Siply. His rich and impressive military experience has undoubtedly given him the perspective and acumen that few others can offer. We hope his guidance will propel Siply to become one of the largest fintech players in India and bring about financial inclusion of the next billion users in Bharat.”
Siply, which has grown at an extremely rapid clip since its launch, believes that Admiral Owens can bring in unique insights thanks to his solid military background and rich international finance experience. His determination, zeal, discipline and zest for growing is an asset to the company.
Admiral Arthur Owens is also a philanthropist, writer and author. He has written over fifty articles on national security and has written the book ‘High Seas’, and co-authored the book ‘Lifting the Fog of War’. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, an American think-tank focused on U.S. foreign policy and international relations that is more than a hundred years old. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at Stimson Center, a think-tank that promotes international security, shared prosperity and justice.
