Tata Housing legal consultant to join CMS Info System to build legal team

Jaya Guliani (44), former legal consultant at the Tata Housing Development Co Ltd (THDCL), is set to join the country’s largest cash management company CMS Info System to build and lead the company’s legal team, two people familiar with the development said.

Guliani is the first hiring in Baring Private Equity Asia-owned cash management company and her profile includes building the legal team for the company, handling company’s disputes and litigations and also looking into company contracts. Guliani will report to the company’s president and chief financial officer (CFO) Pankaj Khandelwal, said one of the person aware of the development.

An alumnus of the Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai, Guliani started her career with law firm Mulla & Mulla in 1997 before moving in the corporate division as an in-house counsel. She has also worked with Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (MIAL) and the Wadia Group before moving to the Tatas-owned company, her LinkedIn profile said.

An email query to CMS Info System did not elicit any response till the time of writing this report while text messages and phone calls to Jaya Guliani remained unanswered.

“Jaya is a complete go getter and a hard task master when it comes to dealing with any litigation or dispute,” said a Mumbai-based managing partner who has worked with her in the past. “Also, she is completely a team member which becomes easier for even the junior most people in her team to put their point forward while dealing with any situation.”

This is the second big hiring by the cash management company at the operational level. In the beginning of August, the company had appointed Sheen Akkara as its chief human resource officer. Akkara was executive director for South Asia at research firm Nielsen before joining CMS.

The cash management company is completely transforming itself in the last one year by putting lots of emphasis on operation efficiencies and hiring relevant people for the same, said a person quoted above.

Last year in September, Baring Private Equity Asia had acquired CMS Info System from another blue blood PE firm Blackstone and original promoters the Grover family for around Rs 2,000 crore. The company is currently the fourth largest cash handling company in the world.

Like this report? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our top reports.