About Us

Parth Desai, Founder & CEO

Parth Desai graduated from Georgia Tech with a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and was quickly hired to work with one of the most celebrated global pioneers of Artificial Intelligence , Roger Schank. Parth rapidly built a deep expertise in AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) that has driven his own ability to innovate over the past two decades. During that time, Parth built a global team and nurtured their collective AI expertise.

Working collaboratively within the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance domain for Banks and Corporates, Parth has built a thorough understanding of the Payments, Securities, Anti Money Laundering and Risk Management from both the business and technology viewpoints. As Founder &CEO, Parth works closely with his global team to deliver consistent innovation and client value that continues to underpin their long-term client relationships.

Mahesh Patankar, Head of Global Pre-sales & Director of Business Development (APAC)

As Global Head - Pre-sales and Director of Business Development - APAC, Mahesh represents the firm as the trusted adviser to clients when it relates to business functions, domain knowledge, Industry landscape, industry process expertise, and technology solutions. He is a customer-centric professional focused on providing customers with innovative technology solutions.

Mahesh joined Pelican in 1997 and has overall experience of 22 years in providing mission critical solutions in transaction banking, Payment processing, whole-sale banking, Sanctions compliance, Anti money laundering, Fraud, Corporate banking, Corporate Payment and Cash management. Mahesh has worked with global organizations like Wells Fargo, State Street, Standard Chartered, American Express, Wachovia, TD Bank, MUFG-UB, RBC, Credit Agricole, BNPP, Rabo, ING, CommerzBank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, CommonWealth bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank, Al Mulla.

Ketan Shah, Head of Technology

With over 21 years experience in software design, development, testing & implementation, Ketan Shah has an in-depth understanding of various technologies used for building Pelican Platform and its overall architecture. As a part of his role, Ketan makes sure that the enhancements in Pelican adopts the use of latest technologies and seamlessly integrates with the Pelican architecture ensuring that the Pelican Platform continues to be robust, scalable and delivers high performance.

Peter Theunis, Global Head of  Sales

Peter Theunis will be responsible for the growth of the payment solutions offering. Peter has over 25 years' experience in payments and has extensive experience leading multiregional sales teams for payment solution providers. Peter joins from Endava, where he was Head of Payments EMEA.

Previously he held senior leadership roles in internationally recognised payment solution provider as BPC, Clear2pay, Openway and Tas Group. He also was co-founder and co-CEO of Radar Payments, a leading SaaS based payments platform..

Samir Dharia, CISO & Head of Ops (India)

A senior manager in IT industry with a decade of American experience and another decade of offshore delivery experience with thorough knowledge of the entire SDLC, Information Security Management System (ISMS), Program Management and other administrative functions.

As CISO, Samir is responsible to ensure that ISMS at all Pelican locations (worldwide) conforms to the requirements of ISO 27001 - 2013. Samir is also responsible for System Operations, Support, Information Technology, HR/Admin and Compliance and Audit/Legal functions for Pelican India.

Saumitra Naik, Head of Global Delivery

Saumitra Naik has over 19 years of in-depth experience in people, process and project management. Managing people, implementing processes, executing projects, mitigating delivery risks are his forte. Saumitra leads the global delivery organization and is also responsible for transformational initiatives within the organization. He manages the implementation and delivery of client and internal projects, ensures efficient delivery operations while maintaining a good balance between client needs and organization profitability.

Alain Falys

Alain is the co-founder & CEO of Yoyo Wallet, the mobile-first personalised marketplace powered by transaction data. Founded in 2013, Yoyo is now the UK’s largest multi-retailer mobile wallet and received KPMG’s Global Fintech 100 award. Previously, Alain was Senior Vice President at Visa International. In 2000, Alain co-founded and ran OB10, the global e-invoicing network, which floated in London as Tungsten.

Alain is a founding Partner of seed investment platform Firestartr and co-founder of Omnis Mundi, an e-commerce incubator with successful startups such as BuyVip which was sold to Amazon in 2010. Alain holds the Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Européennes de Management from the NEOMA Business School and a BA Honours degree in European Business Administration from the Middlesex University, London.