U GRO Capital appoints Pia Shome as chief people officer

U GRO Capital, the fintech platform, has appointed Pia Shome as the chief people officer. In her new assignment, Shome will help build a quality talent pool for the BSE listed company that lends to small businesses.

An INSEAD alumnus with over 16 years of experience in the BFSI space, Shome will help augment the culture of high performance and meritocracy at U GRO Capital and also work on career-progression programmes for the employees.

Before joining U GRO Capital, Pia was head – human resources at SMEcorner for just over a year, based out of Mumbai. Having completed her MBA in human resources management and personnel administration, from Xavier Institute of Social Service, she began her career with Citibank, as HR business partner in 2005. Two years later, she moved on to Barclays, where she was manager – HR and head-HR, retail liabilities, for two years. During her tenure there, she set up of the consumer banking team, the founding branch as well as seven more branches for Barclays Bank. In 2009, she moved on to DBS Bank, as the head – training and talent management. For over three years, she focused on the training and talent architecture for the Bank, and reviewing and introducing training initiatives across its branches in the country.

She joined RBL Bank in 2013, as head – campus relations, recognition and gender diversity. By 2017, she was HR head for wholesale and support functions. At RBL, Shome served her longest stint of over five years.

Her next stop was IDFC First Bank, where she was part of the leadership team for almost two years, before she eventually moved to SMEcorner.

She brings extensive experience, having played crucial roles in scaling up start-ups and managing mergers of multiple financial institutions.

Shachindra Nath, executive chairman and managing director, U GRO Capital, expressed confidence that Pia’s “addition to the team will stimulate a culture of meritocracy and ownership among our employees as we chart out their career progression with us.” He looks forward to Shome contributing to “help build scale as we spread across the country to help MSMEs.”

Shome, who is “heartened by U GRO Capital’s aspirations of ongoing nationwide expansion”, firmly believes that “people as well as technology shall be our biggest differentiators. In our journey ahead, our focus will be to build strong people capabilities and a culture driven by meritocracy.” She is eager to work “towards a larger cause of solving the unsolved credit gap of MSMEs.”