Yes Bank, an India-based private sector bank, has appointed Viraal Balsari as its new chief sustainability strategist for Yes Responsible Banking.
In this strategic role, Mr Balsari will be responsible for providing knowledge for Yes Bank’s responsible banking practice towards leveraging sustainable development as a business driver for the bank. This will include strategy, advisory, Yes-Community management, sustainability alliances, carbon footprint management, research and sustainability reporting.
Mr Balsari has over 15 years of experience in the fields of sustainability, energy and environment. Since 2009, he has been associated with the Harvard Business School (India Research Center) as senior researcher, where he worked in research and innovation across strategic domains, and he has published qualified research papers with senior Harvard faculty in sectors such as agribusiness, real estate and infrastructure financing.
Prior to Harvard Business School, Mr Balsari was the vice-president for sustainable development with ABN AMRO Bank, where he was driving sustainable development, and was responsible for its internal embedding and external application.
Mr Balsari has also worked with TERI in India and Europe (London), and has lived and worked in Scandinavia for several years in the sustainability consulting sector.