Amira Nature Foods CFO to Resign; Ashish Poddar Nominated As New CFO

Amira Nature Foods

, a leading global provider of packaged Indian specialty rice, today announced that the Company's Chief Financial Officer, Ritesh Suneja, will resign for health and personal reasons, effective December 1, 2012. The Company's Board of Directors has named Ashish Poddar, currently Executive Director of Finance, as Chief Financial Officer, effective the same date. Mr. Suneja will be working closely with Mr. Poddar over the next few weeks to ensure an orderly transition. Karan Chanana commented, “On behalf of our employees and the Board we would like to thank Ritesh for his contributions in helping us develop the financial systems and controls we have in place for us to be a public company. We wish him a return to full health and best of luck in his future endeavors.” Mr. Poddar, 34, brings fifteen years of financial experience to Amira Nature Foods. Mr. Poddar joined the Company in October 2012 as Executive Director of Finance. Most recently, Mr. Poddar was a Senior Manager in the Finance and Enterprise Performance Division of Accenture Services Private Limited. This division focuses primarily on international management consulting assignments in corporate finance, enterprise risk management, enterprise performance management, and finance operations. Mr. Poddar led consulting projects with several prominent global companies while at Accenture. Prior to Accenture, Mr. Poddar served as Manager Equity Accounts at Yum! Restaurants International, which operates a large worldwide network of restaurants including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. While at Yum!, Mr. Poddar worked with Yum!'s Chief Financial Officer and Financial Controller to implement and execute financial controls policies and procedures for many company owned restaurants in India. He was also responsible for preparation, finalization, presentation, and audit of financial statements pursuant to both Indian and US generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Prior to that, Mr. Poddar served as Assistant Finance Controller, Sarbanes – Oxley Act Compliance Officer & Internal Auditor at Carrier Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. Prior to that, Mr. Poddar held positions at leading accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. Mr. Poddar is a Chartered Accountant, qualified in 2001. He received a Bachelor of Commerce, with Honors, from Shriram College of Commerce (Delhi University). Mr. Chanana continued, “We are excited to have Ashish join our team and believe that his financial experience with leading global brands will provide a substantial contribution to Amira Nature Foods as we strive to further expand our global business. As a newly publicly traded company, we believe we will also benefit from his experience in financial reporting.”