Balkishan Chandak: Chief Financial Officer, CloudExtel
Balkishan Chandak, currently serving as chief financial officer (CFO) at CloudExtel, plays a pivotal role in steering the company’s financial strategy while contributing to broader business decision-making. Chandak began his professional journey at Hindalco Industries and went on to work with organisations such as Coke India, Shoppers Stop and the Future Group. A significant phase of his career was his six-year stint at ARAMARK India, where he served as CFO, company secretary and board member. In 2015, he founded SMART CFO Services LLP, advising small-and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups as a fractional CFO, before joining CloudExtel as group CFO in 2021.
At CloudExtel, Chandak operates at the intersection of finance, operations and strategy. His responsibilities extend beyond core finance functions to leading the supply chain function and supporting business teams as a financial co-pilot. He works closely with stakeholders to design commercially viable and compliant deal structures, ensuring both operational efficiency and long-term value creation.
He identifies his strong focus on speed and quality as his key strength. Reflecting on his approach to leadership, Chandak describes his style as collaborative with depth, emphasising empowerment alongside accountability. “Delegation for me is not about offloading tasks, it is about genuinely empowering people to make their own decisions and grow through responsibilities.”
Chandak highlights a structural shift in the telecom ecosystem. “I see a strong shift towards NaaS models, where operators and enterprises no longer want to own infrastructure; they want flexible, shared and scalable connectivity delivered as a managed service.” He also points to the growing data centre ecosystem and the convergence of artificial intelligence, edge computing and private 5G as key demand drivers, positioning infrastructure providers to play a critical role in enabling next-generation connectivity. He notes that building future-ready telecom infrastructure at commercially viable price points remains a key challenge, especially amid rising data demand.
He holds a bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from St Xavier’s College and is a qualified chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India as well as a company secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. Outside of work, he spends time reading about business and economic trends, learning new skills, and keeping pace with developments in financial technology and regulation. He also values family time and shares that his wife, an entrepreneur who runs a home-based bakery, and their two daughters, are central to his life.
