Who We Are

Ajit Vaze founded AARAV in 2007 and has been CEO and MD since. He started his career as a perfumer and promoter at S.H.Kelkar and Company Limited in 1989. He has over 40 years of experience in the industry and has played a pivotal role in developing India's fragrances and flavors industry. As one of the Indians most respected Master Perfumer, he is responsible for several fragrances in leading brands. He served as the youngest ever President of FAFAI from 2007 to 2009. He holds a Master of Science in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Anuradha Vaze is one of the founder and promoter of AARAV. She represents the interest of the promoter family on the board and maintains the balance between ownership and management. She holds a Master of Arts in Economics from Mumbai University and a Diploma in Business French from Alliance Française de Bombay.

Hemant Deodhar has been associated with AARAV since its inception in 2007 and serves as Business Head of the Fragrance Division. With 29 years of experience in the F&F industry, he brings deep expertise and a creative perspective to the business. Prior to AARAV, Hemant worked with S.H. Kelkar & Company Limited as a creative perfumer and has several successful fragrances to his name.

Hemant holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Wilson College, University of Mumbai, and an MBA in General Management from S.P. Jain School of Global Management.

Ajit Deshmukh founded Wizarth with a shared dream of creating a full-service investment bank focused on cross-border transactions. He currently serves as the director of Equirus Capital in Mumbai. He has over a decade of industry experience in numerous functional areas, including international management, finance, business development and technology. Before starting Wizarth, he was employed at Citigroup and later became an IT consultant, during which time he worked on projects for the US Defence Department. He holds a post-graduate diploma in Computer Science from the National Center for Software Technology in Mumbai.

Ashwini Deodhar has been associated with AARAV since its inception in 2007. With over 25 years of experience, she has progressed from perfumer to Head of Creative and Technical, leading a team of perfumers and evaluators and creating benchmark winning fragrances across categories.

As Head of Technical and Creation, she oversees fragrance development, guides creative direction, and ensures technical excellence, balancing innovation with market relevance to build fragrances that define brands and create lasting impact. Prior to AARAV, she was associated with S.H. Kelkar & Co. since 1999 where she worked as a perfumer.

Ashwini holds a graduation in Biochemistry/Microbiology and a post-graduation in Cosmetics and Perfumery Technology from University of Mumbai.

Parth Trivedi serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of AARAV Fragrances and Flavors Pvt. Ltd., where he drives the financial and operational strategy of the speciality chemicals manufacturing business. With over 19 years of diversified experience, he is a proven finance leader who combines fiscal discipline with strategic business enablement.

As CFO, Parth partners with the leadership team in managing the P&L and steering both top-line and bottom-line growth. His mandate spans business strategy, process building, fund management, projects, compliance, and digital transformation.

Parth is a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Poonam is a seasoned leader in Human Resources with over 20 years of experience. She has played a pivotal role in building people-centric strategies that drive organizational growth, learning, and culture. With deep expertise in learning and organisation development she has consistently advanced the people agenda across industries. She brings with her rich experience from leading organisations such as Wipro and Lodha, where she contributed to shaping robust HR practices and organisational excellence. Throughout her career, she has been instrumental in fostering high-performance environments, enabling talent to thrive, and strengthening leadership pipelines.

Shailesh Deshmukh has over 36 years of experience in the chemicals, fragrances, and flavors industry. During this time, he has excelled in operations, sales, marketing, and projects for setting up chemical plants and engineering works. His emphasis on project controls has delivered effective financial and safety metric results. He joined AARAV in 2014 and currently serves as the Director for the AARAV Group and heading the Ingredients Division. He holds a graduation degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Operations.