M. Maher Dadha

Hailing from the illustrious Dadha family, Maher is the youngest son of the late business tycoon L.M. Dadha and grandson of the legendary S.L. Dadha. Following his father’s tragic death in a plane crash in Bombay in 1976, he was entrusted with the early responsibility of spearheading the group’s foray into diverse new-era businesses ranging from a Gems & Jewellery Trading Corporation to a Safe Deposit Lockers facility and a Sisal Fibre & Manila Ropes plant to a Greenfield Reclaim Rubber unit, besides serving on the board of the flagship company ‘Tamil Nadu Dadha Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’

After the Group decided to exit the reclaim rubber business, Maher, proudly aware of his family’s distinguished background yet certain that he wanted to experience a life beyond running industries, decided to nurture his long-standing fascination for arts and antiques that had developed when he was traveling extensively in the country visiting major royal houses to source gems and jewellery way back in 1974. Thus, the desire to share the knowledge with admirers, collectors and connoisseurs took precedence above all else while at the same time presenting a unique business opportunity. Hence, along with the support of his wife Madhu, a law graduate, he started giving shape to an establishment that patronized old paintings, lithographs, antiquarian books, artifacts, etc. Subsequently, from 1992, he has been successfully running the well known gallery ‘Dukan-Fine Art & Antiques’ in Bangalore.

To quote him from an interview given to a magazine: ‘Antiques and Works of Art have a legacy behind them, speaking of love of life and beauty. These pieces of devoted work bring us closer to culture and heritage’.

Today, after more than 30 years of collecting and dealing, his passion remains undiminished if not greater and with his vision set on the future, he believes that an Indian auction house, that provides integrated art services across all categories of fine and decorative art and antiques, on the lines of the international players, would widen and deepen the art market in this country thus helping in a greater understanding of our rich cultural heritage.
Consequently, with his knowledge of the auctioneering trade coupled with his business experience and international contacts, the objective of ‘Bid & Hammer Auctioneers (P) Ltd’, under his stewardship, would be to comprehensively explore and develop the Indian art market in a way that has never before been achieved.

Vijay P Chordia

Born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Vijay hails from a renowned business family, traditionally in the business of Finance, Trading and Real Estate, having its roots in Rajasthan. He was instrumental in promoting, from within the family businesses, a Public Limited Finance Company in 1986 and is presently its Joint Managing Director.
He is an astute financial planner and manager. He is a Charter Member of the Rotary Club of Madras Central and served as its President during 1966-1997. He is presently President of Rajasthan Youth Association, a social service organization, running a major Book Bank project. He is a trustee of his family-promoted medical charities. Vijay is a keen sportsman and an avid collector of Modern and Contemporary Indian Paintings.

Deepak Chopra

Deepak is the founder of OSI Systems, Inc. and has served as its President, Chief Executive Officer and Director since its inception in May1987, in California. He has been the Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors since February 1992. He is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's major subsidiaries.
From 1976 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1987, Deepak held various positions with ILC Technology, Inc. ("ILC"), a publicly-held manufacturer of lighting products, including serving as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer of its United Detector Technology division. In 1990, the Company acquired certain assets of ILC's United Detector Technology division. Deepak has held various positions with Intel Corporation, TRW Semiconductors and RCA Semiconductors.
Deepak holds a B.Sc degree in Electronics and a M.Sc in Semiconductor Electronics.
Based in Los Angeles, USA, Deepak is a keen collector of Paintings, Antiquarian Books and Old Photographs.

Charu Sharma

An alumni of Mayo College, Ajmer and St. Stephens College, New Delhi, Charu went on to Davidson College, North Carolina, USA to complete his post-graduation. However, Charu began competing in sporting events at a very young age and was a six-time junior national springboard diving champion (1970-76), a school and college captain in diving, swimming, water polo and gymnastics, an all India inter university diving champion from 1976-79, bronze medalist at the National Springboard diving championship (1978) and qualified for the Commonwealth Games, in Edmonton, Canada (1978).
He started his sports broadcasting career in 1982 at the IX Asian Games for the National Network of India and carried on to become the most respected multi-sports television commentator & anchor of the country. His versatility and knowledge about various sports can be gauged from the vast repertoire of national and international events that he has commentated on and presented for various channels. These include cricket, swimming, diving, water polo, hockey, football, basketball, volleyball, motor sports, boxing, golf, sailing, badminton, tennis, athletics, billiards, kabaddi, gymnastics and chess.
Charu currently works as a freelance sports anchor/commentator, sports management consultant and voice over professional. He regularly hosts live award shows, corporate events and contributes to teamwork and leadership seminars and has also conducted art auctions. He is with us as a an auctioneer and business development strategist.