People

Padmaja Ruparel is nationally recognized as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has helped co found many of the relevant institutions, besides being an active Angel investor herself. Her operating experience spans large corporates, M&A, and startups/early stage companies.

She has been awarded as one of the ‘Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business’ by Fortune India for 4 years, is listed in Forbes India’s W- Power Trailblazers and “30 Most Powerful Women in India” by Business Today for 3 years running. The Women Economic Forum recognized her with its “Women of the Decade in Investment Banking” award.

She is Co Founder of Indian Angel Network (IAN), India’s single largest horizontal platform for seed and early stage investments. IAN is the first and now possibly one of the world’s largest group of business angels, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas. She built IAN from inception, making it within 18 years a unique institution globally, with over 500 investors across 10 countries and a portfolio of over 225 companies in 7 countries, spanning 19 sectors. She operationalised IAN’s international operations in London, launching it from 10 Downing Street, making it the only angel group in the world to set up operations outside of its home country.

Padmaja is the Founder of BioAngels, India’s only sector focused angel investor group, in partnership with BIRAC, the innovation arm of the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. BioAngels is the first angel investor group in partnership with any government body, world wide – an innovative public – private partnership, bringing deep engagement in the Healthcare & Cleantech sectors and has herself led several early stage investments in the space.

Padmaja has been nominated as Co Chair of Global Business Angel Network (GBAN). She is a member of the Government’s NEAC the National Expert Advisory Committee on Innovation, Incubation and Technology Entrepreneurship. She is a member of several committees of BIRAC (Dept. of Biotech, Govt. of India), various committees of Ministry of Finance, DPIIT, & SEBI. Padmaja is a member of the Executive Council of IVCA (Indian Venture Capital Association) and Co Leading the LP / Family Office Council. She is a member of NASSCOM’s Deep Tech Council

Padmaja is the Founding Partner of IAN Group’s uniquely differentiated Venture Capital business with the IAN Fund I, a US$ 55mn SEBI registered AIF Category I VC Fund. As Senior Managing Partner, she has now launched the second Fund, with the IAN Alpha Fund, a US$125mn SEBI registered AIF Category II Venture Capital Fund

Padmaja is an Independent Director on the Boards of Avendus Finance Pvt. Ltd., Ester Industries Ltd.,  Manipal Technologies Ltd as well as Startup Odisha.

Apart from cofounding IAN, she also set up and operationalised the Delhi chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) the world’s largest organization focused on entrepreneurship with over 16,000 members across more than 60 chapters across 14 countries. She also established a unique model of an incubator, in partnership with the Indian Government of India, leveraging 400 mentors to provide mentoring & domain expertise to around 50 young fledgling incubatee companies.

She helped the creation of Lankan Angel Network and Nepal Angel Network. She contributed actively in the Planning Commission’s Committee on “Angel & Early Stage Investing in India” which resulted in a seminal report: “Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India”.

In her corporate avatar at Xansa India, (Xansa was a US$800mn company listed on LSE before being acquired by Steria), she led several functions over a 16 year period : handled recruitment operations, built and successfully executed an innovative brand and communication strategy and led the corporate social responsibility initiative which engaged employees, clients as also the government. She was a key member of the corporate strategy and M&A team as the Company went public, forged joint ventures and the final acquisition of the Indian company.

Padmaja picked up entrepreneurial strings very early in her career – she revived and grew the family real estate business in Calcutta – growing if from 50,000 sq ft to over 250,000 sq ft over 2 years and turned it around to become a profitable business.

A graduate with English Honours, Padmaja then completed her MBA as well as Chartered Accountancy

(Intermediate) while interning with S.R. Batliboi (an E&Y group company).

Priyank Garg is Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund, the 2nd fund from the house of India’s first and leading angel group, Indian Angel Network. Priyank Garg has experience of over 26 years in Leading Companies and Teams in Manufacturing, Technology and Consulting. He is a Serial Entrepreneur and a seasoned Angel Investor of over 16 years; ranked among the Top 50 in India by Fortune in 2022. He is a top-of-the-class alumnus from IIT Delhi in B.Tech in Computer Science and did his Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University. Priyank has been
granted more than 9 patents over his professional career in various fields and geographies.

Priyank Shanker Garg served for 14 years as Jt. Managing Director at Advance Valves, a premier global supplier of Industrial Valves, from India where he: developed globally patented products, revitalized the brand, implemented lean manufacturing, led digital transformation, built global talent teams particularly in the US, grew revenue with improved profits and ROIC.

Priyank has taken Advance Valves to the Far East, Europe as well as the US, with new patented products, and providing thought leadership and innovation. He also built a Solar rooftop business with 7MW+ over the last 6 years and deeply understood the Solar PV value chain and its financial viability.

Priyank is a prolific angel investor since 2007, and has invested in more than 65 companies including Myntra, Druvaa, Uniphore, FabAlley, Farmart, Mobilewalla, ThinkerBell Labs, Mobycy, Druva Space among others. Priyank continues to mentor various startups in advisory as well as board capacities with specific focus on Cleantech and SaaS. He has been on various entrepreneurship juries such as the NASSCOM Emerge, India Innovation Initiative 2016,
Samsung Innovation, Times of India Big Challenge jury etc.

Priyank was the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of IOTomation, a Building IoT company, offering Building Operations via a SaaS solution achieving 25%+ energy savings for their clients. Earlier, he was the Director of Product Management at Yahoo!, defining the roadmap for the search engine that powered Yahoo! Search. He has led industry efforts to develop Open standards such as Sitemaps which was a collaboration he headed between, Yahoo!
Search, Google and Microsoft. He sharpened his technical teeth at a virtualization startup, Ensim Corporation, which developed Kubernetes and Docker like solutions for their application. He started his career as a consultant with Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

He is Chair for ACREX Hall of Fame which inducts the most energy efficient buildings of the country. He has been past President of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers) India Chapter and to advance Sustainability in the Building Industry. He is currently the President of Delhi Chapter of ISHRAE (Indian Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers). He is a TiE Charter Member and also
supports Million Sparks Foundation and his Alma Mater, IIT Delhi.

Priyank is passionate about efforts around Sustainability and positively impacting the Environment. He has invested in more than a dozen and a half ventures exploring Water Treatment and recovery, Food and Agricultural efficiency and waste reduction, Solar Power plant operations and Deployment, EV and Battery design and Swapping, Meat Alternates, Alternative Farming, Biogas and waste management with ventures in both India and the US. As part of his responsibilities with ASHRAE and the building industry, he has hosted conferences in partnership with DMRC and BEE on Energy Efficiency, and Decarbonization, and works to spread the awareness and knowledge related to best practices among the building industry professionals, who deal with 38% of the energy consumption in the world.
He also evangelizes for Decarbonization in Engineering and Architecture colleges and schools in the NCR region

Sarka Saxena is an accomplished professional with a distinguished presence in the corporate world. With a diverse background and extensive experience, she has made significant contributions to various organizations and sectors she has been involved in.

With over 25 years of experience, Sarika has been actively engaged in the M&A and private equity (PE) investments space since 2002. She held a prominent position as the head of the M&A function in a leading publicly traded technology company, where she successfully acquired technology firms across the United States and the United Kingdom, overseeing the entire process, including post-merger integration. Subsequently, she played a pivotal role in facilitating the sale of the company to a large international PE fund.

In the past six years, Sarika has been actively involved in venture capital (VC) investments, representing a well-known public company and its family office. Her investment portfolio spans various domains, including consumer, technology, and fintech, encompassing both domestic and cross-border investments. Additionally, she has recently ventured into angel investing.

Prior to her current position, She held several senior management roles at reputable companies, consistently showcasing her ability to lead teams and deliver exceptional results. Her expertise in strategic planning and business development has played a vital role in driving growth and profitability for the organizations she has served.

Renowned for her exceptional networking skills, Sarika possesses a unique ability to forge strong partnerships. She has built and nurtured valuable relationships with key clients, partners, and industry influencers, leveraging her extensive network and industry connections throughout her professional journey.
She has been actively involved with various stakeholders in the investment ecosystem, including VC/PE funds, banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and overseas lenders, assisting companies in raising funds in different capacities. She notably spearheaded the establishment of an innovative, technology-driven independent NBFC for a market leader in post-agricultural warehousing solutions, involving the acquisition of an existing company and obtaining necessary approvals from regulatory bodies like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). She also played a pivotal role in setting up the systems and processes for the new entity, which was subsequently acquired by one of the largest funds based in Canada.

Furthermore, she is actively involved in mentoring various start-ups, providing guidance and advice on investments and strategic business decisions. She is associated with several angel funds, where she advises on investment opportunities and provides insights on the next steps for start-ups, including fundraising and other strategic considerations.

Early in her career, Sarika gained extensive experience in the Indian debt markets, specializing in raising debt for public sector companies across India and advising corporates on investment strategies.
She also holds a full-time MBA from the London Business School, University of London (UK). She completed her undergraduate degree (with Honours) in Mathematics from Delhi University and pursued a PGDBM (Finance) from IMI, Delhi.

– 36 years of experience in finance, business management and capital markets.

– Well versed with fundraising, financial management, reporting and compliance

Rajnish has nearly 30 years of experience  in technology  consulting, services, internet  and product  development industry.  He has been  an entrepreneur, has created  and  managed organizations with a keen interest  in the startup ecosystem.

Rajnish is Managing Partner  at IAN Fund I which is invests in early-stage  ventures  and an offshoot of India’s number one institutional angel investment platform, Indian Angel Network which  has  invested  in  over  200  ventures.   At  IAN  he  focuses  on  deeptech, enterprise technology, cyber security and SaaS sectors.

Earlier, Rajnish served as President, India Operations at DMI Inc., a leading global IT services player in digital transformation space company headquartered in Washington D.C. DMI offers niches services such as strategy,  consulting, digital commerce,  cloud services, mobile app development, AI, big data, customer  experience design and digital marketing to fortune 500 enterprises as well as start-ups  to help move their processes  from tethered computing  to untethered computing.  In  his  role,  Rajnish  was  responsible   for  building,  leading,  and managing world-class delivery capability for all divisions of DMI’s business units.

Prior to DMI, Rajnish was Chief Innovation Officer at MakeMyTrip (NASDAQ: MMYT), where he held multifaceted  role spanning engineering,  automation, online products  development and customer service and end to end customer experience for over 5 years.

Before joining MakeMyTrip, Rajnish was Executive Vice President at Kale Consultants where he was responsible for Travel, Hospitality and Logistics vertical for around 4 years.

Rajnish started  his entrepreneurial journey in 2000 when he co-founded  eTravelIndia.com, and as Chief Technology Officer, was responsible for building the entire technology stack.

He was Chief Executive and Technology Officer, Cognosys Software, a company he spun and incubated  off from eTravelIndia in 2001. Cognosys focused on IT products  and services in Travel domain to serve international customers,  many of them  marquee. eTravelIndia was later acquired by TQ3 Germany (now BCD Travel), and Cognosys Software by Kale Consultants (now Accelya Kale).

Prior to eTravelIndia.com, Rajnish spent 10 years with IIS Infotech Limited, of which he spent 5 years in the United Kingdom.

Rajnish is an  angel  investor  at  IAN  and  also member  of the  NASSCOM  10,000  steering committee where he helps NASSCOM to identify promising startups.  He has been member of various juries to select startups  for the Emerge50 and other programs like iSpirt. He is also a mentor-member with  NASSCOM  DeepTech Club  and  well networked   with  the  start-up ecosystem.  He has also mentored founders  and high technology startups  in areas of Mixed Reality, 3D Imaging, and Automated Trip Planning amongst others.

In the past, Rajnish also headed the Digital Payments committee at NASSCOM to help improve the adoption and customer experience of online payments.

Rajnish believes in the magic that happens at the intersection  of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. He is fascinated by possibilities of leveraging technologies that exist right here and now, and a mashup of creativity that can bring about speedy positive mutations  to create  a whole new range of applications. His interests  span Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Sustainable Energy, Health Technologies, Novel Manufacturing Techniques, Fundamental Research, Computer Vision and Robotics etc.

Rajnish is a science buff and on weekends,  he can be found tinkering in his fab-lab (that includes a 3D printer), building and hacking electronics, building quadcopters, or launching rockets. His favourite pastime is pouring through research papers and tracking innovations.

Rajnish   is  an   engineer,   majoring   in  computer    science.   He  also   has   a   degree   in economics. Rajnish also holds a patent along with General Electric (No. 6,775,683 – Method and System for Performing Data Processing).

Saurabh Srivastava is one of India’s leading entrepreneurs, investors and institution builders. The President of India has awarded him the Padma Shri in recognition of his contribution to the creation of a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has presented him an Award for his contribution to the Indian IT Industry.

He co-founded and Chaired key institutions of modern India focussed on IT and entrepreneurship: The IT Industry Body NASSCOM; Indian Venture Capital Association; TiE(the world’s largest not for profit organization focussed on fostering entrepreneurship with 15,000 members in 60 Chapters across 15 countries); Indian Angel Network, India’s first and amongst the world’s largest angel groups with over 200 portfolio companies, 500+ investor members globally, operations in 8 locations, including London and Israel.

He founded India’s first private sector VC Fund which created companies like Indiabulls and Avendus. He has been involved in investing in around 100 start-ups and has personally mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs. He was an Investment Committee member of the Government’s Start up Fund of Funds, served on the Investment Committees of two SIDBI VC Funds and is on the board of the Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund.

His public service commitments have included being a member of the National Innovation Council, SEBI Committee on Alternative Investment Funds, Software Technology Parks of India,, Bombay Stock Exchange Hi-Tech Advisory Panel ,Telecom Centre of Excellence, Railway Expert Committee, PM’s Empowered Committee for Awards on Excellence in Public Administration and the National Expert Advisory Committee on Innovation, Incubation and Technology Entrepreneurship.

After a successful stint in the US and India with IBM, he headed Tata Unisys, before turning to entrepreneurship. He founded several successful IT companies including one which was ranked amongst the top 15 companies in India, was the first to get ISO 9001 ( before Infosys and TCS) and was listed, post merger, on the London Stock Exchange with revenues of $800 mill. He serves/has served on the boards of reputed public companies from the US, UK and India.

He served on the Advisory Board of Imperial College Business School London, was adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at IIT Mumbai, is Chairman of IIIT Naya Raipur and on the Board of Governors of IIT Kanpur.

He has a Masters from Harvard University, a B Tech from IIT Kanpur and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Technology by the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Other Awards include “Distinguished Alumnus Award” from IIT, the Data Quest Lifetime Achievement Award for IT, the Lifetime Achievement Award from IVCA for his contribution to angel and VC investing and the Patrick J McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award for Entrepreneurship ( other awardees include Ratan Tata and Nandan Nilekani)

Dr. Ajai Chowdhry is one of the six founder members of HCL. HCL was started with a dream ‘to take the microprocessor and change the world’ in 1976.

HCL today is valued at US $ 50 Bn. Starting from India, Dr. Chowdhry took HCL to Singapore in 1980 and created a business spanning ASEAN, China and Hong Kong. In 1995, Dr. Chowdhry took over the reins of HCL Infosystems and created a 12,000 crore (US $ 1.6 Bn) organization over the next 15 years. HCL Infosystems was the leader in hardware products, system integration and Nokia phone distribution.

Dr. Chowdhry has been at the forefront of helping create the Electronics Industry in India. He was involved in Government Committees since 1999. In 2009 he headed a Task Force created by MEITY which made path breaking recommendations where the task force warned that the electronics import bill will exceed the oil import bill.

(https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/making-india-atmanirbhar-in-electronics/2066551/). This formed the basis of the Electronics Policy.

In 2011, in recognition for helping build the IT & Electronics industry in India, the Hon’ble President of India, conferred the prestigious Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honour in India.

He has received many awards including Electronics Man of the Year 2010, CNBC’S India Innovation of the Year Award 2010 and Cybermedia Business ICT Award 2013 for Lifetime Achievement in ICT.
Dr. Chowdhry has been an institution builder and Chaired IIT Hyderabad and IIIT-Naya Raipur and helped build these two institutions from their founding. And then Chaired IIT Patna during its early days. In addition, he was Chairman of NIFFT Ranchi and helped convert the Institute to National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing with change of course towards Industry 4.0. Dr. Ajai Chowdhry was also the Chairman of Electronics Sector Skills Council of India.

From 2011, Dr. Chowdhry has been deeply involved in investing in, nurturing and mentoring startups. He is on the Board of the largest Angel Network in India, Indian Angel Network and has personally invested in more than 50 startups. He is on the Investment Committee of IAN Fund, Electronic Development Fund and Canbank Venture Capital Fund. He also is the Chairman of FICCI Startup Committee.
Dr. Chowdhry has been nominated by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology as a Member to the Advisory Board of India Semiconductor Mission. Dr. Chowdhry has been appointed as an Esteemed member of the Consultation Group on Science & Technology and Innovation Sector by the Vice-Chairman Niti Aayog.

In 2021, Dr. Ajai Chowdhry co-founded EPIC Foundation an Industry Led Non – Profit Organization conceived to develop Electronics Products of national importance unleashing an economic potential of $20 Billion Dollars and Self – Empowering the masses of India by bridging the digital divide and creating a secure technology infrastructure. He is currently the Chairman of EPIC Foundation and has created a fabulous team of more than 50 Eminent Global leaders to provide impetus to this important national initiative.

Dr. Chowdhry has focused on giving back to the society and has set up a Charitable Trust called Swayam where he contributes to many areas including education, women empowerment and providing relief during Covid to Delhi and Goa citizens. He also is a Board Member of Population Foundation of India and a Trustee of Save Life Foundation.

Dr. Chowdhry has a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College and attended the Executive Program at the School of Business Administration in the University of Michigan in the US. He has also been awarded Honoris Causa (D.Sc) by IIT Roorkee, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Jabalpur and University of Engineering & Management Kolkata.

Raman Roy is widely regarded as the Pioneer and “Guru” of the BPO industry in India. He is fondly referred to as the “Father of the Indian BPO Industry”. He has played a pivotal role over the last 30 years in shaping the Global Outsourcing Space and promoting Indian BPOs and proving that India can be a preferred location for Remote Processing. Raman is a pioneer four times over, having successfully led the BPO initiatives of American Express, GE (now Genpact) and Spectramind (now Wipro BPO) before starting Quatrro in mid 2006.

​Raman was the CEO of GECIS, the Business Leader for American Express’ BPO business and the Founder and CEO of Spectramind. He is now the Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro. He has been a catalyst in making Offshoring and Outsourcing decisions strategic for large Fortune 500 companies on a global platform. Raman launched Quatrro to focus on ‘Beyond the Existing’ high end and new areas of BPO services with a mix of incubation and acquisition led strategies. These have been targeted at the underserved areas, the uncontested market spaces and leverage the ‘cloud’ with an integrated platform and service offering.

​Raman, with a guiding philosophy of enhancing the success rate of nascent businesses and creating an eco-system for startups, is a founding member of the “Indian Angel Network” a group of investors which has a passion to enable start-up businesses to create, scale and add value, while also addressing the current acute shortage of funds available for start-ups. He has made 50+ investments in startups and mentors 20+ companies. He sits on the Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC) hosted by SIDBI for the distribution of the Fund of Funds by the Government of India and is also the co-founder and member of IC of of the IAN Fund. Raman also sits on the Board of Invest India which is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Delhi-NCR and the Indian Angel Network besides a select few of his investee companies such as Stratemis, X-Prime, SmartVizx etc.

Mr. Rakesh Rewari served as the Chief Executive Officer of Small Industries Development Bank of India and its Deputy Managing Director and a Member of Board of Directors from October 2006 to August 2011.

​Mr. Rewari was the Chairman of India SME Asset Reconstruction Company, Ltd. since August 23, 2010 and was its Director. Mr. Rewari serves as an Independent Director of Shubham Housing Development Finance Company Private Limited. Mr. Rewari serves as a trustee of the Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust for Low Income Housing. He served as a Non-Executive Independent Director of National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. He serves as a Director of National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation since January 31, 2011. He serves as a Director of GIIN, KITCO Ltd. and Jain sons Fin lease Ltd.(Intellegrow). He served as Nominee Director at MAS Financial Services Limited until February 27, 2017.

​He actively participates in mentoring of innovative and technology focused SME startups and also renders assistance to Venture Capital Funds with SME focus and Social Impact. Mr. Rewari has over 35 years of experience in Financial Institutions, Bank, Venture Capital Fund in areas of SME Credit, Micro Finance, Venture Capital, Credit Rating and Risk Management. He served as an Executive Member at Haryana Financial Corporation.

​He has also worked with the National Innovation Council to provide expertise on setting up a Venture Capital Fund to finance innovative project with social impact. Mr. Rewari holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from I.I.T Delhi and an MBA from FMS, University of Delhi.

Pravin Rao served as the Chief Operating Officer of Infosys and a Whole-time Director of the Board. Started as Software Engineer Trainee in Aug 1986 and Super-annuated in Dec 2022.

He was inducted on January 10, 2014 as a member of the Board. He was a member of the Stakeholder Relationship Committee and the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board.

He has over 35 years of industry experience. He has held a number of senior leadership roles including Interim Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure Management services, Delivery Head for Europe, and Head of Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, Logistics and Life Sciences.

As the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Rao had overall strategic and operational responsibility for the entire portfolio of the Company’s offerings. He oversaw the key functions of global delivery, HR and business enablement.

Mr. Rao holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, India. He was a member of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from 2015 thru 2021. He also serves on the Executive Council of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) since 2015. He was the Chairman of NASSCOM in FY21.

He currently serves on the boards of Axis Financials Limited and Indegene Pvt Limited as an Independent Director.

Global software executive and thought leader with strong leadership, technology and strategic skills backed by entrepreneurial instincts. Deep expertise in all facets of engineering, product management, business, GTM and partnerships.

Diverse track record including current ten-year stint in analytics/AI/SaaS at Algonomy/Manthan, a year and half in consumer at Yahoo!, two years in mobile at Motorola / Good Technology and ten plus years at Sun Microsystems / Netscape in enterprise java. Extensive experience leading large global organizations as well as smaller cross-functional teams in hands-on manner to deliver enterprise-class products centered around analytics & AI / SaaS / deep tech / internet / mobility / platforms to market. Demonstrated strengths in change management, hiring top talent, and in motivating and
driving high-performance teams to produce market leading innovations in demanding business environments.

Currently helping drive cloud and security strategy for Algonomy (merger of Manthan & RichRelevance) and more recently long time CTO for Manthan, a global analytics/AI SaaS market leader for retail and consumer focused industries. Previously headed Vertical Search engineering at Yahoo! Bangalore driving build out of next-gen vertical intent products. Before that led Motorola Good Technology Group’s engineering organization through the acquisition by Visto Corporation including managing product portfolio encompassing mobile messaging, mobile device management, mobile secure access and device security. Prior to that led key component of Sun’s open source and architecture strategy in the web portals and middleware segment. Also represented Sun in industry standards technical groups as well as cross-company initiatives.

Past four years include cross-industry leadership role at premier India IT industry body NASSCOM helping build-out of India’s fast emerging product & start-up ecosystem as Chairman NASSCOM Product Council, and as part of the NASSCOM Board. Track record of deep impact and strong influence in community building and scaled programs across
India and global technology, products and start-ups, businesses, investor, research & academia and government ecosystems.

Harish Mehta is the author of the bestselling book The Maverick Effect. The book recounts the early struggles that Mr. Mehta and others had to face to bring NASSCOM, the industry body of Indian IT, to life. The Maverick Effect is the extraordinary story of a band of dreamers who joined hands to transform a nation & change India’s perception.

Harish Mehta has led, grown & mentored the Onward Group. Onward Technologies is a software outsourcing company specializing in digital and ER&D services. Onward provides solutions to global OEMs to improve speed to market, accelerate innovation, and maximize returns on their R&D investments. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, Onward is an employer of choice driving positive change as a responsible corporate citizen. With over 3000 employees across 14 offices in 6 countries and offshore development centers in India, Onward’s support multiple businesses in Transportation, Mobility, Industrial Products, Heavy Machinery and Healthcare verticals.

Prior to founding Onward, he was one of the chief architects of the Hinditron–Digital (DEC) JV (1987) in India. He served as the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Onward Novell Software (I) Ltd. (1993-2005), a 50:50 JV between Onward Group and Novell Inc., which was the second largest personal software company globally at that time.

He was also the driving force behind galvanizing the IT industry in India by co-founding NASSCOM, the IT industry association of India. NASSCOM started from his office and was formally established in 1988. He is a founder member, the first elected Chairman & now the Convenor of Chairman’s Council of NASSCOM. He was honoured by the PM Mr. Narendra Modi, for 25 years of exemplary contribution to Indian IT.

Mr. Mehta introduced The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a Silicon Valley based Organisation, to India, and was its First President in Mumbai. He continues to be an active mentor for TiE Mumbai. He is a director of Indian Angel Network (IAN), the world’s largest and most active angel investors group. He is an Investment Committee Member of IAN Fund. He is a former Expert Advisor at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for its Fund of Funds Operations. He is also a former Director of Gujarat Venture Funds Limited and a founding member of Infinity Venture Fund, India’s first corporate VC fund.

He was director at The College of Engineering, Pune (2010-2015). He was awarded ‘CEO of the Year’ in 1994 by NMIMS, Tata HRD Network and World HRD Congress. He was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2018.

He is also an active volunteer of Onward Foundation, Trust to promote Advanced technologies in India & a trustee of Dewang Mehta Foundation.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from College of Engineering, Pune and a Masters in Computer Science from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, NY.

Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, is the Managing Director of Hero Cycles Ltd. (C.R.Division) and the Chairman of Hero Corporate Service Limited, the services business arm of the Hero Group. In addition he also holds the responsibility as a Director of a number of companies in the USD 3.1 Billion Hero Group which consists of Hero Cycles, Hero Honda Motors, Munjal Showa, Sunbeam Auto, Majestic Auto, Munjal Auto Industries, Hero Management Service Limited and Easy Bill. Mr. Munjal is steering the Hero Group’s foray into the services industry through Hero Corporate Service Limited which is engaged in Contact Center/BPO Services (HeroITES), Training and Competency Building (Hero Mindmine) and IT Consulting (Munjal eSystems). HeroITES has set up a state-of-the-art BPO center near Delhi and serves several Fortune 500 clients.

​Apart from Hero Group companies, he is representing on the Board of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd and is a Member of Coca Cola India – Advisory Board. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Life Insurance Corporation of India, which is the largest life insurance company in India. He has also been a Director of Bank of India (one of the largest banks in the country). Mr. Munjal is the Immediate Past President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which is India’s premier business association, for the year 2004-05. Mr Munjal is a visiting faculty for lectures in Business Studies and Holistic Management Practices at a number of companies and Business Schools. He is also on the Board of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad Mr Munjal is a Commerce Graduate and has training in Mechanical Engineering. He had his schooling at the Doon School, Dehradun, India.

Mr Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is the Vice Chairman of Infosys Ltd. Mr. Gopalakrishnan, along with N.R. Narayana Murthy and five others, founded Infosys in 1981. He served as the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He also was selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. He was elected president of India’s apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.

​In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Mr. Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honor. Mr Gopalakrishnan serves on the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, is the Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore and is on the Board of Trustees of Chennai Mathematical Institute. Mr. Gopalakrishnan holds Master’s degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

CP Gurnani (popularly known as ‘CP’ within his peer group), is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra – a USD 5.1 billion digital transformation, consulting and business reengineering services and solutions provider with 145,000+ professionals across 90 countries, helping 1191 global customers including Fortune 500 companies.

An accomplished business leader with extensive experience in international business development, start-ups and turnarounds, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, CP played a pivotal role in Tech Mahindra’s transformation journey, and one of the biggest turnarounds of Indian Corporate History – the acquisition and merger of Satyam.

Living by the credo, ‘don’t work hard, work smart’, CP brings an inimitable leadership style combined with a laser-sharp focus on customer experience, which has helped Tech Mahindra emerge as one of the leading global digital transformation providers.

He strongly believes that one just cannot ride the growth path with resources that are out of sync with market dynamics. One of his many noticeable achievements in the past year has been an ambitious, company-wide initiative aimed at retraining Tech Mahindra employees to ensure they have the skills and knowledge to remain competitive and survive the age of digital transformation.
In a career spanning 40+ years, CP has held several leading positions with Hewlett Packard Ltd, Perot Systems (India) Ltd. and HCL Corporation Ltd. CP has also served as a Chairman of NASSCOM for the year 2016-2017.

He is an ardent supporter of Individual Social Responsibility, and often prods people to invest their time towards betterment of humanity and society, at large. He is on the Board of Tech Mahindra Foundation that was launched in 2007 to help the underprivileged children. He also founded ‘Titliyan’, a NGO that spearheads spreading quality education and developing life and social skills of more than 240 under privileged children.

A chemical engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, he is a distinguished and active alumnus of the Institute. CP has also been felicitated with an honorary Doctorate degree by Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology and Sharda University. He is on the Board of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, a promoter of Tech Mahindra Limited. His passion for education is resonated in the various honorary positions he holds – He is on the board of Mahindra Educational Institutions (MEI) & a member of the Board of Management of Mahindra University, a private university promoted by MEI to educate future citizens for and of a better world. He is also the Chairman of IIM Nagpur and the Founding Trustee of Plaksha University.

CP has been conferred with CEO’s Choice ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ 2021 – the nation’s highest independent civilian honour – instituted by SKOCH Group and CEO’s Association for Inclusive India (CAII). He has also been featured in a Harvard Case Study on ‘Tech Mahindra and the Acquisition of Satyam Computers’.

Engaged as an Operating Partner in a large Boston based International Private Equity firm, in helping build a Banking and Financial Services portfolio of both traditional and new age financial technology companies, including startups. Likewise, an advisor to a successful home grown PE firm which focuses on small and mid-cap companies, with more emphasis on startups at Series A and Series B stages of funding. Recent fintech investments include a Neo Bank. Partner in a Limited Liability company which evaluates and invests in startups.

Independent board member of large listed Indian companies including in the fields of Logistics, Renewables, Infrastructure and Financial Services.

Over 45 years of experience in State owned, private and MNC banks, of which, 24 years as CEO. Experience range covers all sectors of Banking viz. Consumer, Corporate, Treasury, Transaction Banking, Operations. Headed the Consumer Banking businesses of ABN Amro Bank in India, UAE, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan

Arun Seth took early retirement from his corporate career to focus on bringing the benefits of IT/Telecom to real world businesses in various sectors via a innovative entrepreneurial eco system and a focus on giving back to society.
Starting as the founding MD of British Telecom, India in 1995 he built it to its current leadership position.
He had been on several co-boards like Alcatel Lucent India, BT India, Tech Mahindra, Airtel, Acme Telepower and more. He had been very active with Govt and Regulators on shaping Telecoms Policy and IT Policy and was on the founding committee for the formation of the Data Security Council of India.
Currently he is an independent director on the board of Narayana Health, Jubilant Pharmova Ltd, Sify Technologies, Usha Breco Ltd, Serviont Global Solutions Ltd, etc. He has been an active angel investor for the last 20+ years and is an active advisor and mentor to several startups based out of India and USA including Healthifyme, Fitgalaxy, Healthcubed, Nutanix USA, InMobi etc.
He co-chairs the Nasscom Product Conclave and is currently a Charter member of TiE Delhi Chapter. Active with the Indian Angel Network, he is an advisor to The IAN Fund.
He is extremely active on NGOs and Education boards including DPS Ghaziabad Society, Pahle India Foundation, Helpage India Board, NCPEDP and more.
He has served on the Board of Governors for IIM Lucknow, IIIT Delhi and TERI University. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta – he has worked in several senior commercial positions in the last 40+ years. He has chaired Pan IIT in 2010 and was Vice President of IIT Kanpur Alumni Association.

Jyoti Sagar has been practicing law since 1976. Jyoti founded K&S Partners in 1994. K&S is an IP boutique with over 120 professionals in five offices in India. He also founded a Corporate Commercial practice – J. Sagar Associates (JSA) – in New Delhi in 1991 as a solo practitioner. JSA is now one of the leading national firms with over 300 professionals.
Jyoti has led teams on significant assignments of the firms, providing both hands-on legal advice as well as overall strategic inputs. He has extensive experience in a range of practice areas including intellectual property, foreign investment and joint ventures and technology transfers. He has worked on several policy issues and has been associated with various committees of the Government of India and Chambers of Commerce.
He has pioneered a new paradigm in Indian law firm organization and management structures. Both JSA and K&S have features, which are unique to Indian law firms – a ‘no family’ rule; admittance to partnership without goodwill buy-in; retirement age for partners; innovative partner compensation mechanisms; and shared vision, mission & core values. Jyoti stepped down as an equity partner of JSA in April 2013 executing a decision he had taken in 2003. His current mentorship role at JSA focuses on training, knowledge management, external outreach, strategic and public policy issues. He currently serves as Managing Partner of K&S Partners.
Jyoti is Associate President of Society of Indian Law Firms; member of the Executive Committee of the Bar Association of India; and also one of International Vice Presidents of Asian Patent Attorneys Association. He is Past President of Asian Patent Attorneys Association (Indian Group).
He is also associated with the voluntary sector. He currently serves as Chairman of Society for Urban Regeneration of Gurgaon (a NGO which focuses on long term sustainable development issues for the city of Gurgaon); Trustee of Genesis Foundation (engaged in provision of critical medical assistance to orphans and underprivileged children with heart disorders); and supports Deepalaya (engaged in education of slum children in the National Capital Region). He also serves on the Board of Governors, The Scindia School, Gwalior.
Jyoti graduated with Honours in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and received his Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Delhi. He has also attended the ‘Mergers & Acquisition Programme’ at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania. He received the C F Andrews Distinguished Alumnus Award from St. Stephen’s College in 2015.