Tuhin Kanta Pandey

Harsh Mariwala

Mr. Mariwala is the Chairman of Marico and Kaya Limited.

He established the Marico Innovation Foundation in 2003 which works towards nurturing innovations in India and started ASCENT Foundation in 2012, a peer-learning entrepreneurial platform.

Mr. Mariwala founded the Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI), with the philanthropic aim of giving back to society. Sharrp Ventures is their Family Office.

He was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mint India Investment Summit 2024. In the recent past, he received the All India Management Association (AIMA) Life Time Achievement Award 2021 and the EY Entrepreneur of the year award 2020 for India.”

Uday Kotak

Ajay Piramal

Nandini Piramal

Anant Goenka

Vishal Mahadevia

Vishal Mahadevia is a Managing Director, Head of Asia Private Equity and Co-Head of Global Financial Services, and a member of the Executive Committee and Executive Management Group at Warburg Pincus.

Vishal is also a Director of PVR INOX Limited and Apollo Tyres Limited. He serves on the International Advisory Board of Center for the Advanced Study of India, the Board of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, and the India Regional Board of Room to Read. He received a BS in Economics with a concentration in Finance and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anup Wadhawan

Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia

Amit Jain

Amit Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO of CarDekho Group, an AutoTech and FinTech platform that streamlines automotive ownership. An IIT Delhi alumnus, Amit began his career at Tata Consultancy Services and Trilogy before co-founding GirnarSoft in 2007. He launched CarDekho.com in 2008, expanding it into a digital mobility and financial solutions platform.

What started as a vehicle search portal has since evolved into a full-stack digital mobility ecosystem, integrating vehicle discovery, financing, insurance, leasing, and ownership solutions. Today, CarDekho Group operates a portfolio spanning CarDekho.com, BikeDekho, Zigwheels, PowerDrift, InsuranceDekho, CollegeDekho, rupyy, Revv, and Carrum, covering mobility and financial sectors.

Amit is an angel investor who envisions building a House of Entrepreneurs. He has mentored and funded multiple startups as a judge on Shark Tank India Seasons 2 and 3 and as a member of India’s National Startup Advisory Council. He also launched the Girnar Vision Fund, an initiative focused on backing startups that are driving the digital transformation of Bharat 2.0. Through this fund, he is supporting and providing capital to startups such as BiUP Technologies, Girnar AI Labs, and Vicara.

Beyond corporate leadership, Amit is committed to sustainability and social responsibility. CarDekho has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Aloke Bajpai

Varghese Thomas

Nithya Easwaran

Nithya has over 27 years of rich experience in financial services. She is the Managing Director of Multiples Alternate Asset Management, a private equity platform with an AUM of close to USD 3 billion.

Nithya joined Multiples in 2010. She leads the financial services and fintech investing practices. She is a Director on the Board of Multiples and a part of the Investment Committee. Nithya has also developed Multiples’ proprietary framework - Leadership Energy Level - to analyze the DNA of entrepreneurs.

Nithya has led several investments for Multiples like Svatantra Microfin, Veritas Finance, Arvind Fashions, APAC Financial Services, Kogta Financial, Acko Technology, Niyo Solutions, TI Clean Mobility and Shubham Housing Development Finance. She is a member of the Board of Governors of IIM, Lucknow, and an Independent Director on the Board of Zerodha Asset Management Company. She is a founding member of the India Chapter of Bloomberg Women’s Buyside Network and works closely with WinPE in coaching young women professionals in investing. The Association of International Wealth Management of India featured her amongst India’s Top 100 Women in Finance 2020. Nithya was awarded “Investor of the Year in Private Equity” in 2023 and the “Deal of the Year” for Multiples’ investment TI Clean Mobility Pvt. Ltd in 2024 by WinPE at their Leadership Awards.

Prior to joining Multiples, Nithya had a 14-year banking career across Citibank and ICICI focused on structured finance. She holds an engineering degree from VJTI, Mumbai, and an MBA from IIM, Lucknow.

Madhav Uppuluri

Madhav Uppuluri is the General Counsel of Tata Motors Limited and has over 25+ years of experience as a lawyer and in-house counsel. He is an experienced leader and a business partner who believes in influencing and partnering with executive leaders to accelerate business goals while building a culture of compliance and integrity. Madhav started his practice as a litigator and worked on many matters including arbitrations. He has also worked in various companies holding the position of Legal Head/General Counsel including companies such as General Electric, etc.

Sudhir Sethi

Sudhir is Founder & Chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. Chiratae Ventures is a leading VC firm advising AUM of $ 1.3 b, invested in 130 plus companies, exited 60 plus, has taken 4 companies public, funded 8 Unicorns, and backed 15 market leaders. The firm is based out of Bangalore with offices in Mumbai and Delhi. Chiratae is known for returning $ 900 M+ to its investors every year for the past 13 years.

Today Chiratae Ventures is a leading tech VC in India with Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Mr. Bruno Raschle, Dr Andreas Hettich, Mr. Manish Choksi, Mr Patrick McGovern, Mr Puneet Pushkarna, Mr Ken Shibusawa, Mr Ashok Desai as well as Dr. Ferzaan Engineer on its Advisory Board.

In 2001, Sudhir was recognized by Red Herring as one of the leading venture capitalists in the country. He has been named among the Top Ten IT Professionals by Dataquest and by Bloomberg UTV as “Visionary Venture Capitalist’’ in 2011. Sudhir has been featured in Subroto Bagchi’s book ‘’Zen Garden – Conversations with Pathmakers’’, in 2014.

Sudhir holds a B.Tech., in Engineering and an MBA Degree from FMS, Delhi. His interests include wildlife photography, and he is a collector of antique locks.

Hemant Sharma

Hemant Sharma is a Partner in the EQT Private Capital Asia team. Hemant worked for BPEA from 2015 until 2022, when the company joined forces with EQT.

Prior to joining BPEA, Hemant was a Vice President at Barclays in the Corporate Finance Group, based in Mumbai, where he was involved in M&A and capital raising transactions.

Hemant holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA from New York University – Stern School of Business.

Chandresh Ruparel

Chandresh Ruparel is a Managing Director and Head of India at Rothschild & Co. He has been associated with Rothschild & Co since 2003 and leads a team of more than 30 bankers that advises businesses on cross-border M&As, Financial Sponsors, and Capital Markets Advisory.

With an extensive background spanning 30+ years in investment banking, Chandresh specialises in cultivating and promoting a long-term perspective concerning business and relationships. Throughout his career, he has played a pivotal role in significant transactions involving renowned entities like TVS, Mahindra, GMR, Piramal, ONGC groups, HDFC Bank, and others. Additionally, Chandresh has provided advisory services to the Indian government on projects, as well as esteemed private equity firms like Advent International, Blackstone, TA Associates, and Warburg Pincus, among others. He has also worked with global enterprises such as Ageas, Firmenich, Bidvest, and more.

Prior to Rothschild & Co, Chandresh was a vice president and assistant vice president at Lazard India and SBI Capital Markets respectively. He has completed his education at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Finance and has a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) from Mumbai University

Arun Saigal

Arun Saigal is a Managing Director and leads the M&A and Financing business for Barclays in India. Under Advisory, Arun leads a cross-sector team focused on providing strategic advise and helping clients with raising private capital. With the financing business, the team is responsible for originating and executing financing products across loans, capital markets and structured finance for corporate and institutional clients. In addition, he is responsible for covering some of the largest Indian conglomerates and multinational corporate clients, along with leading the coverage efforts in the Financial Sponsors sector.

He joined Barclays in 2004 and has held several roles within the bank across markets and banking over his two-decade career.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National University of Singapore

Devina Mehra

Devina Mehra, Chairperson and Managing Director of First Global, is a gold medallist from IIM Ahmedabad as well as from Lucknow University, where she broke several records and got 8 Gold Medals.

She founded First Global as a securities firm almost exactly 31 years back.

She spearheaded First Global's globalisation almost 25 years ago, making First Global the first Asian (ex-Japan) firm to become a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1999 and then the NASD.

First Global, led by Ms. Mehra, is now a Global Asset Management firm managing over USD 700 million in assets in India & Globally using a unique Human + Machine model.

In the PMS space since its launch just over 4 years ago, its equity scheme has been among the best performing multicap schemes, both on the returns and risk adjusted returns basis.

She has been quoted widely on Global as well as Indian markets by global financial media like Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC, Financial Times etc.

Alan Abelson, legendary columnist of the leading publication Barron’s called First Global research "Credible...and often, much more than that".

She was featured among the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune magazine in 2022.

Ms. Mehra has been felicitated and featured as one of India's leading entrepreneurs by Outlook Business and Entrepreneur magazines.

Some of her major calls in the global markets were identifying the cashflow turnaround in Amazon at a price of $15 and highlighting the accounting shenanigans in Worldcom and Enron well ahead of the scandals. In India, her most memorable call was on HDFC Bank in 1996. She has identified many turning points in the markets in her role as Research Head & Global Strategist, including when in June 2022 she said that it was time to invest in the Indian markets...when the Nifty was below 15300. And then again in March 2023, when the Nifty was sub 17000

Nimesh Chandan

Nimesh Chandan is the Chief Investment Officer at Bajaj Finserv Asset Management. An Investment Professional with over two decades of experience in investing in the Indian capital markets, Nimesh has an established track record in managing funds and advising clients, both Domestic and International, Retail as well as Institutional.

Over the years, he has developed an investment process that generates alpha through informational, analytical as well as behavioral edge. He has been part of the mutual fund industry for 17 years where has managed products across market capitalisation and themes, and developed models on Sustainable Investing, Quant Investing and Asset Allocation.

Nimesh is a keen follower of Behavioural Finance and has been writing and presenting on the role of psychology in Investment Decision-making to the investment community. He has developed a set of processes and tools that help reduce one’s behavioural mistakes and understand the crowd or market behaviour.

Prior to joining Bajaj Finserv Asset Management, Nimesh was associated with Canara Robecco Asset Management Company as the Head – Investments, Equities.

Bhavesh Shah

Sonia Dasgupta

Ms. Sonia Dasgupta is the Managing Director & CEO of the Investment Banking division at JM Financial. A seasoned investment banker, Ms. Dasgupta brings over 25 years of rich experience. A graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, she has held key leadership positions in JM Financial, including Head of FIG Coverage, Head of M&A Origination, and Head of Group Borrowings. During the journey, she has been at the helm of numerous landmark transactions as well as led advisory and fund- raising transactions for a large number of domestic and overseas clients.

Ms. Dasgupta's leadership experience and proven track record in structuring marquee transactions has earned her multiple recognitions. In 2023, she was named one of India's 100 Most Influential Women by Business World. Earlier, in 2019, she was honoured as one of the Top 100 Women in Finance by the Association of International Wealth Management of India(AIWMI).

Iqbal Khan

Amit Kothari

Amit Kothari is currently the Group President – Corporate Strategy and Business Development responsible for the company’s M&A and growth strategies. In addition he is the CEO and Board Member at JK Cement Works (Fujairah) based in UAE. Prior to JK Cement, he worked as Chief Administrative Officer at the Abraaj Group, a global Private Equity firm based in Dubai where he implemented operational excellence, value creation plans, turnaround programs across portfolio companies and managed group wide operations.

He started his career at the Holcim Group based in Zurich, Switzerland. As the Assistant to the Executive Committee for South Asia/ASEAN he supported across strategic and operational initiatives including the acquisition and integration of ACC Ltd. and Ambuja Cements.  Prior to this role he was a Corporate Finance Specialist with the Group’s Corporate Finance team where he co-managed group capital market transactions (ECM/DCM) and global bank relationships.

Mr. Kothari is BA in Economics and Political Science from Illinois Wesleyan University, USA, holding Post Graduate Degree in Law from the College of Law, London and MBA from the University of Cambridge. He has attended Executive Management programs at IMD Lausanne.

Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl is a technology entrepreneur and investor.

Kunal is the co-founder of Titan Capital, through which he has invested in more than 280 start-ups over 14 years across various sectors and geographies in consumer tech, health tech, fin-tech, SaaS, consumer brands, and B2B platforms in companies like Ola, Urban Company, Razorpay, Of Business, Mamaearth, Credgenics among others.

He is the co-founder of Snapdeal, one of India’s leading e-commerce platforms. Founded in 2010, Snapdeal focuses on the value commerce market in India and has served over 100 million online shoppers over the last 15+ years.

He is also the promoter of Unicommerce, India's leading e-commerce enablement SaaS company, which is listed on the NSE and BSE.

Kunal is an influential voice on issues pertaining to Indian start-ups and entrepreneurship. He is a member of India’s National Startup Advisory Council. As Chairman of CII's National Startup Council (2023-24, 2024-25), he leads efforts to forge closer ties between the start-up & investor ecosystems in India and the Middle East. He is also anchoring CII efforts to define corporate governance best practices for Indian start- ups. Kunal was part of Nasscom’s Executive Council (2019-2023) and is also a judge and investor in Shark Tank India.

He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and an Independent Director on the board of Piramal Enterprises Limited.

Kunal graduated from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania and holds degrees in engineering and business from the Wharton School.

Sidharrth Shankar

 

Sidharrth (Sid) is a seasoned corporate lawyer with a core focus on Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Investments/Venture Capital. Sid has substantial experience advising global private equity funds, multinational corporations, and strategic investors on complex cross-border transactions across a broad spectrum of industries over the last two and a half decades, with two decades in JSA itself.

Sid’s practice encompasses structuring and executing inbound and outbound investments, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and portfolio company management. Sid routinely advises clients on foreign direct investment regimes, commercial arrangements, technology transfers, and regulatory compliance in sectors including consumer products, insurance, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, fintech, e-commerce, financial services, and IT/ITeS. Sid has been involved in some of the most interesting deals in life sciences, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, financial services, consumer products, manufacturing and green investments, and has played a key role in some of the largest – and award-winning – transactions in such sectors in India.

Sid has provided sophisticated transactional counsel to diverse clients, including some of the most prominent global financial sponsors and strategics. He specialises in private equity investments (both domestic and cross-border), joint ventures and foreign investment. His deep sectoral insight and commercial acumen make him a trusted advisor for investors and corporates navigating high-stakes transactions, and he is consistently recognised as a leading private equity and M&A practitioner in prominent legal directories.

Nitish Mittersain

In the vibrant corridors of the Indian gaming industry, the name Nitish Mittersain resonates with innovation, leadership, and a trailblazing journey that began from the roots of a textile business family. At the tender age of 7, Nitish's fascination with interactive gaming blossomed when he coded his first game, a prelude to a life intertwined with digital creativity. His entrepreneurial spirit emerged early, as evidenced by his establishment of a bulletin board service at 14, laying the groundwork for his future ventures.

At 19, Nitish merged his passion for gaming with an unwavering zeal to innovate, founding Nazara Technologies. Under his leadership, Nazara not only became India’s first gaming company to go public but did so with a spectacular debut, achieving an oversubscription rate of 175 times. This IPO marked a monumental milestone, highlighting Nitish's acumen in navigating the business landscape.

His vision extended beyond the horizon as he successfully attracted marquee investors, including WestBridge Capital and the legendary Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, marking Jhunjhunwala’s inaugural venture into the gaming/tech space. This collaboration underscored Nitish's ability to forge pivotal relationships that would propel Nazara to unprecedented success. Under his stewardship, WestBridge Capital exited with a return of INR 1000 Cr on an investment of just INR 12 Cr, showcasing the phenomenal growth and valuation of nearly $1 billion, setting Nazara as a benchmark in the industry.

Nazara’s growth narrative is also a testament to Nitish’s strategic brilliance, evidenced by acquisitions of premier companies such as Kiddopia, Sportskeeda and Nodwin Gaming, each a leader in its respective domain. These acquisitions have not only diversified Nazara’s portfolio but also cemented its position as a global contender in the gaming space.

Aside from his business pursuits, Nitish is deeply engaged in the broader industry and entrepreneurial community. He serves as a Governing Council Member of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and is actively involved with the Tech Entrepreneur Association of Mumbai, as well as contributing to gaming and media entertainment discussions in forums like FICCI, IDS, and CII. His commitment to nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs is evident in his investment in over 100 startups and regular speaking engagements at startup events.

Recognized internationally for his contributions to the digital entertainment and gaming industry, Nitish balances his professional achievements with personal passions. An accomplished musician, he finds solace in the melodies of woodwind instruments, playing the clarinet and saxophone with his jazz band, the Jazz Junkies. A proponent of maintaining a balanced lifestyle, he also practices Krav Maga and contributes to the community as a trustee of the Dr. B. K. Goyal Heart Foundation and the Dhanvantari Foundation.

Nitish Mittersain's journey from a young gaming enthusiast to a luminary of the Indian gaming industry is a compelling narrative of ambition, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

T. N. Hari

Hari is currently the Executive Chairman of Steer World, a group of deep-tech companies in the space of advanced manufacturing, materials technologies, lifesciences, and sustainable materials.

He spent two decades as part of the leadership team at five high growth startups in domains as varied as business process outsourcing, information technology, financial services, consumer internet and e-commerce. Each of these startups (Daksh, Virtusa, Amba Research, TaxiForSure, and Bigbasket) saw a successful exit including an IPO on NASDAQ, and three of these went on to become Unicorns. At each of these startups, Hari played a key role in shaping their growth and exit.

Hari started his career at Tata Steel and played leadership roles in Engineering, Project Management, and Human Capital. He played a key role in helping restructure the company to cope with post-liberalization challenges.

Hari has also played an active role in shaping the startup ecosystem in the country and is respected as a thought leader and an influencer. He has been a prolific author and has authored 8 books so far, mostly centered around different aspects of building and scaling start-ups. Each of these books has been a category leader. His book ‘Winning Middle India’ won the Gaja Business Book Prize for 2023.His other popular books include, ‘Saying No to Jugaad – The Making of Bigbasket’, ‘From Pony to Unicorn – Scaling a Startup Sustainably’, and ‘Diversity Beyond Tokenism – Why Being Politically Correct Doesn’t Help Anyone’.

Deepak Acharya

Mr. Deepak Acharya is the Group General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer of the Aditya Birla Group (ABG). With the team of over 400 Lawyers in the Group, Deepak is responsible for providing integrated business solutions, keeping in view applicable legal environment. As a part of the global conglomerate, his team has acquired the competence to provide legal assistance and counsel in different jurisdictions around the World. His team also plays a significant role in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures (both domestic and cross-border), and corporate re-structuring.

Deepak started his career in 1992 with Procter & Gamble where he worked for over 25 years including at P&G’s Geneva Regional HQ for four years and with Singapore Regional HQ for Six years. Prior to his current role, Deepak was General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer of Wipro Limited a Global IT Services Company where he worked for approx. five years.

Deepak is a Law graduate from the Government Law College-Mumbai and is a Fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and an Associate Member of the All-India Management Association. Deepak Chairs CII’s sub-committee on Business and Corporate Laws. Deepak is also a certified Corporate Trainer and enjoys conducting trainings such as ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, ‘Coaching for Success’ and ‘Corporate Athlete’ amongst others.

Imran Jafar

Imran is a Managing Partner at Gaja Capital (www.gajacapital.com)

Gaja Capital is one of India’s leading mid-market growth capital investment firms. Gaja Capital’s aim is to help create India’s next generation of market leaders in sectors such as Education, Software, Consumer and Financial Services.

Imran has 26 years of experience in Private Equity, Pharmaceuticals and Technology services. Prior to Gaja Capital, Imran worked in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility at Dr Reddy’s and Wipro Technologies.

At Gaja Capital, Imran leads investments in the Education, Software and Consumer clusters. He has been closely involved with Gaja Capital’s investments in Amber Student (Global marketplace for student accommodation), Signzy (SaaS platform for BFSI), LeadSquared (Sales automation SaaS platform), Ei (B2B Learning Software), Sportz Village (Youth Sports), Lighthouse Learning (Pre-K and K-12), John Distilleries (AlcoBev) and CL Educate (Supplemental Education).

Imran has post graduate degrees in software engineering from BITS-Pilani and an MBA from IIM-Bangalore.

Vikram Raghani

Ritesh Banglani

Ritesh Banglani is a partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, where he invests in technology companies in Financial Services, SaaS, Automotive/EVs, and Travel & Mobility. His current investments include Propelld, Kiwi, Turno, Goodscore, Credflow, BeepKart, Punch, and Truva.

Ritesh has a strong interest in companies solving uniquely Indian problems, especially those applying new technologies to their industry for the first time.

Before Stellaris, Ritesh was a Partner at Helion, where he invested in companies like Taxiforsure, Lifecell, and Trulymadly. Before moving to venture capital in 2007, he was a product manager for online and mobile consumer products.

He has a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD and has served as Adjunct Faculty at IIM Bangalore.

Deep Bajaj

Swati Kulkarni

Swati is a distinguished investment banking professional with over 16 years of experience specializing in the consumer and retail sectors. She has an extensive track record of advising some of the world’s most prominent consumer brands, including Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Tata Consumer, Godrej Consumer Products, and DMart, as well as emerging market leaders such as Fogg, Paperboat, iD Fresh, Epigamia, and Manyavar.

Swati's expertise encompasses a broad spectrum of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings (IPOs), capital raising, and strategic alliances. She has successfully led and executed over 30 advisory and capital market transactions across both listed and unlisted domains, with a total value exceeding US$ 10 billion.

Prior to her tenure at Fireside, Swati held the position of Director at Kotak Investment Banking and has also garnered valuable experience working with leading global firms such as KPMG and PwC. She holds an MBA in Finance from Mumbai University and has cleared CFA Level 2, further underscoring her deep expertise in financial analysis and strategic advisory.

Rohan Suri

Rohan Suri (Mumbai) joined KKR in 2012 and is a Managing Director on the Private Equity team. Mr. Suri currently serves on the Board of Directors of Infinx, Ness Digital Engineering, Vini Cosmetics, Incred Finance, Re Sustainability, Shriram General Insurance, and has also led or co-led investments in Reliance Retail, Jio Platforms, Alliance Tire Group (ATG), Max Healthcare, Max Financial Services, HDFC Ltd., Five Star Finance and SBI Life Insurance.

Prior to KKR, he was with Bain & Company in their New Delhi and San Francisco offices. Mr. Suri holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where he was an Industry Scholar, and a B.E. Honors from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, from where he graduated as a Chancellor’s Gold Medalist

Vishesh Shrivastav

Vishesh Shrivastav is Managing Director at Temasek’s investment team based in India.

With almost 20 years of investment experience, Vishesh currently co-manages the India team’s investment activities. He has led multiple investments in the consumer and technology sectors, serving on the boards of a number of companies, including Zomato, VFS, Devyani International, Lenskart, cult.fit, Licious, and upGrad.

Prior to Temasek, Vishesh was part of the investment team at Providence Equity Partners, and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Vishesh holds B. Tech and M. Tech degrees in Computer Science from IIT, Delhi and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Bangalore.zss

Abhishek Bachchan

Souvik Sengupta

Neelkanth Mishra

Sanjoy Bhattacharyya