Our speakers
Hetal Gandhi, Director-Research, CRISIL
Hetal Gandhi is the lead researcher for the past 15+ years at CRISIL. She has handled the infra portfolio and now focuses on energy transition, climate change and ESG.
Sustainable investments are set to account for a large share in infrastructure investments in India and working at CRISIL for 15 years, has provided Hetal a unique opportunity to lead areas in this domain. Energy transition covering renewables, agriculture and decarbonising transportation has provided her a unique opportunity to have a bird's eye view of sustainable and green investments in India. As India progresses to meet the PARIS targets 2030 the role of investments in renewable energy, decarbonising transport with a focus on electric vehicles and promoting unique interventions in agriculture will be crucial. Hetal is managing a team of over 20 analysts to track developments across infra and consumption space to know India's role in this journey.
Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund India
As Environmental Defense Fund's Chief Advisor in India, Hisham is responsible for the organization's strategy in the region which centers on playing a catalytic role in support of an Indian pathway to shared, sustainable prosperity. Hisham is a well-respected figure in the business world and has over 25 years of experience working in various industries including consumer goods, manufacturing, media and technology.
Hitendra Dave, CEO, HSBC India
Hitendra Dave, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC India
IAS Vivek Kumar Dewangan, Chairman and Managing Director, REC Limited & IAS
Inderjit Camotra, MD & CEO, Unity Small Finance Bank
Ishpreet Gandhi, Founder and Managing Partner, Stride Ventures
Ishpreet is the founder and managing partner at Stride Ventures. At Stride, Ishpreet’s all-encompassing role at the fund involves sourcing proprietary investment opportunities, fundraising, managing the portfolio by working with and supporting portfolio companies, including attending board meetings and monitoring performance to ensure returns and strategic objectives of the fund are achieved. As the fund manager, Ishpreet has built a well-diversified portfolio sanctioning over INR 1300Cr across 55+ companies across Consumer, FinTech, Logistics, AgriTech, B2B Commerce, HealthTech, B2B SaaS etc. Additionally, he has successfully pioneered tailor-made short term solutions for growth stage businesses and has created banking alliances for Stride’s portfolio company’s by leveraging his banking experience and network. Stride has been the most active venture debt fund in India in terms of deals executed, completing 50 deals in the calendar year 2021. Ishpreet currently operates across two funds, with the second fund gaining significant momentum, targeting above INR 1000 Crore with a greenshoe option of INR 75 Cr.
Prior to founding Stride Ventures, Ishpreet Gandhi started his career with Standard Chartered Bank in the SME banking division. This was followed by a term in Citibank commercial banking and thereafter, he managed MNC business for the northern region for Kotak group. He was the team leader at Yes Bank managing MNC and VC relationships in 2014, where he started sourcing growth-stage startups. Ishpreet managed relationships with Venture Capital funds like Omnivore, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Mayfield Advisors & Bertelsmann during his term at YES Bank and IDFC. He closed his first VC-backed transaction as a first lender to BIRA (Alcoholic beverages) in late 2015, when the company attracted Series A investment from Sequoia Capital. The second company Ishpreet identified was Lendingkart, (Series A in 2016). The company was amongst the earliest fintech companies in India. Similar companies which Ishpreet successfully onboarded amongst startups were Leap India backed by Mayfield Advisors, Sixth Sense Ventures & TVS Capital (2016), Rivigo backed by SAIF Partners & Warburg Pincus (2018), Securens backed by Mayfield Advisors (2017), Ofbusiness backed by Matrix Partners and Norwest Venture Partners (2017). All these companies have witnessed significant increase in valuations with no delays in principal repayments or servicing of coupons.
Jack Hidary, CEO, SandboxAQ
Jack is the CEO of SandboxAQ which focuses on enterprise SaaS solutions at the convergence of AI and quantum tech.
Jack worked previously at Alphabet leading AI and quantum teams. Jack is the author of Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach, published by Springer. This work, now in its second edition, is one of the leading textbooks in the field and is used both in undergraduate and PhD programs, as well as corporate training sessions.
Jack is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several tech companies, including EarthWeb/Dice (NYSE: DHX), which he led from its founding through IPO. He also co-founded Vista Research, a fintech company, which he and his team sold to S&P/McGraw-Hill.
Jaffrey Thomas, Partner -Logistics and Transport Infrastructure, PwC India
Jagbir Singh Sidhu, Chief Commercial Officer, Diageo India