A K Srivastava – He is a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Sikkim cadre. He has been the Principal Secretary, Social Justice & Empowerment and Science & Technology Departments, Govt. of Sikkim. Apart from heading the key Departments of Food & C.S., Irrigation, Commerce & Industry and Tourism in his cadre State, he also served the Union Government twice in different capacities. Though by vocation, he is a career civil servant, by passion he is a writer. It is exemplified by his being an author of two books, editor of one and three dozen articles on diverse issues. He also has three photo exhibitions to his credit.

Anjani Bansal is Deputy Director for Strategy and Management for the India Country Office of the Gates Foundation with past experience in investments in India and Africa across multiple sectors such as technology, agriculture, finance and education. He worked in commercial and investment banking for several years and is most interested in leveraging innovation and investments in the private sector to drive large-scale impact.

Anuraag Srivastava is the Co-Founder and COO of Rainshine Entertainment, a global entertainment company that creates content for global audiences. Anuraag is also the Founder of Agate Group of companies, a services company catering to BPO / KPO and Technology clients globally. He has incubated various companies in the BPO / KPO, Media and Healthcare space. He has helped develop and lead the Investment thesis and business plan models for Online Video, Digital Media Education and Urban Entertainment during his time in Zodius. He has also been a co-founder of Inventurus (a Healthcare BPO) and Juno Clinic (an online platform for Mental Health management). Prior to his achievements at Rainshine and Agate, Anuraag has significant experience in management in varied fields. His past experiences include • Venture Partner & Managing Director at Zodius • CEO at WNS (leading BPO company) • Vice President at eVentures (Softbank/Newscorp Fund) • Category Manager (India and US) at P&G. • Senior Associate at VIEW Group Outside of work, Anuraag is associated with non-profits in Environmental Protection (www.ncs.org.in) and Rural Education (www.abhilashafoundation.org). He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

Apoorva Oza is the chief executive officer of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India). He is also actively involved in founding and supporting nonprofits and nonprofit networks, as well as influencing government policy. A mechanical engineer with a diploma in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, he has also completed courses from Cranford University, United Kingdom, and Cornell University, USA.

Asitava Sen is the Chief Executive Officer of CropLife India. Prior to CropLife India, Asitava had worked in leadership and senior advisory positions for various international and multinational organizations such as The World Bank Group, The World Economic Forum, FAO, Rabobank, PwC etc. CropLife India is an industry association of 15 R & D driven member crop science companies, jointly representing approximately 70% of the crop protection market and responsible for 95% of the molecules introduced in the country so far.

Dhanendra Kumar is a veteran IAS officer, of 1968 batch. He served as the First Chairman of the Competition Commission of India during its initial formative years. Earlier, he was India’s Executive Director in the World Bank in Washington DC and Secretary in several key Ministries, including Defense Production, Roads and Highways and Culture and was responsible for several major policy initiatives. As Additional Secretary in Ministry of Telecom, he was closely associated with telecom liberalization and explosion of cellular telephony and internet. He also worked as India’s Resident Director in London of India Investment Centre under the Ministry of Finance to promote investments and JVs. He belongs to Haryana Cadre and served among other positions as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Chairman HSIDC and credited with industrial development, including Udyog Vihar and Manesar.

Dr. Rohini Srivathsa – As National Technology Officer for Microsoft India, Rohini is responsible for empowering our customers and partners across industry and the government to drive innovation and growth through ‘tech-intensity’. Her 25+ years’ career spans business and technology – with strategy consulting at the Boston Consulting Group and IBM Global Business Services, operations and sales at start-ups, and R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Rohini is a member of the Wiley Innovation Advisory Council, is on the Advisory Council of the ECE Dept at Carnegie Mellon University, serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for NM-ICPS, Dept of Science and Technology, Government of India, and is on the Industry Advisory Board of SRITNE at the Indian School of Business. She was recognized among the ‘Top-10 most influential analytics leaders in India in 2019’, by the Analytics India Magazine. Rohini holds an MBA from Wharton and earned her PhD in Computer Engineering from UT Austin.

Hemendra Mathur – Over 24 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, management consulting and investment banking in India, South Asia, Europe and USA.
About 12 years of experience in early-stage and growth capital investing. Working as Venture Partner with a deep-tech sector-agnostic fund. Raised a private equity fund earlier and managed a portfolio of mid- sized companies in the food supply chain. About 12 years of management consulting and investment banking experience in the food, agribusiness, retail and consumer goods industry for corporates as well as the Government of India / state governments.

Jinesh Shah co-founded Omnivore with Mark Kahn in 2010. Previously, he was Vice President and CFO at Nexus Venture Partners, one of India’s leading venture capital funds. Earlier in his career, Jinesh worked in corporate finance roles for Datamatics (leading Treasury/M&A), Patni Computers (initiating the IPO process), and HCL Technologies (founding the BPO business). He is a member of the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Agriculture & Food Processing Committee. Jinesh is a Chartered Accountant with a B.Com from R A Poddar College and an MMS (Finance) from JBIMS.

Joanna Kane-Potaka is an Australian national and has a Master of Science degree in Global Marketing. Prior to joining ICRISAT she was Director, Communications and Marketing Information and Knowledge Group, International Water Management Institute, where she was responsible for science marketing, corporate communications, uptake approach of research findings, private industry fund raising, internal communications and information management. She was also Head, Information Management and Marketing, Bioversity International and Information and Communications Leader, WorldFish Center She began her career as an agricultural economist with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (BAE at the time) and later moved into market research in the agribusiness area of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. Since then she has worked in a wide variety of marketing-related areas including strategic marketing, communications, fundraising, knowledge management, and uptake of scientific research. She has worked for government, private industry (manufacturing and consulting) and with nonprofit organizations (including four CGIAR agricultural research centers). She has 25 years professional experience and has lived and worked in India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia. She is a certified practicing marketer in Australia, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and a fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute.

Kishor Jha – Prior to founding Ergos in early 2012, Kishor briefly worked at Barclays Bank Plc, in their Premier Banking Group. He worked with ACC Limited across the various functions based out of Motihari (Bihar) where he handled rural marketing. He also worked with ICICI Bank and group, and Future group, where he managed close to 100 crore portfolio on exchange traded agriculture commodity derivatives products in Bangalore. A veteran in the field of agriculture, Mr Jha is from an agriculturist family in Madhubani district in Bihar where he learned agriculture not by only professional engagement, but its imbibed skill inculcated by generations and ancestors. Mr. Jha is responsible for providing overall direction and leading the company to achieve transformational growth. Known for his vast knowledge in the field of agriculture, Mr. Jha has more than a decade experience in running agriculture and farm related businesses like agri-financing, agri-procurement, commodity trading and warehousing. He has been closely involved with the agriculture movement and farmer communities in Bihar, and Karnataka. An expert in the commodities sector, he has been associated with leading Indian and global corporations in different roles for procurement, warehousing and stocking of agri-commodities. He has also been associated with leading Indian banks in retail banking. He was the winner of the “Master Entrepreneurs- CNBC-South Zone” award by CNBC in November 2014. Kishor earned a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from PUMBA and SIBM in Marketing and Foreign Trade. He also earned a Bachelor in Physics from Magadh University.

Mark Kahn is a Managing Partner of Omnivore, a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India, backing over 20 startups since 2011. Omnivore defines itself as a “financial first” impact investor, seeking to deliver market-rate venture capital returns, while impacting the lives of Indian smallholder farmers and rural communities. Every day, Omnivore portfolio companies drive agricultural prosperity and transform food systems across India, making farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, one of India’s foremost diversified agribusiness companies. At Godrej Agrovet, Mark was responsible for corporate strategy, M&A, R&D, and new business incubation. Earlier in his career, Mark worked for Syngenta and PFM. He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Mark is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Council on Agriculture and a member of the Governing Council of the Maharashtra State Innovation Society.

Noshir Colah has over 25 years of wide-ranging international experience in top management across sectors. He has been an integral part of three start-up companies. His domain knowledge includes renewable energy and green technology, construction, mechanical engineering and the services sector. His fields of experience covers various aspects of management, including concept & product development, intellectual property rights, licensing and joint ventures, finance, legal, operations, sales and marketing. However, his passion is organization building through the development and implementation of corporate systems. In the past two decades, he has held four ‘C-Level’ positions and has served on the Board of Directors of several companies in India and abroad. Noshir has earned his M.B.A with a dual major in Finance and Computer Systems in Business from Ohio University and is an alumnus of Mumbai’s St. Mary’s School (ISC) Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics Government Law College.

Purnima Khandelwal co-founded INI Farms in 2009 and is the first woman CEO of one of the largest fresh fruit company from India. Purnima is the driving force behind creating India’s first “safe food’ brand Kimaye leading the entire gamut of brand building initiatives from consumer insights to packaging innovations to distribution. Her strength in building long lasting relationships has helped InI achieve leadership in exports as well as domestic market. Purnima’s experience spans over 20 years including 16 years as an entrepreneur. As a cofounder of INI Consulting (started in 2003) she has advised large private sector companies in agriculture, heavy engineering, electronics, infrastructure, chemicals and also Government organizations like Indian Railways, Confederation of Indian Industry and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. She is a Post Graduate from TAPMI, Manipal.

Rajat Tandon is the President of IVCA. He is focused on planning, developing, and implementing IVCA’s regulatory advocacy activities, while also identifying and solutioning ways for members to maximize their membership experience. His goal is to effectively influence regulatory outcomes in support of the alternate asset class and enable a full-spectrum ecosystem from Angels to AIFs. Previously, Rajat was part of the leadership team at NASSCOM, the Indian IT and ITES/BPO body. In his role as Vice President, Rajat headed NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups initiative, providing crucial support to technology startups in India. He is passionate about creating value for entrepreneurs, funding partners, and the ecosystem as a whole. With his early stint as entrepreneur and extensive corporate experience in the IT & Telecom and GIS/Navigable maps, Rajat competently bridges the gap between boardroom expertise and on-the-ground experience. Over the past 25+ years, he has worked in various positions ranging from technical support, sales leadership, service delivery to strategic initiatives at Siemens, Nortel, and Nokia (NAVTEQ).

Raman Ahuja – In a career spanning 27 years, his experience spans across agribusiness value chains, consumer products, and ingredients industries, operating in Indian and International markets. Since March 2013, he works as an independent advisor and consultant in food & agriculture – with startups, private sector and with multilateral agencies like – The World Bank Group (Transport, Food & Agriculture, AgriFin), ADB, FAO, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), US Aid, etc.

Rema Subramanian cofounded Ankur with a vision to use her multi decade CXO and entrepreneurial experience to bring the tools to young startups to become game changers. She has worked across education and IT/ITES taking young companies from scratch to midsize ventures. She is a cost accountant from ICFAI and when she has spare time she likes to travel and try her hand at growing plants.

Reshma Anand is a business school graduate with more than 20 years of leadership experience in mission-driven nonprofits, social ventures, and philanthropic organisations. She currently heads Hindustan Unilever Foundation, a nonprofit focused on water conservation and governance. Previously, Reshma founded two social ventures including a specialist advisory firm on sustainable social responsibility and an accelerator for agri and artisanal micro-entrepreneurs. Reshma is an Economics graduate from the University of Delhi, an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, an Aspen Fellow, and a TED India Fellow.

Ritu Verma is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She is passionate about bringing innovation from lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporations – Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. If Ritu had any spare time she’d love to travel to all ends of the earth and read a few books.

Suhasini Singh, Head of Agriculture Debt for responsAbility’s Asia Pacific region, heads a team of three investment officers looking after a portfolio of 21 companies in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Working out of our Mumbai office, she has been instrumental in developing the responsIbility portfolio of sustainable food companies which work with 550,000 smallholder farmers who sustainably cultivate 1.2 m hectares of agricultural area.

Mr. Suresh Krishnan, an alumnus of BITS(Pilani) has 30 years of experience in operations, corporate finance, planning in fertilisers, energy and infrastructure sectors. He has been associated with Adventz Group and related companies over two decades. Over the years, was instrumental in financing of large greenfield projects in the domestic and international markets, forging and managing joint ventures and acquisitions, and in executing turnaround strategies alongside day-to-day operations in the manufacturing sector. He is on the Board of several Adventz Group Companies

Uday Garg is the founder of Mandala Capital and has since 2008 been exclusively focused on investments in the food value chain. Prior to Mandala Capital, he worked at Altima Partners focusing on private investments in global Emerging Markets across sectors (including agribusiness). He began his career in the Investment Banking division of Deutsche Bank (New York), followed by Portfolio Manager roles at Amaranth Advisors (Connecticut) and Duet Group (London).The inspiration behind food and agriculture as sector focus stems from the influence of Mr. Garg’s late grandfather, Mr. B.R .Barwale, who founded Mahyco, India’s leading Seed Company, in 1964. Uday Garg holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with Concentration in Finance.

Vaidhehi Ravindran is a Vice President at Lightstone Aspada. Most recently, she was an energy and chemicals consultant in New York; where she worked across several stages of project development of refining and petrochemical multi-billion dollar projects in the Americas and Africa. Previously, Vaidhehi has the distinction of being the first woman involved in project commissioning and refinery operations at Indian Oil Corporation. Vaidhehi currently serves on the board of LEAF. Vaidhehi has a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli.

Nirav is Managing Partner – Kaizenvest Edu Finance at Kaizenvest, a leading education focused investment firm with operations in emerging Asia and Africa. Prior to joining Kaizenvest, Nirav was with the Tata Group for over 20 years in various capacities including as the Chief Executive Officer of Tata ClassEdge and Tata Interactive Systems. Nirav has led several international projects and collaborations in the fields of education, telecommunications and aerospace, and served as Director on the Boards of companies within and outside India. Nirav was recognized as a Young India Leader by the British High Commission in 2013. In 2016, Jagran Lakecity University conferred upon him an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts (Management) for his contributions in the areas of management, education and technology.

Safeena, a London School of Economics graduate, has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. After returning to India, Safeena chose the agenda closest to her heart – that of girls’ education – and founded Educate Girls. Safeena’s efforts to bridge the gender gap in education in India have been widely recognized. She has been conferred with the 2017 NITI Aayog’s Women Transforming India Award, the 2016 NDTV-L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Award, and has in the past received the British Asian Trust’s Special Recognition Award from HRH Prince Charles for outstanding contribution in education. Moreover, Educate Girls has received the prestigious 2015 Skoll Award, 2014 WISE Award, the 2014 USAID Millennium Alliance Award, the 2014 Stars Impact Award and the India Development Marketplace Award in 2011 from the World Bank. Under Safeena’s leadership, Educate Girls initiated the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education, a proof of concept that ties funding to outcomes. In 2018, on its completion, the Educate Girls’ DIB surpassed both its target outcomes by achieving 160% of its learning target and 116% of its enrolment target. The results are testimony to the fact that Educate Girls continues to deliver quality at scale and value to every single child in the program.

Aarti Wig is Founder and Country Director of Yunus Social Business India, the Indian arm of an organisation that was created by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus to accelerate the development of social businesses globally. Aarti helped conceptualise and create the world’s first Yunus Social Business Fund – the Yunus Social Business Fund, Mumbai which she currently manages. Aarti has also consulted several universities, corporates and non-profits on creating social businesses. Previously, Aarti worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan in Mumbai. Aarti has a master’s degree in finance from the London School of Economics

Abhishek Agrawal is Accion’s Chief Regional Officer for Asia, based out of India, and is responsible for overseeing Accion’s investment & operations in the region. A key region for Accion in its mission to advance financial inclusion, several features of the region and countries within it – such as an enabling regulatory environment, startup ecosystem, and entrepreneurial culture – make it a prime market for inclusive fintech innovation. As an Accion representative, Abhishek serves on the boards of SubK, DVARA – KGFS, Vindhya E-Infomedia, FTCash and Saija Finance. He comes to Accion with extensive experience in business transformation, financial management, strategy, business planning and operations.In earlier roles, Abhishek worked with FINCA International as CFO in different affiliates. Prior to that, he acted as an advisor to the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI), where he worked on a number of projects in Municipal reforms.

Alison Eskeson is a seasoned international development and CSR executive having worked for over 20 years at the intersection of development and finance. In more than 30 countries worldwide, she has built a track record of measurable social and environmental impact by cultivating strategic partnerships among governments, private banks, foundations and impact investors.

Alok Mittal is Co-founder and CEO of Indifi, India’s leading full-stack platform for enabling debt financing for small businesses. Alok is also an active angel investor, co-founder of Indian Angel Network, and on the board of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Delhi. Prior to starting Indifi, Alok setup and ran Canaan Partners’ venture investment business. Earlier, Alok co-founded JobsAhead.com, a leading web-based recruitment business in India. Alok earned a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

Anurag Agrawal is currently a Partner at Aavishkaar, one of the pioneering Impact focussed Investment funds globally. He has been part of the founding team of the group company Intellecap and last served as its CEO. In the last 12 years of his association with the Aavishkaar Intellecap Group, Anurag set up and built the Company’s Investment Banking Practice with a specific focus on assisting early and growth-stage multiple bottom-line enterprises to raise capital. Anurag has played a key role in incubating I3N (Intellecap Impact Investment Network), India’s first impact focused angel network. He was also one of the key architects of creating the current group structure of Intellecap and led the efforts of the group in the incubation and acquisition of the 3 NBFCs (IntelleCash, IntelleGrow and Arohan) within the Intellecap group.

Chetna Gala Sinha is a banker. Chetna started India’s first rural women’s bank- Mann Deshi Bank. Chetna also started India’s first business school for rural women entrepreneurs. Through Mann Deshi Bank and Foundation, she serves over 500,000 women, her goal is to reach 1 million women entrepreneurs by 2022. Chetna has been recognized with many awards. Chetna was one of the six co-chair of World Economic Forum, Davos 2018. She is the recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India’s highest civilian award for women who work in the area of women’s empowerment.

Eric Savage is the Co-founder & CEO of Unitus Capital (UC). Eric moved to India in 2007 to help set up UC, an impact focused investment bank, and has led the company in raising more than US$2.8 billion for various impact businesses. Unitus Capital has been ranked the #1 Indian investment bank by Venture Intelligence and VC Circle since 2013. Previously, Eric ran Citigroup’s Asian investment banking franchise in the power and infrastructure sectors, and helped secure and execute multiple landmark equity, debt and M&A transactions, totalling many billions of dollars. Eric was based in NYC and Hong Kong for 14 years with Citigroup/Salomon Brothers. Eric also headed Salomon’s utilities sector equity research and was selected to Institutional Investors’ All-Asia research team. Eric is a graduate (cum laude) of Duke University and Harvard’s Kennedy School, where he received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow Award, the program’s top honor. In 2014, Eric was named Indian Expat Entrepreneur of the Year by Expat Entrepreneurs Circle, and, in 2016, was awarded the Indira Gandhi Sadbhawana Award for his contributions to the impact investing sector. Eric is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Geeta Goel is a strong champion of equity in opportunity, and ”sustainable impact”, Geeta entered the world of philanthropy and impact investments in 2007 with the India Office of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Over the last several years, she has been part of the Foundation’s leadership team steering large-scale transformation, in the form of learning levels in government school systems, creating pathways to high quality professional degrees and aspirational jobs and improving income levels for micro entrepreneurs.She has served on the Boards of Ujjivan Financial Services, Janalakshmi Financial Services, Micro Housing Finance Corporation, Swadhaar FinServe, Arohan Financial Services, Sonata Finance, Basix Sub-K, etc. She was also the Chairperson of India’s Impact Investors Council from 2017-2019, and have been on several taskforces on Responsible Finance with the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Alleviate Poverty (CGAP).

Himanshu Bansal is a Financial sector strategist, with passion for designing and implementing unconventional solutions to assist partners, clients and their customers. Himanshu brings 19+ years experience across Banking, Financial Inclusion and Financial Services consulting, in 20+ countries across South Asia, Middle East, Africa and S.E. Asia. He has advised and executed complex engagements for the Boards and CXOs of 50+ financial Institutions across strategy, business transformation, Scorecard based instant lending tools, business processes re-engineering, Merger Integration & digital transformation. He has also set up new businesses and practices in consulting & financial inclusion, as well as managed business verticals, regions, products and P&L for Citibank. He is a self starter, sharp and structured, high on creativity & out of box thinking.

Hitesh Sethia currently heads the Transaction Banking Business for ICICI Bank. He is a senior executive in financial services with 20 years’ experience and a successful track record of market development and business growth in Europe, Asia and North America. Hitesh is recognized for leading new strategic initiatives and building high performing teams. He started his career as a Relationship Manager at ICICI Bank in their Corporate Banking Group in 2000. And since then has held different senior positions with ICICI. Hitesh did an Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business School. He is also a Professional Chartered Accountant from ICAI.

Kapil Mehta is the co-founder of SecureNow, an award-winning Insurance Broking firm. He is a Director of the Insurance Broking Association. Kapil is the policyholder representative on the Policyholder Protection Board Sub-Committees of two insurers and on the SME Advisory Board of a leading general insurer. Kapil was formerly the Managing Director of DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd. (DPLI), nominated by Prudential Financial Inc. Prior to joining DPLI, Kapil has worked at Max New York Life, McKinsey & Company and Unilever. He is a member of FICCI’s Health Insurance Committee. He has studied at IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Delhi.

Madhur Mehta is an investment banker who has worked with JPMorgan and Standard Chartered Bank over the last 28 years, raising financing for corporations, financial institutions, governments and government agencies around the world. He has originated and raised financings of circa US$100 billion for entities globally. With close to three decades Madhur knows what it takes to drive strategies to conclusion – be it raising funds, business development or nurturing long lasting relationships. Madhur has worked on sustainable finance projects that involve microfinance, SME’s, women, financial inclusion and education creating innovative strategies for different classes of investors to participate together. His brainchild – a digital project on Sustainable Finance has been a digital challenge winner. He received funding and with a technology team to bring the idea to MVP He has lived and worked in six countries – Singapore, Hong Kong, India, US, Spain, Finland. and is fluent in four languages including English and Spanish. Madhur holds a degree in Master of Commerce from the Sydenham College and an MBA from IESE, Spain

Manoj Kumar Nambiar has over 32 years of working experience and is the currently with the Aavishkaar Group as the Managing Director of Arohan Financial Services Limited – the 6th largest NBFC MFI active in the 11 low income states of central, east & north east part of India. He started his working career with Modi Xerox in 1988 and then moved into consumer financial services with GE Countrywide in 1995, retail banking with ANZ Grindlays in 1997 and retail assets & business development with ABN Amro Bank NV India in 2000. He moved as Head Retail Banking of National Bank of Oman in 2002 looking after Oman, UAE & Egypt. Post that, he worked as the Chief Operating Officer of the Alhamrani – Nissan Finance company, KSA in 2004 and returned to Oman as the Dy CEO of Ahli Bank SAOG in 2008. He returned to India in Jun’10 as MD & CEO of Intellecash Microfinance Network Company (P) Limited (an Intellecap Group company) in the business of incubating & capacity building of MFI’s. In Sep’12, using the parent Intellecap’s structuring skills & backed by Aavishkaar Goodwell, IntelleCash acquired a 56% controlling stake in Arohan. He is a mechanical engineer by graduation from VJTI in 1986, an MBA in Marketing by Post Graduation from JBIMS in 1988, both from Mumbai University and has tertiary qualifications in insurance from III. He completed the “Strategic Leadership in Microfinance” course from the Harvard Business School, Boston, US in Apr’13 & “Strategy meets leadership” course from INSEAD, France in Aug’19. He is a director on the boards of Arohan, Aavishkaar & Tribetech & Vice Chair of the Group Executive Council at Aavishkaar Group. He has been on the governing board of Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN),the microfinance sector Self Regulatory Organisation from 2013. He served as the President of the MFIN in 2015 & 2019 and is also the current Chair of the Governing Board.

Pradeep has over 25 years of global experience, in technology, management consulting and investing/funding. He started in Silicon Valley as a big five management consultant, building software application products. After a stint with technology start-ups, he moved to New York, to be part of an advisory start up led by President Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg. This led to another early stage opportunity to join an organization led by Paul Volcker, focused on the financial sector, academia and government. In his current role, he leads one of the oldest and largest private foundations in the region, deploying capital, supporting visionary people and organizations, to solve societal problems.

Rahul Chandra was one of the earliest tech VCs in India, starting in 1998 as part of the team at Walden International’s India-focused fund. He later moved to Palo Alto, CA to invest in Silicon Valley start-ups. In 2005, he co-founded Helion Ventures and relocated to India. At Helion, he invested more than $100M in 15 companies, a list that includes Equitas (IPO), Spandana (IPO), Shubham Housing, UnitedLex, Toppr, Railyatri, MoEngage and Seclore. Rahul has an undergraduate degree from BITS, Pilani and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is the author of “The Moonshot Game – Adventures of an Indian VC”, a book that captures his experience of investing in India from 2006 to 2016.

Rakesh Malik is currently Chief Representative Officer for Aon – Commercial Risk Business. Aon is awaiting regulatory approvals to re-enter India and Rakesh is working on long term plans for Aon’s success in the burgeoning Indian market. Rakesh was the Chief Executive Officer of Anviti Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd. Anviti is promoted by Catamaran, the proprietary investment firm of Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Limited. Prior to starting up Anviti, Rakesh was the Chief Executive Officer of Aon Risk Services in India that operated as a Joint Venture (Aon Global Insurance Brokers-AGIB). In this role Rakesh led the Risk Management business of Aon. Rakesh’s responsibilities included strategy, operations and all functions of the organization.

Rekha Unnithan is the Co-Head for Impact Investing at Nuveen. Rekha was an early visionary and established the intentional and leadership impact investing platform for TIAA and is responsible for determining Nuveen’s impact investment strategy across sectors, asset classes, and regions. Rekha is responsible for managing impact investments to execute Nuveen’s commitment across thematic areas of Affordable Housing, Inclusive Growth and Resource Efficiency. Prior to joining Nuveen in 2012, she worked for Bank of America, Merrill Lynch as a vice president in Institutional Investment Group. Rekha graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. with a specialization in Financial Instruments and Markets and Social Innovation and Impact from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She holds the CFA designation. Rekha is a board member of Aeris, a non-profit organization that helps investors make and monitor mission investments and serves on the advisory board of the Global Impact Investing Network’s Institutional Investor Initiative. Rekha is also on the Advisory Board of the International Financial Corporation (IFC) Operating Principles of Impact Investing.

Sanjay Phadke brings in 20 years of solid experience in Banking and Financial Services with a focus on structured credit and principal investments. This includes his roles with global leaders like JPMorgan & HSBC and leading financial firms like Edelweiss, ICICI, and IDFC. Sanjay is an Engineer and an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and is an alumnus of Wharton Business School. An avid trekker, Sanjay loves outdoor activities and is passionate about technology.

Santosh Singh leads the energy and climate change practice at Intellecap. He supports clean energy entrepreneurs with knowledge, network, and capital solutions at Intellecap. He has more than 15 years of experience in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) market development with a focus on energy access, climate resilient agriculture and climate finance. Before joining Intellecap, Santosh was working with the World Bank (South Asia Region) where his work focused on developing affordable clean cooking/energy access solutions, and climate finance interventions for various sectors

Suresh Sethi has over three decades of diversified global experience in the financial services industry. He is currently the Managing Director & CEO designate of NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Ltd. In his last role as the Founder CEO & MD of India Post Payments Bank, he is credited with creating the largest inter-operable banking infrastructure for public good at scale. With over 190,000 Postal employees providing Doorstep Banking Services to customers of ANY BANK, India Post Payments Bank has scaled up the rural banking network by almost 2.5 times across India. Prior to India Post Payments Bank, he has worked with some of the world’s and India’s leading financial services companies such as Citigroup, YES Bank and Vodafone M-Pesa across India, Kenya, UK, Argentina and US. He has held senior CXO and Managing Director level positions at Regional & Global levels across Business Strategy, Product Development, Sales & Client Management and Operations.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay is a columnist, an author and an adviser to a bank. He is known for his weekly column on banking and finance, Banker’s Trust, now published in Business Standard. He has authored four books — namely From Lehman to Demonetization: A Decade of Disruptions, Reforms and Misadventures, Bandhan: The Making of a Bank, Sahara: The Untold Story and A Bank for the Buck. All four books have been non-fiction best sellers. Incidentally, he had to fight a Rs200 crore defamation suit that the Sahara group had slapped on him to stop the publication of the book on shadow banking in India. A student of English Literature (a postgraduate from the University of Calcutta), Bandyopadhyay began his career in journalism as a trainee journalist with The Times of India, in Mumbai in 1985. Subsequently, he has worked with four national financial dailies: The Economic Times, Financial Express and Mint, beside Business Standard. The Banker’s Trust column started in February 2007 in the second edition of Mint, an Indian business daily brought out by HT Media Ltd. Bandyopadhyay, a key member of the founding team of the paper, was its Deputy Managing Editor till July 2014 when he gave up his executive role and became a Consulting Editor.

Vipul Sharma has over 18 years of industry experience with specialised expertise in product, portfolio, and business development. In the past, he has worked with renowned BFSI institutions including IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank, and ICICI Prudential Life. He has also worked with BankBazaar as their Vice President for sales. Vipul is an MBA in FInance & Marketing from International Management Institute (IMI). He is very passionate about customer experience and the interplay of technology and people in helping achieve customer delight.

Vishakha Mulye is an Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank since January 2016. Ms. Mulye, a Chartered Accountant, has been with the ICICI Group since 1993. She is responsible for domestic and international Wholesale Banking Group, Proprietary Trading Group, Markets Group and Transaction Banking Group at the Bank. Ms. Mulye chairs the Board of ICICI Bank Canada. She is also on the Board of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited. Vishakha is a member of Aspen Institute’s ‘India Leadership Initiative’. She was selected as ‘Young Global Leader’ in 2007 by the World Economic Forum. She received the ‘India CFO Award’ in 2006 from IMA India for ‘Excellence in Finance in a Large Corporate’ and ‘CA Corporate Leader Award’ in 2008 from the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In 2012, she received the ‘GR8! Women Awards’ from the Indian Television Academy for her contribution as an ‘Eminent Personality in the field of Banking’. In 2019, she was felicitated at News 18 Lokmat’s award ceremony ‘Mukta Sanman’ for her work in the field of Business and Finance. Ms. Mulye has featured in several power lists such as the ‘Most Powerful Women’ in Indian Business’ by Business Today and ‘Most Powerful Women’ by Fortune India. She was also inducted into Business Today’s ’Hall of Fame’ after being featured seven times in a row in its power list.

Deepali Khanna is the Managing Director of the Asia Regional Office of the Rockefeller Foundation overseeing the foundation’s policy, advocacy, grant-making, and strategic partnerships in Asia. She previously managed Smart Power for Rural Development,Foundation’s flagship initiative in India,Myanmar and Africa. Deepali comes with over three decades of experience, across Asia, Africa and North America, leading social impact and initiatives for organizations like The MasterCard Foundation,Plan International and UNICEF.

Kanta Singh is a social development professional working on gender issues for past 23 years. Starting as a trainer, I moved on to manage large programmes. I have worked closely with the parliamentarians, judiciary as well as administrators with  a view to influence them to legislate, budget and implement Acts, schemes and programmes with a gender perspective. I strongly believe that India can develop faster if women and girls are provided equal opportunities.

Reema Nanavaty has been working with the Self Employed Women’s Association since 1984 and stayed on to be elected as the General Secretary in 1999, expanded membership to new heights making SEWA the single largest union of informal sector workers. She negotiated the first ever IFAD loan to rebuild lives and livelihoods of 60000 earthquake affected rural women and is running post conflict economic reconstruction for 40000 members affected by 2002 riots; Reema is leading rehabilitation programme in Afghanistan and in Srilanka; providing vocational training in agro and rural livelihood security and heads the ICT cell to connect information technological with the farm women. Reema is expanding the activities of Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) making women’s voice and contribution central to world trade decisions. Currently she is replicating the Trade Facilitation Centre model in all the SAARC countries building social enterprises of Homebased women workers.   Reema initiated the food security programme covering one million households through its rural distribution network, named RUDI, where women farmers and labour trade their agro-produce with each other. Reema is spearheading the Hariyali–Green Energy and Livelihoods Initiative to provide 2,00,000 mostly farm women access renewable energy tools of cookstoves and solar lights. Reema oversees 3200 self help groups (SHG), 110 co-operatives and 15 federations totaling 428,281 members, Nationally including Kashmir, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar. Reema focuses on women’s economic empowerment by building women owned enterprises – Co-operatives, Companies, Federations. Building women led supply chain in Energy, Agribusiness, Food Processing, Waste recycling, Textile and garmenting. Reema was awarded Padmashri on 26^th January 2013.

Sairee Chahal is the Founder, CEO of SHEROES – a community platform for women, offering support, resources, opportunities and interactions via Sheroes.com and the SHEROES App. Sairee is credited with building up women at work and future-of-work conversations in India, besides building a strong technology play to solve the problems of gender disparity in India.A technology entrepreneur, Sairee has straddled the best of both worlds in her ventures Newslink, Fleximoms and now SHEROES. Her community-meets-deep technology approach has made SHEROES a globally formidable platform, changing the game for women and their aspirations. Over a million women have been directly benefited, and under Sairee’s leadership, SHEROES aims to impact over 100 million women in the next five years.An Aspen Leadership Fellow, Sairee is also the convener of The  SHEROES Summit – India’s largest women’s forum. With an M.Phil from JNU, and a PGDBM from IMT Ghaziabad, Sairee kickstarted her professional career while still in college before cofounding her first startup. She went on to also work at corporates like Heidrick and Struggles and CII. Recognized for her achievements globally, Sairee is a Devi Award winner, apart from the Femina Achievers Award, Cartier Award, Editor’s choice for L’Oreal Femina Women’s Award, Business Today and Most Powerful Women in Indian Business. In 2018, she was ranked 53 on Onalytica’s “Future of Work Top 100 Influencers” list.

Suchitra Marwah is Director-Leadership Programs at Aspire Impact, with the mission to provide values-and-ethics based leadership training to middle & senior school students. After a decade with American Express, Bank of America and ABN Amro Bank, she started her Impact journey with a year at London-headquartered GSG (The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment) through 2019. In July 2020, Suchitra became a Trustee of Aspire Circle, a pre-eminent non-profit which enhances social leadership capabilities through Fellowships and offers Scholarships.

Suchitra has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, an MBA in Marketing, and, an Environment Management certificate from Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge (MA, USA).

Anant Maheshwari is President, Microsoft India. Anant leads Microsoft’s engagement with policy makers, customers, and business partners and is responsible for all product, solution, service and support offerings in India. At Microsoft, Anant works to make the company’s mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, align with India’s inclusive growth agenda. He is committed to supporting government entities and organizations in India progress on their journey of digital transformation.

Ravi Kant has played significant role as CEO/Vice Chairman in making TATA MOTORS (TML) an admired and successful Indian multinational company. He has chaired and held seats on several Tata company boards. Currently he sits on the boards of Vedanta Ltd and Kone, Helsinki, as well as US-based non-profit organizations Enactus and Wonder Work. The Chairman of IIM Rohtak, he is on the advisory board of IIT Kharagpur and IIT  Mumbai as well as on the boards of the NID, and CGIO od the Business School at National University of Singapore.  He has chaired the Advertising Standards Council of India, the Audit Bureau of Circulation and the Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers.

Mr. Praveer Sinha has over three decades of experience in the power sector and has been credited with transforming the power distribution sector and development and setting up of greenfield and brownfield power plants in India and abroad.

Mr. Sinha holds a Master’s Degree in Business Law from National Law School, Bengaluru and is also professionally trained as an Electrical Engineer. He is also a member of the Faculty Board at Faculty of Management Studies and a member of Board of Governors at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. He is a Research Scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and is also a visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA.  Before his appointment in Tata Power, Mr. Sinha was the CEO & Managing Director of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL). Tata Power-DDL is a Public Private Partnership (Joint Venture) between the Company and Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, supplying power to over seven million people in North and North-West Delhi.

Kartik leads the investment, ecosystem and policy activities at Asha Impact. He has led investments into eight social enterprises and helped build out the ecosystem and policy activities of the trust. Prior to joining Asha Impact, Kartik has over a decade of experience in venture capital, social entrepreneurship, investment banking and international development. He has worked with two of the largest impact investment funds in India, Lok Capital and Aavishkaar, as well as set up his own social venture, What’s up Bharat. Prior to this he worked for three years with Merrill Lynch in the investment banking team executing IPO, M&A and private equity transactions. He has done consulting engagements for organisations including the BTS Group, the UNDP and the Rockefeller Foundation. Kartik graduated from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and from Columbia University with a Master in International Affairs.

Vineet is the Founder and Managing Director of Aavishkaar and Co-founder & Chairman of the Intellecap Group of companies. In a career spanning across two decades, Vineet’s areas of interest include early-stage venture capital, microenterprises, microfinance investments, incubations and social investment advisory. Vineet chairs the Board of Villgro, an incubating and funding platform, and IntelleGrow, an Intellecap subsidiary, which provides venture debt services to impact enterprises. He also serves on the Board of WISH Foundation and has recently been appointed as an advisor to the Tibetan Entrepreneurship Development Initiative.

Vineet was invited by the G8 Task Force on Impact Investing in 2014 to serve on its International Development Working Group. Vineet has received numerous awards including the G-20 SME Finance Award in South Korea, UNDP-IBLF World Business Award in New York and Lemelson Award for Innovation in Finance at IIT Madras in relation to his work at Aavishkaar. He was awarded Ashoka Fellowship and Honorary Membership of XLRI Alumni Association in recognition of his contribution to Impact investing space.