Speaker Bio:  

Ian Faria
Success Coach and Corporate Trainer, .
A staunch advocate of Human Potential and Development, Ian is one of the best motivators in the country and one of the leading soft skills trainers.His book The Power of Networking is much awaited to hit the stands. Ian is an honorary recipient of The Presidential Citation for the Hall Of Fame (2006) by Toastmasters International and founder - chief mentor of the Game Changer Forum, Ian has experience close to 25 years in mentoring and guiding corporates. Ian writes for Times of India, Business Gyan, Vijay Times, Deccan Herald, Confetti and has completed more than 450 articles for leading newspapers and magazines.
Deepinder Kapany
EVP and Head- Beanstalk and Distribution business, Mahindra Retail
Deepinder Kapany is a BE with a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management. His professional experience spans over 28 years with diverse organisations like Vanilla Music Llc., Dubai, Saregama India Ltd, The Standard Batteries Ltd and Dunlop India Ltd. Prior to joining Mahindra Retail, Deepinder was working as Vice President & Head- Books, Entertainment and E Commerce biz with Reliance Retail. He spearheaded Reliance Retail foray into specialty retail of Books, Music, Toys and Stationery leisure stores Reliance TimeOut since 2006 as Business Head- Reliance TimeOut.
Aloke Totlani
Vice President - Business Development & Franchisee, Daily Bread
Aloke Totlani was heading the Business Development portfolio with Brand Kaati Zone prior to joining Daily Bread. Previous to that, Totlani was a Specialist in the Target Group Management Dept - HORECA at Metro Cash and Carry, where he was responsible for the department which comprised of hotels, restaurants and catering sectors. He looked after strategizing, analyzing and managing key accounts. Prior to that he was the Assistant Vice President-Franchising & Business Development Pan India at Global Franchise Architects for four years. At GFA, he was responsible for expansion and growth of the company’s brands across India. He was also recognized & awarded by M/s Franchise India Holdings as the Best Franchise Manager for the year 2007. He has more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant Industry and has expertise in F&B Management, Operations & Franchising.
Parag Dani
Director - Retail & Brand Presentation, Levi Strauss
An engineer-turned-marketing professional from JBIMS, Mumbai, Parag Dani began his career with the apparel industry, at Madura garments, working in varied fields like sales, exports and brand management. Making the switch to retail thereafter with Blow Plast and Reliance Retail, Parag came onboard Levi Strauss India Pvt in Dec 2009 In his role as the Retail Director for the Levi’s® brand, Parag is responsible for creating retail competencies, comprising of designing retail strategies and making the brand come alive, for a ‘WOW’ customer experience. He has principal accountability for ensuring Retail excellence & Leadership for the controlled retail channel. He provides thought leadership for retail strategy and sets performance standards for execution.
Chandra Gopalan
Director & Master Franchisor, Countor International
Chandra is the master franchisor for a U.S based international chain of Women only fitness studios called Contours Express. Branded as Contours in India, she now oversees 7 gyms across the country. Chandra aims to spread this new wave in Women’s Fitness through a minimum of 100 gyms in India in the next 5-7 years. Chandra is a fitness enthusiast. Having worked out in various gyms over a span of 15 years, she decided to change from being an airline professional to a Gym owner & franchisor for Contours in India. She is a veteran marathon runner. She has participated in 24 marathons & Ultra marathons. She has won several gold medals in her age category. She holds a Fitness certification by Contours Express LLC International University
Manish Sharma
CEO, Printo
Manish is a retail entrepreneur with a grounding in technology and experience with building high technology businesses. He has around 18 years of experience. He has also worked with Pipal Software Solutions, New Economy Venture Group, DBS Internet Services, Rediff.com.
Rijoy Prabhakar
Head- Business Development & Franchise - South, Baskin Robbins
Currently, Rijoy is Business & Franchise Head for south at Baskin Robbins. At BR, he handles operations of more than 140 franchised stores across South India. Prior to joining BR, he was Operations Head at Global Franchisee Architect, where his primary role was to build, Operate and Franchise multiple specialty food retail brands. He was also associated with Taj Group of Hotels for almost a decade. He brings in overall 20 years of industry experience.
Vittal Bhandary
Founder and Managing Director, Little Elly
Vittal is the visionary lead for the organization. His entire working life has been centered on child development. In the last twenty five years he has been leading multiple initiatives in bringing learning and development to the young citizens. He has led businesses in children publications, learning aids, pedagogy support, early schooling and daycare. Since the turn of the century Vittal has focused on Preschool and childcare, bringing the best of the world to the Little Elly environment. His journey began by setting up successful preschool and childcare environments in the Middle East. Subsequently in 2004 Vittal relocated to India and set up the Little Elly preschool environment followed by Elly Childcare. His vision is the driving force for whole group
Akbar Khwaja
Managing Director, U.S. Pizza
Akbar has owned and managed a chain of restaurants, pubs & bars in his experience of 25 years in F&B business. He is with U.S. Pizza from 1995 and instrumental for expanding U.S.Pizza to the present strength. Specialised in franchising and network development for brands, he currently spearheads the company’s initiatives to develop more brands in the food segment in the country. Consulting with Retail Chains to design their franchise offering and build their logistics network. He has studied Engineering and earned a Masters Business Management.
Ranjan Kumar Dodda
CEO, Hyderabad House
Ranjan has an overall 13 years of industry experience. He is known for his excellence in managing diverse operations encompassing new unit set up, turnaround management & growth, supervising operations for units including F&B, banquets and restaurants to ensure high quality of operating standards. Previously, he was Vice President- Group Brands for business development at Hyderabad House. Ranjan has initiated new avenues in Food and Beverage Department, such as Drive-Inn Services, Theme Parties and Corporate take away.
Piyush Deogirikar
COO, Mother Earth Retail
Piyush, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore & NIFT, currently engaged with Mother Earth as Chief Operating Officer. He has a wealth of retail experience in organized Retail and Branded Garments industry across various categories such as apparels, organic food, toys, home (furniture, home linen, and natural fiber) and other lifestyle products. He has knowledge of critical business drivers in multiple markets such as Middle East, South Korea & India. He has acquired his competency working at various senior management roles with Landmark Retail (Dubai), S. Kumars group and other retail Organizations.
Preethi Vikram
Master Franchise, Podar Jumbo Kids
Mrs. Preethi Vikram has a degree in psychology and a masters degree in business administration, specializing in HR and Marketing. She is the Head of Bangalore Chapter, Early Childhood Association. She has been in the field of Early Childhood education for the past 7 years and has gained insight into the various aspects of teaching at different Podar institutions including preschool and daycare. She is also a comprehensive member for N.A.E.Y.C for last three years.She has been instrumental in managing and upholding the evidence of quality of Podar educational institutions through her training sessions. Her vision is to make learning experiences holistic by merging pedagogical understanding with practitioners insight. She is not only the Master Franchise for Podar, but also prides herself in running a successful franchise center. Her current focus is on creating a sense of shared mission, vision, and strategy in an organization characterized by empire building within various departments
Lalit Jain
Business Head - Karnataka, Spencer's Retail
Lalit has 12 years of work experience handling FMCG, Telecom and Retail. Its been 5 years with Spencer’s where he has been involved in setting up new region managing Operations, Business Development, Merchandising, Inventory, Store Operations as well as Commercial and supply chain. Have been part of Spencer’s core team over the years that has seen this organization moving strength to strength and handled North, West and South businesses. Prior to this he has also worked for Nokia India and PepsiCo for close to 7 years between the two, handling sales and training for different parts of West and North India. He is post graduate in Business Economics.
Rafi Ahmed
Manager-Business Development, IIHT
Rafi Ahmed is a thoroughbred professional, who believes in making things happen. He states that there is no substitute to performance. He is a natural leader, an out of box thinker, and an achiever. Sales and Marketing are his core area of expertise. He believes that nothing in the World is static, continuous improvement to adapt to the ever changing/dynamic environment is the only way forward. He describes himself as a knowledge seeker, as inquisitive as a child. He seeks challenges, as they bring out the best in an Individual. Having an intuitive ability to understand people, Sales and Marketing comes naturally to him.
Dr. G S Kochar
Head - Franchise Development and Operations, VLCC Healthcare
Kochar is having over two decades of experience in International Business Development, Business Management, Sales & Marketing Management and Operations Management. And he worked for various organization like Healthcare & Wellness Services, Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics and Vocational Education with various geographic location like India, srilanka, middle east. He has proficiency in Franchise Development, Franchise Operations Management, Business Development – Domestic & Overseas Markets, Business Management with EBIDTA and PAT responsibility, Operations Management in Services Sector – across multiple outlets in b2c activity and Strategic Business Planning for start-up business
Sreeram
Regional Manager, Kidzee
Sreeram Ramakrishnan is the Regional Marketing Manager for Kidzee, Karnataka. He is responsible for the Marketing & Relationship Management of over 65 Kidzee franchises in Karnataka. An MBA in Marketing from IMT Nagpur, he was previously working with UST Global.
Mujahid Mohamed
Director, Jetking InfoTrain
Mujahid is a businessman, one of the Founders of MIMS Group of Companies an IT Services, Consulting & Real Estate Company based in Bangalore. Mujahid, Graduated with a Degree in Electronic & Communication Engineering. Also trained in TQM on Philip Crossby Model & “ Creative Training Techniques” from Bob Pike. Spanning a fine career of 20 years, Mr. Mujahid has setup the first Jetking Learning Centre in South India at Sadashivnagar, Bangalore and Shivajinagar in the year 1993-94 ansd 1999 respectively. Today the centre from TWO labs has developed into a Full Fledged campus with 24, State of the Art labs and High class Infrastructure. He is also instrumental in training more than 40 Thousand Students successfully in Networking & Hardware by using a Unique Teaching Methodology known as “SMARTLAB+”. . It is his idea which helped in tying up with Corporates and MNC’s to place these students in the organizations as Network and Hardware engineers. By this associations, we have been successful in developing and providing Trained Man Power to IT and other Industries. He has also been associated with Bharti Internet Ltd and Bharti Mobile Ltd with businesses related to Internet Servise and Telecom business in retail franchise. Mr. Mujahid is a Strong believer of Innovation and Execution. Innovation fuels PASSION & Passion makes 100% Execution. This Mantra has practically implemented and executed by all the TEAM members for consistent performance which made the centres remain as the TOP 10 centres in India. He himself is passionate about training and has trained the Trainers on “ CREATIVE TRANING TECHNIQUES” AND “ INNOVATIVE SALES TECHNIQUES, specializing in Retail Sales.
Amit Nahar
Founder & CEO, Sparkleminds
Amit over the last 14 years has unparalleled, most diverse, experience in franchising companies from education to entertainment, retail to restaurants, cleaning services to manufacturing, construction to beauty, and a plethora of different product and service companies. With a 360 degree insight into franchising in India and globally, is a sought after consultant, writer, blogger, tweeter, speaker and a recognized authority on franchising.As the Vice President of Franchising Association of India, he is actively involved in the growth and development of franchising in India and representing the industry at large with the government and international expositions, while taking Indian brands International on the one end and bringing global brands into India on the other
Ajay Mohan
Founder, 24x7waiter.com
The passion & business of Ajay, involves working with businesses, especially Restaurants & QSRs, to grow sales by offering platform & services in e-commerce, online & social media marketing through 24x7waiter.com & dParv Technosoft. An IITK engineer with an MBA, Ajay became a first gen entrepreneur after 20+ years in management roles cutting across marketing, channel & partner management, biz/sales development with global leaders like Wipro, SAP and lastly launching & managing Borland India operations as Country Manager- India before founding dParv Technosoft & 24x7waiter to offer solutions to Restaurants, QSRs and SMEs. Ajay is currently focused on f-Commerce, loyalty solutions & biz apps for Facebook that, he believes, is a serious and cannot ignore opportunity to "showcase - engage - sell" to fans, for all businesses, specially Pizza Franchisors, Restaurants, F&B Brands & QSR operators.
Rajeev Bopaiah
Co Founder & Director, Estee Clair Esthetique Solutions
Rajeev Bopaiah is the co-founder and director of Estee Clair Esthetique Solutions. prior to founding Esteeclair, he was associated with R & R salons and Future Group. He brings in a decade of experience in Franchise Business. He is also the distinguished committee member of India Franchise Association.
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