Speaker Bio:  

Sridhar Vembu
CEO, Zoho Corp
Sridhar Vembu is the CEO of Zoho Corp. (formerly AdventNet Inc.), the company behind the Zoho suite of online applications. He co-founded AdventNet in 1996, and has been CEO since 2000. AdventNet has transformed itself from a modest beginning as a software company serving network equipment vendors to a be an innovative online applications provider. It has maintained growth and profitability, without needing outside capital. Prior to AdventNet, Sridhar worked as a wireless systems engineer at Qualcomm, Inc. where he was fortunate to work with some of the leading minds in wireless communications. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.
Gopal Srinivasan
Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds
Gopal is the founder and a Chairman of TVS-Electronics, Director of Sundaram-Clayton Ltd, and several other TVS Group businesses. Gopal has incubated over eight businesses, and has over twenty five years of operational experience in India, along with a wide network of relationships across the world. Gopal has been serving as the Board member of several Indian companies further, he was the Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu State Council for the fiscal year 2007-08. . He chaired the "India@75" Mission (www.indiaat75.in) during 2008-09 and is currently chairing CII National Committee for Private Equity &Venture Capital. He is also the Chairman for India-Taiwan task force at CII National Council. He has served as the President of Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) for the fiscal year ‘95-96. Gopal earned a B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai and an MBA from University of Michigan, USA. Over the course of his career, Gopal has founded several companies operating in diverse sectors including computer peripherals, technology, financial services, and auto components. Many of these businesses started by Gopal are operational today, and a professional management team is in place to run these businesses. TVS Electronics, a company he established in 1986 has revenue of about Rs.191 crores in 2008-09. The company provides transaction automation products and has market leadership position in the dot-matrix printer segment. Another business that Gopal started, Harita Seating, is in the business of manufacturing and supplying vehicle seats and has sales of Rs.198 crores in 2008-09. Other companies that Gopal has founded and are currently operational include TVS Finance & Services, Harita Plastics, TVS-E Technology, TVS-E Servicetec and Harita Techserv. In addition, Gopal has successfully exited several businesses including TVS Whirlpool, TVS Contract Manufacturing, Harita Networks
Venkatesh Peddi
Assistant Vice President, IDG Ventures India
Venkatesh has over 9 years of industry experience including over 3 years of venture investing experience. Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management - the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. Venkatesh was involved in executing multiple end-to-end investments and was a board member at Gradatim IT Ventures and a board observer at Suvidhaa Infoserve and Pelago Inc. Venkatesh was earlier an Account Manager in Investment Banking division of Adventity, a leading KPO player, where he advised deal teams of leading investment banks at various deal stages. Venkatesh later moved to Adventity Inc., New York, to take up roles involving close client interaction, while being promoted on a fast track basis from an Analyst to Manager within 10 months. Prior to Adventity, as Assistant Manager at Blue Star Infotech, Venkatesh helped in structuring deals and M&A activities of the firm. Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA institute, USA and holds a Bachelors degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), where he was consistently among the top 10 candidates registered for the program.
Rama Bethmangalkar
Principal , Ventureast
Rama joined Ventureast, a leading early stage venture capital firm in 2007. He has since then worked closely with portfolio companies in Media, E-commerce, Rural Banking, Renewable Energy and Semiconductors. Prior to joining Ventureast, Rama spent seven years with Sun Microsystems in California, where he played varied roles in its Systems Management and Computer Systems groups, including leadership roles in the marketing, product management, and engineering functions. Rama holds two US patents for his research in the area of high availability systems. Even as a student-researcher during his Masters program, his penchant for entrepreneurial endeavor led him to be involved briefly with an IT start-up company in California. Rama has an MBA from Cornell University, Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, and Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Mysore.
Kannan Lakshminarayan
Founder & CTO , Vortex
Kannan has a track-record of successful development and commercialisation of customized solutions in the domain of electro-mechanical engineering, particularly for contexts that are price-sensitive and demand high reliability. He engages widely with grass-root level organizations and NGOs working with rural poor on sustainable solutions that improve quality of life, from whom he draws inspiration for pioneering new solutions that hold the promise of scalable impact. He has also mentored several innovations under Fractal Foundation, two of which are patent pending. He contributed a key engineering solution for a community health initiative that was recognised at All India Ophthalmological Society Congress. He is associated with initiatives like Villgro and NEN that promote and mentor entrepreneurs.
Rahul Chowdhri
Director, Helion
Rahul has 13 years of experience in venture investing, strategy consulting, business planning and product management. Rahul has been with Helion since 2007. He serves on the board of YLG and helps manage investments in Hoopos, Global Talent Track and Vienova. Prior to joining Helion, Rahul was a Group Program Manager at Microsoft. Between 2005 and early 2007, Rahul led the Microsoft Dynamics product planning and Office Live program management team. At Microsoft, Rahul also helped develop business strategy to build a web and mobile based business targeted towards Indian small businesses. Prior to this, Rahul was an Associate Director at marketRx Inc., where he was involved in business planning, running operations as well as managing the market research product. Before joining marketRx, Rahul was a Senior Product Manager at i2 Technologies in Dallas. Between 1998 and late 2000, Rahul was a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group in India. Rahul holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a B. Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Kalpathi S. Suresh
Chairman & CEO, Kalpathi Investments
Kalpathi S. Suresh is the Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Kalpathi Investments Private Limited, an investment firm established by the Kalpathi family in 2007. At Kalpathi Investments, Suresh leads a team of seasoned professionals and aims at fostering innovation driven endeavors in industries and markets that takes advantage of growing globalization. Suresh had founded SSI Limited in the year 1991 along with his two brothers and was the Chairman & CEO of SSI until he ceded management control of the company in December 2007. He had been instrumental in growing the company from an IT training provider in Chennai to a global provider of education, consulting and software services. He was closely involved in all strategic initiatives at SSI. Suresh is a member of the Chennai Chapter of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and was a finalist at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for India in 1999. Suresh has a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, and a Master’s from Clemson University, South Carolina. He has previously worked with Siemens and HCL. He has over 20 years of experience in the Information Technology Industry. Suresh is a fitness enthusiast and a marathon runner.
Kailash Katkar
Founder, MD and CEO , Quick Heal Technologies
Kailash Katkar is the founder, MD and CEO of Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Born into a Maharashtrian Family in small village at Rahimatpur, Maharashtra on 01st November 1966. He spent his childhood in Pune. He is precocious and highly intelligent. He is also highly impatient of the oppressive grinding mill of the school classroom. He choose work which used his technical expertise to the maximum rather than formal school lessons. So he started repairing of Radios, TVs, and VCRs etc. Then he worked in Data Star Electronics as a Maintenance Engineer for ledger posting machines at various banks in Pune. In the year 1991 he took over this business & later diversified into AMCs of Computer maintenance & hardware peripherals company as CAT Computers Service. In the year 1994 his younger brother, Sanjay joined his business & they added a new dimension by developing solutions for Virus attacks in computers. This gave birth to a product "Quick Heal", which led to series of successes & inventions in the field of security & Anti virus. During this period he diverted from AMCs to Software Product sales (Quick Heal) & focused on creating awareness in domestic market. Mr. Katkar is innovative, creative & he is a step ahead in exploring new business opportunities. He continued expanding from Pune to different cities across India. As a founder of Quick Heal Technologies, is responsible for facilitating overall business & also setting up company’s strategic vision & mission. Now Quick Heal is acknowledged brand in Software security & anti virus domain. Today Quick Heal is No.1 Antivirus in the Indian Anti Virus Market & has presence in more than 50 countries globally.
Amit Patni
Co-Founder & Chairman, Nirvana Venture Advisors
Amit is Co-founder & Chairman at Nirvana Venture Advisors and is a promoter shareholder of Patni Computers. Patni Computers Ltd. was a pioneer in Indian ITES. The promoter family stake in Patni Computers was divested in May 2011 in a sale to iGate Corporation at value of $1.5 billion. Amit has 22 years’ experience in technology, software and projects. He has extensive experience in the computer hardware and components market in India and overseas. In his various roles, Amit has independently ensured implementation of Greenfield projects and launched new business operations. As a Whole time Director of PCS Technologies Ltd., a listed Indian company in the computer hardware and manufacturing space, Amit was responsible for setting-up the copper clad laminates business. Subsequently he was Managing Director of PCS International Pvt. Ltd. with the responsibility of expanding PCS Technologies hardware business in UAE and Africa. Thereafter, Amit developed Health Management Systems, a healthcare software product that was marketed by PCS Technologies Ltd. Amit is a Director of the Board of Patni Financial Advisors the family office of the Patni Family. Amit has done his BS in Accounting and Masters from Babson College, USA.
L. Ravichandran
CEO, Chennaionline
Ravi Chandran is metallurgist by qualification and training from IIT Madras. After a very brief stint with a leading company joined a friend to run a small unit Brokeout about 20 years ago to set up my own company, Heat tech Industries - a small unit for heat treatment of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys. In 1997, started a company to launch www.chennaionline.com . One of the popular Indian sites, today operations are profitable and the company is poised to take off. Wearing many hats and I love it. Happy and proud to be running 2 successful businesses that are poles apart. Both Heat Tech and Chennaionline are profit making companies.
Adhil Shetty
Founder & CEO, BankBazaar.com
Prior to BankBazaar.com, Adhil lived in New York City and managed Deloitte Touche Tomahatsu&rsquot;s US East alliances with the world&rsquot;s leading Information Management Company. Earlier in his career, Adhil worked with Cisco Systems as an engineer in Bangalore and San Jose. Adhil has a Masters degree in International Relations with a specialization in International Finance and Business from Columbia University in the City of New York, and a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University.
Murugavel Janakiraman
Founder & CEO, Consim
Murugavel Janakiraman firmly believes that the Internet’s power lies in its enormous flexibility and reach. He decided to leverage this power to provide a life-changing service and launched BharatMatrimony.com in 1997. What started off with a member base of 4000 is today making waves as the No. 1 Matrimonial Brand with over 20 million members worldwide. The company has been recognized by Limca Book of Records for record number of documented marriages online. A Master’s Degree Holder in Computer Science from the University of Madras, Murugavel, started his career at the Chennai-based Nucleus Software and moved on to work as a consultant in the U.S for leading companies where he acquired valuable insights on Internet technologies. Murugavel has been honored by the Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 5 Asian Indian Businessmen in the United States (US) below the age of 35. He was also honored by the India Today Group as the “Business Icon of the Year” and “Udhyog Rattan” Award by Institute of Economic Studies. Gifted with an entrepreneurial mind & innovative business sense, Murugavel currently heads the Consim Group as Chief Executive Officer, with the portfolio comprising of BharatMatrimony, PrivilegeMatrimony, CommunityMatrimony.com, EliteMatrimony.com, IndiaProperty.com, ClickJobs.com, IndiaAutomobile.com, and IndiaList.com. His vision to give back to the society through the Internet also spurred him to launch non-profit CSR initiatives like BharatBloodBank.com, BharatEyeBank.com and AbilityMatrimony.com.
Rohit Pande
CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems
Rohit is the CEO and co- founder of Classteacher Learning Systems which was established in 2000. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, he then pursued management studies at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) , Calcutta. He came to India in 1999, after serving in London as a consultant in Accenture. Thereafter, he worked in ICICI for some time and then moved on to materialize his dream of establishing his own entrepreneurship venture- Classteacher Learning Systems. Under the guidance of Rohit Pande, Classteacher Learning Systems has become one of the prominent leaders in e-education in India. He believes that society needs to debate the evolution of schools in today’s times and to empower teachers to drive change in classrooms. In a journey of over 12 years, Rohit has been inspired by a vision to transform school education through technology. He speaks on the pressing issues of education in various national and international conferences. He believes that we are entering a very exciting period as one tries to solve some of the fundamental problems of education – of access, equity, measurement and personalization. Rohit has been involved in the design of multiple teaching and learning paradigms including immersive language learning, inquiry based Science Program, simulations for the classroom, and personalized learning paths. Most recently he is involved in conceptualizing the Classpad – A new generation tablet for personalized, interactive learning and teaching.
Jayabalan Subramanian
CTO & Co-founder, Netmagic Solutions
Jayabalan is recognized in the Industry as an expert on Networking solutions and has consulted with leading organizations, including BAFL, BPL, Bharti, Worldtel, and Hathway Internet, among others. He has been instrumental in setting up large private and public Voice/Data networks during his association with Indchem and Calisys. Jayabalan is an expert on design and configuration of Frame-Relay, ATM and MPLS networks and Advanced Internet Routing. Jayabalan has over 18 years of IT and Communications industry experience. He holds an Engineering Degree in Electronics and Communication from Bharthidasan University in Tiruchirapalli.
Prashant Jain
Director, CtrlS Datacenters
Prashant is a DAGSI scholar with a Masters in communication from Wright state university, OHIO, USA. As an entrepreneur of over 14 years experience in the web and ecommerce industry, he has run web hosting companies like India Domain, which was later acquired by Asia online. He has also started several ecommerce companies like Hyderabad bazaar, Chennai bazaar etc. He has at various point times successfully run an online city portal, a web development company and several ecommerce stores. Currently Prashant is in charge of all online related activities of CtrlS including branding, marketing, online sales & ecommerce, web strategy and online operations. Prashant aims to see CtrlS as the leading online service provider of Datacenter services and solutions.
C.R. Chandrasekar
CEO, FundsIndia
Chandrasekar started his career at Microstrategy, the leading data mining and analytics firm in USA, and moved on to work for Morgan Stanley, and CIBC before starting his own retirement solutions company called ExpertPlan. This company is now the number one online third-party administrator of retirement solutions in USA. He returned to India in 2003 and started an off-shore software solutions firm, Arrowpoint Technologies, which specializes in financial applications for clients across the globe.Chandrasekar received his Masters degree in Computer Science at Virginia Tech university in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Mukund Mohan
Founder, Vangal
Mukund Mohan is the founder of Vangal, a customer segmentation software company. He founded and sold BuzzGain, a leader in Do It Yourself PR, to Meltwater in January 2010. He has founded and successfully sold 3 Silicon Valley startups in the Internet & Enterprise software markets. Mukund has held executive and management roles in Hewlett Packard (Mercury), Inovis, Ariba and Cisco Systems. He studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County pursuing a Master&rsquot;s degree in Computer Science and holds a Bachelor&rsquot;s degree in engineering and computer science from the University of Mysore in India.
Sam Mehta
CEO, Everonn Medical Education
Sam Mehta is the Founding CEO of Everonn Medical Education, a subsidiary of Everonn Education Limited and Director of Dr Mehta Hospitals including Mehta Children’s Hospitals. He is a founding director of Atlas Advisory, a boutique business accelerator and Atlas Venturez, a family office investment vehicle. Sam has served as an advisor, board and committee member to number of funds, associations and enterprises. Sam has over 15 years in management consulting, business development, finance, strategy, operations and project management with McKinsey & Company, Shell, other multi-nationals and family businesses across Europe, Latin and North America. Sam has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, a Masters in Engineering Management and a Masters and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. Sam is a Chartered Chemical Engineer, a Chartered Scientist and a Sainsbury Management Fellow (SMF) with the Royal Academy of Engineering.