Speaker Bio:  

Arundhati Raja
Actress and Art Director, Jagriti
Arundhati is currently the artistic director of Jagriti, a performing arts center. Arundhati has been on the Bangalore stage since 1977. She has become one of the most prominent faces on the English stage. But she began by teaching French, biology and drama and one day in 1982, found herself establishing the Artistes’ Repertory Theatre (ART). Today, ART, with its rich 30-year history in English language theatre, has morphed into the resident performing company of Jagriti and as its Artistic Director, Arundhati. Arundhati, is a versatile actor and has been part of 30 productions. She has done her education from The University of Birmingham and Hull College of Technology.
Meena Ganesh
CEO and MD, Edurite Technologies(Pearson Group)
Meena Ganesh over the last 25 years has been involved in greenfield start-ups and top corporate organizations in leadership roles. Currently she is the CEO and MD of Pearson Education Services. Prior to this, Meena was the CEO of Tesco’s operations in India.She was on the Global Retail Council of Tesco, an elite group of about 50 people who run the operations of Tesco worldwide. Before coming on board Tesco‚ Meena co-founded one of India&rsquot;s pioneering BPO companies: CustomerAsset which she sold to ICICI OneSource. She was the Chief Operations Officer of CustomerAsset.She is a PGDM holder from IIM Calcutta.
Anuradha Rao
VP, Leadership Development, Deutsche Bank
Dr Anuradha Rao is currently with Deutsche Bank and leads Talent & Development for DBOI globally. She comes with 23 years of experience in the field of Human Resources; primarily, in the area of Learning & Development. She started off as an entrepreneur / HR consultant and ran a firm by name Presence Communications for 9 years and then entered the corporate foray with GE Capital. She has earlier worked in IBM BTO operations in India and as Director HR for Mphasis. An international exposure as training lead for Genpact China helped her gain the exposure required in understanding of HR policies in the APAC region. She has a diploma in Journalism and a doctorate in English Literature. She is also a certified Executive Coach by Neuro Leadership Group.
Dr.Sunita Maheshwari
Doctor and Entrepreneur, RxDx Multispeciality Clinic, Narayana Hrudayalaya
Dr Sunita Maheshwari is a doctor, entrepreneur and a socially active human being. She was nominated as one of the top 20 women health care achievers in India in 2009.This “Chief dreamer” trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology at Yale University in Connecticut. She was the winner of the ‘Young Clinician Award’ from the American Heart Association and the ‘Best Teacher Award’ at Yale University. She helped set up Teleradiology Solutions (a one of its kind innovative health care IT company ranked #1 in the US in 2011) that provides teleradiologic interpretations to hospitals globally and now in remote areas of India. She currently runs the first of its kind innovative e-teaching program for postgraduates in pediatric cardiology all across India and Nigeria. Additionally Sunita has recently written ‘a chota book of parenting’ for Indian parents. She was chosen as one of the few innovative entrepreneurs invited to meet President Obama on his recent trip to India.
Laxmi Char
Senior Director, Global Business Solution, Yahoo
Laxmi Char is currently the senior director, global business solution at Yahoo. She has a rich experience of around 15 years in the corporate industry. Earlier she has worked in Dell as area manager, and also in TNT express. She has done her MBA in Mass Communication.
Kalpana Gopalan
IAS at IIM-B, Govt. of Karnataka
Kalpana Gopalan is the Principal Secretary to the Government in the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms, Govt. of Karnataka, India as well as she is a Doctoral Candidate, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Earlier she was the Director (Personnel), Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation, Director, Mass Education, Government of Karnataka, CEO, Zilla Panchayat, Bangalore and District Collector & Magistrate, Udupi. Kalpana has achieved many professional attainments and awards like Canadian Studies Doctoral ResearchFellowship, NLM-UNESCO Award 2000, Europrojettazione Scholarship,(First Position) . Kalpana achieved the 20th rank in All India Merit List Combined Civil Services Examination and the first rank among ladies of South India.
Maya Vidhya
VP Operations and IT, CGI, India
Maya Vidhya is part of the Leadership Team at CGI India. Her responsibility includes to ensure that IGDC continues to deliver quality services to its clients and to put tools and processes in place to efficiently and effectively manage the CGI India operations.Prior to she was with GE, Siemens Communication Software and also a member of the India Management Team as head of the Telecommunication Management Networks Unit.Having started her career with the Defense Research Organization for the Indian government, building Network Management Systems for the Army, Maya brings leadership with over 25 years of experience in the areas of product strategy, software project lifecycle management, development methodology, quality processes and associated HR practices.She holds a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering from BMS College Bangalore. She has also completed the Management Program for Executives from Carnegie Mellon University
Sheela KL
VP HR, Collabera Technologies
Sheela K.L. heads the Global Human Resources function at Collabera. She is responsible for developing and implementing global policies and programs that support the organization’s overall strategic direction. She has over 15 years of business, leadership and consulting experience in Human Resources within the Information Technology space. In her last stint, Sheela spent over 4 years with Motorola. She held a range of HR portfolios at both India and Asia Pacific level. Prior to Dell, she spent over 7 years with Satyam Computers where she performed a wide variety of HR related roles in India and abroad. Sheela has a Masters degree in Communication and a Bachelors degree in Business Management from Hyderabad Central University.
Soma Pandey
VP HR, Accenture
Currently, Soma is Vice President HR in Accenture Services looking after Leadership Capability Management for their IT services business in India. In her tenure with Accenture she has played several roles, including Business Partner for large business units and verticals managing over 10,000 employees. She began her career in 1996 as HR Generalist with ITC where she worked for nearly five years before taking time off and moving to Germany. Soma returned to the corporate sector in 2006, as the Business Operations Lead for Mastek Ltd in the UK. She holds a Chemistry Honors degree from BHU and a PG Diploma from XLRI.
Tina Vas
Senior Director Hr, Global Head, Tavant Technologies
As Global Head - HR, Tina manages Tavant&rsquot;s unique corporate culture, based on the belief "work hard, party harder." Tina has more than 13 years of experience in the area of human resources with high-tech companies such as Cognizant Technology Solutions and Cambridge Technology Solutions (now Xchange Inc.). Prior to joining Tavant, Tina led 5 acquisitions at different organizations, contributed to redesigning International Compensation Mapping Frameworks, designed and directed the formulation of competency-based specialization, and helped evolve the role of HR Business Partner within IT services. Tina holds a Masters degree in Business Management from Bombay University.
Usha Padmini
Director, Alcatel lucent
Usha Padmini is currently the R&D Director in Alcatel-Lucent, Bangalore. She has a work experience for over 20 years in telecom infrastructure product R&D. She started her career with India&rsquot;s premier telecom infrastructure R&D organization C-DoT. She currently leads a global team in CDMA Wireless Infrastructure development that is part of the highly successful EV-DO product line of the organization. With 10+ years of multinational working exposure, Usha is a seasoned player in global teams, spanning China, Europe and USA. Usha has Masters degree in Electrical Communication Engg from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Nagamani Murthy
Senior VP, Worldwide Delivery, Sasken
Nagamani brings in a wealth of over 25 years of experience in the software industry in telecom and embedded technologies. She has been responsible for the growth in software engineering in mobile, setup-box/DTV and infotainment systems of global customers. Earlier she has worked with Wipro and Texas. In her spare time, Nagamani enjoys reading books and playing chess.
Anupama Shashank Ambe
Chairperson, Women Leadership Council, IBM
Anupama is the GEO DCI Executive - Americas Group since Sept 2010 and is also the Ambassador - Gender Diversity GTS DCI India. Anupama has vast industry experience in Global IT Infrastructure Administration. Prior to IBM, she was the General Manager, Remote Infrastructure Managed Services, Microland.Anupama started her career with British Telecom Middle East, Africa, and India in 1996. She is a trained Master Black Belt and has also received Women&rsquot;s Choice 2010- Women in Leadership award.
Alka Manchanda
Director Engineering, Cisco
AlkaManchanda in her role at Cisco is responsible for Business Development for the Small and Medium Business Unified Communications products for the Asia and Emerging Markets regions. She is a 15 year Cisco veteran, most of which was with Cisco San Jose and Seattle. Prior to joining Cisco, Alka worked at Cabletron Systems, a switch manufacturer, for 3 plus years as a software developer developing network management solutions for their switches. Alka has Bachelor degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from SmithCollege (Northampton, MA) and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire (Durham NH).
Jermina Menon
Head, Mall Marketing, Mantri Developers
Jermina is curremtly the head of mall marketing at Mantri Developers. She has almost 18+ years of work experience in marketing and across diverse product categories. She has earlier worked as Head - Marketing at CapitaRetail Prestige Mall and General Manager at Mantri Developers and Prateek Lifestyle. Jermina has done her executive MBA from IIM, Bangalore.
Jessie Paul
CEO, Paul Writer
Jessie Paul is the managing director of Paul Writer, a marketing advisory firm she founded in early 2010 that works with clients in the B2B, services and technology space to create optimal marketing plans. Previously, as Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro’s IT business and as Global Brand Manager at Infosys, Jessie Paul has been recognized for her contribution towards putting the Indian IT industry on the global map. She has published articles on marketing and branding in various leading publications, and is a regular columnist for INC, India and BusinessWorld.in. Jessie Paul holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta and earned a bachelor&rsquot;s degree in computer science and engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy.