Akshay Bector

Mr Akshay Bector is the Chairman & Managing Director of Cremica Food Industries Limited. Under the “Cremica” brand the company has become #1 in Mayonnaise and #3 in Tomato Ketchup in India. The company leads the industry with Focus on Quality and Innovation. Under Mr. Akshay Bector’s leadership the company has been able to maintain one of the highest growth rates in the industry.

After completing B.E. in Industrial & Production Engineering, Mr Akshay Bector started his carrier in 1987. Establishment of a modern Bread plant followed by a world class Biscuit plant was his initial endeavors. He kept on expanding the business and soon joined hands with Mc Donald’s to become one of their biggest suppliers in India. He was also instrumental with key initiatives with Mc Donald’s and the Mc Donald’s Bun Business to the company was set up under his leadership. His focus on Quality and Innovation were the key factors for Exponential Business growth. His efforts led to the JV with two companies. One with Quaker Oats Company (USA) for manufacturing of Ketchup, Mayonnaise  and other Liquid Condiments and the other with EBI Foods (UK) for manufacturing of Battering and Breading pre-mixtures. This brought in new Competences within the Group and Strengthened the Brand.

His Leadership qualities and Business acumen are well recognized in the Industry. He has served as the Chairman of CII Punjab. He is the founder of YPO Punjab Chapter. Currently he is Chairman of CII NR Agriculture Council and Member of various Punjab Government Committees.

In the “3rd National Convention on Entrepreneurship 2013”, he was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” and in “Mc Donald’s APMEA 2013 Supplier Business Forum” the Company got “ Mc Donald’s Asia Pacific Award for Innovation”.

Ajaay Gupta

Ajaay Gupta is a professional entrepreneur in the packaged food industry. A marketing professional by background, he has been instrumental in the architecture and launch of some highly successful food brands like Ching’s Secret and Smith & Jones. Ching's Secret is the #1 Chinese ingredients brands with products across sauces, soups, Hakka Noodles, Sauce mixes and instant noodles.

Smith and Jones is the leading Masala Noodles, ketchup and cooking pastes brand in india.

Ajaay Gupta brings with him experience in the field of manufacturing and marketing of processed foods since 1996. Capital Foods also retails in some of the biggest retailers of the world, like Tesco, Dunnes, Target and Loblaws. Previously he was the CMD of Forefront Advertising and Mkting and was well regarded as one of the brightest advertising talents in the 90s having won multiple AD Club and CAG Awards.

Mr Gupta has been the marketing brain behind various brands for clients like Mother’s Recipe, Sheetal, Kala Niketan, Baccarose. He also currently serves of the board of directors at Fashion Retailer Kimaya.

Bimal Ramesh Thakkar

Deepak Shahdadpuri

 Deepak I. Shahdadpuri is the Founder and Managing Director of DSG Consumer Partner and Beacon India Private Equity Fund. Deepak has over 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience and is an active angel investor focusing on consumer businesses with a strong emphasis on food and beverage value chain. Before this, Deepak held senior roles at Gem India, Reuters VC, Bain & Company and Ernst & Young. Deepak is on the board of Baker's Circle, Impresario, Eazy Diner, Exito Gourmet, India Lends, Indostar Capital, Indian Home Gourmet, Mswipe, Saffronart, Saraf Foods, Sula Wines and Veeba Food. Deepak’s investment experience also includes RBL Bank, OYO Rooms, Cleartrip, Redmart, F&B Asia and Furtado’s School of Music.

Deepak serves on the board of Magic Bus, a non-profit organization helping develop underprivileged children through sports, and on the advisory board of Dawn Capital, a UK focused Venture Capital Fund. He has an MBA (Distinction) from INSEAD where he graduated on the Dean’s list, a LLB (Hons) from King's College London and a FCA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales.

@dishahdadpuri

Dev Lall

Dev Lall is Managing Director & CEO of Bakers Circle (India) Pvt Ltd. The company specializes in reverse manufacturing and R&D that enables clients to reduce costs using the frozen route.

It currently serves 1200 outlets across the country with expansion plans in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to founding Bakers Circle, Dev was with Hyatt International, New Delhi where he was in charge of pre-opening operations of Hyatt properties and was also overseeing operations of 8 points of sales at their different properties, service procedures, training and development of man power.Dev completed his Bsc. Institutional management & MBA in International Business from Johnson & Wales University, USA

Dinesh Shahra

Dinesh Shahra, a Chemical Engineer by profession and the Managing Director of Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd., has dared to dream Big, he staked the future of his Business on a Competitive, free market economic order and he has spearheaded the Soya Revolution to the recent position of India?s foremost Food Processing Company, one of the top 5 FMCG Businesses in the Country.

His innovative and analytical approach marks the emergence of market diversifications and developing brands through its varied food products. His ability to gauge the future trends and consumer requirements led to launching of variety of innovative Value added Soya products like Soya Flour, Soya chunks, Granules to cater to different strata of the society.

Under Mr. Shahra's Leadership, the company has consolidated its business under RSIL to have a distinct advantage in realizing his dreams and scaling newer heights.

He has been honoured with Globoil Man of the Decade Award, and has also bagged the prestigious, The American Express Corporate Award 2006 as the No- 1 Food Processing Company in India along with the Dun & Bradstreet Rolta Corporate Awards 2008 in the Food & Agro Processing sector.

G. Mythili

Current position: Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai; Also Joint managing Editor, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Indian Econometrics Society Publication.

Educational Qualification: Ph.D. in Econometrics, University of Madras, 1989; Ph.D. Thesis on “Production Risk in Indian Agriculture”.

After completing Ph.D, visited University of California at Berkeley for one year as a ‘Ford Foundation Post Doctoral fellow’ at the Department of Agricultural and Resource economics.

Visited Washington, US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research service in June 2007 for one month as part of collaborative project on “Supply Analysis of Indian Agriculture between pre and post reform period” Associated with many research projects in agriculture including Farm Management Study; Farm production risk; Accelerating Growth through globalizing agriculture; Supply response in agriculture; and agricultural policies and structural changes in India’s agri food system. Projects funded by organization such as UNDP, World Bank, European Commission and Australian Centre for International Agricultural research.
 
Participated and presented papers in many national and international conferences; Authored many research papers in national and international journals and coauthored 4 books.

Current research projects include:
1) Agriculture- nutrition linkages and
2) Analysing impact of agricultural policies using Intersectoral linkages.

G.S Bhalla

A born entrepreneur, upon graduation from Delhi University, Mr. Bhalla opted to forego studies at a business school and set up his own business venture in 1994—a corporate gifting company. He has always been a pioneer in every business he has started. In 2000 he started one of India’s first KPO company focusing on the healthcare vertical for the US, which has now grown to over a 1000 employees globally.

In 2007 he completed the “Owners Management Program” and “Launching New Ventures” management programs from Harvard Business School.

When he thought of entering into the fast growing food-and-beverage industry, he thought of introducing something for the young, health conscious urban Indians and create a brand that is not only associated with health and wellness, but is also a socially and environmentally responsible brand.

Keeping the extreme hot weather in mind, he thought of this cold treat as a viable business option that offered guilt-free indulgence and launched Cocoberry, India’s first frozen yogurt chain. The first store was opened at the posh South Delhi locality of Defense Colony in 2009. There also were a lot of innovations and transformations along the way. Today with its outlets across the NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Ahmedabad & Goa, Cocoberry is a national brand in less than a span of 2 years with over 30 outlets. Cocoberry will also be opening in international markets very soon.

Cocoberry has received several awards and recognitions in the two short years since it started including “ Top 100 Brands That Rocked India in 2010”(4P magazine), “Top 100 Retailers 2011”(Retailer magazine), “ Most Innovative Concept”(HT City), “ Best Frozen Dessert” (HT City), “Top Rated Frozen Yogurt” (Burrp) to name just a handful.

Mr. Bhalla has also received a number of awards and recognitions such as “Top Young Turk 2010” by CNBC India and has been profiled and featured numerous times in print and TV such as “CNBC”, “India Today”, “WSJ Mint”, “Outlook Business”, “Economic Times”, “Zee Business”, “ Inc.”, “ET Now” and many more.
He is also an avid golfer, shooter and enjoys outdoor sports and travelling.

Gaurav Mathur

Gaurav Mathur is the founder of InVent Capital, a private equity fund focused on control investments in the Indian consumer sector. Previously, he was a co-founder and managing director at India Equity Partners, where he led investments in financial services, consumer goods and the HR services sector.

Prior to that, he worked with JPMorgan’s private equity division and Deutsche Bank’s high yield capital markets group. He has served on the board of several Indian mid-market companies including well known consumer names such as Domino’s Pizza (Jubilant Foodworks), MTR Foods, Sumeru (Innovative Foods), Sagar Ratna Restaurants, Manappuram Finance and Sintex Industries. He holds an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a Bachelor in Economics (Honours) from Delhi University.

Gopal Srinivasan

Gopal is the Founder Chairman & MD of TVS Capital Funds Limited, with the vision of supporting and nurturing India’s mid-cap businesses into world-class companies. It manages assets of over Rs 1,100 Cr, and which makes it amongst the largest domestically raised funds in India. He has been a strong advocate of participation of domestic capital pools in private equity and venture capital funds, and actively supports initiatives for that cause as a Vice Chairman of IVCA (Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association).

Gopal was the Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee for Private Equity & Venture Capital for the fiscal year 2010-2011. He is also the Director in TVS & Sons Ltd, the holding company, and a member of the Board of several Group Companies.An entrepreneur at heart, Gopal is also actively involved in the promotion of entrepreneurship as an angel investor. He is a founding member of The Chennai Angels, and is closely associated TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) where he provides guidance to the budding entrepreneurs on incubating businesses. Gopal earned a B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai and an MBA from University of Michigan, US.

@GopalSri

Hemant Vora

Hemant heads M&A Advisory practice at ICICI Bank.Hemant has over fifteen years of experience in the Investment Banking field with KPMG Corporate Finance and Lazard.

He has advised domestic and multi-national corporations on a variety of domestic and crossborder transactions and has also been involved in divestments, acquisitions, mergers, debt syndications and corporate and debt restructurings.

During his tenure, ICICI Bank catapulted to one of the leading players in the M&A advisory practice, with leadership position in mid-market space.

Hemant has an MMS degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and is an engineering graduate from one of Mumbai's leading engineering colleges.

M K Dhanuka

Mr M K Dhanuka is MD of Dhanuka Agritech Ltd holds Bachelors Degree in Commerce (Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University. He has been associated with the Group since its inception in 1980. He has been Incharge of various Departments such as Purchase, Finance and Accounts over these years and has contributed substantially in enhancing the profitability of the organization through meticulous negotiations with the suppliers.

At different points, he has been critical in maintaining relationship with different banks and organizing finance for smooth operations of the organization. He is a member of the Shareholders Grievances and Share Transfer Committee and brings with him expertise in these areas for proper functioning of the Board. He is a President of Haryana Pesticides Manufacturers Association since 2006. He is also Director on the Board of Golden Overseas Ltd., Dhanuka Laboratories Ltd., Dhanuka Infotech Pvt Ltd., Madhuri Designs ‘n’ Exports Pvt Ltd.

A personality with philanthropic mind and highly active in social activities through membership of Lions Club, Alaknanda, New Delhi.He is also a Trustee of Dhanuka Ashram, a Charitable Guest house for devotees visiting the Hindu pilgrim town of Vrindavan.He is a Trustee of Aadarsh Vidya Mandir, Ratan Garh, a school being run in the home town of forefathers of Dhanuka family.

N. Vaghul

Mr. Vaghul has 49 years of experience in the financial sector and has been the Chairman of Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Limited for 16 years, and of ICICI Bank for the last three years. Prior to this, he was Chairman of the Bank of India and Executive Director of the Central Bank of India. He was chosen as the Businessman of the Year in 1992 by Business India, a leading Indian publication, and has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank. Mr. Vaghul was also a visiting Professor at the Stern Business School at New York University.

Mr. Vaghul is Chairman of the Indian Institute of Finance Management & Research and is also a board member of various other companies, including Wipro Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Nicholas Piramal India Limited, Apollo Hospitals Limited and Himatsingka Seide Limited.

Nikhil Khattau

Nikhil Khattau is an experienced banker, entrepreneur and venture investor who has built and invested in companies in India since 1995.  Nikhil also has an additional 10 years of international work experience. Nikhil focuses on the agriculture, financial services, retail, consumer services and media sectors in India.

He sits on the boards of Securens Systems (monitoring and surveillance), Matrimony.com (world’s largest marriage portal), Joguru, Inc. (trip planning platform named “Triphobo”), Marico Ltd. (packaged consumer goods, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange) and Kaya Enterprises (listed, specialty skin care).

Nikhil was the founding CEO of SUN F&C Asset Management, one of the first private sector mutual fund companies in India. Under his leadership, the firm successfully acquired two other mutual funds, and built one of the top-ranked India funds. Nikhil successfully sold the business to the Principal Financial Group, USA in 2004.

Nikhil’s prior experience includes working for Ernst & Young’s Audit and Corporate Finance practices in New York and London from 1986-1995, where he successfully advised a number of mid-market companies on their acquisition and divestment strategies. He also helped set up the firm’s investment banking advisory operations in Russia.

Nikhil received his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University of Mumbai and is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Rahul Raisurana

Mr. Rahul Raisurana is Managing Director, Standard Chartered Private Equity Advisory (India) Limited wherein he founded and currently heads Standard Chartered’s Midcap focused private equity business in India. His over 20 years of professional experiences includes senior managerial and leadership roles in private equity, corporate and investment banking, corporate finance and risk management with leading global financial institutions in India and USA.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, he was Managing Director, Investments at IDFC Project Equity Company Limited and co-founded India’s first project-level infrastructure investment fund jointly sponsored by Citigroup and IDFC. Previously he was also a senior member of Deutsche Bank India’s Executive and Management Committee in his capacity as Head of Institutional and Corporate Credits, India. His other professional assignments included roles with Moody’s Investors Services in New York and with Citigroup’s Corporate & Investment Banking group in India.

Mr. Raisurana currently serves as a Director on the Boards of PI Industries Limited, Man Infraconstruction Limited, Bush Foods Overseas Pvt Ltd, Innovative Industries Ltd and Privi Organics Limited. He holds a Masters degree in International Management from Thunderbird, USA, Masters degree in Business Administration from Clark University, USA and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of Calcutta, India.

    

Rajesh Srivastava

Rajesh Srivastava is the Chairman & Managing Director of Rabo Equity Advisors, managing 2 Rabobank sponsored private equity funds of US$120mln and US$150mln, both focused on food and agribusiness. The new Fund has Rabobank, CDC Group, UK; Asian Development Bank; Generali Insurance, Italy; FMO, The Netherlands; Proparco, France; IFU, Denmark as its investors. He has so far closed 12 investments, all in different sub-sectors.

Before setting up the private equity business, he was Managing Director (Corporate & Commercial Banking) of Rabobank India. Concurrently, he was Regional Head, Asia for food and agribusiness for over 5 years based in Singapore. In Rabobank, he is credited with setting up several new products such as Strategic Advisory, Renewable Energy, Carbon Credits and Micro Finance. Before Rabobank, he was with Lazard Brothers’ Venture Capital arm where he set up the largest VC Fund of the time for SMEs. Starting his career with Bank of Baroda, he has over 36 years of experience in corporate and investment banking.

Rajesh is regarded as a pioneer in establishing a private equity market for food and agribusiness sector and for advocacy on policies on agriculture/food processing. Amongst others, he sits on the CII National Committees on Agriculture, Food Processing and Innovation, Chairs CII Northern Regional Committee on Agriculture and Food Processing, and the Board of Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation.

He is an Economics and Law graduate and a post graduate in Western History.

Ramakrishna Karuturi

Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi is the Founder and Managing Director of Karuturi Global Ltd. Under his dynamic leadership, Karuturi Global has become the world's largest producer of cut-roses by identifying Kenya & Ethiopia as a hub for cultivation and export of roses.

Mr. Ram Karuturi is widely regarded as the pioneer of cut flower revolution in the World. Mr. Ram Karuturi was instrumental in acquiring 3,11,000 Ha of land in Ethiopia for strategic foray into Agriculture production.

Mr. Ram Karuturi has been nominated as the Top 20 CEOs from Africa by the Initiative for Global Development (IGD) for commitment towards poverty reduction in Africa.

Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi holds a Bachelor's degree (Rank Holder) in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA (Dean's Honor) from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio.

Sameer Mehra

Sameer Mehra, Founder and CEO, grew up in Mumbai and spent his teenage years working in the family business, Enercon, a leader in the wind energy sector in India. After graduating from Narsee Monjee College in Mumbai with a degree in Commerce, Sameer worked at Enercon and gained experience in clean technology. Sameer received his MBA from Emory University in Atlanta in 1998, and worked for a hedge fund in New York thereafter.

Sameer returned to India and in 2003 started Suminter India Organics. He has grown the company significantly, working directly with over 7,500 farmers in 5 states in India, and establishing a strong customer base in Europe and the United States.

Sameer is responsible for overseeing all operations of the company, including pursuing new business opportunities, expanding Suminter's farm projects, developing new products, and coordinating funding for Suminter's operations.

Sandeep Sabharwal

Mr. Sandeep, an MBA from Delhi is a managing partner with Sohan Lal since 1996 and has played a key role in shaping the affairs of the company.

His knowledge about commodities is widely recognised. He was a member of the executive committee on Warehouse Development and Regulation Act (WDRA). He is also member of the FICCI committee which was appointed by Government of India to study the United States of America’s warehousing model.  

Sandeep has been conferred with Certification on US Warehouse Receipt System from the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and the Texas a & M University

His views on agricultural commodities are frequently referred to in The Economic Times, CNBC Awaz, Business Standard and other leading news channels.

Sandeep Singhal

Sandeep is co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners.

Sandeep has been an entrepreneur and a pioneer of Venture Capital in India. He was co-founder & CEO of Medusind Solutions, one of the leading healthcare outsourcing companies in India. He also was the co-founder of eVentures India, a leading venture firm focused on early stage ventures in India. Several of his earlier investments have had successful exits, including CustomerAsset (acquired by Firstsource), Mentorix Solutions (acquired by Lionbridge), Intigma (acquired by Emptoris), and MakeMyTrip (sale to SAIF Partners). Sandeep has also held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems.

Sandeep has an MBA (with Distinction) from The Wharton School with a dual Major in Finance and Marketing, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is on the Board of TiE Mumbai, and is actively involved with the Entrepreneurs Organization and the Wharton and Stanford India Alumni Associations. 

Sanjeev Mantri

Sanjeev Mantri is Sr General Manager, with ICICI Bank Ltd., the largest private bank in India and a leader in SME banking services. Sanjeev drives SME & Agri Corporate lending portfolio across the country, in addition to SME Private Equity and M& A advisory services for the Bank. Under his leadership, SME & Agri business of the bank has shown significant growth.

He joined ICICI Bank Ltd in 2003 to take charge of the Corporate Linked SME lending portfolio and has been responsible for introducing various innovative products to service the needs of this segment.

Prior to joining ICICI he has spent over 7 years with BNP Paribas, Mumbai handling diverse responsibilities in Corporate Banking space.

Sanjeev is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant. Often quoted in the Indian media, he is a regular speaker in many national and international forums for SME Banking.

Vijay Kumar Arora

Vijay Kumar Arora is the Chairman and Managing Director of LT Foods Ltd (formerly known as LT Overseas Ltd). He joined LT Overseas in 1978 after completing his Graduation. He has also attended the management development program conducted by the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad. He has been the promoter director of the company since its inception. His key responsibilities include international marketing, strategic planning, finance and business development.

Mr. V.K Arora is the Vice President of the All India Rice Exporters Association. He was also the co-chairman of Agro Processing Committee constituted by Punjab Haryana Delhi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI). He is also a member of the "Task Force on Food Grain Sector" constituted by the Ministry of Food Processing.

Vinod Kumar Chaturvedi

A commerce graduate and a fellow member of Institute of C.A. (FCA), having more than 25 years post qualification experience in various fields. Finance, project management and Business administration. Mr. Chaturvedi was also awarded doctorate degree by governor of Uttar Pradesh, his H.E. Shri B.L. Joshi for his thesis titled as “Rationale & Prospect for second green revolution”.

A recognized Agri leader known for crafting the requisite strategic vision to achieve business goals, offers a unique blend of successful deliverer of growth, innovative financial and marketing skills.

As a director Mr. Vinod Kumar Chaturvedi has built a responsive organization that consistently delivers results by aligning business goals, improvement in the quality, standardization and performance. With a reputation for judicious use of resources, Mr. Chaturvedi’ work has been commendable in agriculture sector.