Avani Saglani Davda is the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Limited, the 50/50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages Limited. In this role, Avani will provide overall strategic direction and leadership to the joint venture in India.

Avani, who has worked for the Tata companies for more than ten years, joined the Tata Group as a TAS (Tata Administrative Service) probationer in 2002. Most recently, she worked in the Vice Chairman’s office for Tata Global Beverages, where she was responsible for driving and facilitating key strategies and initiatives for the company as well as Marketing and Business Development assignments. She also played a pivotal role in the development of the joint venture relationship between the two companies in preparation for entry into the India market.

Avani holds a Masters degree in Management Studies from NMIMS, University of Mumbai and Bachelor degree in Commerce with Honors in Advertising & Media from H.R. College, University of Mumbai.

Avani is based in Mumbai, India, and is married with a son. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and cruises.

Dinesh Chhabra has over 27 years of work experience and has been associated with USHA International from last 4 years.

Dinesh joined USHA in 2009 as Executive director and Group Chief Financial Officer. In a year’s time by June’10 Dinesh was appointed the CEO, USHA International. In his current role he has the end-to-end responsibility of leading USHA International to drive growth and business synergies in different product categories offered by USHA.

Prior to joining USHA, Dinesh worked with Force Motors as Board member and Group Chief Financial Officer. He has spent most of his life in Automotive sector in organizations like Eicher and Delphi and has managed  a range of key portfolios, ranging from Sales & Marketing to General Management functions.

Dinesh commenced his professional career in 1986 as Executive Assistant to Chairman at FANFOSS

In the past, Dinesh has been associated with Force motors, Caparo India, Thirdwave solutions, Delphi Automotive Systems, Eicher and Danfoss

Dinesh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University and is a fellow member of Institute of Chartered accountant of India.

 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

Harish Bijoor is a Brand thinker and practitioner. He runs a unique boutique consulting outfit branded “Harish Bijoor Consults”, a brand name that has a consulting presence across the markets of Hong Kong, Seattle, London and the Indian sub-continent. He has spent his career across aggressive realms of FMCG, Telecom and Consumer Durables. He is considered a marketing practitioner and thinker who is ahead of the consumer thinking curve, year on year.

He is an actively sought public speaker in the country at forums that relate to General Management, Marketing, Sales, Retailing, Consumer Behaviour, Techno-branding  and allied areas. He has recently published a book titled, “Marketing Trends – Smart Insights into the world of Indian Business” He is currently involved in his second book on core-branding. The book is titled, “Brand Irrationals: a fundamental journey into brand-think” Harish has simultaneously been commissioned to write a book on “Customer Service mechanisms” at play in contemporary marketing contexts.

Harish is actively involved in research relating to Rural Consumer Bahaviour, Rural Retail Networks and Trade mechanisms at play. The current research exercise he is involved in spans a 6-year period covering 84,850 consumers across India.

@harishbijoor

K S Narayanan is the CEO at Pan India Foodsolutions Private Limited and in this capacity is playing a key role in shaping the long-term growth strategies for the company besides building the various Restaurant brands in India.

Narayanan brings with himself about 22 years of rich and varied experience in Business Responsibility, Strategic Planning, Sales & Marketing, Retail Network Development, Operations, Supply Chain and Exports. Prior to joining Pan India Foodsolutions, Narayanan has held key positions in India and Europe in reputed organizations like McCain Foods, Hindustan Unilever Limited and Asian Paints.

His 2.5 years of experience in McCain Foods India as Managing Director saw McCain emerge as one of the largest Frozen Foods business in India spanning across Retail, Foodservice with a nationwide footprint and Exports. His 17 years of experience in Hindustan Unilever Limited has been with the various Food categories covering Beverages, Oils and Dairy Products, Culinary products, Ice Creams and Frozen Foods. He possesses wide expertise across categories in FMCG, Impulse and service oriented businesses with Ambient, Chilled and Frozen distribution. Narayanan brings with him an intimate understanding of Supply Chain, B2B and B2C, Retail / Modern Trade, Customer and Business development and New Channel development.

Narayanan has graduated from IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta. He has a passion for food which is reflected in his writings on Convenience Foods in the various Hospitality Magazines and is well known amongst the Chef Community. He is also an excellent cook and never spares an occasion to try his hand at cooking. His latest passion is in the area of Nutrition Management. He is also a fitness enthusiast and is a regular at the Mumbai and Delhi marathons.

Kannan Sitaram is Operating Partner at India Equity Partners, a New York based Private Equity firm, with over $ 2 Billion of group assets under management. At IEP he leads the development of their consumer sector portfolio. For the prior four years, from 2006, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Rs. 2,500 crores Consumer Care Division of Dabur India. At Dabur, Mr. Sitaram led the transformation of one of India’s most highly rated consumer products businesses through organic growth and highly successful acquisitions.

From 2002 till 2005, Mr. Sitaram was Vice President Strategy at Unilever’s Global Headquarters in London, where he was responsible for bringing consumer, customer and industry perspectives to shape Unilever’s corporate strategy. Prior to that, Mr. Sitaram had a highly successful 9 year tenure at Hindustan Unilever (HUL), including as Head of Marketing for the Beverages division and National Head of Sales for Detergents and Personal Products. Mr. Sitaram had moved to HUL from Pond’s India Limited, part of Chesebrough Pond’s Inc where he spent the first 12 years of his career.

Mr. Sitaram holds a Bachelors degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and earned his Management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In addition, Mr. Sitaram has attended an Executive Program at the Carnegie Mellon School of Business and an Advanced Executive Program at the Kellogg School of Business.

Mr.Siddiqui is a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Institute of Management & Technology, Ghaziabad and a Commerce graduate from Jamia Milia Islamia University. He has an experience of over 16 years in the areas of Marketing, Sales & Distribution, Strategic Planning and Business Development. Before taking as President & CEO   he served as Director Sale and Market for SRL limited after his assignment as Chief Marketing Officer with Hamdard Laboratories, New Delhi. In Hamdard, he has been widely credited for restructuring sales & distribution channel & rejuvenating Hamdard’s  brands like RoohAfza, Safi, Chinkara which led to a double digit growth in the top and bottom lines for the company. He has managed brands  Meswak (Balsara), Nutrilite (Amway), Bristol, Capstain and Flake ( ITC brands) to name few.

Mr.Siddiqui has also been associated with some of the leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods and healthcare players like Balasara, Smithkline Beecham, Amway, Dr.Morpen Limited and ITC in various capacities.

Mr. Raghavan has been with Bain Capital since 2008. At Bain Capital, Nikhil focuses on Technology and Consumer Goods, and is responsible for developing Bain’s Southeast Asia presence.

Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Raghavan was with The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised clients in Technology and Business Services. Mr. Raghavan also spent a number of years in the enterprise software industry and as an entrepreneur.

Leading one of the priority markets for Kimberly Clark Corporation (KCC). Prakash heads operations for the Indian subcontinent. Kimberly Clark Lever is a 50:50 joint venture between Kimberly Clark and Unilever’s Indian subsidiary- Hindustan Unilever.

Prakash has played a significant role in applying Kimberly Clark Corporation’s global expertise, technological know-how and deep local consumer understanding to Kimberly Clark Lever in India. Coupling KCC’s technology edge and local consumer understanding, enabled Prakash and his team introduce the most iconic brands in India.

Prakash has been instrumental in growing the consumer business for Huggies and Kotex in India. He has played a key role in developing and executing winning strategies towards strengthening Kimberley Clark-Lever’s presence in the region. He is an extremely active member of the FMCG industry and takes a keen interest in the development of the industry.

Under his leadership, Kimberly Clark-Lever has successfully launched various products innovated for the Indian consumers such as Breathable Diapers, Huggies Jeans Pants and the ‘Clinically Proven to help prevent diaper rash’ diapering range.

Prakash joined Kimberly Clark in January 2010 after spending 24 years in leadership roles across fast growing businesses in consumer products, media and retail – in India, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and China. Prakash moved to Kimberly Clark from the Future group. Prior to this Prakash has spearheaded companies such as Infomedia and PepsiCo.

Prakash is an MBA from IIM-A – India’s premier B-School - and started his career with Unilever in India. He is a trained Leadership coach and his first book titled The Habit of Winning was published by Penguin in 2011.

Rakesh Sony joined MOPE in October 2008 and actively involved in fund deployment and portfolio monitoring. With over 12 years of experience in capital market, he has expertise in enabling closely held businesses evolve into professionally run corporate organization through pragmatic resolution of family ownership, succession planning, corporate governance and the delegation of management responsibilities. He has entrepreneurial experience as co-founder and Managing Director of Microsec Capital- the largest investment bank in Eastern India

At MOPE, Rakesh is responsible for deal sourcing ,investing, portfolio company monitoring and effectuating exit the portfolio companies. He represents the Fund on the board of Parag Milk Foods, Effort BPO, Powermech, Mrs Bector Foods and Minda Industries

Rakesh is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is  a graduate of the prestigious St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

A foodie at heart, an engineer by profession and a retailer by passion – meet Rajiv Mehta, the young and multi-faceted Managing Director of PUMA South Asia. A chemical engineer from ICT in Mumbai, Rajiv then completed his MS at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked for three years at BOC in New Jersey where he was responsible for driving research, design and development, before the academic bug hit once more – resulting in an MBA from the prestigious INSEAD University in Singapore. Upon graduating, Rajiv was identified by the global SportLifestyle brand PUMA to head their Indian operations at the young age of 27.

Today, after 7 years at the helm, Rajiv’s contribution is recognized as instrumental in establishing PUMA as the creative leader of SportLifestyle in the country. With a singular vision to aesthetically blend sport, fashion and lifestyle, Rajiv is credited with the transformation of PUMA from being a new entrant to becoming the 2nd largest sports brand in India. He strategically spearheaded the marketing and distribution of PUMA in India with the establishment of the first retail store in Chennai in 2006. Today, PUMA has a brand presence across more than 60 cities in India with a retail presence of over 200 stores. Under his stellar leadership, the company in India has grown to a 180 people strong team operating out of 4 offices and headquartered in Bangalore.

Rajiv has played a pivotal role in spreading the brand ethos of fun and joy. This is strongly reflected in the young and vibrant work culture at PUMA India wherein the ‘PUMA Way” of doing things with a generous measure of cool quotient is the norm. Rajiv is an adventure sports enthusiast and is a P2 level certified pilot for paragliding. Water sports, particularly white water rafting, bungee jumping and skydiving are amongst his adventure sports passions.

In a career spanning 22 years, Raman held leadership roles managing businesses, creating & executing business strategy and building successful start-ups in Agriculture, Food and Beverage, and has extensive experience in working with emerging modern Indian retail. After obtaining an MBA from University of South Carolina in the USA, he started his career in India with Unilever India, where he did several roles including leading the branded food exports business. Subsequently as a Business Head, he built the Fresh Produce business of FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd - co-owned by Bharti Enterprises, Rothschild & Del Monte Pacific and was instrumental in helping build the fresh produce supply chain for Bharti  Retail. More recently, Raman was the CEO the South Asia operations with one of the largest, privately owned Swiss companies -Firmenich, S.A., expanding the company’s flavours business in the region.

In his career Raman has the unique experience of working alongside daily wage workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, farmer cooperatives, company boards, global retail giants, universities, foundations, multilateral institutions, research organizations, government agencies, & ministries.  The work profile has an added dimension – working at the intersection of food-water-energy, businesses have had an impact on livelihoods, while delivering profits to shareholders.

Ritesh heads the Financial Services and Consumer Group, and is based out of New Delhi. He has over 20 years of experience in executing M&A, PE and structured financing transactions. He has extensive experience on transactions in consumer products, financial services and media. He worked with Credit Suisse prior to joining Avendus.

Ritesh holds an MBA from FMS, Delhi and a BE from the University of Delhi

Sandeep Ahuja is Managing Director with VLCC Health Care Ltd. Prior to his current assignment Sandeep was responsible for VLCC’s foray in international markets, based out of Dubai and earlier led the Group’s subsidiary that manufactures and markets personal care products.

Sandeep’s wide and varied experience of over 2 decades spans marketing, brand communications, new market development and profit-centre management. Prior to joining VLCC, he was Director & CEO of Lexicon PR & Corporate Consultants Ltd., an affiliate of the Omnicom Group company, Fleishman-Hillard, Inc., one the world’s largest communications consultancies. He was largely responsible for establishing Lexicon as one of the top 10 communications consultancies in India and worked with a host of prestigious companies as clients, including Avon, Domino’s, Goodyear, Lufthansa, Timex and United Airlines.

A graduate in economics and a postgraduate in marketing & advertising, Sandeep started his career in advertising. Later, he settled down to a long and loaded stint at Escorts Limited, one of the largest engineering conglomerates in India, before taking up the challenge of establishing a full service communications consultancy from the ground up. He moved on to join VLCC in 2002.

Sandeep is also the Chairman of the Wellness Committee as well as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) for two years running now.

Sanjay Gujral is a part of the leadership team and responsible for risk management and investor relations at L Capital Asia, the Asian private equity business sponsored by LVMH SA, the French luxury conglomerate.

Backed by a strong corporate sponsor, L Capital Asia is a value-added investor focused on businesses that will benefit from growth in aspirational consumption in emerging Asian markets like China, India and South East Asia. Focus sectors include consumer brands, beauty & wellness, lifestyle retail, food & beverage, boutique hospitality and media & entertainment.
L Capital Asia raised US$ 636m for its first fund in 2010, and has to date made 10 investments across Asia. In India, L Capital Asia has invested in Genesis Luxury Fashion, Fabindia and PVR.

Mr Gujral possesses 18 years of experience in private equity, M&A and financial advisory. He joined L Capital Asia in April 2011 to lead the Firm’s operations in India and moved to Singapore in July 2012 to take on his current regional role. Prior to L Capital Asia, Mr Gujral was an Executive Director at Everstone Capital. Before moving to the buy-side in 2006, Mr Gujral spent 11 years in corporate finance advisory with Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young and Ambit Corporate Finance.

Mr Gujral holds a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and is a commerce graduate from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.

Shrenik is a commerce graduate from Sydenham College, Mumbai and a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Thereafter, Shrenik completed his post-graduation in business management from IIM Bangalore. He is also a Certified Investment Manager from the Securities and Investment Institute, UK.

He joined us from Enam Securities where he was Executive Director – Investment Banking. He also set up the first international office for Enam in the UK.

Shrenik has over 16 years of experience in the areas of financial audit, management consulting, as well as Investment banking and has worked for companies like Lodha & Co., Accenture and A.T. Kearney prior to joining Enam. He has worked on several advisory mandates and has advised several clients (including the Tata Group) in Investment Banking. 

Shomik joined Actis in 2007 to advise on new investments strategy in the Consumer and Retail sector. He came from McKinsey & Co. in London where he advised companies on strategic and operational matters and prior to that, worked as a consultant with Accenture and with Unilever in India.

Whether it’s doing the deals no one else can or transforming a family-run regional business into a leading international player, the thrill of developing potential never dies away, nor does Shomik’s desire to use capital to change people’s lives – the lives of the country’s emerging middle class and those of his partners, management teams and investors.

Shomik holds an MBAfrom London Business School.

A Management Consultant in the area of Business Turnaround and Growth Strategy, Subrata Dutta heads his own outfit ‘Turnaround Consultants’. With over 24 years of extensive background and marketing experience with esteemed brands,  Subrata Dutta’s latest tenure was with Samsonite in the capacity of Managing Director.  He headed the India & Middle East operations for Samsonite till 2012.

His tryst with marketing began when he joined one of the biggest selling cosmetic brands, Lakme as their Assistant Manager. His 9 year long experience with Lakmé honed his expertise in the consumer products segment.  Subrata also had the opportunity to work with brands like Calvin Klein & Elizabeth Arden perfumes & skin care,  to move on to join Pepsi Foods as Vice President for the on premise business which gained him the necessary experience in the food and beverage sector. From there on, he remained deeply engaged and provided his marketing proficiency to some of the biggest names in the industry including Swedish Match - Wimco and Himalaya Herbals.

Subrata has been instrumental in the growth of Samsonite. Through his business acumen and his understanding of the Indian luggage market, Subrata has successfully created benchmark for Samsonite and American Tourister.  Under his leadership the company has grown from strength to strength over the past 6 years, with a  4 fold growth in business in India and Middle East. Today Samsonite and American Tourister are on a fast-track to success with Samsonite opening at least 8-10 new stores every month pan India.

Subrata holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Kharagpur and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. An avid traveler, Subrata never lets go of an opportunity to travel, especially if it includes a long drive.

Mr. Tejpavan Singh Gandhok(Pavan)  has an MBA from UCLA (Dean’s list) and a BE Chem. Eng(Honours) from Univ. of Melbourne, as well as a qualification in journalism.

An Indian born, US educated, Australian citizen, permanent resident of Singapore and an Overseas Citizen of India. He has a very impressive entrepreneurial and professional track-record. He is co-founder of Litebite Foods chain of restaurants. He has over 18 yrs of international Senior Partner level experience in Country & Regional Head roles across Australia, US, South East & Middle East Asia with Strategy consulting & Private Equity firms such as Halycon, AT Kearney, Stern Stewart & co. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He has advised most of the leading blue chip Indian , SE Asian as well as global MNC clients on issues such as: corporate portfolio and business unit strategy ; organization design; business performance improvement; corporate finance and valuation; governance and senior executive remuneration. Mr.Tejpavan also worked with Monsanto as Director - business development and growth strategy for Asia-Pacific, ICI Australia and the University of Melbourne. He is also a co-founder and Lead Director of Natures Bounty an alcoholic beverages marketing company; co-founder and managing trustee of Madadghar a charitable trust.

Currently Mr. Tejpavan is the CEO of OM Pizzas & Eats India Pvt Ltd & Tex Mex Cusinie India Pvt Ltd. OM Pizzas has the following brands under it ie Papa Johns & The Great Kabab Factory. Tex Mex has the following brand under it ie Chilis Grill & Bar.

Udai is a Managing Director with Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) and joined to fund in 2008. Prior to that, he worked for over a decade in financial services focused on corporate investing, M&A and corporate finance, both in India and the United States. Udai’s roles have included Senior Vice President at Kotak Mahindra Capital where he led energy and transportation investment banking, Director of Corporate Development at Sabre Inc. where he led corporate investments of over USD 1 BN, and as a Consultant with Arthur Andersen in the corporate finance and tax practices. Udai has an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Vijay Nair is the CEO of Only Much Louder. He embarked on his music career at an early age managing Indian acts. What started as a hobby became a business venture when he founded Only Much Louder, the first artist management company for indie bands in India. Vijay’s career started at the age of 15 when he started consulting Procter & Gamble on their Indian youth portal Masti.com. Subsequently, he worked with the Indian indie music zine Gigpad.com and got initiated into the music business. He dropped out from college at the age of 18 and started managing leading acts in the Indian independent scene, including Pentagram, Zero, PDV and AFS. Over the next few years, OML evolved from an artist management company and co-founded an indie music label, a production house and a live events division. In 2009, Vijay was the first Indian to win the prestigious British Council International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award. He has been identified by many publications including India Today, CNN and the National Knowledge Commission as one of the young Indian entrepreneurs to watch out for in the media and entertainment space.

VT Bharadwaj is a managing director with Sequoia Capital, and is on the boards of Vasan, Prataap Snacks, Lovable, Celon Labs and Genesis Colors. At Sequoia Capital, he spearheads investments in Consumer, Retail and Healthcare sectors. He was previously associated with McKinsey & Company where he advised senior management in energy, consumer, retail and manufacturing companies on key strategic and operational issues.

He is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad where he was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal and an alumnus of BITS Pilani.

@vtbharadwaj

Vishal is the founder and managing partner of Gandhi & Associates— a leading Indian law firm which focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, venture capital/private equity transactions, and business disputes.

Vishal specializes in transactional work and on business/commercial disputes. He represents both investors and investee companies. He is also often seen on national television providing his expert opinion on various new and emerging areas of law and on disputes involving large industrial houses such as Cairn India, Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, etc.

Vishal has authored various publications including an article on “Key Legal Issues Relating to Joint Ventures in India” for the American Bar Association. Vishal frequently speaks on Indian law issues at various forums worldwide and his clients include US Polo Association, DDJ Capital, UIB Capital, Sun Mountain Capital, Avis Budget Group, Zimmer Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, University of Rio Grande, Qualcomm Inc, etc.

To contact Vishal, please e-mail him on vishal@gandhiassociates.com