Mahendran is a seasoned entrepreneur and the CMD at Global Beverages & Foods Pvt Ltd. Earlier he was MD, Godrej Consumer Products and led the company's internationalization efforts. In his earlier role as the MD of Godrej Sara Lee, Mahendran played a pivotal role and nurtured the Good Knight brand into an acknowledged 'Super Brand'.

Prior to his association with the Godrej Group Mahendran was a partner with M/s RGN Price & Co before joining Transelektra Domestic Products Limited, as an Executive Director in 1987. On Transelektra's takeover by the Godrej Group in 1994, he was nominated as Managing Director of the Company by the Godrej Group and continued in this capacity after Sara Lee Corp. acquired a 51% stake in 1995.

Mahendran is a founder member and President of the Home Insect Control Association (HICA) and an acknowledged authority on household pest control. He is also a Promoter-Director of Harvey Heart Hospitals, Chennai, a super-specialty hospital in cardiac care, and a founder member of the Great Lakes Institute of Management. 

Mahendran served on the board of the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and is on several industry forums such as FICCI, CII, Crop Care Federation of India and the Pest Control Association of India. 

Mahendran graduated from Madras Loyola College in 1976 and proceeded to complete his Chartered Accountancy in 1979.

Anurag Kedia is a chemical engineer from IIT Bombay (2001) and a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad. He has worked with Tata Administrative Services and KPMG before joining the exciting world of wellness and spas. He has worked on several projects in the consumer products and services space to formulate marketing strategies, expansion plans and implement ERP solutions.

At Four Fountains De-Stress Spa he heads franchising and is the Director of Projects & IT. He has been responsible for scaling up Four Fountains from 2 spas during its launch to 24 spas currently. He engages with prospective entrepreneurs to help them overcome their initial barriers about starting a business of their own and hand hold them to become successful entrepreneurs. In his spare time he likes listening to classical music, reading books and practicing yoga and meditation.

Bhavesh A Shah is Managing Director - Investment Banking at JM Financial. He currently heads the Financial Sponsor Group. He has an experience of over 15 years in Investment Banking and is focussed on deal origination and execution across sectors. He has been associated,as the key deal maker, with some of the significant and marquee deals in the Private Equity and capital markets space.In 2006, he was with Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong, for a brief period covering the private equity investors on Asia Pacific basis.Prior to Investment Banking, he spent four years in Equity Research with JM Financial group and CERC. Bhavesh is a CFA charterholder from ICFAI, India,as well asfrom the CFA Institute, Virginia, USA.

Darius joined New Silk Route Advisors at its inception in February 2007 and focuses on private equity opportunities in the Indian sub-continent out of the Mumbai office.

He previously worked at IDFC PE Ltd. which he joined in February 2003. Darius was the Executive Director, and later Chief Operating Officer of this asset management company that managed the India Development Fund, an infrastructure focused private equity fund. The India Development Fund was the largest domestic private equity fund in India at that time and Darius was part of the start-up team responsible for raising and managing this fund. While at IDFC PE, Darius participated as a Director on the Boards of portfolio companies and also represented the firm in interactions with regulatory authorities and at industry forums, such as the SEBI, IVCA, etc.

In February 1999, he co-founded and served as Managing Director of IndAsia Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd., the Indian advisor to the AMP-IndAsia India Fund – a private equity fund established in partnership with AMP of Australia. Whilst establishing this fund, he completed numerous successful private equity investments in the Information Technology, Telecom and Media sectors on a “club basis”. Prior to this, in 1997, Darius joined the investment team at the IndOcean Fund, amongst the first private equity funds to be established in India. The IndOcean Fund was established in partnership with Chase Capital Partners and Soros Fund Management. As a principal at this Fund, he was involved in evaluating potential investment proposals and in working with portfolio companies.

Upon his return from the US in1993, he managed the operations of his family owned soft drinks business, Duke and Sons Limited, which was a market leader in Western India. Darius was responsible for the marketing strategy and sales execution, as well as for the finance and treasury management functions. He led the negotiations that culminated in a successful sale of the business to PepsiCo.

He was the Indian junior national squash champion and represented India at various international tournaments. He was also a US national squash champion and first team All American.

He has a BA (Economics) from Harvard and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a frequent speaker at venture capital industry forums in India.

Gaurav Malhotra is the Managing Director and CEO of Bourn Hall International in India. Gaurav has over nineteen years of experience in healthcare domain, in leading business and change management across MNCs, start-ups, joint ventures and re-engineering organisations. His practice spectrum includes assignments in Leadership position in General Management, Consultancy, Sales, Marketing and Business Development. He had the opportunity to significantly alter the business landscape by leading and shaping therapy areas and building significant partnerships with the medical fraternity/stakeholders.

He was the MD & CEO of Patni Healthcare Limited.He was the Founder & CEO of Medfort Hospital, which achieved Top 4 Eye-Care Player leadership position in India in two years of its inception. He has also been with as the Business Head-South Asia for Bausch & Lomb and Business Director for Johnson & Johnson Medical.

He is an MBA graduate from XIM-B and an active member and guest speaker at various national and international industry forums and reputed educational institutes. He is a Healthcare Council Member of Gerson Lehman Group. He is also a mentor & strategic advisor to many healthcare start-ups, Private Equity investors as well as established healthcare companies. He is a member of the Corporate Advisory Board of prestigious SRM University. He is strategic advisor to middle east based leading executive search company Health Talent Consulting.

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.

Jayanta has over 25 years of industry experience with the last 15 years in the private equity business in India. He has in-depth experience of full cycle investing and fund raising in private equity. Prior to joining the private equity industry Jayanta was an entrepreneur. He has also been an investment banker and has worked in the industrial sector.

Previously, Jayanta was President – Private Equity at ICICI Venture. Prior to that, he was the India head of private equity at Lehman Brothers. Jayanta has led investments across sectors and is on the boards of multiple portfolio companies.

Jayanta has a post graduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Jadavpur University.

Jaydeep Barman is the co-founder and CEO at Faaso's which is a quick service restaurant that serves up wraps, that is, rolls with fillings. Set up in 2004 with seed capital of Rs 8 lakh, Faaso's is opening a new store practically every month, at a cost of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh each.

Jaydeep thought of the idea for Faaso's based on the Kati rolls he had seen in his hometown of Kolkata, West Bengal. After his MBA, Barman moved to Pune, Maharashtra to work for Brainvisa Technologies. In Pune, Barman met Kallol Banerjee who was also an alumnus of IIM Lucknow and they both founded Faaso’s as a part-time business in 2004.

Jaydeep has a degree in production engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, an MBA from IIM-Lucknow and has done a management programme at INSEAD, France. Subsequently he moved to London to work as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. for 5 years before moving back to India to work full time at Fasso's.

K S Narayanan is the CEO of Pan India Food Solutions Private Limited, and he plays a key role in shaping long-term growth strategies for the company, besides building various restaurant brands in India.

Narayanan, an alumnus of IIT (Madras) and IIM (Calcutta), brings with him 25 years of rich and varied experience from the corporate world with leading companies. He comes with an insightful understanding of customers and brands in the Food and Beverage space.

He is also a fitness enthusiast and is a regular at the Mumbai and Delhi marathons.

Kishore Biyani is the founder and Group CEO of Future Group. Widely credited as the pioneer of modern retail industry in India, Kishore Biyani is a mentor and role model for many Indian entrepreneurs and a thought leader in Indian business.

Over the past two decades he has created and lead some of India's most popular retail chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central, Home Town and eZone. These retail chains are present in over 95 cities and 60 rural locations in India and connect 300 million customers annually with over 30,000 small, medium and large entrepreneurs and manufacturers in the country. In addition, Future Group has made substantial investments in setting up food processing and manufacturing, manpower training and educational facilities, logistics and warehousing networks across the country. It has also partnered and invested with a number of entrepreneurs and businesses in multiple sectors.

A believer in the group’s corporate credo, ‘Rewrite Rules, Retain Values,’ Kishore Biyani considers ‘Indianness’ as the core value driving the group. His autobiography, ‘It Happened In India,’ has been translated into a number of languages. Kishore Biyani serves on the board of the National Innovation Foundation, Marico Innovation Foundation and other leading companies and organizations.

Nandini Chopra is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Corporate Finance in Mumbai, with more than 20 years of experience in M&A, sales and divestitures, joint venture advisory, private equity raises, IPOs, debt syndication and valuations.

Her primary areas of concentration are in M&A and PE advisory and valuations. She has worked with clients across a range of industries, and specializes in Consumer and Retail. Before joining A&M, Ms. Chopra spent 15 years with KPMG India in the Corporate Finance practice, where she most recently served as Partner. There, she led M&A transactions in the consumer and retail sector and successfully closed marquee cross-border transactions, assisted large Indian corporates in private equity fund raises and India entry assessment & partner search assistance for global companies.

In her prior experience, she also set up valuations practice covering M&A valuations, financial reporting, litigation and dispute valuations, tax and regulatory valuations and PE portfolios. In this role, she led the swap ratio determination for mega mergers like the Vedanta Group consolidation globally and Satyam Computers with Tech Mahindra.

She spent five years with SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of India’s largest commercial bank, State Bank of India. At SBI Capital Markets, she worked on large capital market raises including IPOs and rights issuances. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani, India and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, India. An Indian national, she is fluent in English and Hindi.

Neeraj is co-founder and CEO of Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd. Tzinga Energy Drink, their flagship brand, is the second largest selling energy drink in India. Paper Boat drinks, traditional Indian beverages, is recent brand addition in the portfolio. Prior to starting with Hector Beverages, Neeraj had an impressive career with The Coca-Cola Company for 8 years.

Neeraj is a graduate from Wharton Business School and was awarded the highest academic honor, the palmer scholar, in the University of Pennsylvania business program.

Nikhil Vora is the Founder and CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures; India’s first domestic consumer centric venture fund. Nikhil was earlier the Managing Director and Head of Research at IDFC Securities, and has been regarded as one of the strongest analytical minds in the country. The core of Sixth Sense lies in the belief that the next big wave of dysfunctional growth will be led by players who are going to be driven by completely different skill sets / capabilities and not necessarily capital. Sixth Sense has invested in ETHOS (India’s largest luxury retail watch chain) and CROSSROADS (India’s largest Road Side Assistance Company).  Sixth Sense philosophy lies in investing in the Consumer of Tomorrow…Today!!!

Nikhil has been invited by the “Nestle Global Consumer Board” and the “Regional CFO forum” to give a presentation on the potential roadmap for Nestle India. He has also evolved a strategic road-map for Hindustan Unilever, Aditya Birla Group, Marico, Godrej etc. His research has been accredited by some of the largest global funds like Capital, Fidelity, Alliance Bernstein, Putnam, Schroder’s etc. Nikhil has been rated by Asia Money / Institutional Investors consistently for being amongst the best analytical minds in the country. In the Asia Money polls 2012, Nikhil was voted as India’s No.1 analyst. He also has the rare distinction of being voted Asia’s Best Analyst by the Wall Street Journal in the same year.  Along with advising clients, he also has been a venture capital investor and on the board of a few of his investee companies. Some of the earlier Venture Investments made by Nikhil Vora in his personal capacity includes - Bewakoof India, BVG India, Cloudseed Legal (www.Rainmaker.co.in), Parag Milk (Go Cheese), Infinite Analytics, Intellisys Technologies, Kangaroo Kids, One97 (PayTm), Mannash Lifestyle (www.purplle.com), Reznext Solutions, Rooms Tonight, Technology Frontiers, Tarnea Technologies and Vini Cosmetics (Fogg Deo). A post-graduate in Management, Mr. Vora was a member participant at the Future Leaders Program at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, London. He was also bestowed with the ‘Thought Leadership’ award by IDFC Ltd.

Mr. Oscar Pereira together with his wife Mrs. Cheryl Pereira is the founder of Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals Pvt. Ltd. He is an acknowledged Cosmetologist and renowned for his ground breaking work in evolving breakthrough products for skin, hair and body care.

He has written avidly on skin and hair care and has appeared on various TV shows as an expert in the field of beauty treatments. He has also pioneered the concept of holding seminars for training and updating beauticians on the latest treatments and developments. He is also a seasoned professional who has developed the company’s activities to encompass a wide range of skin and hair care treatments.  

He is a post graduate from TISS with specialization in HR and always had a holistic approach towards human empowerment and felt that if we look good, we will feel good and this thinking together with his passion for doing something meaningful in this domain, fuelled his interest in the beauty industry.

The inspiration to set up Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals mainly stems from his continuing commitment, mission and personal longing to offer a solution for every major skin and hair concern, to research, develop, manufacture and market a range of skin and hair care products to meet those concerns and to be and remain a pioneer and leader in the field of cosmetics.

His constant interaction with the market led him to believe that today’s fast paced life has led to a new breed of customers who demand a instant and dramatic metamorphosis of their skin and hair and have grown weary of experimenting through trial and error in order to find the right product suited for their skin type and condition. This led him to manufacture high end cosmetics for different skin types and concerns and using the latest technology to fulfill the DNA of Cheryl’s which is “Skincare That Works”

Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals actually started production about 25 years ago and today the Company has a pan India presence, with a wide distribution network covering the length and breadth of the country and a strong customer base of thousands of beauticians, who are successful beauty professionals.

Mr. Pereira is committed to the continuous pursuit of research and development of formulations using the latest technologies and effective ingredients, to deliver outstanding results in resolving skin, hair and body care concerns.

His mission is to offer a solution for every major skin and hair concern, to research, develop, manufacture and market a range of skin and hair care products to meet those concerns and to be and remain a pioneer and leader in the field of cosmetics.

He drives the business development, marketing, finance and operations of the company and is also solely responsible for creating formulations of products that are manufactured by the company.

In October 2013, Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals was acquired by L'Oreal Paris, the largest cosmetic and beauty company in the world. This is L’Oreal’s first acquisition in the Indian market, which will help the company strengthen its position in the highly competitive Indian salon market.

Jean-Christophe Letellier, Managing Director, L’Oréal India, said: “This is an attractive opportunity for L’Oréal in India as it broadens the product offering of our Professional Products Division in this country to also include skincare products and services. It will further enhance our leadership position in the very dynamic professional products market where we are present with our brands - L’Oréal Professional, Matrix, and Kerastase.”

Armed with an experience of over 20 years in Luxury Fashion Retail, Mr. Pradeep Hirani anchors India’s largest Multi Designer Fashion House - KIMAYA Fashions Pvt. Ltd. With 24 stores spread across India, UAE and Pakistan, KIMAYA was the first Indian fashion house to scale up the country’s designer wear industry, both in terms of footprint and experience.

Mr. Hirani constantly endeavors to revolutionize the buying pattern of the quintessential Indian woman and open up new vistas in the domain of luxury fashion. As a testimony, he laid the foundations of “KARMIK” - an innovative brand that retails prêt collections by Leading Designers at an average price of $100!

Under the aegis of Mr. Hirani, KIMAYA has won a number of awards along its journey since its inception in 2002. The company is an ISO 9001 certified Fashion House that has won the “Star Luxury Retailer of the Year Award” for 4 years in a row.

Having pursued his Masters in Business Administration from NMIMS, Mumbai, Mr. Hirani is responsible for developing the expansion strategy for the group. He is also an anchor and a regular speaker at various retail forums like IRF, RAI, IFF, and VC-Circle.

He is an advisory board member and goodwill ambassador to Fashion Institutes like The New School of Design (Parsons), National Institute of Fashion Technology, WLC College India, G.D. Goenka, and Pearl Academy of Fashion amongst others.

Rahul, CEO and Co-Founder YLG, founded India's fastest growing salon and spa in May 2008. He brings 17 years of experience in diverse industries such as Retail, dot.com and Manufacturing. He has proven expertise in turning around retail business (He spearheaded Health & Glow's growth into India's No.1 Health & beauty Chain) and brings high level domain expertise in the Health, Beauty & Wellness sector. He has exposure to best practices from International Retailers.

Prior to founding YLG, Rahul was Head - Wellness business for the Future Group. He built the Health & Beauty Category, set up the beauty salon chain "Star & Sitara" for the company. He was instrumental in setting up India's first Gym Chain in Malls in a JV with Talwalkars for the Future group. He has played a key role in bringing about the Sachin Tendulkar - Future Group initiative "Sach". Before Pantaloon, Rahul headed the retail business for Arvind brands where he managed brands such as Arrow, Lee, Wrangler and Excalibur. His entry in retail began as the Business Head of Health & Glow, which even today continues to be the most successful format of its kind in India. Rahul has also dabbled with dot.com as Business Head for e-RPG Cricket Portal. Rahul started his career with the RPG Group, working at RPG Cables and Ceat Ltd, in various marketing & sales responsibilities.

He is a Post Graduate from IIM Calcutta and has a B.Tech (hons) from IIT Kharagpur.

Rahul Garg is the principal at Premji Invest, Bangalore.  At Premji Invest he is a part of the Investments team looking at PE and Mezzanine Investments with key sectors of interest include BFSI space including transaction processing and payment solutions space, Agri and Food processing, Retail, Domestic Consumption themes and Conventional Power.

Previously he worked at ICICI Bank in various profiles including AGM corporate banking group, Head-Origination, equity linked products, Team Leader - structured trade and treasury products, RMAG and others.

Rahul is a MBA Finance from MDI Gurgaon and B.E., Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.

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

Ravi Saxena is a builder of businesses and MD at Wonderchef. He is an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Besides his role at Wonderchef, he currently runs his own business in Retail and Management Education. He is the Indian partner of the prestigious Italian University, Bocconi and has recently launched a top-end Business School in Mumbai. Prior to this, he has an extensive experience spanning 18 years in Services, Hospitality, Consumer Products and Retail Industry, topped with a stint in Private Equity.

Sameer Prasad is the CEO of FACES Cosmetics, overseeing the Canada and India operations of the business.  He has played a key role in the development of FACES as a significant player in the Colour Cosmetics industry in India.

Prior to FACES, Sameer was instrumental in the launch and early development of several international brands like The Body Shop, Kiehl’s, Accessorize, Next, Debenhams, M&S, Guess, Oshkosh B’Gosh and Nautica in India and the Far-East, a region where he has worked extensively.

An alumnus of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and Sri Ram College of Commerce, Sameer brings with him 24 years of rich international experience in retail and distribution of some of the leading global brands in the Health & Beauty, Sporting goods, Apparel, Children’s toys and Fashion Accessories space.  He has successfully worked in several early-stage, start-up and turnaround business situations during his career.

Mr. Sanjay Vakharia is the Director  & COO of Spykar Lifestyle Private Ltd. & has been part of the original team who founded Spykar in 1992. Prior to joining Spykar, he worked with Magna Publications as the Export Manager (Garments) wherein he was responsible for setting up the marketing network in the US & UK markets. Additionally, he served as Marketing Manager for Toys & Games division of the Magna group. in 1990, he set up the Jeanswear Brand RAGZ, in partnership with a few friends.

His sharp business acumen saw him rise from overseeing product development and Marketing to being the COO. He has played a key role in the overall Marketing & Brand Communication strategies at Spykar.

Under the astute direction of Mr. Vakharia, Spykar has set up a robust distribution platform across the length and breadth of the country spanning EBO’s, LFR’s, MBO’s, and online sales. Besides online, Spykar has over 2000 points of Sales across 300 towns and cities of the country.

It is his passion & purpose to be unique that makes Spykar deliver a product that is easily distinguishable from the rest of the brands in the denim market. His keen eye on every aspect of business coupled with extensive travel across the world has led to inputs which have propelled Spykar to compete with the leading international brands. Spykar has the distinction of serving one of the most fickle consumers of the country, the youth, since over two decades and this has translated in Sanjay Vakharia of being one of the few professionals in the industry having a wealth of knowledge on this consumer segment.

@snj9

Shantanu Rastogi works from General Atlantic's Mumbai office where he focuses on investments in the Internet & Technology, Emerging Markets Consumer and Healthcare sectors in India. He serves on the board of directors of And Designs India Limited.

Prior to joining General Atlantic, Shantanu was a Principal at Apax Partners. Previously Shantanu was a consultant at McKinsey & Co. in Mumbai. Shantanu graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology and completed his M.B.A. at the Wharton School.

Shankar Narayanan is a Managing Director with the Asia Growth Capital team of global PE fund responsible for advising growth capital investments in India. He is based in Mumbai.
 
Mr. Narayanan has been in private equity since 1993 with the unique distinction of having run some of the investee companies as a CEO. He has on-the-ground work experience across the country which allows him to have a very practical perspective of growth prospects and challenges across industries.
 
Since joining the global PE fund in 2004, Mr. Narayanan has led and advised Carlyle on key investments such as Claris Lifesciences, Elitecore Technologies, Repco Home Finance, Tirumala Milk Products, Visen Industries, Value and Budget Housing Corporation, Edelweiss Financial Services, South Indian Bank, Infotech Enterprises; etc. He has also successfully delivered exits from Tirumala Milk Products, Cyberoam Technologies and Repco Home Finance (IPO). He was also actively involved in managing the fund’s investments and exits in Newgen Knowledge Works, Financial Software & Systems, Learning Mate Solutions, QuEST and Sharekhan.
 
Prior to joining the global PE fund, Mr. Narayanan spent six years at Hathway Investments in Mumbai and during that time served as Managing Director and CEO. He was also with Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, based in Hong Kong, as a Director covering South Asia and India. He was involved in a number of prominent private equity investments in India, including Johnson Tiles, Exide Industries, Hathway Cable, Asianet Satellite Communications, Pushpa Polymers, Tata Infomedia and AFL Limited and served on the Board of Directors of all these Companies.
 
Prior to Hathway Investments, Mr. Shankar Narayanan worked at Citibank in Mumbai. He received a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from XLRI Jamshedpur where he was a Gold Medalist standing first in the graduating class in the area of Finance & Accounting and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Mr. Narayanan is currently on the Boards of Elitecore Technologies, Infotech Enterprises and Newgen Knowledge Works. Previously he served on the Boards of key portfolios such as Repco Home Finance, Claris Lifesciences, Value and Budget Housing Corporation, Visen Industries, Financial Software & Systems, Tirumala Milk Products, Cyberoam Technologies, Learning Mate Solutions, Allsec Technologies, QuEST, Newgen Knowledge Works & Sharekhan.

Shishir is a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW) and an alumnus of London School of Economics (LSE) with over 14 years of experience.

He started his career with a Big 4 firm, Deloitte in London in the Audit and Assurance practice. Post which he joined his family business in India and aggressively expanded the warehousing and real estate activities along with an entrepreneurial venture into distribution, franchise network and retail of consumer durables and mobile handsets.

He joined Brand Capital in 2008. He heads the portfolios for Healthcare, Wellness and Education sectors which are the fastest growing Brand Capital portfolios. He works closely with Entrepreneurs and CXO teams of high growth potential early stage organisations to help them achieve exponential growth through brand building, resource strengthening, business development strategies and applying best practices.

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.

Shripad is a founder Director at MarketGate Consulting and brings an experience spanning over thirty years to help companies achieve superior business results and enhance brand value. He has worked across a multitude of sectors from financial services to automobiles and entertainment to petrochemicals. Shripad's breadth of experience prior to consulting covers industries such as healthcare, consumer goods and food & beverages. He has led sales and marketing teams for over fifteen years and has steered diverse businesses in the course of his career.

Shripad was Vice President-Marketing and Business Head for New Beverages at Coca-Cola India for over five years beginning 2000. His major achievements include achieving market leadership for brand Thums-up, Sprite and Maaza and preference leadership for brand Coca-Cola through the memorable “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola” campaign. He also led the advertising of core brands for India, Indonesia, Rural China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Prior to this he was Vice President-Marketing for the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Business and also headed the Vision Care profit center.

Shripad is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has contributed articles to leading business dailies and magazines.

Siddharth Bafna leads the Corporate Finance practice at Lodha & Co.  He is a rank holding CA and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA.  Siddharth has several years of Corporate Finance experience, having led a number of M&A and Private Equity advisory engagements.

He has led many transactions in the consumer and retail industries, e.g., majority stake sale in Moshe’s to New Silk Route (a USD 1.4 billion Asia focused Private Equity Fund), majority stake sale in BookmyShow.com to Network18 group, Rs. 50 crore private equity capital raise by Indian Master Franchisee of Papa John’s (the world’s third largest pizza chain) from TVS Capital, Mirah Group’s (owners of Rajdhani Thali) Rs. 40 crore investment in Impresario (owners of Mocha, Smoke House Deli) and its investment in the new restaurant venture promoted by Zorawar Kalra (co-founder of the ‘Punjab Grill’ restaurant chain), Costa’s India entry and franchise agreement with Devyani International, etc. He is currently the advisor on several on-going deals across multiple sectors (including for retail apparel, dairy, logistics, packaging, auto component, restaurant companies, etc.)

Mr. Siddhartha Pahwa joined Meru Cabs Pvt Ltd as Chief Executive Officer in 2011. He is a Chartered Accountant from ICAI and ranked 42 in the country in1996. He is also a Cost Accountant from CWAI and has done an MBA from IIM Ahemdabad.

Siddhartha started his career as a Management Trainee with Hindustan Lever Limited in 1996. He brings with him 18 years of experience in Business management, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance Management across geographical regions of Asia, Africa & Middle East. Siddhartha won the ‘Best SCM Logistics Professional Award’ for Asia Pacific region across industries held in Singapore in December 2008.

Before he joined Meru family as CEO in 2011, Siddhartha was the President -Supply Chain & Generics at Abbott Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. His expertise includes improving business performance, supply chain efficiencies and effectiveness through process implementation. Prior to this he worked as a Finance Director - Brand Development with Unilever (Bangkok) & Supply Chain Manager with Hindustan Unilever Limited.

Under his able leadership as Chief Executive Officer of Meru Cabs Pvt Ltd, a complete transformation has been done of the business by improving utilization, enhancing consumer experience and better relationship with the chauffeurs. In the near future, a vast expansion is planned in the Meru fleet size. With his innovative thinking Siddhartha has successfully launched new brands like Genie Cabs & Meru Plus for inter and intra city travel with advanced GPS/GPRS technology in different cities. He has commited to increase Meru cabs to 100,000 in next few years across India.

Siddhartha is passionate about running, football and driving.

Siddharth Dhondiyal, a Director in the IVFA investment team joined IVFA in 2006 and is involved with investments in healthcare, consumer and technology sectors.   Based in Bengaluru, he contributed to improving IVFA’s internal processes and developing the “The IVFA Way” - the Firm's approach to building admired businesses.

Over the last 10 years Siddharth has focused on tracking the evolution and growth of the Indian healthcare sector and has been actively involved in IVFA’s investments in the healthcare sector including Aster DM Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals, Trivitron Healthcare and Cloudnine Hospitals.

A Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, Siddharth also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Kolkata and did his Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD, France.   He had a six-year stint with Accenture in its strategy consulting practice, where he worked with companies in the pharmaceutical, consumer goods, industrial products and telecom industries.

With over 19 years of experience in the areas of Sales, Category Management, General Management, and Manufacturing, S. Subramanian is presently the Chief Executive Officer at Kaya India Limited. His specialization lies in the areas of Sales & Distribution, Retail Management, Modern Trade and Trade Marketing. He has handled diverse assignments across industries like FMCG, Consumer Durables, Paints and Retail straddling roles both in strategy and execution in corporate and field.

He has been associated with the Marico Group for over 6 years and his last 2 years has been with Kaya Ltd. as Head Operations. He has been instrumental in the Kaya journey in areas pertaining to Service Quality, Operations, Real Estate, New retail formats and IT.

Prior to this, he was associated with a series of reputed brands and organizations like Asian Paints India Ltd., Reckitt Benckiser India Ltd., Whirlpool, to name a few.

Holding B.E. Chemical and M.Sc. Chemistry from BITS Pilani in 1992, he has completed his PGDM in Marketing and International Business from NMIMS Mumbai in 1997.

Venkatesh Iyer is the man behind the strategy & vision and his focus has been towards the "What" and "How" of the business.

Over his 15 years of experience in financial services, he has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs translate ideas into business in the Modern Retail, Fashion & Computer education space.

His ultimate dream has been of "Corporatisation" of the humble Vada Pav and to see Vada Pav as a brand amongst the Pizzas & Burgers of the world.