Achal is the Founder and Managing Partner of Avigo Capital Partners (Avigo), a Private Equity Firm based in India. He started the firm in 2003 after having spent 20 years in Corporate & Investment Banking across India, Dubai & Canada with International banks like American Express, HSBC, SCB, EBIL and more recently six years as Director-Western Canada/USA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, specializing in Corporate Finance, Equity Investing and Investment banking.
 
Achal serves as a director on several company boards and advises conglomerates in Canada, UK, Malaysia, Dubai & India.

He has extensive experience in structuring capital market listing & private equity transactions. He has the proven ability to add value through corporate governance & liquidity enhancing measures. His in depth involvement in PE investments beginning from deal initiation, investment (negotiation, deal structuring, term sheet, legal documentation, funding) to the IPO provides the competitive edge in terms of being the ‘PE Investor’ of choice.
 
Achal is a Bachelor of Commerce and MBA by education.

Mr. Ajay Kumar Vij was formerly the CEO of Dabur Pharma, a fully integrated global pharmaceutical company which he successfully built up over 13 years into one of the world's largest specialty oncology groups that operated in 40 countries around the world including USA, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. He was instrumental in selling the company to European healthcare major Fresenius for over USD $360 million in 2008. He has broad exposure to the Asian healthcare sector and has wide experience in identifying promising business opportunities, developing a growth strategy and implementing profitable exits.

Mr. Vij serves as Non-Executive Director in Diwan Chand Medical Services P. Ltd., Dabur Research Foundation, Althea Lifesciences Limited and Famy Care Limited.

Mr. Vij is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).

He holds a MBA and Bachelor degree in Science from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India.

One of the pioneers of the Indian private equity industry. Prior to founding CX Partners, Ajay headed Citi’s private equity business since its inception in 1995. Prior to this, he worked with several financial firms in multiple geographies, starting with Citibank in 1976 and the last being the CEO of a Citi affiliated brokerage firm, Citicorp Securities & Investments Ltd. He has served on the boards of several portfolio companies such as HT Media, Yes Bank, i-Flex and Progeon among others.
Education:

* MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1976).
* B.A. (Hons) Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University (1974) – top ranked in the University.

Ameet H. Desai is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Advisory LLP which is the family office of the $ 5 billion Adani Group. He has over 25 years of experience developing infrastructure projects including ports, Special Economic Zones, logistics, power and city gas distribution. Previously he has worked as the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Adani Power Ltd. and Mundra Port & SEZ Ltd. He was also responsible for successfully raising almost $ 1 billion capital through the IPO route and $ 1.2 billion through private equity and QIP route. He has also mobilized debt of over $ 8.5 billion.

Prior to  Adani Group, he was Vice President (Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Planning) at Indian pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and worked at Core Healthcare before that.

He is a Management Graduate and also lectures at Business Schools as a guest lecturer.

Amit Dabas is a Vice President at Guggenheim Partners, and takes a lead role in sourcing and evaluating secondary transactions and co-investments in India. He has more than 11 years of private equity, investment research and operational experience. Prior to joining Guggenheim, he was an equity research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners covering Indian telecom, media and Internet stocks. Previously, he worked at Ericsson and Tata Consultancy Services, where he held various roles ranging from product management to technology consulting.
 
Amit graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and holds an M.B.A. (Director’s List) from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is a CFA charterholder.

Amul Gabrani - Amul Gabrani, is Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Tecpro Systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Delhi.

He started his career with Ingersoll Rand in 1981 and has more than 28 years of experience in the material handling industry. He was associated with Voltas Limited from 1984 to 1986 and thereafter worked with Fenner (India) Limited until 1990. He has been a member of Board of Directors since incorporation.

Anand Ramachandran Prasanna is an Investment Director.

Prior to joining Squadron Capital in March 2008, Anand was with Sequoia Capital’s Indian investment team, based in Bangalore. Prior to his work with Sequoia, he was employed by the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, based in New Delhi with assignments across the Asia Pacific region.

Anand holds an MBA from the FORE School of Management, New Delhi and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Kerala.

In addition to Hindi, Anand speaks Malayalam and Tamil.

Bruno is responsible for defining the strategic direction of Adveq and for the firm’s business development in Asia. He is also a member of the Investment Committee.

Prior to founding Adveq in 1997 he was the founder and responsible executive of two venture capital fund of funds, MC Partners I & II, and made several direct company investments in the clean technology space. Bruno also has experience in managing and investing in start-ups, turn-arounds and expansion opportunities in other industries on different continents.

Bruno holds MSc degrees in Construction Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

 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

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

Ravi Shankar is a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Ravi Shankar worked at McKinsey & Company in Mumbai, where he advised senior management of top Indian companies on a variety of issues including business building, channel management and leadership development. Prior to McKinsey, Ravi Shankar worked at Wipro Technologies in their Embedded and Internet Access division.

At Wipro, Ravi Shankar helped several venture-backed networking start-up clients design and build customer premise equipment for next generation applications like VoDSL and Internet over Cable.

Ravi Shankar received an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he was awarded the President’s Gold Medal. He also holds a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from REC Trichy.

Himanshu is the co-founder of Client Associates. He has 15 years of experience behind him in the areas of Investment Banking & Private Banking. Prior to setting up CA he worked with Deutsche Bank Private Banking, DSP Merrill Lynch and London Forfaiting Group.

Over the years, Himanshu has earned the distinction of pioneering the concept of Family Office in India and has built one of the finest teams of private bankers which works with some of the most distinguished wealthy families of India. He has built up a specialization in providing complex wealth management solutions to the needs of Family Business Owners & Entrepreneurs in India. He authors the quarterly chronicle of Client Associates – CA Quarterly – which has built its own following in the industry. He pioneered the concept of Portfolio Reallocation, a Risk Management technique, in the Indian Market.

Jason Sambanju joined Paul Capital in August 2007 and is Co-Head of Paul Capital’s Asian operations. Based in Hong Kong, his responsibilities include sourcing, executing and closing secondary private equity transactions as well as the general development of Paul Capital’s business within the region. Mr. Sambanju’s eleven years of transactional experience prior to Paul Capital includes seven years at Symphony Capital Partners where, as a Principal, he sourced, executed, monitored and realised growth equity and buyout investments across a range of industries and Asian jurisdictions. Prior to this, he was an Associate in Deutsche Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions investment banking group in New York focusing on US-European cross-border transactions.  Mr. Sambanju has dual bachelor degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (from the Wharton School and College of Arts & Sciences) and spent a year at the London School of Economics.

Jennifer Choi manages EMPEA’s member and industry engagement initiatives. Jennifer runs the association's regional Member Councils, and works with EMPEA's Legal and Regulatory Council to encourage policy frameworks that support the growth of the asset class. A frequent speaker and commentator on the industry, Jennifer also oversees the association's communications with the media and non-industry audiences, as well as EMPEA's institutional partnerships and global collaboration efforts.

As EMPEA’s first research director from 2006 to 2011, Jennifer built EMPEA's content portfolio, including the EMPEA Insights and Private Equity Impact Case Studies series, and led the creation of the industry's first global database of private equity activity in emerging markets.

Prior to EMPEA, Jennifer was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., leading due diligence engagements and providing advisory services and portfolio company strategic planning support for the private equity industry. Jennifer’s previous experience includes organizational development and strategy consulting for clients in the healthcare, financial services and pharmaceutical sectors.

Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.

Kanwal was the first Indo-American Founder & CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ, co-founded and built TiE into the largest global network of Indian entrepreneurs, and co-founded Inventus where he applies his full energy and time building Inventus into a leading early stage venture franchise.

Kanwal came to the United States from India for graduate studies, advanced through the engineering ranks in a number of technology companies, and then co-founded Excelan in Silicon Valley to commercialize ethernet and TCP/IP – standards which became the basis of the Internet. He took Excelan public in 1987, becoming the first Indo-American Founder & CEO to list a venture-backed company on the NASDAQ.
Excelan later merged with Novell, where Kanwal served as EVP, CTO and a Board Director for five years, established Novell’s operations in India, grew the company into the second largest software vendor in the world and returned 100X to his venture investors. Later, Kanwal was CEO of Ensim and also CEO of Cybermedia, both companies in which he was initially a lead venture investor and board member. Kanwal negotiated Cybermedia’s successful acquisition by Network Associates.

Over the 14 years prior to co-founding Inventus, Kanwal was a full-time venture-angel, investing his own capital in more than 50 startups, leading the initial financings for 23 of them and playing an active role on their Boards. These prior venture investments resulted in 21 exits including 6 IPOs to date. Also active in Indian public policy related to venture, Kanwal advised India government policy makers in reforming venture regulations.
This encouraged fund formation in India, and Kanwal was the founding limited partner behind Infinity Capital-India a successful early-stage India venture fund. He also successfully advised the Indian Prime Minister and his government on their aggressive deregulation of telecom, leading to the explosive growth of mobile telephony in India, and laying the foundation for the country’s impressive IT expansion. At Inventus, Kanwal’s been a Board Director at Sierra Atlantic (ACQ: Hitachi), Assured Risk, Espresso Logic, GenWi, and observer at Poshmark.

Kanwal is a well-known figure in the global Indian community and a widely recognized authority on entrepreneurship. He co-founded The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) to promote Indian entrepreneurship and was TiE President through the late 90′s presiding over its growth into a global organization with over 10,000 members who have been behind Silicon Valley and India start-ups. Kanwal is currently a trustee on the global board of TiE. With Inventus, Kanwal works closely with entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and India, as he has since 1995, to apply his full time and energy helping them accomplish great result.

Kanwal earned a BSEE from IIT-Bombay and a MSEE and Honorary Doctorates in both Business and Engineering from Michigan Tech. Kanwal is a board member on the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund (IITBHF), and also founded the Kanwal Rekhi Schools of Information Technology at both IIT-Bombay and Michigan Tech.

Kelvin Yap joined the direct investment group in HarbourVest’s London-based subsidiary in 2006 to focus on European direct growth equity and buyout investments and became a vice president in 2011.  Kelvin has been involved in several of the Firm’s direct investments, including Avio, Finjan, Minimax, MYOB, Schenck Process, SuperMax, Trainline, and TynTec.  In 2009, Kelvin transferred to HarbourVest’s Hong Kong-based subsidiary to focus on partnership, direct growth equity, and buyout investments in Asia Pacific.  

Kelvin joined HarbourVest from Deloitte in London, where he managed merger and acquisition (including demergers and IPOs) due diligence for both private and public transactions in the Corporate Finance Transactions Services division.  Prior to that, Kelvin was a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  

He received a BC with a double major in Accounting and Finance from Monash University in Australia in 2001. Kelvin is a Chartered Accountant with The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. In addition, he received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2007 from the CFA Institute. He speaks fluent Cantonese, Indonesian, and Malay.

Kiran focuses on fund investment activities across sectors, including fund due diligence and evaluation, as well as monitoring existing investments.  He participates in all Investment Committee meetings. As a former physician trained in neurosurgery and strategy consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, Kiran’s knowledge and experience is particularly deep in biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services. He also actively works with GSA’s India funds.  Kiran brings leadership to GSA’s performance analytic capabilities and is an important contributor to mining GSA’s databases, as well as client portfolios, to evaluate performance of current and potential fund managers.

Prior to joining GSA in 2009, Kiran was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. He has experience leading strategy consulting projects and developing client relationships across three continents with BCG, having worked for significant periods in BCG's Boston, Zurich and Mumbai offices.

Kiran worked on a broad range of strategy, finance, and operations projects in a variety of industries ranging from healthcare and financial services to consumer and industrial goods.  He specialized in BCG's healthcare practice area where he led cases with large pharma, medical technology and health services companies.

Education:
MBBS, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (Bangalore)
MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Fluent in Hindi and Kannada.

Kutty is an Investment Manager based in the firm's London office.

Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2006, Kutty was Head of Development at Invicta Capital, a structured finance advisory firm focusing on film finance. Previously, he worked as an Analyst in the M&A team at Morgan Stanley in London, and as a Relationship Manager in the Corporate banking team at Standard Chartered in London.

Mani is a Partner based in and responsible for the oversight of Quilvest's Hong Kong office, from where he co-manages QS GEO PEP, Quilvest's Global Emerging Opportunities Private Equity Program. In addition, he sources and executes direct and co-investment opportunities primarily in Asia and Latin America as well as selectively in Central & Eastern Europe and Africa.

Prior to joining Quilvest, Mani worked at Alvarez & Marsal, a prominent crisis management and restructuring advisory firm, where he worked with creditors and distressed companies in various operational and financial turnaround situations across the United States and Latin America. Prior to A&M, Mani worked as the Director of Finance and Strategic Planning for a communications provider in the Northeastern United States. His responsibilities included capital raising, M&A, partnerships, plan development, and product pricing.

Mani started his career in the Media & Communications and International investment banking practices of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, both in New York and Hong Kong, where he worked on a variety of high yield, M&A, restructuring, public and private equity transactions. During his time at DLJ, Mani worked on transactions across the US, Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Mani received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Michigan. Mani is a board member or observer on a number of Quilvest's fund and direct investments. In addition, Mani is an Advisory Council member of EMPEA, the Emerging Market Private Equity Association.

Mukul Gulati is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Zephyr Peacock Management India Pvt Ltd.

Mukul has 18 years of experience in the investment business including private equity, investment research and general management. Mukul is responsible for overall leadership of the Zephyr Peacock investment team. He is engaged in deal sourcing and evaluation and serves on the Boards of several investee companies of Zephyr Peacock.

Previously, Mukul worked at Multex, where he was involved in setting up and managing the firm’s quantitative equity research business.

Mukul is a Charter member of the Bangalore chapter of TiE Global. He also serves as an advisor to TechnoServe India. TechnoServe is a global organization that supports entrepreneurship in developing economies.

Mukul received an MBA with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is a cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland, where he was a Dean’s Scholar at the Department of Economics.

Nirav Kachalia is a Managing Director of Investments at Morgan Creek and one of the founding members of the investment team with a principal focus on private investments. Mr. Kachalia joined Morgan Creek in December 2004 and during his tenure the firm has completed approximately $2.8 billion in commitments to private assets. In January of 2007, after several years of covering the Asia Pacific region, Nirav moved with his family to Hong Kong to open and head Morgan Creek's Hong Kong office. Prior to joining Morgan Creek, Mr. Kachalia was co-founder and Vice President for Strategy for HiFusion, an education technology company.

Mr. Kachalia assisted in all start-up activities including raising over $16 million and growing the company to over 150 employees before negotiating a successful sale to a joint venture corporation established by Sylvan Learning Systems and Aether Systems. Prior to starting HiFusion, Mr. Kachalia was an Associate at Winslow Partners, the personal investment vehicle for Kenneth Brody, a former Management Committee member of Goldman, Sachs. At Winslow he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investment opportunities within early stage and late stage private equity. Prior to joining Winslow Partners, Mr. Kachalia was in the Investment Banking Program at Morgan Stanley in the health care group, where he analyzed and executed strategic corporate finance alternatives for both small and large capitalization companies.

Mr. Kachalia received his Bachelor of Science in Biology and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Nishesh has over 14 years of M&A/transaction experience including 10+ years of transaction services experience,  where he has led due diligence engagements primarily for private equity funds, e.g., Blackstone, General Atlantic, Carlyle, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Barings Asia, Navis Capital Partners, etc. and also a year of experience on the buy-side, having worked with a private equity fund  (in 2008).

Nishesh is a member of the Transaction Services practise with a focus on Private Equity.

Praneet Garg is a Principal in the Hong Kong office. Mr. Garg co-leads Asia Alternatives’ investments in India and South East Asia, and is primarily responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management of private equity fund investments and direct co-investments in these geographies. Mr. Garg also leads Asia Alternatives' market research function.

Prior to joining Asia Alternatives, Mr. Garg had over five years of consulting and research experience with the Private Equity Practice at McKinsey & Company in the Delhi and London offices. He joined McKinsey & Company in 2001 and led several Private Equity knowledge development projects. He worked with McKinsey Private Equity client teams on issues of Private Equity strategy, organization, performance and due diligence. He also led the Private Equity research team and authored several market research pieces on Asia Private Equity and other related topics.

Mr. Garg holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from Mumbai University. He is fluent in Hindi, Punjabi, and English.

Mr. Garg currently serves on the Advisory Boards for Nexus India I and II.

Praneet Singh is a Managing Director at Siguler Guff and a member of the Investment Committees for the BRIC Opportunities Funds. He is a senior member of the Firm's investment staff and is actively involved in managing investments in India and the frontier markets. Mr. Singh joined Siguler Guff in September 2008 and brings a unique mix of operations, marketing and consulting experience, as well as expertise in the healthcare and consumer sectors, to the BRIC investment team.

Prior to joining Siguler Guff, Mr. Singh headed the $325 million Indian operations of Piramal Healthcare Limited, India’s fourth largest pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, he worked for more than seven years in the Mumbai, Delhi, Boston and Santiago offices of McKinsey and Company, focusing on operations, marketing and strategy. Mr. Singh also worked in marketing at Procter & Gamble in India and Southeast Asia for five years. He was born and raised in Delhi, India.

Mr. Singh holds a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Punit Shah is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with a post qualification experience of 25 years. He is a member of KPMG Global Steering Committees on private equity and real estate funds.

Prior to joining KPMG, he was a partner with RSM for 10 years and thereafter was the national leader of the Financial Services (Tax and Regulatory Services) practice of PwC.

Mr Shah has in-depth knowledge and experience of banking and financial services laws in India. He renders extensive professional advice to Private Equity /Real estate/Venture Capital Funds, Indian and Foreign Banks, Insurance Companies, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Mutual Funds, etc.

He has been a regular contributor of articles on the above subjects in leading financial newspapers as well as journals of several professional Institutes. He has spearheaded several initiatives in making representations to the Government on behalf of the industry.

He has been a speaker for various forums including several Professional Institutes, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and International Fiscal Association.

Rahul Bhasin is the Founder and Managing Partner of Baring India, and a Senior Partner and Global Board Member of Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP) International. He is also a member of the Investment Committee of Baring Vostok Capital Partners, and has been an Advisory Board member of the ING Group in India. He has crafted the strategy and execution processes for the investments by the Predecessor Funds since his joining in 1997.

Mr. Bhasin served as the Chairman of Mphasis Limited (now a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary) and oversaw its transformation from a 120-man, US$ 6 million revenue, loss-making company into a 43,000 employee, US$ 1.2 billion revenue, US$ 200 million net profit-making enterprise. In addition, for most of the past two decades, he has served as Chairman or member of the boards of RMZ Corp, JRG Securities (now renamed as Inditrade Capital), Secova, PharmArc, and Auro Mira Energy, among many others. He has also served as the Chair of the Audit and Investment Committee of HOEC, one of the largest independent Oil & Gas players in India. As a senior member of the Baring India team, he has spoken at various conferences in India and overseas, and is a member of the ‘CEO Forum’ at The Economist corporate network, and a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). His views are regularly sought by the media in India. He presently serves on the boards of Sphaera Pharma, Auro Mira Energy, and RMZ Corp.

Prior to Baring India, Mr. Bhasin joined Citibank in London as a member of the Global and Emerging Market Asset Allocation Committee of the Global Asset Management Group, where he was responsible for asset allocation on a sector and regional basis for all global portfolios. He has actively invested in and managed funds across various asset classes including derivatives in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, and India. He oversaw and drove business start-ups across multiple geographies in different asset management business. Prior to moving to London, He was the youngest Independent Treasurer to date at Citibank, managing the treasury for Northern India. He has been a public spokesperson on matters of economic policy and administrative efficiency and efficacy, and has given guest lectures at several educational institutions including Wharton, Harvard, and his own alma mater, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Mr. Bhasin has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, Asia’s premier business school.

Raj is the Senior Managing Director at FIL Capital Advisors (India) Private Limited. Raj has over ten years of leadership experience in the Indian private equity industry, with experience of investing across multiple stages and industries.

During his private equity career, Raj has also worked in The Carlyle Group and Merlion (Temasek-Standard Chartered JV) and was earlier the co-founder and Managing Director of WestBridge Capital Partners (now Sequoia India).

Raj started his career as a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton where he worked both in USA and India. He subsequently worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs where he was responsible for India coverage and served on the board of Goldman’s then JV partner Kotak Mahindra Capital.

Raj holds an AB degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a charter member of TiE and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO). 

Rebecca A. Fannin is author of Silicon Dragon (McGraw-Hill, 2008) and Startup Asia (Wiley, 2011), a contributor to Forbes, and a consultant and public speaker. Her news and events group, Silicon Asia, publishes e-newsletters for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and develops conferences in the world’s tech hotspots.

Her consulting work includes a KPMG white paper on China outsourcing, Sony research projects, and Econsultancy editorial content. She has partnered with NASDAQ OMX, Morrison & Foerster, KPMG, SVB Financial Group, O’Melveny & Myers, Sidley Austin, Deloitte, K&L Gates, DLA Piper, InvestHK, SecondMarket, and Wells Fargo on China and India business events. Rebecca has testified as an expert witness on China’s Internet before a U.S.-China Commission in Washington, D.C.

Rohan is a Managing Partner at Capvent India Private Equity (CIPE) and Partner at Capvent AG. He is responsible for sourcing and managing our fund investments in India. He has been working with Capvent for three years, and came on board CIPE in 2007. Previously, he was Founder & CEO of Indiamarkets.com, a pioneer in the online and offline B2B eCommerce in India with volumes over US$ 1 billion in transaction volume over the past four years.

He began his career as a credit rating research analyst with CRISIL-S&P, then as an Investment Banker at Trans Arabian Investment Bank (TAIB) and advised MAPE, an Indian investment bank, on investment opportunities in India. He holds a Masters degree in Finance and International Business from the University of Houston.

Sameer Sain is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Everstone Capital, an India focused Private Equity and Real Estate investor.  Everstone has over 100 employees across 5 offices (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore and Mauritius) and manages approximately $1.6 billion. The firm follows an active and operational investing style with a focus on growth and platform transactions.

Previously, Sameer spent eleven years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director and head of the Special Investments Group (International) as well as Institutional Wealth Management (EMEA). He holds a B.Com from the University of Mumbai, a BBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from Cornell University.

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.

Sudhir is Founder & Chairman of IDG Ventures India Advisors. He specialises in identifying disruptive high growth technology firms with a strong leadership team, and helps them grow rapidly with an eye for outsized financial returns.

Since 1998 Sudhir and his team have advised on investments into 40 firms across Digital Consumer, Enterprise Software and Engineering / Medical Device Sectors. Key investments include FlipKart (India’s leading eCommerce player), Mindtree Consulting (a global IT services play), Myntra (Fashion & Sports e-Commerce), Manthan (a global Analytics product play), and Yatra (a leading Online Travel Company). Other marquee names in the IDG portfolio include Firstcry, Vserve, Lenskart and Zivame.
In 2001, Sudhir was recognized by Red Herring as one of the leading venture capitalists in the country. He has been named among the Top Ten IT Professionals by Dataquest and by Bloomberg UTV as ‘Visionary Venture Capitalist of the year in 2011’. He was also recently featured in Subroto Bagchi’s recent book ‘’Zen Garden - Conversations with Pathmakers’’, in 2014.

With over 30 years’ experience Sudhir has served at various leadership positions at HCL, Wipro and Infotech Enterprises as well as Country Head of Walden International, one of the first Venture Investors in India. Sudhir holds a B.Tech in Engineering and an MBA Degree from FMS, Delhi. His interests include wild life photography.

@sudhirksethi

Tapan has been involved in private equity and venture capital since the late 90’s. Currently at State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), the sovereign wealth fund of Sultanate of Oman, he is managing direct investments in UK, Central and Eastern Europe. He is a Director on the board of companies in UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. He also advises and sits on the Investment committee of SGRF’s private equity fund JV’s in several geographies including Vietnam. Prior to SGRF, Tapan spent a considerable time as Vice President for investments in metals and chemicals sector at Gulf Investment Corporation, Kuwait, one of the oldest investment holding companies established in 1983 and held equally by the six GCC countries.

Tapan gained operational experience while working for GE, Unilever and previously also managed the Funds and PE investments portfolio for Emirates Bank International, Dubai. He first entered the world of investments by accident when as an entrepreneur along with his IITian buddies he sold his Indian information security company to a venture capitalist in the US. Since then he has managed over USD 1 billion in equity investments.

Tapan holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT- Delhi and an MBA from FMS- Delhi University.

Vikram is a Managing Director in the Customized Fund Investment Group, where he is involved in relationship management, deal sourcing and conducting due diligence on private equity investments. Previously, he was an Investment Banking Associate at DLJ and CS. Prior to joining DLJ, Vikram was a Relationship Manager with Deutsche Bank from 1993 to 1997.

Vikram was also an Audit professional for a KPMG affiliate in India from 1989 to 1992.Vikram is a Managing Director of CFIG, where he leads the group’s infrastructure investment team. Vikram is involved in relationship management, deal sourcing and conducting due diligence on infrastructure investments. Vikram has extensive emerging markets investment experience throughout Asia and is the portfolio manager responsible for several of CFIG’s fund-of-funds products focused on the emerging markets, including a ~$170 million program focused on fund investments in Asia, a ~$129 million program focused on fund investments in India and a ~$50 million separate account program focused on real estate and infrastructure fund investments and co-investments located in the emerging markets.

Previously, Vikram was at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette ("DLJ") and Credit Suisse from 1997-2000. Prior to joining DLJ, Vikram was a Relationship Manager with Deutsche Bank from 1993 to 1997, where he financed toll roads, a public-private railroad company, a water treatment plant and two wireless infrastructure rollouts located in the emerging markets.

In addition, Vikram began his career as an Audit professional for a KPMG affiliate in India from 1989 to 1992. Vikram received his MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Commerce degree with honors from the University of Delhi. Vikram is also a qualified chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Vikram has been an active venture investor in India over the last 11 years and has successfully invested in and had exits from his early-stage and growth-stage investments in the wireless, retail, financial services and manufacturing sectors.  Vikram focuses on sectors such as Logistics, Consumer & Engineering Services, and Education.

He sits on the boards of Centum Learning (Bharti Group’s Education Company), Fourcee Infrastructure (Liquid Logistics Company), Genesis Colors (a high-end apparel company) and Geodesic Techniques (a specialty construction company).

Prior to joining Mayfield, Vikram was a founding member of JM Financial Investment Managers Limited, a broad-based, multi-sector private equity fund. While there, Vikram helped raise the fund and led some of the key investments and served on several boards including Satya Paul (a high-end retail company), the Sona Group (an auto components company) and International Tractors Ltd. (a tractor & farm equipment company).

Prior to joining JM Financial Investment Managers Limited, Vikram worked for Cisco's investment arm, where he led the investment in Bharti Telesoft. Prior to that, he was involved in one of the earliest venture capital funds in India, Infinity Venture Fund, where his notable investments include Indiagames (a wireless media company) and Brainvisa (an e-learning company), and he was also involved with investments such as Avendus and Indiabulls (both financial service companies). Vikram's prior experience includes working at Chase and Barclays Capital as part of their investment banking practices in Mumbai for 4 years.

Vikram received his Bachelor's degree in Commerce and a Master's in Management Studies from the University of Bombay.

Vincent is a partner of Pantheon, a premier private equity fund of funds with over USD24bn under management globally. He is in charge of investments in growth equity and venture funds in Asia with a particular focus on China and India. He is personally responsible for deploying USD~500m and sits on over 10 advisory boards of leading private equity and venture funds such as TPG Asia, Baring Asia, and Hony Capital. Vincent is a member of Pantheon’s global co-investment committee and is leading the firm’s direct investment efforts in Asia.

Prior to joining Pantheon in December 2004, Vincent was the Chief Representative for AIGGIC’s Shanghai office, where he was responsible for the firm’s direct investment activities in mainland China for over three years.

Before his private equity career, Vincent was the Chief Representative of Merrill Lynch’s Shanghai office, where he was responsible for deal origination in Eastern China. He also worked at investment banking divisions of Schroders and Robertson, Stephens & Co. since 1995, all based in China.

Vincent received a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 1991. He is now based in Hong Kong.