Our speakers

Dr. Raj Dravid, COO, IL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd

Dr Dravid is a widely respected Management professional who had held various senior positions with a common thread of skill building, OD interventions, designing of HR Strategies and incubating start ups as major strength areas. His work experience in various roles such as consultant, Adviser and Director/VP with various blue chip companies in India and Middle East makes his profile a unique one in terms of different competencies.  He had, at a corporate level worked with the entire group in devising core HR strategies and processes and he is perhaps one of the few professionals having in depth exposure to methods such as Hay's system of Job Evaluation and Dr Robert Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard having had implementation experience in both. His stints in India also include roles as OD and general management consultant with Tata Consultancy Services and Centre for Organization Development- both premier consultancy houses.

Dr Dravid has served as Managing Director of an IT offshore development center in Chennai.

The sectors that Dr.Dravid has been associated with include Fertilizers and Chemicals, Telecom, IT, Reinsurance and Apparel exports. An organizational Behavior and Training management qualification coupled with degree in Business management, Psychology and doctorate in Behavioral Sciences Dr Dravid combines academic excellence with sharp hands on style of management.

As a HR professional Dr Dravid has the unique background of handling strategic HR issues in some of the most challenging environments, design and development of HR systems and extensive training at middle and senior levels of management.

Presently Dr. Dravid works with IL&FS as Chief Operating Officer  and is actively involved in skill building initiatives for the below poverty line segment. Under his leadership IL&FS has trained and placed over 200,000 youth  in different verticals.


Dr. Rajdeep Manwani, Motivational Speaker,


Dr. Rajeev Gowda, Professor, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Dr. Rajeev Gowda is Chairperson, Centre for Public Policy and Professor of Economics and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. His education includes an MA in Economics from Fordham University and a PhD in Public Policy and Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and as Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Professor Gowda research focuses on how people and societies manage risk. His edited books include Judgments, Decisions, and Public Policy, published by Cambridge University Press.

After his return to India Professor Gowda is actively immersed in politics and is with the Congress party. He draws on his political field work for his publications on the Indian political process.

Professor Gowda is now building the Resurgent India Trust that aims to empower youth and energize Bangalore. An avid quizzer, Dr. Gowda was national runner-up on BBC TV Mastermind India in 2001.


Dr. Rajiv Agarwal, Professor & Department Chair Strategy & Family Business, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR)

Rajiv Agarwal holds a Ph.D. from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, with a focus on Family Managed Businesses in India. He holds a master’s in management from S. P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai (SPJIMR), and has pursued ‘The Owner / President Management Programme’ from Harvard Business School.

His research and teaching expertise is in Strategy, Family Business, and Entrepreneurship. His research enthusiasm is reflected through a series of intellectual contributions in journal publications, authoring books and book chapters, periodicals, simulations, and media publications.

In his career spanning 30 years, he has held senior executive roles with organisations in the electronics industry, simultaneously pursuing his passion for teaching management education. He is a professor and chair of Strategy and Innovation at SPJIMR.


Dr. Ramesh B Byrapaneni, Managing Director, Endiya Partners | @EndiyaVC

Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni is a Cardiologist turned Venture Capitalist. Currently he is Managing Director at Endiya Partners, a venture capital fund that invests in ideas with the potential to change the world across Technology, Healthcare and Consumer Services.As a Venture Partner of Ventureast Tenet Fund, a seed-stage VC Fund consisting of investments across technology and technology-enabled sectors, he invested and is on the boards of OneBreath and SmartRx. He has been actively involved with Nephroplus, a healthcare startup, backed by funding from Bessemer.

With significant managerial and entrepreneurial experience, Dr. Ramesh brings a passion for early stage ventures, commitment to work, business acumen and a complementary rolodex. Dr. Ramesh was Chief of Cardiology and Founder of Medwin Hospital. He served as the President of TiE Hyderabad for 4 years and one of the Founding Directors of Hyderabad Angels. He has also jumpstarted various innovative initiatives like Hyderabad 10K Run (the first to start these 10K runs in the country) and Health Awareness Promotion Project India (HAPPi) Hearts project to prevent Non-communicable diseases (NCDs).


Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, MD, Endiya Partners

Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, MD, Endiya Partners, is a cardiologist who turned into a venture capitalist, to be a part of the healthcare innovation story. At Endiya, Dr. Ramesh has led our investments in Healthtech companies- SigTuple, ekincare and cure.fit.

Prior to Endiya, at Ventureast, he invested in companies like OneBreath and SmartRx . Dr. Ramesh is also an angel investor with Nephroplus, India’s largest chain of dialysis clinics. Earlier, Dr. Ramesh was Chief of Cardiology and Founder of Medwin Hospital. He is also the Founding Director of Hyderabad Angels and has been President of TiE Hyderabad for four years.


Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, Venture Partner, Ventureast

Dr. Ramesh Babu MD FACC is a Venture Partner with the Ventureast Tenet Fund, a premier seed-stage VC Fund consisting of investments across technology and technology-enabled sectors. With significant managerial and entrepreneurial experience, Dr. Ramesh brings a passion for early stage ventures, commitment to work, business acumen and a complementary rolodex. Healthcare, Education, Services (Consumer as well as Business) and Government Verticals are his key sectoral strengths.

Dr. Ramesh was Chief of Cardiology and Managing Director at Medwin Hospital. He is also the President of TiE Hyderabad and one of the Founding Members of Hyderabad Angels. He has been actively involved with Nephroplus a Healthcare startup, backed by funding from Bessemer. He has also jumpstarted various innovative initiatives like Hyderabad 10K run (the first to start these 10k runs in the country) and Health Awareness Promotion Project India (HAPPi) Hearts project to prevent Non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Dr. Ramesh has had an excellent academic career. Dr. Ramesh Babu did his postgraduation in Internal Medicine, postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiology from PGI, Chandigarh, and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship from University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA. He was adjudged the Best Outgoing Student from the University.

Not surprising then that when you ask Dr. Ramesh what he likes, pat comes the reply, ‘Working'. But that does not mean he is all work and no play. His friends believe he is a cheerful person to have around. Dr. Ramesh lives with his wife, Dr. Srinagi, a doctor again, who is as gutsy as her better half. He has two sons and a daughter, and no, they are not doctors. He encouraged them to follow their heart and find their own calling, whether law, engineering or entrepreneurship.


Dr. Rana Mehta, Executive Director – Healthcare, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Dr. Rana Mehta currently leads the Healthcare Advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) He has over 15 years of experience in strategizing, planning, commissioning and operations of over 50 hospitals in South Asia. He has developed customized healthcare solutions to suit client needs within political, socio economic, geographic, and demographic imperatives.

Dr. Mehta also worked for  the Apollo Hospitals Group, Asia’s largest private healthcare provider He has been instrumental in commissioning and operating the Group’s hospitals in Delhi and Colombo.

Educational Profile
Master of Hospital Administration (MHA), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Medical College, Kolkata, India.


Dr. Ranjit Nair, Co-Founder & CEO, Germin8

Dr. Ranjit Nair is the co-founder and CEO of Germin8, a Big Data analytics company focused building products that provide action-oriented analytics from social media interactions. These analytics drive tactical and strategic decisions related to Marketing, PR, Customer Care and Sales.

Ranjit is a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California where he focused on decision-making in multiagent teams. Post his doctorate, he worked as Senior Research Scientist with Honeywell Labs, developing algorithms for decision making in the face of imprecise and incomplete information.

The urge to set up a product company focused on decision making brought him back to India where he co-founded Germin8.

Ranjit is a member of CII's Committee on Knowledge Management and Business Outcomes and serves as the President of the Mumbai chapter of USC's Alumni Club. He is also an active speaker at conferences and educational institutes.


Dr. Ravi Gaur, MD & COO, Oncquest Laboratories Ltd | @oncquest_lab

Dr. Ravi Gaur, MD Pathology, is the Chief Operating Officer and Lab Director of Oncquest Laboratories, the largest Molecular Onco Pathology laboratory in India. He has 25 years plus experience in the field of Pathology and Health care management. He brought International recognition to the Indian Healthcare Industry in the form of accreditation from the College of American Pathologists (CAP – USA). Currently he operates over 23 labs, including a super specialty centre in New Delhi with over 500 collection centre’s all over India.

Dr. Gaur is a member of many expert and advisory bodies of the industry. He is a senior member of FICCI National health care Committee. He is a quality expert with vast experience of NABL processes and was one of first India based Indian to be certified as International inspector for quality audits for College of American Pathology (CAP-USA).Before joining Oncquest in 2009, Dr Gaur was heading North & East India division of Piramal and Pathnet India Ltd ( a unit of Gribbles Pathology, Australia) He has served in the Army Medical Corps for about 15 years and holds a rank of Major of Indian Army. He has recently been awarded for excellence in setting up a global standard molecular pathology lab in India by Word Wide Achievers and ASSOCCHAM.