Our speakers

Eshwar Karra, CEO-Kotak Special Situations Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors Limited

Eshwar joined the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2000 and brings with him over two decades of financial services experience. He is part of the core leadership team at Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd.

Eshwar is the CEO of the Kotak Special Situations Fund where he oversees investments across all special situations, distressed and credit opportunities. The fund strategy is to invest in opportunities across all asset classes and participate in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) initiated resolutions.

Prior to Kotak Special Situations Fund, Eshwar was the CEO of Phoenix Asset Reconstruction Company (a Kotak sponsored ARC) which had an AUM of US$1 billion. During his 5 year tenure at Phoenix, he made investments across all major sectors and successfully resolved investments.

Eshwar was the founding member of the distressed assets business at Kotak and has helped the group in successfully investing over INR 2,500 crores (US$417 million) of its proprietary capital in distressed assets. He has built time tested expertise in identifying distressed opportunities, structuring and executing complex financial transactions as well as securing profitable exits.

Prior to Kotak, Eshwar has worked at Ceat Financial Services (RPG Group) and Sundaram Finance Ltd.

Eshwar holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Pune and is a Management graduate from the Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune.

Faisal Farooqui, Founder, MouthShut.com

Faisal Farooqui is a highly recognized IT entrepreneur who is among the trailblazers of his generation. He was among the lead petitioners who challenged the various sections of the IT Act, which finally resulted in a victory for the entire nation, when the Supreme Court declared 66A as illegal and diluted many other sections. As a result no more arrests for speaking your mind. No more content takedown without a court order. 

Faisal is the founder and CEO of MouthShut.com
MouthShut.com is India’s largest consumer review and recommendation platform, with reviews on lakhs of products

Faisal has addressed and presented at more than 300 national and international conferences and seminars including at IIM Ahmadabad and IIT Mumbai. His work on Internet Technology, Branding, Entrepreneurship, social media and e-commerce has appeared or been profiled in almost all major newspaper and magazines and TV channels in India as well as Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC and Financial Times. He is also internationally recognized for his thoughts on integrating consumer-generated content with mobile and social media. He served on the   Internet Task Force of NASSCOM and was an advisor to TIE for India’s new Copyright Act. The British High Commission has included Faisal among the list of top 50 young leaders who’ve demonstrated potential to change the country.

Faisal has a degree in Information Systems and Finance from State University of New York. He is a self-confessed tech geek, enjoys growing vegetables and loves horse-riding.

Faiz Shakir, Managing Director, Nutanix India & SAARC

Fakhri Ahmadov, CEO & Managing Director, Ahmadoff & Company

Fakhri Ahmadov is CEO and Managing Director of Ahmadoff & Company and Founder of Private Wealth Insitute. In his role, he advises wealthy individuals and families on capital transformation, multi-generational structuring, strategic industry selection and philanthropy across Europe, Middle East and Africa and Central Asia. Previously, he has been risk advisor for several banks and a family business. Mr. Ahmadov is contributor to the Agenda of the World Economic Forum. His private wealth related researches are featured in Forbes frequently. He is a Certified International Wealth Manager (CIWM) and full member of Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP). Fakhri holds bachelor degree in economics from ASAU.

Falguni Nayar, CEO, Nykaa.com

After a highly successful career spanning over 25 years in financial services, 18 of which were spent with the Kotak Mahindra group, Falguni Nayar decided to pursue her entrepreneurial drive with the launch of Nykaa.com, a women-centric beauty and wellness e-commerce portal.

Targeted exclusively at the contemporary urban Indian woman, Nykaa.com will offer a wide range of carefully selected, global beauty and wellness products. At Kotak, Falguni was the Managing Director of Kotak Investment Banking, a position she assumed in 2005, and Director of Kotak Securities.

Falguni holds a Masters degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where she majored in Finance. She graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. Falguni received the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) award for top woman achiever in the field of banking. She is a founding member of the Asia Society in India.

Faris AlRashed Alhumaid, CEO, Sharaka Financial

Fariza Ahmed, Counsel, Bombay Law Chambers

Farzana Haque, Head - Europe Telecom Business Unit & Global Head - Strategic Group Accounts, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Ms. Farzana Haque is the Global Head of Europe Telecom Business Unit and the Global Head for Strategic Group Accounts: Telenor, Telia and Hutch. Prior to her current role, Ms. Haque was Global Head - Large Accounts SBU at Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global information technology company with over US$16.54 Bn in revenues. Forbes magazine has voted TCS as India’s most admired company. Ms. Haque began her career with the TATA Group in Mumbai as a management trainee & has been with the group ever since. In recognition of her leadership at TCS, Ms. Haque was nominated to the World Economic Forum as a ‘Young Global Leader’. The Young Global Leader recognizes the top 250 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. Ms. Haque has been profiled and featured by leading Indian and International Media on her work both for her organization and for the development work that she does in India. She is also the recipient of the ‘INDIRA’ Super Achiever Award 2008. Ms. Haque is a frequent speaker at business schools around the globe and India on topics covering leadership, building global brands, and innovation. She is passionate about social development in India and works with NGO’s and foundations in order to further the cause, besides being on boards of few foundations. Ms. Farzana Haque is Co-Founder of “Stree Shakti”, a platform for women entrepreneurs in India.

Florian Kohler, Managing Director-Private Equity, OBVIAM

G. Mythili, Joint Managing Editor, JQE, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

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

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

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

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

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