Our speakers

Elavarasu A K, Vice President & CISO, Mphasis

Elavarasu has around 24 years total IT experience with 21 years in Cyber Security. Currently, he is the global CISO for an IT services company for the past 4+ years. Prior to that he was driving the implementation of Cyber Security roadmap including setting up SOC, Incident response and various Cyber Security technologies and processes for the same company. In the past, he had worked with Standard Chartered Bank, Microsoft, Nokia, IBM, and Tech Mahindra. In his prior engagements, he had provided Cyber Security consulting to several Fortune 500 companies across US, Europe, and APAC region. In his previous roles with other companies, he was responsible for Threat management for a bank, managed Information security for factories worldwide and performed Security governance activities at the enterprise level.

He holds an M.B.A. from Anna University and B.E. from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). His industry certifications include CISSP, CISA, CISM, and CBCP.

Elizabeth Venkataraman, Executive Vice President - Marketing, Products, Digital & Ecommerce, Kotak Life Insurance

Elizabeth Venkatraman heads the marketing function at Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited (KLI), and is responsible for brand management (through Above the Line initiatives), sales support (through Below the Line initiatives), product development, e-insurance business and corporate communication.

Elizabeth is known for her methodical approach to work and life. Her approach to build marketing campaigns around crucial, yet, little explored consumer insights has helped propel even comparatively smaller budget campaigns to clearly differentiated winning propositions vis-à-vis industry. KLI’s ‘Chotu Kya Banega’ campaign (2009-10) was built on the insight that new age parents appreciated the independence their children required to choose vocations of their choice, while the ‘Another You’ campaign (2011-12) leveraged working class affinity towards supplementary income. She is also credited with the company’s ‘Faiday ka Insurance’ tagline which aligned Kotak Group’s core strength of investment expertise to insurance. Her team is also credited with the design and development of several innovative products in the new business environment, which evinced significant customer interest.

Elizabeth has been with Kotak Mahindra Group since 2004, and assumed her current responsibility in 2014. In her immediate prior assignment, she headed the marketing function at Kotak Securities, where she was instrumental in conceptualizing and developing Kotak Securities’ much acclaimed ‘Customer Contactability’ programme. She has close to two decades of experience spanning across diverse segments, including computer hardware, automobiles, FMCG and banking.

Outside of work, she is a doting mother and homemaker. She is also a movie and travel buff, and, while not exploring offbeat locations, she is known to attend first day first shows with her teenaged daughter, Mandira and husband, Venkat.

She holds an MBA (Marketing) degree from Narsee Monji Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Emily Harrison, Founder and Executive Director, Innovaid Advisory Services Pvt Ltd

Emily Harrison is the founder and Executive Director of Innovaid Advisory Services - a group of international consultants who provide strategic advice and management services to celebrities and corporates on their philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in India.

Australian born, Emily grew up on a remote cattle station in Western NSW and dedicated her career to rural and remote community development.  She spent 10 years working in local and state government on grassroots community development projects across outback NSW and Queensland in a number of roles.

Emily first came to India in 2007 as a Team Leader with Australian Volunteers International. She led teams of volunteers on community development projects in remote villages inTamil Nadu where she fell in love with India and made the decision to move to Bombay and singlehandedly start her own company - Innovaid Advisory Services.

Under her leadership, Innovaid has grown into a burgeoning, boutiquecompany working with an impressive list of celebrities, including cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Steve Waugh and Brett Lee, sporting heroes Abhinav Bindra and Mir RanjanNegi, Bollywood stars Priyanka Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan, Rahul Bose, GulPanag, Shiamak Davar and Anupam Kher. She has also advised a host of corporates such as Bajaj Auto, Mahindra Swaraj, Ultratech, Shaadi.com, Rajasthan Royals, Hutch Vodafone and Tata AIG.

Through this work, Emily was selected as one of Advance's 50 Current & Emerging Female Leaders in Australia, she received the ‘STAR ENTREPRENEUR AWARD’ for her Innovative Leadership in CSR Innovation and was shortlisted as ‘Global Australian of the Year’ in the  Social Innovation category.

She is a long-term visiting faculty at the SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, is the first ever woman Chair of the Australia New Zealand Business Association in India, and is the official Charity Advisor to the hit National Geographic television series 'Wheel2Wheel - Season 2 (India)'.

Eric Lange, Product VP, Flipkart | @Flipkart

Eric Lange serves as VP of Customer Experience at Flipkart, where he is responsible for ensuring a high quality experience for customers from end-to-end. Eric is a Silicon Valley veteran with 23 years of experience in both product management and engineering from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. He has a degree in computer engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from Duke University.

Eric Savage, Co-founder & CEO, Unitus Capital

Eric moved to India in 2007 to help set up Unitus Capital (UC), an impact focused investment bank, and has led the company in raising well over US$1.4 billion for various impact businesses.  He has had the privilege of working with many innovative companies that do life changing work in the fields of financial inclusion, affordable health care, renewable energy, affordable education, women empowerment and agriculture. Unitus Capital has been ranked the #1 Indian investment bank by Venture Intelligence in 2013, 2014 and 2015.  Previously, Eric ran Citigroup’s Asian investment banking franchise in the Power & Infrastructure sectors, and helped secure and execute multiple landmark equity, debt and M&A transactions, totaling many billions of dollars. Eric was based in NYC and Hong Kong for 14 years with Citigroup/Salomon Brothers. Eric also headed Salomon’s utilities sector equity research and was selected to Institutional Investors’ All-Asia research team.

Eric is a graduate (cum laude) of Duke University and of Harvard’s Kennedy School, where he received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow Award, the program’s top honor.  Eric serves on the boards of a number of leading companies, funds and educational institutions. In 2014, Eric was named Indian Expat Entrepreneur of the Year by Expat Entrepreneurs Circle, and, in 2016, was awarded the Indira Gandhi Sadbhawana Award for his contributions to the impact investing sector.  He is a highly sought after speaker, particularly in the impact investing world.

Eric Vas, President, Bajaj Auto Ltd

Eric Vas is an alumni of the College of Engineering Pune, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Mr. Vas started his career as an officer of the Tata Administrative Service (TAS) and spent 18 years with the Tata Group. From 1999 Mr. Vas has been associated with the automobile industry when he joined Tata Motors Ltd.  Mr. Vas currently works at Bajaj Auto Ltd. where he has, over the past 11 years, held various leadership roles. Presently, Mr. Vas leads the Urbanite Business (electric Chetak) of Bajaj Auto Ltd.

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.