Our speakers

Girish Singhi, Principal, Godrej Fund Management

Girish Singhi is Principal at Godrej Fund Management. He is responsible for leading investment and asset management activities in select geographies for Godrej Fund Management. He has 10 years of real estate investment management experience.

He holds an M.B.A. (Finance) and B.E. from Delhi University.

Girish Singhi, Head, Investments, Godrej Fund Management

Girish Singhi is a seasoned professional in private equity real estate (PERE) with over 14 years of experience. His expertise spans the entire spectrum of fund and investment management, including acquisitions, asset management, operations, and divestment, across all major real estate asset classes such as residential, commercial, hospitality, warehousing, and data centers. 

Girish has played a pivotal role in the deployment of over $800M of equity capital in India across various structures, including land acquisitions, joint ventures, joint development, forward purchase, brownfield, greenfield, and completed assets. He has also been involved in raising over $900M of equity capital for residential and commercial assets in both private and public capital markets.

In addition, Girish is passionate about creating new ventures/platforms across the capital stack in different asset classes. He brings a unique perspective to real estate investing and is dedicated to driving innovation in the field. With an engineering degree from Delhi University and an MBA from FMS, Delhi, Girish has a solid academic foundation to support his practical experience.

Girish Singhi is a seasoned professional in private equity real estate (PERE) with over 14 years of experience. His expertise spans the entire spectrum of fund and investment management, including acquisitions, asset management, operations, and divestment, across all major real estate asset classes such as residential, commercial, hospitality, warehousing, and data centers. 

Girish has played a pivotal role in the deployment of over $800M of equity capital in India across various structures, including land acquisitions, joint ventures, joint development, forward purchase, brownfield, greenfield, and completed assets. He has also been involved in raising over $900M of equity capital for residential and commercial assets in both private and public capital markets.

In addition, Girish is passionate about creating new ventures/platforms across the capital stack in different asset classes. He brings a unique perspective to real estate investing and is dedicated to driving innovation in the field. With an engineering degree from Delhi University and an MBA from FMS, Delhi, Girish has a solid academic foundation to support his practical experience.

 

Girish Singhi, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Welspun One

Girish Vanvari, National Head of Tax, KPMG in India

Girish has over two decades of consulting experience and is a Tax Partner with the Indian practice of KPMG. Having built the M&A tax business of KPMG in India followed by the Global  International Corporate Tax practice he currently leads the tax practice of KPMG in India.

His experience includes advising on many of the largest M&A deals and restructuring transactions in India on a year-to-year basis.  Furthermore,  he helps many large multinationals with a presence in India in navigating through the ever-evolving tax and regulatory framework in India.

He has advised various companies across sectors such as manufacturing, infrastructure, telecom, IT, energy and natural resources, financial services, auto, pharmaceutical, FMCG, etc. Girish is a regular speaker/panelist at various Tax, International Taxation, M&A  conferences and seminars. He also regularly contributes articles in several newspapers and business magazines.

Glen Charles D'Souza, Managing Director - Crisis Communications, Media and Network Group, MSL India, part of Publicis Groupe

Gopal Devanahalli, Sr.Vice President, Manipal Global Education Services

Gopal has close to 24 years of professional services experience.  He is currently the Senior Vice President at Manipal Global Education(Manipal). He is responsible for Digital Initiatives across the company as well as the Consumer business. Earlier he was with Manipal Health Enterprises where he was responsible for operating the various hospital units & incubating new growth engines which include Technology based Healthcare Delivery. He has been with the Manipal Group since April 2014. Prior to Manipal, he has spent over 15 years at Infosys and 7 years in Kotak.  At Infosys, Gopal has played various roles ranging from managing a business, developing corporate strategy as well as business development. His last role there was as Vice President, Products & Platforms.

Gopal has an Engineering Degree in Computer Science, from BITS, Pilani and a PGDM from IIM, Calcutta. He has also done a public policy course at The Takshashila Institution. He is part of the executive team of Beyond Carlton an NGO focused on Fire Safety.

@gops85

Gopal Jain, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Gaja Capital

Gopal Jain is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Gaja Capital, an India-focused growth & buyout firm based in Mumbai. Founded in 2005, Gaja is a leading player in India’s private equity market with an exceptional track record of 20+ investments and an AUM of over $500m. Gaja has invested consistently in India’s mid-market across themes in education, financial services & consumer, most recently expanding into healthcare and domestic software, with a key focus on driving scale and transformation in its portfolio companies via operational value add.

Gopal is an active columnist and is currently member of SEBI’s Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee and Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s Executive Committee. He has a deep interest in the social sector and leads Gaja Gives which supports a wide and growing number of philanthropic efforts in India.

Gopal Pillai, Director & GM, Amazon Seller Services

Gopal has rich experience in diverse firms ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies, with a focus on general management and innovation in products and services.

Gopal has been with Amazon for over 8 years, in various roles in US and India. He moved to Bengaluru, India in 2015 to lead Seller Services for Amazon India. He currently manages all aspects of the seller services ecosystem in India including seller acquisition, seller education & enablement services, fulfillment channel products, seller experience, seller engagement and seller offline and online marketing initiatives. Amazon India currently has over 300,000 sellers and over 170 million products, growing rapidly.

Prior to Amazon India, Gopal managed the Amazon.com Home Entertainment category and the Heavy Bulky Delivery Experience program for all US Retail categories. Prior to this, Gopal was the Category Leader for Mobile Electronics categories and the Product Owner for AmazonWireless.com, a specialty website for cell phone products and services.

Prior to Amazon.com, Gopal was Director of Digital Products for BusinessWeek. Before that, Gopal’s roles included co-founding an early stage technology startup and leadership roles in Non-profit, Healthcare, Insurance and Energy sectors.

Gopal graduated from the Executive MBA program at the Kellogg School of Management and has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Madras, India.

Gopal Srinivasan, Managing Director & Chairman, TVS Capital

Gopal Srinivasan is the Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Capital Funds P Ltd.

A scion of the TVS family from the third generation, his entrepreneurial career spans well over three decades in which he has founded, steered and scaled up over 10 new ventures across diverse business verticals.

Passionate about fostering startups and mentoring young entrepreneurs and is an avid angel investor. He is a founding member of The Chennai Angels, one of the premier angels investing networks in India.

Gopal takes a keen interest in public policy matters of the VC/PE Industry, being actively involved with the regulators for the financial markets by dint of his engagements with SEBI (Member of AIPAC), the Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) & Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); He was also the Member of the Venture Capital Investment Committee for SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS) programme in ’18-’19. Gopal is a Governing Council member of Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), which has been formed in Dec’20; RBIH is a centre for idea generation and development to provide the facilitating environment, encourage collaboration, and in the process promote innovation in the financial sector. Gopal is also a non-official member on the National Start-up Advisory Council (NSAC) being formed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPITT) in Jan’21 to advise the Government of India on measures needed to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

He is also actively involved in knowledge initiatives through his involvement in academic institution. He is a member of University of Michigan’s India Advisory Board.

Gopal is also the Chairman of Chennai International Centre, a think-tank that brings together a cornucopia of thought leaders from the spheres of business, the economy, policymaking, science, art, culture and entrepreneurship.

Gopal has been recently appointed as the Honorary Consul General for the Kingdom of Netherlands in Tamil Nadu.

Gopi Natarajan, Co-founder, and CEO, Omega Health Care India Private Limited

Gopi Natarajan is the visionary entrepreneur who forecast the enormous opportunity in the healthcare BPO/KPO industry when it was in the nascent stage. From a technical professional, Gopi transformed himself gradually into an entrepreneur and established Omega Healthcare in 2004, which today has grown into a large enterprise having an employee strength of over 8,500 and growing at the rate of 30-35% year-on-year. The organisation is a leader in the space and constantly engages in training and upgrading the skills for its employees.

Gopi is the Co-founder and CEO at Omega Healthcare and has more than 25 years of experience in the Healthcare Industry both in the US and India. Prior to Omega, he led a $40 million medical billing company in the US with 1,000 employees, of which 250 were located in India.  He has also gained valuable experience in IT and BPO/KPO outsourcing during senior management stints with Aetna (NYSE: AET), EDS (NYSE: EDS) and Healtheon/WebMD (NASDAQ: WBMD). Having a brilliant track record in leadership, mergers, acquisitions and integration of companies, Gopi has been instrumental in leading small sized companies  and growing them into mid/large companies.   He now spends a significant amount of his time in India, overseeing the operations and growth of Omega Healthcare.