Our speakers

George Thomas, Partner, India Value Fund Advisors

George joined IVF Advisors in 2002 to strengthen the "Business Building" function. As a Business Manager, George has leveraged his turnaround and marketing experience to assist portfolio companies with merger integration, strategy, systems & process, recruitment, marketing, and branding. George has also assisted the Fund fine-tune its under-writing capability;          supporting Fund Managers appraise pre-investment cases. He has a wide network of connections and an in-depth understanding of business segments and management teams.

In Trinethra, George strengthened operational controls and developed an annual operating plan with suitable management information systems. He used his vast expertise to reinforce the management team. On acquisition of Music Broadcast, George took direct oversight on operations of Radio City during an initial period of uncertainty caused by delay of the new licensing policy. He identified a leadership team for the business and inducted them into their new roles. George helped TTK Healthcare Services migrate to a centralized IT enabled delivery platform,which he identified along with the management as a seminal initiative to scale the growing healthcare insurance claim processing and attract good quality international business.

George is a Post-Graduate in History from St Stephen's College, Delhi University with almost 20 years of work experience, prior to joining IVF Advisors. He was Whole-time Director and Chief Operating Officer at BPL Soft Energy Systems Limited. Before this, he spent 2 years as Director - Confectionery on a restructuring assignment with Warner Lambert India. Prior, he held positions in the Foods business of Unilever in India and the UK.

Gerard Rego, Chairman & CEO, VayuGrid Marketplace Services Pvt. Ltd.

Gerard J Rego - Wharton Fellow 05, Reuters DV Fellow 06, Stanford University is currently the Chairman & CEO at VayuGrid Marketplace Services Pvt. Ltd. He  has over sixteen years experience in creating, leading & managing innovation and services with domain and technology cross-functional teams for new product development/engineering/ management with industry exposure in Manufacturing, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, ICT, Hitech, Publishing CAD/CAM/CAE and ILMS. He is a Charter Member of TiE Pune Chapter. He was also featured among the top 20 bigwigs in India's silicon valley in 1998 by Express Computers Bangalore.

Ghada Abdelkader, Senior Vice President, Crescent Enterprises

Ghada Abdelkader is currently leading Crescent Enterprises’ strategic investments platform, CE-Invests, that invests in mid-market growth companies and private equity funds in some of Asia’s fastest growing economies including the GCC, India, and Southeast Asia. With over 20 years of investment experience and having worked previously in investment banking, corporate finance, and financial services consulting in the MENA region, she has managed transactions and investments worth billions of dollars, including private placements, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and greenfield projects. Since joining Crescent Enterprises in 2012, Ghada has led the evaluation, structuring, and execution of private equity and venture capital investments at Crescent Enterprises. She has managed a diverse portfolio of assets within Crescent Enterprises across ports, logistics, healthcare, private equity, and venture capital.  Ghada holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Cairo University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Emirates.

Giriraj Bagri, President and Group CEO, FMCG Raymond

Girish Batra, CMD, NetAmbit

Mr. GirishBatra (CMD of NetAmbit), is a first generation entrepreneur who established Netambit in September 2000 by drawing on his experience from successful stints at Escorts and Godrej. Over time, under his leadership, NetAmbit has become India’s first of its kind retail financial products supermarket.

NetAmbit has grown rapidly over the last 11 years to become one of the dominant players in the financial products distribution in India and has an enviable name especially in the Life Insurance Distribution space.

Girish belongs to the Class of 1997 of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from College of Technology, Pantnagar, Uttaranchal. At NetAmbit, Girish spends most of his time giving strategic direction to the company. He likes to travel and supports philanthropic causes, which he feels are the best way to give back to the society.

Girish Huria, Executive Vice President and Head of Growth APAC, AvianWe

Girish Joshi, Senior General Manager Listing Business, BSE

Mr. Girish Joshi, Senior General Manager by designation Heads Listing Business at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). At BSE he also headed Fixed Income and Interest Rate Derivative Segments and was instrumental in the launch of Interest Rate Derivatives and New Debt Segments. Before joining BSE, he has worked at ICICI Bank Group for 10 years. At ICICI Group he has worked in various areas like ICICIDirect.com, Treasury Mid Office and at CFO office.

Girish was also one of the earliest core team members which were involved in the set-up of National Stock Exchange (NSE). At NSE during 7 years he worked in Wholesale Debt Market and post trade functions. He is a member of CoBoSAC committee of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and also member of CII committee on Integrated Reporting. He represents BSE in Sustainability Working Group (SWG) of World Federation of Stock Exchange (WFE) and also Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative of the United Nations.

He has represented BSE in various sub groups formed by SEBI for market developments like E-IPO, Regulatory framework for Index Providers, Development of CBLO type products for Corporate Bonds, REITs and InVit etc. He is also member of the Secretarial Standard Board (SSB) formed by the Institute of Company Secretary of India (ICSI). Mr. Girish Joshi is Chartered Accountant as well as Cost Accountant by qualification.

Girish Malhotra, Head - New Economy group, IDFC FIRST Bank

Girish Malhotra brings 35+ years of experience in banking and financial services, including a 16-year stint with Citibank in India and leadership roles abroad in Vietnam and Dubai. Currently, he heads the New Economy Group at IDFC FIRST Bank, strategically empowering the startup, VC, and PE ecosystem.

Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO, Freshdesk Inc

Girish founded Freshdesk in 2010. Prior to Freshdesk, Girish was Vice-President of Product Management at ZOHO Corporation. He has over 13 years of experience in making and marketing best-in-class enterprise IT management products. Very passionate about customer service, usability and making products that give the biggest bang for the buck, Girish has easily been the Product Manager with the happiest set of customers.

Girish Nadkarni, Partner, IDFC Alternatives

Girish Nadkarni - Girish Nadkarni has over twenty two years of experience across private equity, M&A, managing large companies, corporate finance, treasury and risk management, business strategy and setting up of businesses.

Mr. Nadkarni primarily focuses on originating and evaluating investment opportunities, over-seeing the portfolio and creating exit opportunities. He has strong consumer, agri-business, rural infrastructure and telecom sector expertise. He has led investments in Parag Milk Foods, Staragri Warehousing and Collateral Management and NCDEX. He also actively manages investments in Green Infra and DARCL.

Prior to joining IDFC Alternatives, he worked for Rallis India Limited (a Tata Group Agri company). Previous to this, he was with Tata Chemicals and played a key role in the acquisitions of General Chemicals, USA and controlling stake in Rallis (2007-09). He has played key role in more than a dozen M&A and buyout transactions such as VSNL, Hughes Telecom, Escotel Mobile, Nagarjuna Oil and divestments such as Idea, Tata Honeywell, Tata Telecom (Avaya) and Information Tech Park.