Our speakers

Ajay Shrivastava, Gr. CPTO, HT Media Ltd.

Ajeet Khurana, Former CEO, SINE/IIT Bombay

Ajeet Khurana is the former CEO of the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is the business incubator of IIT Bombay. From starting two ventures as a solopreneur, to helping a large number of startups operationalize their go-to-market, he has never shied away from getting his hands dirty.

In 2013 VCcircle rated him as one of the top 15 angel investors in India. Even before we met him, we were fans of his highly engaging writing on entrepreneurship.

A computer engineer from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, Ajeet has authored several books that are published by McGraw Hill. A purist at heart, Ajeet truly believes that entrepreneurs are driving change in the world, and need to be facilitated as much as possible.

Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director - Strategy, Business Operations and Engineering Programs Leader, NetApp Startup Accelerator

Ajeya Motaganahalli works as the Senior Director for Engineering Programs, Strategy and Business Operations at NetApp India and heads NetApp’s first ever startup accelerator program called the NetApp Excellerator (startup.netapp.in).

Ajeya is an alumnus of the UC Berkeley HaaS School of Business and is a well-rounded Engineering leader with 18 years of experience in software product development, strategy and operations.

In this era of digital transformation, Ajeya aspires to provide pioneering leadership in transforming product strategy and execution by developing high quality engineering inputs into top quality outcomes. Ajeya is passionate about giving back to the ecosystem by nurturing innovation through helping and enabling start-ups and building future unicorns.

Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder & CEO, Rediff.com India Limited

Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan Founded Rediff.Com India Ltd., in 1996. Mr. Balakrishnan serves as the Chairman and Principal Executive Officer of Rediff.Com India Ltd. and has been its Managing Director since August 2008. Mr. Balakrishnan has been Managing Director of Rediffusion-Dentsu, Young & Rubicam Limited, since March 1993. He serves as the Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Mr. Balakrishnan has been a Director of Rediff.com India Ltd., since January 9, 1996. He serves as Director of Rediffusion Holdings Private Limited (earlier called Rediffusion Advertising Private Limited), Klaas Equipment Private Limited, Wunderman Cato Johnson Action Marketing India Private Limited, Abroad Publications Inc., India In New York Inc., Rediff.Com Inc., Rediff Holdings Inc. and Quintrol Technologies Private Limited. Mr. Balakrishnan holds a B.Sc. degree in Physics from Kerala University, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Ajit Kumar, Managing Partner, Evolvence India Fund

Ajit Kumar leads Evolvence India Fund, an India focused niche and differentiated PE Fund sponsored by New York Life Insurance/Gold Point Partners and Evolvence Asset Management. He is responsible for the core operations of the fund, from deal originations to exit as well as investor relations and regulatory compliance. During his investment career spread over 25 years he has been involved in Private Equity investments in more than 175 funds, direct and co-investments across various themes and strategies, sectors and geographies. He represents EIF on the Advisory Boards, Investment Committees and board of the various investments. He holds a MBA from London Business School.

Ajit Mahadevan, India Director, Acumen | @acumen

Ajit joined Acumen as India Director after over 20 years of experience in advisory, strategic consulting and entrepreneurship. Acumen was founded in 2001 and is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas. It invests patient capital in businesses whose products and services are enabling the poor to transform their lives across Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Acumen is one of the earliest global impact investors to have made investments in India and has built a strong local portfolio of companies across healthcare, education, energy, agriculture, water & sanitation and affordable housing.

Ajit previously served as Advisory Partner & Leader (Life Sciences) at Ernst & Young for over six years. At EY, he was a strategic advisor to the leadership of some of the leading Indian and global life science and healthcare players with the focus being business transformation and growth. Prior to his time at E&Y, Ajit was President of Piramal Healthcare, one of the leading pharmaceuticals companies in India, where he built the international business from inception in 2002 to $300M by the end of 2008. Ajit held multiple leadership roles across strategy, M&A and business leadership. During his tenure at Accenture’s Strategic Services practice in UK and India, he led the development of one of the firm’s largest and most successful internal projects - the Offshore Development Centre in 2001, which has now grown to about 100,000 people across multiple cities in India.

Ajit holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, USA and an undergraduate degree in Computer Technology from PSG College of Technology.

@ajitmahadevan

Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar | @hotstartweets

Ajit Mohan is the CEO of Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform. Under his leadership, Hotstar, launched in 2015 as a platform offering drama, movies and sports on demand, raced to become one of the fastest adopted new apps in the world.

Prior to Star, Ajit spent five years at McKinsey & Company, first in New York in its media practice, and later in India as a Fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, where he co-authored India's Urban Awakening, a 2010 report outlining a policy approach to India's rapid urbanization.  Between 2011 and 2012, he was a columnist for Wall Street Journal's India Real Time.

He holds an MA in Economics and International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and BASc in Computer Engineering from NTU in Singapore.

 @secondatticus

Ajit Pai, Distinguished Expert-Economics & Finance, NITI Aayog

Ajit Pai is Distinguished Expert, NITI Aayog, where he heads Economics & Finance and oversees Public Disinvestment.  He is also Consultant to the Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, is the nodal officer for the Ministry of Finance, its subsidiary departments, and the Department of Public Enterprises and handles matters related to the World Bank, IFC, IMF, ADB, NDB, OECD, and the G20.

Mr. Pai is also Chairman, Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC), a statutory body created by an Act of Parliament in 1973, to advise the Government of India in the matter of preserving, developing and maintaining the aesthetic quality of urban and environmental design.

Prior to this, he had a career in the private sector including working internationally at firms like McKinsey, Lazard, Thomas Weisel Partners and Stifel Financial, the latter two as Managing Director.  He has been awarded over six years an unprecedented five #1 and one #2 Starmine Awards in the Forbes/Financial Times World’s Best Analysts Survey for forecast accuracy.

Mr. Pai holds a B.Arch. from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, a M.Arch. from the Yale School of Architecture and a MBA from the Yale School of Management.  He attended Yale University as a Tata Scholar and also served as a John M Olin Fellow for research in markets and regulatory behavior.

His active interests include Architecture, Design, Anthropology, Urbanism, Planning, History, Economic Development, Sustainability, Horticulture, Finance, Technology, Travel, Real Estate, Art, Policy Development, and Governance. He is on the Executive Committee of the Indian Police Foundation, on the Advisory Board of the Future Institute, and is registered with the Council of Architecture.

Ajith Karimpana, Founder & CEO, Furlenco

Ajith Mohan Karimpana, Founder and CEO of Furlenco, India's first online home furniture rental company is an entrepreneur who wishes to turn this novel concept into a successful global category. He shoulders the responsibility of the organization’s strategic growth and business development.

An engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, Ajith has also done his masters in Computer and Information Science from Temple University, Philadelphia, besides a fellowship program on entrepreneurship from Startup Leadership Program. Prior to founding Furlenco, Ajith donned numerous hats; as Software Engineer with Infosys Technologies, Senior Consultant with Morgan Stanley, Senior Analyst with Goldman Sachs and went on to become the Vice President in the same organization. Having developed an expertise in Business Strategy, Analytics and Team management during his professional stint of 11 years, Ajith came up with his own enterprise, Rent Ur Duniya in 2011, witnessing tremendous opportunity in the home rental furniture market. It was later re-branded as Furlenco in 2012. He wishes to make a social impact by using only plantation wood for its furniture and creating an eco-friendly brand through Furlenco.

With a strong team of about 150 members in just 4 years of inception, Ajith envisions elevating the living standards of urban Indian consumers who seek affordable and convenient solutions for a good-looking home. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t stop him from indulging his passion for reading, besides watching TV and spending quality time with his family.

Ajith Mohan Karimpana, Founder & CEO, Furlenco

Ajith Karimpana, Founder - CEO of Furlenco was former vice-president of Goldman Sachs. Seeing an opportunity in the market for home rental furniture, Karimpana founded Rent Ur Duniya in 2011 later re-branded as Furlenco in 2012. Karimpana is a graduate from NIT - Jalandhar and has also done his MS, Computer and Information Science from Temple University, Philadelphia.

In his free time Karimpana likes to read, watch TV and spend some quality time with his family.