Our speakers

Kiran Rao, Principal, Grove Street Advisors LLC

Kiran focuses on fund investment activities across sectors, including fund due diligence and evaluation, as well as monitoring existing investments.  He participates in all Investment Committee meetings. As a former physician trained in neurosurgery and strategy consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, Kiran’s knowledge and experience is particularly deep in biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services. He also actively works with GSA’s India funds.  Kiran brings leadership to GSA’s performance analytic capabilities and is an important contributor to mining GSA’s databases, as well as client portfolios, to evaluate performance of current and potential fund managers.

Prior to joining GSA in 2009, Kiran was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. He has experience leading strategy consulting projects and developing client relationships across three continents with BCG, having worked for significant periods in BCG's Boston, Zurich and Mumbai offices.

Kiran worked on a broad range of strategy, finance, and operations projects in a variety of industries ranging from healthcare and financial services to consumer and industrial goods.  He specialized in BCG's healthcare practice area where he led cases with large pharma, medical technology and health services companies.

Education:
MBBS, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (Bangalore)
MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Fluent in Hindi and Kannada.

Kiran Salunke, MD, Siesta Logistics Corporation Limited

As the Managing Director of Siesta Logistics Corporation Limited, he is responsible for identifying, developing and directing the implementation of business strategy. He is also responsible for planning and directing the organization’s activities to achieve agreed targets and standards for financial and trading performance, quality, culture and legislative adherence. He drives the business with his well honed talent and years of experience within the logistics vertical. Kiran is a founding director of Siesta Logistics Corporation Limited. 

Kiran Satyanarayana, Principal Solution Architect, HPE NonStop Enterprise Division

Kirankumar Kothari, Regional Business Manager- Smarter Marketing, IBM India

Kiran Kothari manages the Smarter Marketing Solutions business for IBM India / South Asia. He is responsible for expanding and building the market for the various IBM Data Driven - Marketing solutions. He has been very instrumental in building a large base of customers, who are on IBM Marketing Platform for their Customer Value Enhancement Initiatives.

 

MBA from Sydenham Insitute of Management (Mumbai), Kiran comes with 10+ years of strong experience on Customer Experience / Relationship Management solutions, across industry verticals. He has been with IBM since 3 years, before that he has worked with Talisma, TCS and Deloitte.

Kirill Kozhevnikov, Managing Director , Insitel/Sistema Asia Fund Advisory

Kirill is a Managing Director and Partner at Sistema Asia Fund (SAF) Advisory and is based out of New Delhi. He joined SAF from Sistema Headquarters in 2015 and supervised and executed the launch of Sistema Asia Fund.

Kirill leads SAF investments in the space of enterprise software, healthcare, education, artificial intelligence/data analytics, virtual/augmented reality, and internet of things (IoT). He led 3 deals of the fund in 2016-2017 – Seclore, Qwikcilver, Netmeds where he now serves as a Board member.

Kirill brings almost two decades of operational and investment experience to his role, having worked on projects in Russia/CIS countries, Europe, USA, South Africa and India. Prior to Sistema and Sistema Asia Fund Kirill was a Venture Partner in an early stage VC fund, a Chief Investment Officer in Russian sovereign nanotechnology fund, and a VC advisor to multiple Russian startups. Before VC community fascinated him, Kirill spent 7 years in investment banking and 2 years in management and financial consulting. Kirill holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has also done his Masters in Engineering and Economics from Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University).

Kirit Gala, MD, Gala Precision Engineering Pvt. Ltd.

Kirit Gala is a mechanical engineer and an MBA from Mumbai University, and did  his doctoral research in marketing at Tennessee USA for one year.  He has led Gala Precision Engineering on to a fast track growth by Globalization. After achieving market leadership status in three niche market products , Gala successfully entered other Asian & European Markets.
 
 As Strong believer in value system & scientific management principles, has developed a highly dedicated  management team at Gala.
 
Partnering with Private Equity, implementing aggressive growth plan and creating win-win situation for all stake holders and partners  is his strength.
 
Currently he is looking at new business opportunities in the emerging sectors of energy and environment.

Kishor Patil, MD & CEO, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd

Kishor is responsible for defining KPIT Cummins' technology and customer acquisition strategy across six continents. He is the champion for new technology adoption and incubation of customer centric new projects. Under his leadership KPIT Cummins has filed 38 patents and has developed over 100 IPs in cutting-edge automotive and semiconductor technology areas.

A Chartered Accountant by profession Kishor began his career as a practitioner in Kirtane & Pandit Chartered Accountant in 1983 and within a year and a half was a partner in the firm. Kishor's vision and passion have been integral to KPIT Cummins' leadership in key focus verticals and in building the company from a small start up to one of the world's largest, most recognized engineering services provider for the manufacturing industry.

His contributions have been pivotal in building strategic partnerships leading to a strong and prestigious customer base. He has set a standard of excellence in the areas of international operations, acquisitions, mergers and integration. His keen observation and open mind have contributed greatly to KPIT Cummins' growth as a company. His exceptional people skills and sincerity has worked wonders in diverse cultural geographies.

Kishore A K, Founder & CEO, Althea Systems

Kishore is the co-founder and CEO at Althea Systems. Prior to his ongoing stint as an entrepreneur he used to develop software at EmSyS, Samsung, TrueSpan and SiRF, mostly as a part of multi-location and cross functional product teams. He has represented his company on the working groups of multiple wireless standards. He is an open source enthusiast and enjoys contributing to community development projects.

He closely follows the advancements in web, mobile, TV, and related technology spaces. He is fascinated by the possibilities of consumer internet technologies.
At Althea Systems the scope of his work involves just about anything and everything that is required to run an early stage technology startup. The company has successfully launched its first product - Shufflr, for the desktop, web and mobile. Shufflr today has users from more than 50 countries.

He independently consults with companies as a developer/architect/adviser. In addition, he advises early stage companies on seo, online marketing and social media strategy.

Kishore Babu, COO, Axis Finance Ltd

Mr Kishore Babu (Chief Operating Officer, AFL) has over two and half decades of wide-ranging experience across diverse industries including Banking & Finance, Energy Sector and Financial Institution. He started his career with IFCI in their project finance vertical where he was involved in entire spectrum of project financing involving appraisal, credit monitoring, recovery and resolution. Subsequently, he was associated with a prominent developer in the energy sector and led business development as well as financial closure involving tying up of debt and equity for multiple projects. He has been with Axis Bank since June, 2008. At Axis Bank, he has held several responsibilities in leading Credit and Relationship teams in growing business in the Infra, Large and Mid Corporate space. At Axis Finance, he leads the company's operations including process improvement, risk and compliance, technology and innovation, human capital management, and developing & implementing strategies for top line growth. He holds PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad and B. Tech in Electrical & Electronics from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada.

Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group

Kishore Biyani is the founder and Group CEO of Future Group. Widely credited as the pioneer of modern retail industry in India, Kishore Biyani is a mentor and role model for many Indian entrepreneurs and a thought leader in Indian business.

Over the past two decades he has created and lead some of India's most popular retail chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central, Home Town and eZone. These retail chains are present in over 95 cities and 60 rural locations in India and connect 300 million customers annually with over 30,000 small, medium and large entrepreneurs and manufacturers in the country. In addition, Future Group has made substantial investments in setting up food processing and manufacturing, manpower training and educational facilities, logistics and warehousing networks across the country. It has also partnered and invested with a number of entrepreneurs and businesses in multiple sectors.

A believer in the group’s corporate credo, ‘Rewrite Rules, Retain Values,’ Kishore Biyani considers ‘Indianness’ as the core value driving the group. His autobiography, ‘It Happened In India,’ has been translated into a number of languages. Kishore Biyani serves on the board of the National Innovation Foundation, Marico Innovation Foundation and other leading companies and organizations.