Our speakers

Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar.com | @AskmeBazaar

Mr. Kiran Murthi is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AskmeBazaar.com - India’s fastest growing marketplace that recreates the great Indian shopping experience online. With over 16 years of management experience, Kiran brings rich multi-industry exposure across ECommerce, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, Information Technology and Media Entertainment. He has worked with leading brands like Philips, J & J, Cadbury, AOL and Hindustan Times along with start-up experience in mobile payment and transit payment card industries.

Prior to joining AskmeBazaar, Kiran was with Fever 104 FM, the radio business of the HT group, for more than two years. He holds a post graduate degree in Marketing and Strategy from IIM Bangalore and is an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from IIT Madras. He carries with him a rich experience of driving design, market evelopment and new product adoption across consumer & technology products.

@kiranmurthi

Kiran Nadkarni, CEO, Kaati Zone

Kiran has been a pioneering figure in the Indian venture capital industry. He started the venture capital business of ICICI and managed it during the first eight years. Later, he was a partner at Draper International, a venture firm based in San Francisco, which invested in India and the US.

Prior to starting the Kaati Zone venture, he was a co-founder of Jumpstartup, a venture firm that invested in technology businesses both in India and the US. During his career, he helped several entrepreneurial businesses by providing start-up and early-stage capital and brought the initial successes of venture capital industry to public markets. Kiran is a chemical engineer from IIT Kanpur and holds a post-graduate diploma in management from University of Mumbai.

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.