Our speakers

Krishnan Neelakantan, Senior Director - Investments & Growth Strategy, Ankur Capital | @ankurcapital

Krishnan Neelakantan is Senior Director - Investments & Growth Strategy at Ankur Capital. Krishnan has extensive experience in financial markets and investment research, as well as social development consulting. He spent 17 years in equity markets, starting as an equity research analyst at ICICI Securities and then taking on the roles of Market Strategist and Head of India Research at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets; as one of the leading advisors to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) investing in Indian equities, he and his team were regularly rated at the top in the annual Investor Polls conducted by Asiamoney and Institutional Investor. He then changed tracks to join Samhita Social Ventures as Managing Director to build-up the organization’s profile as a specialised social consulting firm. Krishnan remains on the Board of Directors at Samhita, is on the Board of Mentors for IvyCapital Ventures and is a Patron of Adarsh, a Kochi-based NGO focussed on children with disabilities. He B.Tech degree from IIT, Bombay and a Post-graduation in Business Management from the XLRI, Jamshedpur and has completed executive development programmes of London Business School and University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Krishnan Raman, CEO, Flutura

Krishnan Raman is Co-founder and CEO of Flutura, a Decision Science & Analytics organization. Flutura is a specialist analytics organization operating at the intersect of Men, Machine and Big Data analytics. Flutura has been identified as one of the top 20 most promising Big Data start-ups across the globe by leading analyst magazine CIO Review. In the short period that Flutura has been in existence, it has won many accolades like being - Winner at TiECon 2014 Lightning Pitch, Winner at Zinnov awards 2014, Identified amongst Top 10 innovative products at InTech50 2014, Identified amongst Top 5 at Microsoft Solution Excellence - Code for Honor, Winner at TechSparks 2013 etc.

Krishnan in a thought leader in Analytics with over 20 years’ experience in the industry and regularly speaks at International forums. Some of his recent speaking assignments were the prestigious HANA 2014 Insider event in Orlando, Demo Enterprise event in San Francisco and at the SmartData Summit in Dubai.  He was recently recognized as being one of the "Bulls of Technology" by the TechExecs Network in Houston.

Prior to founding Flutura was the Global Head of Business Analytics at MindTree Ltd, a business unit that he had incubated from scratch and scaled to a 1000+ member team. An entrepreneur at heart, before Mindtree, Krishnan had founded Atma Consulting, a Vertical Service Provider delivering process automation solution to Auto & Auto Ancillary companies. He was a strategy consultant focused on IT strategy with the Strategic Change practice at PwC.
He holds an MBA in Marketing and Systems from SP Jain and a B.Tech from National Institute of Technology, Calicut.

Krishnan Vishwanathan, Founder, Kissht

Krishnan is the founder and CEO of Kissht and in his role leads the overall strategic way forward for the company while directly overseeing critical go-to-market functions. A consummate entrepreneur and startup professional, Krishnan started his career as a technologist at startups in the bay area where he developed some of the latest innovations in networking and wireless, including 4 patents to his name. Subsequent to his MBA, he joined McKinsey & Company in the financial services practice before finally going back to his entrepreneurial roots with Kissht.

At McKinsey & Company, Krishnan has served over 15 banks and NBFCs on a variety of topics. These topics include product design, risk strategy and risk model development, operations transformation and lean processes, digital and mobile delivery of services and technology architecture. Krishnan has vast policy and regulatory experience and was a core part of the policy group within McKinsey & Company financial services practice. Krishnan has assisted various committees of RBI, IRDA and Ministry of Finance on topics ranging financial inclusion, payments etc. Krishnan’s cross-functional expertise across technology and retail financial services has helped him create the disruptive innovation that Kissht.

Krishnan has a B.Tech from IIT Delhi, and an MBA in strategy and finance from the Yale School of Management. He has a keen interest in photography and is an avid squash player and hiker.

Krishnaprasad Shastry, Distinguished Technologist, EG CTO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

KrishnaPrasad Shastry is a Distinguished Technologist and head of Advance Development Center, part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise CTO office. In this role he is responsible for driving strategic programs and advance development in emerging technologies like blockchain, AI and intelligent edge.

In his 15 years with HPE, Prasad has led several research and advance development activities in the areas of big data, software accelerators, in-storage computing and memory-driven computing.

Krishnava Dutt, Founder and Managing Partner, Argus Partners

Krishnava is the Founder and Managing Partner of one of India’s leading law firm Argus Partners. Krishnava has spearheaded the growth of the firm which now has offices across four cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata and has consistently been ranked amongst India’s top law firms. During his illustrious career Krishnava has been the lead adviser in some of the largest and most complex M&A and financing transactions.

He is regularly sought out by some of the largest corporate houses, financial institutions and their boards for his knowledge and deep understanding in the field of corporate governance and board advisory. He is regarded as a leading figure in legal advisory on whistleblowing (including fraud), consequence management, board responsibility, board succession and board disputes.

Krishnava has received numerous recognitions and awards, including:

  • 'Leading Lawyer' for Corporate and M&A and 'Recommended Lawyer' for Finance, Private Equity and Investment Funds, Restructuring and Insolvency and TMT in the Legal500 Asia-Pacific Guide 2024.  
  • ‘Legal Icon’ amongst India`s top 100 lawyers in the India Business Law Journal`s, ‘A-List 2022-2023’.
  • Chambers & Partners Global Guide 2023 and 2022 for Corporate/M&A and Asia-Pacific Guide 2024, 2023 and 2022 for Corporate/ M&A and Restructuring/Insolvency.                                                                                                                                
  • ‘Highly regarded’ in M&A in the IFLR1000 (Euromoney publications) 2022, 2021 and 2020 Rankings.
  • 'ALB India 2020 Super 50 Lawyers' by Thomson Reuters` Asian Legal Business. 

Krishnava Dutt, Managing Partner, Argus Partners

Krishnava Dutt’s experience encompasses the entire repertoire of corporate commercial practice including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, banking and finance and commercial disputes.

Krishnava has closely worked with several large corporate groups, investors, private equity funds and renowned banks and financial institutions. He has also worked closely with both the government at the centre and state governments in India while advising on several transactions including disinvestments of public sector undertakings and framing of policies. Clients have deeply appreciated his strong financial, accounting and business acumen, which helps in providing a well-rounded commercially prudent legal advice to clients.

Krishnava has been identified by India Business Law Journal as one of India’s top 100 lawyers and is mentioned amongst the India A-List lawyers of 2017. Describing him as “a sharp, distinctive individual who has made the most of the booming Indian infrastructure market” RSG Consulting (London) has identified Krishnava as being amongst the leading second generation of Indian corporate lawyers. Chambers and Partners has identified Krishnava as a leading lawyer in India.

Krishnava serves as an independent director on the board of directors and committees (including as Audit Committee Chairman) of several internationally reputed listed companies.

Krishnava started his legal career at Calcutta High Court. After a short stint at the high court, he joined ICICI Bank in Mumbai where he gained several years of experience in handling transactions involving stressed assets and the international banking sector. He joined Amarchand Mangaldas in 2005 and was made partner in 2007. He retired from Amarchand Mangaldas in June 2009.

Krithiwas Neelakantan, Director - Channels, India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks

KRS Jamwal, Executive Director, Tata Industries

KRS Jamwal, as Executive Director of Tata Industries, is responsible for the incubation of new ventures (such as Tata Health and Tata UniStore) as well as investments made by Tata Industries in new businesses and start-ups.

Mr Jamwal is on the board of Tata companies such as Tata UniStore, which owns Tata CLiQ, a one-of-a-kind, leading multi-brand, e-retail platform; Tata SmartFoodz, a foodtech company offering delicious ready foods using proprietary technology (where he serves as Director and Chairman of the Board);  Inzpera Healthsciences, a health sciences company that markets palatable and efficacious therapeutic products (where he serves as Director and Chairman of the Board); and Tata Medical & Diagnostics, a leading-edge healthcare solutions provider (where he serves as Additional Director). He is also a member on the board of the overseas subsidiary of Tata Industries — Qubit Investments Pte (Singapore). He represents Qubit on the boards of: Flisom AG, which manufactures flexible, lightweight solar modules at market-comparable efficiency and costs; i3 Equity Partners, a Tel Aviv based technology incubator in IoT (Internet of Things) and industrial IoT; and SDX Partners LLC, USA, which provides seed funding to student-initiated business ideas at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.

Prior to joining Tata Industries, he served as Vice President, strategy, Group Corporate Centre, Tata Sons, supporting the then Group Chairman, Ratan Tata on special assignments such as the Investment Commission (2005-2009) and the US-India and UK-India CEO Forums.

Mr Jamwal started his career with TAS (formerly known as Tata Administrative Services) in 1989. His initial assignments, such as with the Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (Taj Group of hotels), included project management for setting up new hotels and flight catering units, with subsequent responsibilities relating to strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, where he was awarded the scholastic gold medal and the KV Srinivas Award for the best all-rounder. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in technology in petroleum engineering from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, and was awarded the scholastic gold medal and the best student shield.

Kshama Fernandes, Managing Director & CEO, IFMR Capital | @IFMRCapital

Kshama Fernandes is the Managing Director and CEO of IFMR Capital, a leading non-banking finance corporation in India that has successfully used the structured finance approach for promoting financial inclusion. Kshama has extensive prior experience across financial advisory, consulting, and academia. She has been a member of various High Powered Committees setup by the Government of India and has worked on consulting assignments for the World Bank, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and NSEIT. She was a core committee member of the Percy Mistry Committee on making Mumbai an International Financial Centre and also developed the SEBI mandated certification programme for derivatives for the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and NCDEX.

Kshama has been featured by FMO as a role model in banking. She is also a recipient of Accion’s Edward W. Claugus award for leadership in financial inclusion.

@Kshamafernandes

Kshitij Vijayvargiya, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Kshitij is a Managing Director and Partner in BCG's New Delhi office (India). Kshitij is part of BCG's Healthcare practice in India; and has ~14 years of experience in advising biopharma and healthcare companies across topics ranging from Strategy (business growth, portfolio, market entry, M&A), Sales and Marketing (brand launch, sales excellence, customer engagement) and Operations (Manufacturing, Procurement and Supply chain). He has also supported his clients on organization restructuring and culture transformations; and in embarking on digital enablement and transformations?

Prior to joining BCG, Kshitij has also set up a business unit for a tech enabled logistics company and grew it to a US$50M revenue within 2 years?

Some of Kshitij's recent experiences includes:?

India growth strategy for a global MNC pharmaco to grow 5-7X over 10 years through interventions across portfolio, customer segments, access to different coverage pools, market shaping and through initiatives on local partnerships and 'Make in India'?

  • India strategy for a global specialty chemicals co. to grow 5x over 5 years through enhanced portfolio, supply chain and key account mgmt.?
  • New product introduction and partnership strategy for a global MNC pharmaco to succeed in India?
  • Launch strategy for an innovative product by an Indian company in the Diabetes space in India; covering target segments, value proposition, competitive positioning, doctor engagement, pricing and supply chain enablement?
  • Business build strategy for an Indian Generics player to build a new Animal Health business in the US?
  • Digital front end transformation for a large Indian pharma player – including initiatives around sales process automation and excellence, personalization of customer engagement and digital driven doctor and patient connect?
  • Network strategy and plant consolidation for a large Indian pharma company; leading to savings of USD50+ M annually?
  • Procurement transformation for a large Indian pharma company; leading to savings of 13% on covered base?
  • Integrated transformation for a leading provider chain; incl. review and redesign of referral process, conversion of inbound leads, international patient management, case and revenue mix, ALOS optimization, cost optimization and growth plans?
  • COVID response preparation in India: Strategy to strengthen COVID response infrastructure in India, epi model, build up of COVID care center, role of private sector hospitals in COVID management, capacity augmentation for nursing, consumables and testing?

Kshitij holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and is a mechanical engineer?