Our speakers

Akshay Garkel, Partner & Leader - Cyber, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP

Akshay Ghulati, Co-founder, Shiprocket

Akshay Ghulati is the Co-founder, Shiprocket Global & Strategy, a leading tech-enabled e-commerce fulfilment platform in India. Akshay leads the Strategy and Global Expansion team and is responsible for managing the overall revenue functions of the business including marketing, account management and customer service. His key responsibility is to make Shiprocket the most trusted logistics and fulfilment platform for e-commerce sellers.

Akshay has an exemplary academic background and extensive experience in the e-commerce industry. Having graduated from the prestigious Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BSc degree in Economics he then went on to pursue his MBA from Harvard Business School. Akshay joined Shiprocket in 2016 as the Chief Business Officer and in January 2020 he was appointed as a Co-founder.

Throughout the course of his career, Akshay has worked with notable organizations in senior positions. Prior to joining Shiprocket, Akshay was associated with e-commerce heavyweight Amazon in the UK where he served as a Senior Manager for the Pan-Europe FBA division. Before joining Amazon UK he worked with Smile Interactive Technologies as Director for Incubations and Investments. He was also associated with A.T. Kearney as a Senior Business Analyst at the start of his career and later with The Parthenon Group in the UK as a Principal.

With exceptional business acumen, Akshay’s career features several milestones. He was the youngest full-time employee for A.T. Kearney India post his bachelor’s degree at a time when the firm only hired MBA graduates. Akshay also helped set up the United Stock Exchange, which was the 4th pan India stock exchange. The organization was later acquired by Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Akshay was also recognized as the top performer at Amazon and was awarded the Just Do It award.

Akshay plans to make Shiprocket the leading SME e-commerce fulfilment platform both in India and key international markets. Passionate about the food supply chain in India Akshay is learning more about sustainable farming. A movie buff, he loves travelling and playing poker. He also frequently works with and supports NGOs that work towards educating girls.

Akshay Kamath, Head - Loyalty, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (More)

Akshay R Kamath, a keen Direct Marketer has worked with the largest loyalty programs in the industry from Payback to RelianceOne and currently heads the Aditya Birla Retail ‘Clubmore’ program. An MBA, with a penchant for Economics, Akshay has always been fascinated by the customer centricity and measurability that Direct marketing offers. Harnessing Analytics to unveil the varied and nebulous decisions that a consumer makes is what enchants him at work while his favourite guitar(s) and his undying love for travel is what motivates him at play.

Akshay Kiran, Managing Director , East India Capital Management

Akshay joined the Milltrust family in 2016 as director of the Singapore based multifamily office EICM and runs the fund selection, investment structuring and syndications mandate focusing primarily on private equity, real assets and venture capital.

He has about 15 years of experience across a diverse range of sectors and has spent significant time in mid-market investment banking and structuring financial solutions in Asia-Pacific. Prior to Milltrust, he ran a boutique project finance and advisory in Singapore advising on over one billion USD of transactions focusing mainly on South East Asian energy, resources and infrastructure. He spent his early banking years at Barclays Capital and Nomura in fixed income/risk and prime brokerage respectively.

Akshay Munjal, Founder and CEO, Hero Vired

Akshay has played a vital role in transforming the landscape of Indian education and training since 2008 He founded the BML Munjal University in 2014 and Hero Vired in 2021, prior to which he headed Hero Mindmine. During his stint at Hero Mindmine, the professional skills development venture of the Hero Group, Akshay had a ringside view of the challenges faced by students in the higher education sector and their difficulties to final meaningful employment.

The vision behind BML Munjal University and Hero Vired emerged from that insight, and are centred around introducing academic and industry-based instruction that is cutting-edge, experiential, application-oriented, employability-centric and with an emphasis on measurable transformation. He has played a pivotal role in the conceptualization, design and development of both education ventures.

BML Munjal University seeks to transform higher education in India by creating a world-class and innovative teaching, learning and research environment. This young university which has over 1,600 students has already published over 150 research papers and is on track to filing 30+ patents in this yearIn 2020, the School of Management at the University was ranked 37 by the NIRF, in the same year, the University was also chosen by ET Edge, an initiative by Economic Times as one of the Best Education Brands. BMU seeks to transform higher education in India by creating a world-class and innovative teaching, learning and research environment.

Hero Vired is a startup that offers career-relevant programs, in partnership with leading global  universities and institutions, to make learners more competent and industry-ready for emerging jobs and professions under Industry 4.1. With best-in-class short and long-term learning programs, Hero Vired offers overall professional development via skill-based programs and courses that are imperative to a learner’s growth in India’s rapidly evolving digital economy.

Akshay began his professional journey with Accenture in New Delhi and fondly remembers being part of the team that designed the IT infrastructure for Delhi Metro and witnessed the flagging off of Delhi’s first metro train.

Akshay considers the late Dr Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the founder of the Hero Group of companies, as the biggest influence on his personal and professional life. Akshay believes Dr Munjal’s success mantra – Focus on the basics, everything will take care of itself to be his guiding principle in his life. Akshay holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, USA and a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Management from the University of Bradford, UK.

He has been an avid tennis player for over a decade, and he follows the sport passionately. As a marathon runner, Akshay has participated in over half a dozen marathons.

Akshay Panth, Chief Investment Officer, Neev Funds-SBICAP Ventures Ltd.

Akshay has over 13 years experience in Private Equity, Principal Investments and Advisory roles with leading domestic and international investors. He started his career with the India Infrastructure Fund (a c.US$1Bn Infrastructure Fund managed by IDFC Alternatives) and has since worked with multiple private equity and principal investors. His previous experience includes working with CapAleph Private Equity, GMR Infrastructure, and MAPE Advisory Group.

At CapAleph, Akshay handled the Infrastructure Support Services and Education & Skill Development segments for the Fund. At GMR Infrastructure, Akshay was part of the Project Finance team working on the road sector where he submitted multiple bids to the NHAI. He has been part of teams that have invested over US$100Mn in the Indian infrastructure space.

Akshay holds a PGDM/MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bangalore University. 

Akshay Sharma, Founder & COO, Schedulers Logistics

Founder of the Company and the member of the Board of Directors. In Schedulers, He is responsible for the operations and profitability of Company including Leadership development and new initiatives. He brings in 18 years of experience in Cold Chain, SCM and General Management. He has worked with some of the top companies in logistics and cold chain SCM. He is an Alumni of King George Royal Indian Military Schools and has graduated from Institute of Hotel Management, Bhopal.

Alagappan Murugappan, Managing Director and Head of Asia Funds, CDC Group | @CDCgroup

Muru joined CDC in October 2013 having worked previously in senior roles in private equity and investment banking in India. His private equity experience includes a stint at Actis in India and more recently, he headed the infrastructure fund at UTI Capital.

Muru has been an investment banker for over 13 years having served on the Board of ICICI Securities, one of India’s leading Investment Banks with direct responsibility for investment banking. His previous investment banking experience was with Cazenove in the UK and in India, where he headed the Indian operations of the firm.

Muru holds a masters degree in Law from Cambridge University.

Alan Rosling, Chairman, Kiran Energy Solar Power

Alan Rosling is Chairman of Kiran Energy Solar Power Pvt Ltd, a company he co-founded in Bombay in 2010 together with Ardeshir Contractor. Kiran Energy closed its Series A funding round with a consortium of three private equity investors and is now developing solar power projects in India, typically in joint venture with leading corporates. Kiran signed its first joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra in September 2010 and has signed two Power Purchase Agreements to date, a 20 MW project in Gujarat and a 5 MW National Solar Mission project.

Alan created his own advisory business, Griffin Growth Partners Ltd, in 2009 to assist clients develop and implement successful strategies in India, and to work with Asian multinationals as they globalise.

He was until March 2009 an Executive Director of Tata Sons Limited, the holding company of the Tata Group, and was a member of the Tata Group Corporate Centre with responsibility for the Group’s drive to internationalise.

From 1998 to 2003 he was Chairman of the Jardine Matheson Group in India. Before joining Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, he was with United Distillers plc where he was Strategy Development Director. Between 1991-93 Alan was Special Advisor to the British Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. John Major MP, and a member of the Policy Unit at No.10 Downing Street. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Piersons, a division of Courtaulds Textiles plc. He started his career in 1983 as a merchant banker with S.G. Warburg & Co Ltd.

He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge, and the Harvard Business School.

He was made an OBE in 1994.

Alekh Sanghera, Co-founder, farMart | @farMart_

Alekh is co-founder & CEO of farMart. farMart is an on-demand agriculture machinery renting platform for farmers from farmers. Prior to farMart, Alekh was a digital payments consultant with MicroSave. He has cross country experience having worked extensively on variety of projects with international donors- Gates foundation, World Bank, UNCDF- and Government of India apparatus. Alekh was the core team member who helped established a new government payments division at MicroSave Consulting.

@alekhs22