Our speakers

Mark Kahn, Founding Partner, Omnivore Partners

Mark Kahn is the co-founder of Omnivore Partners, a venture fund investing in early stage agriculture & food technology companies in India. Omnivore supports entrepreneurs developing solutions to improve farm productivity, increase agricultural sustainability, modernize agribusiness supply chains, and promote farm-sourced food products. Omnivore seeks to transform Indian agriculture through technology innovation, impacting the lives of farmers and rural communities.

Mark is a Director for multiple Omnivore-backed startups, including Skymet, FrontalRain, Arohan Foods, Eruvaka, and YCook. Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, one of India's foremost diversified agribusiness companies. At Godrej Agrovet, Mark was responsible for corporate strategy, M&A, R&D, and new business incubation.

Earlier in his career, Mark worked for Syngenta and PFM.  He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Mark is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Council on Agriculture and the CII Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council.  He also serves on the board of Heifer International India.

Mark Silgardo, Sr Managing Partner, IL&FS Investment Managers Limited

Mr. Silgardo is Senior Managing Partner at IIML and has over 28 years of experience across the financial services industry. Mr. Silgardo has worked on the corporate banking side of two multinational banks, namely Banque Nationale de Paris and ANZ Grindlays for over 10 years and subsequently headed Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, one of the largest domestic investment banks in India. Thereafter as Managing Director, Corporate Finance of ABN Amro and then PriceWaterhouse Coopers, he led M&A transactions with deal sizes ranging from $25 million to $500 million across sectors as diverse as telecommunications, media, fast moving consumer goods, and oil & gas. Prior to joining IIML, Mr. Silgardo set up the Investment Banking division of IndusInd Bank, one of the premier private sector banks in India. He was also involved in M&A and fund raising strategy and execution for various Hinduja group companies spanning the telecommunications, media, ITES, real estate and pharmaceutical sectors, as well as in the structuring and development of a proposed fund management business.

From June 2006, Mr Silgardo has been running the growth private equity fund which invests in rapidly growing mid sized companies across a wide range of sectors.

Mr. Silgardo holds an MBA in International Finance from University of Rochester, New York. Mr. Silgardo did his post graduate studies in Marketing from IIM Ahmedabad.

Martin Blake, Strategic Advisor, Board of Blue Planet Environmental Services

Dr Martin Blake is an award-winning visionary thought leader and strategist with 35 years practical experience at an executive level. He is a company director, speaker and mentor with specialist expertise in board direction, governance and futuring. He holds a working portfolio of board directorships and advisory roles encompassing the USA, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. He is the owner of Blake Advisory, a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Blue Planet Environmental Services, an Associate Director of Future Smart Strategies, a Strategic Partner at IAQ Consultants, and a Non-Executive Director of Sabien Technology and PearTrack Security Systems Inc.

Dr Blake chairs and advises a multitude of strategic groups, all focused on the development and deployment of innovative business models. He is an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Business Development at both Griffith University and the University of Southern Queensland, and is also a Visiting Fellow at the Business School of the University of Hull in the UK.

Dr Blake is internationally recognised as having designed and deployed one of the most successful organizational change management programmes in the world, saving millions of pounds annually and winning multiple National and International awards.

Martin Nygate, Founder & CEO, nanu

A seasoned entrepreneur with a penchant for start up success, Martin is the architect behind the nanu business. Martin has made a career out of delivering profitable high tech sales and communications solutions to the maritime and software industries, spanning Asia and Europe. Product expertise includes CRM, ERP, CCTV, SIM card, banking and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) software.

nanu was conceived from Martin’s singular mission to revolutionize the telecommunications industry and put an end to telco dominance.

@chiefnanu

Marwan Al Sarkal, Managing Partner, Chapter 3 LLC

Masood Mallick, Managing Director & Group CEO, Re Sustainability Limited

Masood is the Managing Director & Group CEO of Re Sustainability Limited. Over the last three decades, he has worked with leading global corporations, governments, institutions and investors on circular economy, climate change and sustainability issues, across four continents. Before joining Re Sustainability, he served as Managing Director at ERM and was a part of ERM's Global Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

Masood has also advised the Government of India on environmental policy and legislation, including several regulatory standards and the country's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

He has led several national and international industry forums in the sustainability and circular economy space and is a recognised thought leader in these areas. He is also a recognized subject matter expert in management of hazardous materials, waste management and rehabilitation of contaminated sites. 

He currently serves as the Chairman of CII National Committee on Circular Economy (Waste to Worth Transformation) and recently also served as the Chairman of ASSOCHAM’s National Council on Environment and Climate Change.

About Re Sustainability

Re Sustainability, a KKR company, is Asia’s leading provider of integrated sustainability solutions. Re Sustainability aims to be a global enabler of circular economy and provides a range of environmental infrastructure, services and circular economy solutions for cities and industries. 

Its businesses include Waste Management (including hazardous, municipal, bio-medical, MARPOL & e-waste); Waste to Energy; Wastewater Solutions, Recycling & Resource Recovery (including plastics, E-waste, paper, ELV’s, C&D waste and a number of other commodities). Re Sustainability also offers EPC services, consultancy and bespoke environmental solutions. 

With a workforce that is over 22,000 strong, Re Sustainability has a global footprint, including more than 100 operating facilities and plants spread across India, Singapore, USA, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Tanzania.

Re Sustainability is independently rated by Standard & Poor’s CSA (earlier known as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index). In January 2025, ReSL was ranked as the highest rated environmental services company globally.

Mathew Cyriac, , Florintree Advisors

Mathew Cyriac is the Co-Head of Private Equity in India.

Since joining Blackstone in 2006, Mr. Cyriac has been involved in Blackstone’s investments in Allcargo Global Logistics, CMS Infosystems, FINO, FTIL, Gateway Rail, Gokaldas Exports, International Tractors, MCX, MTAR Technologies and Nuziveedu Seeds. Mr. Cyriac currently serves on the boards of CMS Info Systems, FINO, Gateway Rail, Gokaldas Exports, International Tractors and MTAR.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Cyriac served as Head of Corporate Development & Strategy of iGATE Corporation (NASDAQ:IGTE) and Chief Financial Officer of Quintant Services, where he led all the financing and other strategic transactions of Quintant and its eventual sale to iGATE.

Prior to joining Quintant, Mr. Cyriac was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Cyriac also worked in the Private Equity Group at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and the Investment Banking Division of Bank of America and in the Engineering Division of Tata Motors.

Mr. Cyriac received a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he graduated at the top of his class.

Matthew Driver, Executive Vice President, Head of Services, Asia Pacific, Mastercard

Mausam Bhatt, Sr. Director - Marketing (Mobile and Digital), Flipkart

Mausam heads the Online Marketing and Alliances team at Flipkart. In this role, he is responsible for leading mobile strategy, digital marketing, customer acquisition and strategic alliances for India’s largest e-commerce platform.

Mausam joined Flipkart after having spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley launching and growing market-leading products in a variety of spaces. Prior to Flipkart, he led mobile monetization initiatives at the #1 health care app developer Epocrates. He has also worked earlier as a Product Director for the strategic marketing team at Johnson & Johnson and led product development for Hewlett Packard’s enterprise server division.

He is passionate about the role mobile Internet will play in emerging economies as a great leveler in bringing about equal opportunity and transparency for all.

Mausam holds an MBA degree from Duke University and an MS in Computer Science from University of Arizona.

Maya John, Chief People Officer, VerSe Innovation