Our speakers
Alok Saraogi, Head - Brand Marketing & Corporate Communications, Ashok Leyland Ltd
Alok Saraogi is the Head of Brand Marketing and Corporate Communications with Ashok Leyland, India’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer.
With over 20 years of experience spanning FMCG, services and advertising, across automobile, retail, aviation, Internet services and advertising. Immediately prior his current assignment, Alok was head of the brands portfolio at Futurebrands (the marketing services arm of the Future Group) managing the portfolio of private labels across apparel, FMCG and consumer durables.
As the Global Brand Com head for Jet Airways, Alok led the airline’s international foray in to new markets - including Europe, America and ASEAN. At Jet Airways he also led the project to re-position the airline, re-design its brand identity and implement it across the network.
In earlier roles as the Head of Strategic Planning at Bates Bombay and also Contract, Delhi, he was responsible for new business acquisition, consumer research, insights mining, creative ideating and providing counsel to clients across FMCG, financial products, retail and service industries.
He looked after National Alliances and Client Servicing for Indya.com, one of the most recognised horizontal portals in India and has also worked with leading communication agencies such as Lowe Lintas, Contract, Leo Burnett and Bates.
Alok is a known speaker at seminars and conferences across the country and frequently invited to speak on subjects ranging consumer behavior, marketing insights and the digital space. He has been recognised as among the 50 Most Talented Brand Leaders of India at the Brand Leadership Awards of the World CMO Council in February 2013. In the same year he was also nominated Marketer of the Year – Auto Commercial Vehicles – at the Leadership Awards by the International Advertising Association.
You can reach out to him on Twitter at twitter.com/alosara
Alok Shukla, Products and Solutions Group, Airtel Business
Alok Verma, Senior Strategy Leader and Partner, Grant Thornton
- Indian Auto Industry 2.0: Innovation, NPD and Globalization imperatives
- NextGen Automotive Technologies: Imperative India
- Innovation driven growth in India- Assocham Study
- Indo-US Trade: $500 Bn Roadmap- IACC Study
Alok is a Senior Strategy Leader with over 20 years of experience in consulting across growth strategy, corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, market entry strategy, innovation & performance improvement advisory. He has led several commercial diligence engagements across Auto, IT, Pharma & Healthcare, Retail etc. He has had extensive international consulting experience being based out of US, India, Europe, and APAC. He works with Global Corporate Boards, Promoters, CEO’s, PE players as part of his Strategic Advisory efforts. Alok focuses on cross-industry solutions, leverages cutting edge thinking on Right to Win, Hypotheses Driven Approach and Design Thinking.
Alok works actively with Industry forums like CII, IDG, IACC, Assocham, FICCI, ET, ACMA and other trade forums/ academia interfaces. Alok is part of CII Future Business Council and is also part of its select committee on Artificial Intelligence.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Alok was Automotive Sector leader at a leading strategy firm. Some of Alok’s recent publications which captures his perspective on Innovation and disruption across Industry segments:
Alok is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Alok Verma, Head-Corporate Strategy and ESG, Ashok Leyland
Alok Verma, Senior Strategy Leader and Partner, Grant Thornton
- Indian Auto Industry 2.0: Innovation, NPD and Globalization imperatives
- NextGen Automotive Technologies: Imperative India
- Innovation driven growth in India- Assocham Study
- Indo-US Trade: $500 Bn Roadmap- IACC Study
Advisory efforts. Alok focuses on cross-industry solutions, leverages cutting edge thinking on Right to Win, Hypotheses Driven Approach and Design Thinking.
Alok works actively with Industry forums like CII, IDG, IACC, Assocham, FICCI, ET, ACMA and other trade forums/ academia interfaces. Alok is part of CII Future Business Council and is also part of its select committee on Artificial Intelligence.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Alok was Automotive Sector leader at a leading strategy firm. Some of Alok’s recent publications which captures his perspective on Innovation and disruption across Industry segments:
Alok is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Aloke Bajpai, CEO & Co-Founder, Ixigo.com | @ixigo
Aloke is the dynamo who drives ixigo with his passion and eye for detail. He is responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the team with his business acumen and consumer-centric thinking. His creativity, intuition and perseverance have had immense impact on ixigo’s growth story.
An IIT Kanpur Electrical Engineering alumnus and an MBA graduate from INSEAD, he loves creative writing, history and gadgets. Prior to launching ixigo, he worked in technology roles at Amadeus SAS, Nice, France, where he was part of the team that built the world’s first web-based cruise-line booking engine for agencies. Since then, his love for Internet products and Croissants has never ebbed.
Aloke has also recently won the Young Achiever Award at Mobby's 2013. He is a TiE charter member and a mentor to several startups, incubators and accelerators.
He is also an advisor to 10+ Startups including: Playcez (acquired by IndiaMart group), Bluegape, Dogspot, Azoi.
@alokebajpai
Alpesh Dalal, Head M&A and Investor Relations, Lupin Limited | @LupinLimited
Alpesh heads the M&A and Investor Relations in India for Lupin. He has experience in handling cross border acquisitions especially in the USA, LATAM and Asia Pacific markets.
Alpesh joined Lupin in 2009 as Commercial and Finance Head for the business unit focusing on Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle-East and Latin America and has been handling the corporate M&A and Investor Relations since past two years. He started his career in 1998 with Haribhakti & Co in the audit practice and subsequently moved to financial services within the same group. He spent the first 5 & half years of his career in the financial advisory / investment banking services. Subsequently, he moved to industry with the M&A team in Wockhardt and then headed the corporate finance function at Thomas Cook (I) Ltd before moving on to his current job with Lupin.
Alpesh has worked on various engagements in the Corporate Finance field including M&A, treasury, capital market fund raising and has also been involved in operations of some of Lupin’s overseas subsidiaries.
Aluri Srinivasa Rao, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Private Equity
Aluri Rao is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley. Mr. Rao joined MSPE Asia in 2008 and focuses on the group’s private equity transactions in India. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Rao was Director of Private Equity at ICICI Venture and one of the senior private equity professionals on the team. He has led numerous landmark private equity investments particularly in the healthcare sector.
At ICICI Venture, Mr. Rao led transactions including the buyout of allied businesses of Ranbaxy Laboratories, the tie-up with Dr Reddy’s, roll ups such as Iven Medicare and Swiss Biosciences as well as growth investments in Avesthagen, Arch Pharma, Malladi, Bharat Biotech, Metropolis and Onconova amongst others. He served as a member of the board on several of these portfolio companies. He brings with him over 20 years of organizational building and corporate experience in India, UK and USA. Mr. Rao is Indian and is based in Hyderabad. He is a graduate of BITS, Pilani, and a Sloan Fellow from the London Business School.
Alvaro Abella, Managing Director, Gulf Capital
Alvaro Abella is a Managing Director in the Private Equity team at Gulf Capital.
With over twenty years of experience across Europe, the Americas and the MENA region and with a strong focus on TMT investments, Mr. Abella has worked across transaction execution, post-acquisition management and advisory roles. Before Gulf Capital, he co-founded BECO Holdings, Dubai-based early-stage investment firm focused on digital businesses in the MENA region, where he led investments into regional leaders such as Careem, Vezeeta and SellAnyCar.
Mr. Abella also held previous positions with Diamond Cluster International, Dubai, Value Partners SpA., Italy and Booz Allen & Hamilton, Europe.
Mr. Abella has a Master in Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts, USA.
Aman Agarwal, Google Business Unit Corporate Head, Persistent Systems