Our speakers

Omkar Shirhatti, Co-founder and CEO, Karza Technologies

Oscar Pereira, Director, Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals Pvt Ltd

Mr. Oscar Pereira together with his wife Mrs. Cheryl Pereira is the founder of Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals Pvt. Ltd. He is an acknowledged Cosmetologist and renowned for his ground breaking work in evolving breakthrough products for skin, hair and body care.

He has written avidly on skin and hair care and has appeared on various TV shows as an expert in the field of beauty treatments. He has also pioneered the concept of holding seminars for training and updating beauticians on the latest treatments and developments. He is also a seasoned professional who has developed the company’s activities to encompass a wide range of skin and hair care treatments.  

He is a post graduate from TISS with specialization in HR and always had a holistic approach towards human empowerment and felt that if we look good, we will feel good and this thinking together with his passion for doing something meaningful in this domain, fuelled his interest in the beauty industry.

The inspiration to set up Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals mainly stems from his continuing commitment, mission and personal longing to offer a solution for every major skin and hair concern, to research, develop, manufacture and market a range of skin and hair care products to meet those concerns and to be and remain a pioneer and leader in the field of cosmetics.

His constant interaction with the market led him to believe that today’s fast paced life has led to a new breed of customers who demand a instant and dramatic metamorphosis of their skin and hair and have grown weary of experimenting through trial and error in order to find the right product suited for their skin type and condition. This led him to manufacture high end cosmetics for different skin types and concerns and using the latest technology to fulfill the DNA of Cheryl’s which is “Skincare That Works”

Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals actually started production about 25 years ago and today the Company has a pan India presence, with a wide distribution network covering the length and breadth of the country and a strong customer base of thousands of beauticians, who are successful beauty professionals.

Mr. Pereira is committed to the continuous pursuit of research and development of formulations using the latest technologies and effective ingredients, to deliver outstanding results in resolving skin, hair and body care concerns.

His mission is to offer a solution for every major skin and hair concern, to research, develop, manufacture and market a range of skin and hair care products to meet those concerns and to be and remain a pioneer and leader in the field of cosmetics.

He drives the business development, marketing, finance and operations of the company and is also solely responsible for creating formulations of products that are manufactured by the company.

In October 2013, Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals was acquired by L'Oreal Paris, the largest cosmetic and beauty company in the world. This is L’Oreal’s first acquisition in the Indian market, which will help the company strengthen its position in the highly competitive Indian salon market.

Jean-Christophe Letellier, Managing Director, L’Oréal India, said: “This is an attractive opportunity for L’Oréal in India as it broadens the product offering of our Professional Products Division in this country to also include skincare products and services. It will further enhance our leadership position in the very dynamic professional products market where we are present with our brands - L’Oréal Professional, Matrix, and Kerastase.”

Ozi Amanat, Partner, K2 Global

P Rammohan, Founder & MD, Medypal

Rammohan is presently Founder and Managing Director of Commerzpoint Networks Pvt. Ltd which owns and runs “Medypal” a recently launched healthcare market place. Previously co-founded Healthsprint Networks in 2006  India’s 1st Health Insurance Exchange which touched 100 million lives and was acquired in January 2013 . Rammohan holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Medical instrumentation and  a Certified six sigma green belt. Prior to his entrepreneurship journey spent 20+ years holding leadership roles in GE Medical systems, Philips and Siemens.

P S Jayakumar, MD, Value & Budget Housing

Mr. Jayakumar (Jaya) holds a Master's Degree in Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, a Master's Degree in Commerce from the University of Madras and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is also a Gurukul Chevening Scholar from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jayakumar started his career with Citibank in 1986 and has held many senior management positions at Citi including, Country Head for Consumer Business in India and Head-Consumer Lending in Asia Pacific and the Far East. During his banking career spanning 24 years, he has contributed significantly to the development of the retail banking industry in India.

P. Rudran, MD & CEO, Asset Reconstruction Company India Ltd

Mr. Rudran holds over 40 years of management and leadership experience in reputed banking and financial corporations like RBI, IDBI and SIDBI. He joined Arcil in April 2012 as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer and presently guides the strategic and operational aspects of the Company.

Prior to joining Arcil, he led the core professional team in setting up, operationalize and manage India SME Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. (ISARC), a specialized ARC promoted by SIDBI. He was associated with SIDBI as the Chief General Manager and headed various head office departments.

P. Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software Limited

Srikar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Member of the Board of Directors of Sonata Software Limited. A graduate from the Regional Engineering College (NIT, Trichy), and a Post Graduate in Management from IIM Calcutta.

Srikar has been with Sonata since 1986 and is pivotal in building Sonata as a trusted and reliable IT Solutions company. Srikar’s philosophy of driving business growth through a single-minded focus on customer and investment in people and technology, has made Sonata one of the fastest growing IT solutions company with a unique and differentiated strategy and value proposition.

In the last 6 years, between 2012 to 2018, since Srikar became the CEO of the company Sonata has seen its revenues, profits multiply many times and a market capitalization growing over 20 times, enabling the Financial and Industry analyst groups recognizing his focus to conceptualize and execute a unique growth strategy based on IP. This has helped Sonata to be a member of the group of unique Global growth companies at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Srikar has set Sonata on a new growth path with a unique proprietary approach to creating digital businesses called “Platformation “

Srikar is actively involved with NASSCOM and CII, and was the Chairman of the Regional NASSCOM Council. He has been the Speaker at WEF and NASSCOM events. Srikar was conferred with the distinguished Alumni award by NITT, for his contribution to Industry/Corporate.

Sonata's growth over past 6 years is now widely recognized and Srikar has been featured recently in the list of India’s 10 most valuable CEO’s in the large enterprise category (2500 crore to 7500 crore) by ‘Business World,’ (Issue dated 18th June 2018). He has also been featured by Business Today (September 2017) as leading one of India’s fastest growing emerging (revenue between 500 to 2500 Cr) companies.

P. Vijayraghavan, Founder & CEO, Lawrencedale Agroprocessing India Pvt Ltd

Palat Vijayaraghavan founded Lawrencedale Agro Processing during March 2009 after being witness to the numerous troubles which the farmers go through in managing the life-cycle of their harvest.

The farmers, especially those with land-holding of less than 5 acres, are at the mercy of numerous intermediaries, when they (farmer) want to sell the produce. Vijayaraghavan, along with three partners, innovated to walk with the farmer in the entire life-cycle of the harvest and get them beneficial forward market linkages, besides offering a host of farmer services to improve the quality of the yield while reducing dependency on chemical pesticides.

With this foundation, Vijayaraghavan refined the fresh produce post-harvest management processes to drastically reduce the supply chain losses along the farm-to-fork link which enabled the retailers to increase their focus on the front-end. Innovating further, He has put in place a series of technology processes to drastically reduce the contaminants from the fresh produce and make them Safe To Consume.

An Automobile Engineer by education, Vijayaraghavan is a long-time resident of Ooty, and has been active in preserving the natural environs of the ecological biosphere of Ooty through eco-friendly landscaping and improving the town's infrastructure.

Vijay, a passionate and hands-on manager at Lawrencedale Agro, is also active in various facets of society development in Ooty and is actively involved in Road Safety Awareness.

P.K Sinha, Professor - Retailing and Marketing, Chairperson - Centre for Retailing, IIM - Ahmedabad

Piyush is a faculty in the area of marketing and retailing. He has more than three decades of academic and industry experience. He has taught at leading management schools of India. Prior to joining IIMA, he was the Dean at MICA. He teaches Retailing and Marketing Management to the post graduate students. He has been the Chairperson of the Centre for Retailing at IIMA.

Dr. Sinha has consulted companies in the areas of retail efforts, service management, marketing strategies, and marketing communication. His clients include companies from engineering, software, media, petroleum and retailing. He is working with some of the leading retailing companies in India. The projects include loyalty programmes, enhancing the performance of the outlets and redefining the role of the outlets in the new environments.

During his corporate tenure, Dr. Sinha has headed the marketing function of some of the leading companies Dr. Sinha serves on the board of many companies. He is one of the few resources working in the area of qualitative research in marketing in India. He is associated as a mentor with several start-ups, especially those promoting social entrepreneurship.

P.P Gupta, MD, Techno Electric & Engineering Company

Aged 60 years holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering and a Post Graduate degree in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He was associated with the Planning Commission, Government. of India, as a Financial Analyst; Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited as a Management Consultant and as an Advisor in the merchant banking division of the erstwhile ANZ Grindlays Bank, Kolkata. He was the Vice President of Indian Electricals and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA), and has over 33 years of experience, including 28 years in the present activity.