Our speakers

P.R. Srinivasan, Partner, Xponentia Capital Partners LLP

Prior to founding Xponentia, Mr. Srinivasan served as India Region Head and Managing Director of Citigroup Venture Capital International (“CVCI”). He was also a member of the CVCI team which raised two global emerging market funds – USD 1.5 billion in 2005 and USD 4.3 billion in 2007. Before CVCI, he was one of the founders of HSBC Private Equity in India, which raised a USD 60 million fund in 1995. Over his investment career, he has led and been involved in numerous deals with an aggregate invested capital in excess of USD 700 million. Mr. Srinivasan holds a bachelor’s degree from College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai and obtained a post-graduate diploma in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Paavan Nanda, Co-founder, Zo Rooms

Paavan Nanda is the Co-Founder of Zostel Hospitality Private Limited (ZHPL), the fastest growing firm in Indian budget accommodation. A graduate from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Paavan is currently handing Business Development and Investor Relations for the company. Been with ZHPL since its inception, Paavan has handled multiple functions for the company. An avid traveller by himself, he believes in creating an empowered network of travel facilitators who can truly revolutionize the way India travels. Prior to this, Paavan has worked as a Consultant with Bain & Company.

Paavan Nanda, Co-Founder, Winzo

Paavan Nanda is a Co-Founder of WinZO, India’s largest interactive entertainment platform, WinZO. That has over 75 million users and has raised 100MM dollars from marque global investors. Paavan is a second-time entrepreneur. His first venture was Zostel & ZO Rooms, a Tiger Global-backed aggregator model. Paavan's corporate stints were with Bain & Company, Abbott Labs, and Bank of America - Global Trading Desk. MBA from IIM- Calcutta, Paavan did his Engineering from NSIT in 2009.

Pablo Erat, Partner, Pioneering Ventures AG

Dr. Pablo Erat, Partner at Pioneering Ventures, is an entrepreneur, investor and a passionate triathlete. He has over 15 years of strategy consulting experience and strong entrepreneurial track record within various industries. He has over 8 years of leadership experience in the incubation and development of industrial-size agricultural and food supply chain investments in India.

Throughout his career, Pablo has incubated and successfully led companies in the area of consulting, digital commerce, technology, and food processing. Within consulting, he co-founded the strategy consulting firm Executive Insight and became a recognized thought leader within the development transformative strategies and competence based organizational models improving strategic decision making and fostering cultural change, organizational learning and innovation. Pablo simultaneously lectured on corporate strategy at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH and his innovative ideas and concepts have been published in numerous industry and academic journals and presented at international forums and conferences.

Pablo joined Pioneering Ventures a project CEO in 2009 with the initial assignment to lead the incubation of Citrus International, India’s first and only industry scale orange juice concentrate manufacturer. Under his leadership, the project team developed the business turn-key solution, acquired Proterra as lead-investor and HDFC and PepsiCo as co-investors.

In his current role as a Partner at Pioneering Ventures, Pablo is focusing on investor relations, corporate communication and strategic guidance of venture development. Examples of new ventures are MilkLane, a company which aims to become India’s largest aggregator and supplier of high quality milk and FarmLink, a company modernizing the entire supply chain for F&B with the aim to become the largest and most preferred supplier of value-added fresh produce for industrial scale off-takers.

Pablo at the age of 34 decided to radically change his habits and start living a more healthy and active life. On this journey, Pablo discovered endurance training and became a passionate triathlete. Despite a demanding job, including long working hours, extensive responsibility and heavy travel, Pablo managed to transform himself from an unhealthy business professional to a multiple amateur Ironman champion with a personal best of 8 hours and 50 minutes. Over the past 10 years, Pablo has completed 20 full distance Ironman races, became European Champion in long-distance triathlon and Swiss Champion in ultramarathon cycling in the “couples’ category” together with his wife Lucia.

Pablo earned his Master's degree in Strategy and Organization as well as his Doctorate at the Institute of Management (IFB) at the University of St. Gallen (St. Gallen, Switzerland).

Padma Parthasarathy, Senior VP & Global Head Consulting, Tech Mahindra

Padma currently heads the global consulting team at Tech Mahindra – a team of 2,500 people engaged in business & technology consulting, and process advisory & re-engineering services.  As a sponsor and mentor for TechM’s DigitAll program, the development and execution of digital transformation strategy and plans, both internally, and for clients, is one of her key focus areas.

Padma joined Tech Mahindra in 2006, as Vice-President, Strategic Markets & Initiatives, where her responsibilities included expansion to new geographies, as well as Mergers and Acquisitions.  In 2009, Padma moved to the then newly acquired Satyam organization, to lead the post-acquisition program and the integration activities between Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam. She planned and coordinated a range of programs to turn the company around and lay the base for future growth and integration. Padma worked with various cross-functional implementation teams to rapidly deploy a series of initiatives across marketing, HR, finance, sales, legal and operations to successfully carry out this role.

Between mid-2010 and early 2015, Padma was a consultant with Tech Mahindra, working on developing new strategic lines of business in BFSI, especially in the wealth and superannuation space. In particular, she led the creation of a platform-based outsourcing business servicing the Australian investment and retirement savings market.

An alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the University of Bombay, Padma has more than 28 years of experience in consulting and technology & business process optimisation. Padma joined Tech Mahindra from financial services consulting firm Capco, where she was Country Manager in India, responsible for Capco’s offshore services to global clients such as AXA, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, ING, as well as consulting services for domestic clients.

Prior to Capco, Padma was Vice-President of Strategic Accounts and Initiatives at Perot Systems’ Indian subsidiary.  She was responsible for the creation of the financial services practice in the company, which grew to account for more than half the business of the organization, servicing clients such as UBS, Bank of Ireland, MBNA, Merrill Lynch and VOCA. Padma started her career in 1988 with Citicorp Overseas Software in Mumbai, one of the pioneering organizations in offshore technology services for large multinational universal banks, where she specialized in business analysis and application development for the investment banking business.

Padmabhushan Bahadure, CTO, IDBI Bank

Padmabhushan Bahadure, CTO, IDBI Bank

Padmaja Chunduru, MD & CEO, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL)

Padmaja Ruparel , Co-Founder , Indian Angel Network

Padmaja Ruparel is the Founding Partner of the IAN Fund, a uniquely differentiated Rs. 450 crores (~$70mn) Fund which along with IAN, is set to create the largest horizontal platform in India for investing in seed and early stage ventures. She is also the Co-Founder & President of IAN, India's first & one of the world’s largest group of business angels, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas.

Padmaja is a Co-Chair of Global Business Angel Network. She also operationalised TiE Delhi, which has been ranked as the number one chapter globally for the last 4 consecutive years. She played a key role as Executive Director in building the Indian Venture Capital Association, India's oldest and largest association of VC and PE firms. In addition, she helped the creation of Lankan Angel Network in Sri Lanka. She contributed actively in the Planning Commission’s Committee on “Angel & Early Stage Investing in India” which resulted in a seminal report: “Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India”. She is on the Committee of Telecom Centre of Excellence, Selection Committee of MSME and is actively engaged with the various committees of Ministry of Finance, SEBI, etc.

Padmaja is nationally recognised as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has helped co-found many of the relevant institutions, besides being an active Angel investor herself. Her operating experience spans large corporates, M&A, and start-ups/early stage companies. She has been awarded as one of the 'Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business' by Fortune India and has been listed in Forbes India’s W-Power Trailblazers and ‘30 Most Powerful Women in India’ by Business Today.

Padmaja Ruparel , Co-Founder , Indian Angel Network