Our speakers

Pankaj Thapar, CFO, IndoStar Capital Finance

Pankaj has over 25 years of experience in Corporate Finance, M&A and Capital Markets with large global and Indian companies. Previously, he worked as a Managing Director in the Private Equity business of Everstone Capital Advisors.

Previously, he was the Group CFO for Dentsu, a Japanese advertising major, where he was responsible for their business in India. He has held a variety of senior corporate finance roles with global companies such as Coca-Cola, ANZ Bank, Citibank and ICICI and has over 20 years exposure to M & A and capital markets.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from the University of Delhi.

Parag Dhol, Managing Director, Inventus Advisors India

Parag is a Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners, a venture firm that invests in entrepreneurs building global tech-focussed companies in India & US. At Inventus, Parag is/was a Board Director at redBus (acquired), FundsIndia, Vizury, eTechies, Power2SME, PolicyBazaar, Avaz, peel-works and Tricog. He is based out of Bangalore.

Parag made a foray into venture capital after his MBA in 1993. He started off with ICICI Venture (in Bangalore) and followed that up with stints at GE Equity (in Gurgaon) and Intel Capital (in Bangalore). Parag also worked, for two years, with Genpact in a commercial role.

Parag has a B. Tech. (Mech. Engg.) from IIT, Delhi and is an MBA from IIM, Bangalore.

Parag Dhol, MD, Inventus Capital Partners

Parag is a Director at Inventus Capital Partners, a venture firm that invests in entrepreneurs building global tech-focussed companies in India & US. He is based out of Bangalore.

Parag made a foray into venture capital after his MBA in 1993. He started off with ICICI Venture (in Bangalore) and followed that up with stints at GE Equity (in Gurgaon) and Intel Capital (in Bangalore). Parag also worked, for two years, with Genpact in a commercial role.

Parag has a B. Tech. (Mech. Engg.) from IIT, Delhi and is an MBA from IIM, Bangalore. 

Parag Dhol, General Partner/Venture Capital, Athera Venture Partners

Parag Gupta, Country Head, Amazon Appstore

Parag is the country head for Amazon Appstore with over 15 years in the high-tech industry. He has delivered successful products in telecommunication, wireless networking, web commerce, e-Commerce, and consumer electronics markets, he has also built lasting strategic partnerships to achieve business objectives, and developed teams from ground-up.

With Amazon.com in India he is doing all this and more, such as provide a large global eCommerce platform with proven monetization benefits for Indian app developers, and let Indian users download a large global selection of apps on one of the most trusted channels in the world.

Parag has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from BITS Pilani a top-10 engineering campus in India, and MBA from Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) where he graduated as a Beta Gamma Sigma scholar (top 10% of the class).

He holds a Wi-Fi patent that is used by every desktop, mobile and wearable technology today. It is on iOS, Mac OS, Android, Windows (PC / Mobile), Blackberry, Chrome, and many embedded OS - as of mid-2013,his patent is employed in over 5 BN devices around the world.

Parag Shah, Managing Partner, Mahindra Partners

Parag Shah is the Managing Partner of Mahindra Partners, the $750 Mn Private Equity division of the $16.7 Bn Mahindra Group. In a career spanning over 18 years, Parag has held various positions with the Mahindra Group. He has extensive experience in building new businesses, start ups, turn arounds, joint ventures and mergers & acquisitions.

Currently, he is a Director on the Boards of a number of companies of the Mahindra Group such as Mahindra Two Wheelers Ltd, Mahindra Logistics Ltd, Mahindra Intertrade Ltd, Mahindra Solar, Mahindra EPC, Mahindra Retail, Mahindra Namaste.

He is one of the chief architects of Mahindra Partners. The Division adapts the Group’s unique strengths of constant innovation, prudence and creative business models with a mandate of incubating new ventures for the Group. Mahindra Partners accelerates value creation through a diversified portfolio of emergent businesses spanning various industry sectors like Cleantech, Logistics, Steel, Retail, Consulting, Media, Speed Boat Manufacturing, Conveyor Systems and Vocational Education.

Prior to his current assignment, he worked for the Office of the Vice Chairman & Managing Director, and was involved in New Business Development and strategy for the Group. He was also Chief Executive Officer of Officemartindia Ltd., a consulting & e-trading company within the same Group. Before joining the Mahindra Group in 1999, he was Managing Director of Systems Marketing India Pvt. Ltd., a private business with interests in Manufacturing, Investment Banking and Trading.

He has been invited as a regular speaker across various Industry forums like IFC/EMPEA, FICCI, BCCI, CII, Solarcon, AON Hewitt, KPMG.

He holds a BS Degree in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology with special electives in Psychology and Manufacturing Technology. He is also a graduate of the General Management Program from Harvard Business School.

Parag is affiliated with various prestigious NGO associations such as Sabarkanta Relief Committee and JBS Trust. He is also a Founder Director of “Executive Without Borders” a NGO based in USA.

He is an Executive Committee Member of the CII National Committee on Private Equity and Venture Capital, FICCI Solar Energy Task Force, CII National Committee on Renewable Energy. He is also a member of CEO forum & Mumbai Angels.

Parameswara Krishnan, Managing Partner, EAM Business , Spark Capital

Parameswara Krishnan has about 28 years of experience in financial markets, much of it on the Buy side in public markets, in India and Asian regional markets. Krishnan was the portfolio manager for the first bank sponsored mutual fund scheme in India from SBIMF in 1990-92. He was also the fund manager of the first private sector MF in India – Kothari Pioneer MF. He managed the Kothari Pioneer Bluechip Fund in 1993-94.

Krishnan had a long career with DNB Asset Management group, one of the top five asset managers in the Nordic region. During the 19 year stint with DNB, he managed Carlson Asian Small Cap Fund and the India fund from the DNB range. The Asian Small Cap fund, with a concentrated focus on China and India, was the most successful public market fund from DNB with peak AUM of USD 1.3 billion. Krishnan helped establish DNB as the most credible India investment expert in Sweden and Norway between 1998 and 2017. He has extensive experience in Taiwan and ASEAN markets and as an asset allocator for small caps in Asian markets.

He holds a B.E in Computer Science and a PGDM from IIM, Bangalore. Krishnan has recently joined Spark Capital, one of India’s leading mid-market .focussed Investment Banking firm to roll out their Equity Asset Management business

Paras Arora, Founder and CEO, Qdesq Realtech

Paras Kaushik, CHRO, HT Media

Before joining HT Media, Paras was Head, Group HR at Motherson Group. He was responsible for managing the Human Resources function for the Group’s 1,35,000 employees across 41 countries.

Prior to this he worked for 17 years at Aditya Birla Group. His repertoire of experiences range from working for global to local, start-up to mature, manufacturing to retail, listed to not-for-profit organizations of the Group. He worked in various HR leadership roles at Hindalco, Group HR, Minacs Philippines, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, Pantaloons, BITS Pilani, Columbian Chemicals and the Fashion & Retail Business of Aditya Birla Group.

Postgraduate from Symbiosis International University, Paras is passionate about telling stories and sharing his experiences in variety of conferences, webinars, B-School events and social media.

Paresh Patel, CEO, Sandstone Capital LLC

Paresh Patel is the Managing Director of Sandstone Capital, an India-focused hedge fund. Sandstone is a value-oriented investment partnership focused on long-term opportunities in India, with a preference for deep value, special situations, midcaps and complex opportunities. Sandstone Capital has offices in Mumbai and Boston. Prior to Sandstone Paresh Patel was Managing Director of Sparta Group, the private investment office of Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks. At Sparta, Paresh invested with Desh in early-stage ventures in the US and India - including A123 Systems, Indian Lotus, Relicore and Tejas Networks. Paresh Patel is a director of Tejas Networks (Indian telecom equipment company). Paresh is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Boston College.