Our speakers

Prabhat Chaturvedi, CEO, NBHC Finserv

Prabhat Jain, Director, Pathways Schools

Prabhat Jain is the Director of Pathways School. He was born to a Delhi-based traditional Jain family, and joined his family-run stone business where he was instrumental in expanding the business.

In 1999, he decided to make the foray into the education space. With a focused vision to create an institution second to none, Mr. Prabhat and his brothers did an extensive research on school education. This enticing journey of 'unlearning and learning' spanned over 2 years and the model of a world class international school evolved in 2003 named the Pathways World School.

Mr. Prabhat is member of various bodies and councils in the field of education. He was instrumental in raising private equity for the company in 2009-10 for further expansion. He aspires to continue his research and gradually expand the school chain in different parts of India.

Prabir Talati, Director, Actis

Prachi Jain Windlass, Director, India Education, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation | @MSDF_Foundation

Prachi heads the foundation’s India education portfolio which focuses on school education, college entrance and career readiness.

Prachi is on the board of several for-profit education companies and advisory committees to state governments and education departments. She is passionate about the area of data driven education and has spearheaded the foundation’s work in multiple ways, including: investing and managing a portfolio of innovative companies and creating role model states on student outcomes.

Before joining the foundation, Prachi worked at Boston Consulting Group in Gurgaon, India and in the telecommunications sector at Qualcomm and Motorola. Prachi has over 15 years of diverse set of operational and leadership experience in India and US, and education in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, and from University of Southern California, Los Angeles and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Prachi Jain Windlass, Director-India Education, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Ms. Prachi Windlass heads the foundation’s India education portfolio which focuses on school education, college entrance and career readiness. Ms. Windlass is on the board of several for-profit education companies and advisory committees to state governments and education departments. She is passionate about the area of data driven education and has spearheaded the foundation’s work in multiple ways, including: investing and managing a portfolio of innovative companies and creating role model states on student outcomes. Before joining the foundation, Ms. Windlass worked at Boston Consulting Group in Gurgaon, India and in the telecommunications sector at Qualcomm and Motorola. Ms. Prachi Windlass has over 15 years of diverse set of operational and leadership experience in India and US, and education in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, and from University of Southern California, Los Angeles and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Prachi Windlass, Director, India Programs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India LLP

Prachi is a director at Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India LLP. As a member of the leadership team, she manages a portfolio of start-ups, NGOs and large-scale government partnerships. Prachi is on the board of several for-profit education companies and advisory committees to state governments and education departments. She is passionate about the area of data driven education and has spearheaded the foundation’s work in multiple ways, including: incubating service providers, creating role model states for classroom based assessments and embedding student learning based accountability in all portfolio companies.

Before joining the foundation, she orked at Boston Consulting Group in Gurgaon, India and in the telecommunications sector at Qualcomm and Motorola in US. Prachi has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, a master’s degree from University of Southern California, Los Angeles and MBA from the University of Chicago

Prachur Sah, Director New Ventures, Vedanta Ltd. Oil & Gas Division

Currently- Director New Ventures at Cairn Oil & Gas (part of Vedanta Group) since August 2018 and is responsible for unlocking value through the 51 Blocks that Vedanta have acquired in the OALP regime. Prior to Cairn was spend around 19 years with Schlumberger working in different across geographies including Houston, Brazil, France, UAE and India. At Schlumberger did various roles in Operations, Line Management, HR, Marketing and Transformation.

Last role in Schlumberger was Managing Director for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Mr. Sah has completed M.Sc. in Oil & Gas Management from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh and B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics from IIT- Bombay.

Pradeep Cholayil, Managing Director, Cholayil Pvt Ltd

Pradeep Dadha, CEO and Founder, Netmeds.com | @NetMeds

Pradeep Dhada’s Netmeds.com, known as India Ki Pharmacy, brought home the highly coveted NDTV Unicorn Award for Health-Tech Start-up of the Year. Prior to launching Netmeds, he paved a tracked record of innovation and achievement by founding and leading companies that operated worldwide and within a range of industries that include hospitality, digital publishing, e-commerce, and corporate wellness.

Growing up in Chennai, he graduated from Loyola College and worked at his family’s pharmaceutical business, Dadha Pharma, Pvt. Ltd, creating a retail distribution chain of more than 1,500 outlets. Then, to further hone his business acumen, Pradeep left the comfort zone of the family business and took positions with the contact centre divisions of Reliance Infocom and Sun Communique. In 2003 he developed the back-office model for an international pharmaceutical company, one of the first global operations of its kind. His latest venture, Netmeds.com, is India’s first e-marketplace offering pharmaceutical and OTC healthcare products across the pan-Indian spectrum. In its first year of business the company has served customers in every state and more than 600 cities.

Pradeep Gidwani, Coach & Founder, The Pint Room

51 years young, Pradeep Gidwani is chasing his dreams to set up the “ Starbucks of beer”. Pradeep is setting up a chain of beer cafes across the country. Pradeep conceptualized and set up The Beer Café in Dec 2010 before selling the business to his former partner. In Apr 2012, Pradeep launched a new chain of beer cafes under the brand name – The Pint Room. Today The Pint Room has 4 outlets across India and is a casual neighbourhood meet up space over great beer.

His last Corporate job was as Managing Director of Carlsberg’s India operations. He was responsible for developing the India entry strategy, setting up and building Carlsberg’s brewing business in India. In a short span of 2 ½ years Carlsberg has established a strong foundation in India under Pradeep Gidwani’s leadership with 5 top quality breweries spanning the North, East, South and West of India, presence of its brands across the Indian sub continent. 3 brands Carlsberg, Tuborg and Palone have delighted quality conscious consumers and have established a place in the mind and hearts of Indian consumers. Carlsberg has been one of the most successful consumer goods companies to setup business from scratch in India and achieve revenues of USD 50 million in its 2nd full year of operations in 2009. Carlsberg is the 3rd largest brewer in India currently.

Pradeep Gidwani started working in 1986 and in 25 years has held various senior positions across some of the finest corporations in the world. Prior to Carlsberg, Pradeep lived in Dubai and worked with Red Bull as Managing Director of its Asia Business and was responsible for the development of the Red Bull brand across Asia. Before this he was part of the team that built Foster’s into one of the most successful beer/ consumer goods brand that was ever launched in India. His prior experience covers almost every category in the beverage business starting from tea/ coffee with Unilever’s Brooke Bond where Pradeep started as a Management Trainee, experience in spirits with UB Group, launch and development of the Scotch whisky segment in India with brands like Johnnie Walker, Black Dog, Black and White, Vat 69, introducing India to the fine world of grapes with champagne – Dom Perignon, Moet Hennessy, cognacs – Hennessy and a portfolio of wines.

Pradeep Gidwani is recognized across the Food and Beverage world for concept selling, creating brands, start ups each of them highly successful. In Sep 2002
Business Today ranked Pradeep as one of India’s Hottest Young Executives in its First ever listing of 25 of India Inc’s rising stars. Almost every Business Media has featured Pradeep as one of the best known entrepreneurs in the beverage segment.

Pradeep, 51, is one of the few whose passion at work spills into his hobby. He is an avid collector of the finest beverage products from across the world, has studied each of these categories in an in depth manner, has visited some of the finest maltings, distilleries, wineries, breweries, bottle/can manufacturing units - anything to do with beverages. His knowledge and passion about adult beverages is unrivalled. Pradeep has also been invited to share his experience in building successful start ups, experiential marketing at various Brand Marketing and Business Forums across the country. Pradeep is also an avid traveler taking unique holidays including personally captaining and steering a boat in France for a week, driving holidays in Scotland, France, Germany, Wales, Australia and New Zealand.

Pradeep is a graduate of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and has been recognized as one of its best known Alma matar. He loves numbers and completed his BSc in Mathematics from Wadia College, Pune. His schooling was across the country - as Pradeep says “ ten schools in ten years, tons of friends in every part”.
Maybe it is this early trait that has given Pradeep an amicable, social and down to earth approach where meeting people in a bar is something he truly enjoys.

@pradeepgidwani