Our speakers

Rahul Chadha, CEO, Religare Wellness Ltd

Rahul Chadha is the CEO of Religare Wellness Ltd (RWL). He is an MBA from the Said Business School, Oxford and also holds a Post Graduate Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics. He was the MD & CEO of SAK Consumer Retail Services Ltd (SAKCRS) which he promoted in 2003 and which was later acquired by Religare Wellness Limited in Oct’08. Prior to promoting SAKCRS, he was a Senior Manager with the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney and managed a number of engagements in the areas of new business development and organizational improvement. He has also worked with ANZ Grindlays Bank where he was involved in sales and operations.

Rahul Chandra, Managing Director, Helion Advisors Pvt. Ltd | @HelionVC

Rahul Chandra is a co-founder and Managing Director of Helion and has 20 years of venture capital investing and corporate development experience in technology product and services companies in India and the US. He serves on the Boards of Seclore, Shubham, UnitedLex, Mindworks, Wooplr, CrownIT, Railyatri, Moengage, Rapid Value and Toppr, and manages investments Ezetap.

Between 2000 and 2006, Rahul was based in Silicon Valley as part of the investment team at Walden International, a global venture capital firm with more than $2B under management. Between 2004 and 2005 he also led the M&A efforts at e4e Inc., a Santa Clara, CA based BPO company with more than 4,000 employees across the globe.

Rahul started Venture Capital investing in 1996 in India as the first hire at Walden's India office. In this role he managed investments for Walden's India dedicated Fund between 1996 and 2000.

Rahul has invested in more than 30 early-to-mid-stage companies such as Mindtree, Ikanos (IKAN), e4e Inc and Techspan (Headstrong). Prior to Walden, he worked in the Capital Markets Group at Lazard India, and in the Primary Market Department at the Securities Exchange Board of India.

Rahul has an MBA from University of California, Berkeley and graduated from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani in 1993.

@rahulchandra77

Rahul Chaudhary, Co-founder, Treebo

Rahul is a co-founder at Treebo, a tech-enabled budget hotel brand. Prior to founding Treebo in 2015, Rahul has held multiple positions in Flipkart-Myntra across Strategy and Marketing. Before that, Rahul was a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey where he served clients in Telecom, Technology and Consumer industries. Rahul also did a brief stint as Head of Research & Scouting at Olympic Gold Quest, a non-profit organisation. He holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech. from IIT Roorkee.

Rahul Chawla, Head - Global Credit Trading India & Co-Head - Investment Bank Coverage, Deutsche Bank, India

Rahul Chawla, Co Head, Investment Banking Coverage, Deutsche Bank

Rahul Chawla is a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, Head - Global Credit Trading India & CoHead - Investment Bank Coverage India. He is in charge of all the Financing business in India.

Rahul Chawla joined Deutsche Bank in July 2014 from Credit Suisse where he was is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse, Investment Banking Division and Head of Global Markets Solutions Group, based in Mumbai.  He was in charge of all the Financing business in India including Capital Markets (ECM, DCM) product origination execution and delivery, Structured Lending and Equity Linked Derivatives business. Prior to that, Rahul Chawla worked with GE Capital Services as Head of Structured Finance, S.E.Asia for 2 years.

Across CS and DB, Rahul Chawla has closed several trades with a total value upwards of $10 BN of funding raised spread across Real Estate, Infrastructure, Construction, Renewable Energy, Retail, Commodities etc.

Rahul Chawla holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Rahul Chhaparwal, Executive Director - Special Situations Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors

Rahul Chhaparwal, Executive Director - Special Situations Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL)

Rahul has been with Kotak Special Situations Fund since inception and plays a pivotal role across all the facets of its operations, including investor interaction, deal origination, investment, and asset management. He has more than 16 years of diverse experience across alternate asset investments, debt capital markets and management consulting.

Rahul has been part of the Kotak group for the past decade and prior to that he has worked with CRISIL and A.F.Ferguson Consulting. He has hands-on experience of originating and structuring transactions across sectors and asset classes. Rahul is a Chartered Accountant and has a Master’s in Business Administration.

Rahul Chowdhri, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners

Rahul Deans, CEO, Cocoberry Retail Pvt Ltd

Mr Rahul Deans is an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad with over 20 years of corporate experience. He spent 10 years of his career with Hindustan Lever in India and abroad.

After that, Rahul worked in Russia and the UK, in FMCG & Retail and then joined Aditya Birla Retail, where he handled different roles over a 4 year period. A stint in Go Airlines then followed, where he headed Commercial operations.

Rahul has been the CEO of Cocoberry for the last 2 years. Cocoberry is an Indian brand and is India's first and leading frozen yogurt chain. The company has been able to turn around its operations and move from a promoter run to a successful professionally run company.

Rahul is passionate about creating a world class brand out of India.

Rahul Desai, Senior Vice President - Treasury, M&A & Investor Relation, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail

Rahul Desai is currently Senior Vice President & Head of Treasury, M&A and Investor Relations at Aditya Birlas Retail Sector comprising of its Apparel & Supermarket Businesses. He has a rich and varied experience of over 20 years in various capacities including Corporate Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions Treasury, Investor Relations, Risk Management & Legal.

Rahul has over his career handled over 10 successful M&As & demergers & divestment spanning the globe from India, UK, US, France, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore among others. Rahul led the team for one of Indias largest all cash acquisition of Aircel Towers by GTL Infrastructure Limited in 2010 which was a USD 2 Billion all cash transaction. He was instrumental in the formation of Indias First Telecom Tower Company GTL Infrastructure Limited which was formed out of a demerger of GTL Ltd.

In addition to this Rahul has a rich experience in fund raising from both overseas and domestic institutions & has been instrumental in successfully completing many such transactions. Rahul has done his Masters in Management from Somaiya Institute of Management in Mumbai & is a commerce graduate from the HR College of Commerce in Mumbai. Rahul has also been giving lectures at the Somaiya Institute of Management and the Bombay University on various subjects.

Rahul Garg, Co-Head, India PE, Premji Invest

Rahul Garg is the principal at Premji Invest, Bangalore.  At Premji Invest he is a part of the Investments team looking at PE and Mezzanine Investments with key sectors of interest include BFSI space including transaction processing and payment solutions space, Agri and Food processing, Retail, Domestic Consumption themes and Conventional Power.

Previously he worked at ICICI Bank in various profiles including AGM corporate banking group, Head-Origination, equity linked products, Team Leader - structured trade and treasury products, RMAG and others.

Rahul is a MBA Finance from MDI Gurgaon and B.E., Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.