Our speakers

Raj Grover, The Chief Mentor, Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd

Raj Grover is a proficient CEO turned entrepreneur with extensive experience across global organizations viz. Nestle, Wrigley’s, HMV and Rupert Murdoch Group. In his illustrious career, he has led multifold growth across India and International markets, built global brands, incubated business, spearheaded financial turnarounds, technology and product innovation.

Early 2000, Raj realized the growing aspirations of young parents and in alliance with a leading brand co-modeled the concept of affordable-up-market, ‘Boutique International Schools’. Few years later, Raj took another leap of faith, this time in the Low Cost Affordable Schools, demonstrating a whole new opportunity to build high quality, low cost, sustainable schools.

Both these initiatives, applauded as game changers have created a whole new category and being recognized as the most sought after, scalable models inspiring many entrepreneurs and established brands in the education sector.

Raj is of the firm belief that, solution to all global issues; economic and social, present and future depends on a responsible and effective schooling system. He is committed to creating a scalable and sustainable model around this. The one, that ‘Breaks the Mold’ and ‘Re-Invent’s’ to prepare students deal with the uncertain challenges, complexities and opportunities of the 2050 era.

Raj Gupta, CEO, Lowe Lintas

Raj Gupta - Chief Executive Officer  Lowe Lintas. Having spent almost three decades in advertising, Raj  spent most of his career with Lowe Lintas.  Lowe Lintas is amongst the leading  advertising agencies in India.  Lowe Lintas  is  ranked No. 1 WARC (World Advertising Research Center) World’s most Effective Agency of the Year 2015 & 2016, Effies Agency of the Year (AOY) - India (2015 & 2016) and Effies APAC (Asia Pacific) AOY 2016.

In his career span until, he has worked on most  Unilever brands in  the agency, Idea Cellular and new age brands like Hotstar, Free Charge, Book My Show and Practo. Did a stint with Lintas media, Raj also spearheaded Channel planning at Lowe Lintas.

He is a keen traveler , fond of music, reading, swimming and cricket. Robin Sharma, who wrote ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’, is his favorite author.

Raj Kondur, Director, Ascent Capital

Raj is a pioneer of the Indian Private Equity industry. He was one of the two founders of Chrys Capital, India’s largest independent private equity fund. At Chrys, Raj was responsible for several of the successful investments of the firm’s initial funds including the breakthrough investment in Spectramind - an investment that returned the entire first fund.

Raj also founded and was a former CEO of Nirvana Business Solutions, a leading Business Process Outsourcing firm based in Bangalore. Prior to that, Raj spent several years with Morgan Stanley in New York dividing his time there between the Princes Gate private equity fund, and the M&A, and High Yield teams. He also worked for two years with A T Kearney’s Atlanta office helping the firm’s consulting clients with strategy and operations issues. Prior to that, Raj spend a brief while on the men’s professional tennis circuit soon after graduating from college.

Raj has a BBA from Georgia State University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Outside of Ascent, Raj enjoys tennis, music, and reading. He is also actively involved in non-profit organizations in India including his role as a founder and Trustee of Akshaya Patra, a school based mid-day meal program that feeds over 1.2 million children in needy areas across India every day. He is also a Board member of Video Volunteers, a rights organization that helps communities use video journalism to highlight and solve local issues.

Raj Pai, Founder/Managing Partner - South Asia, GEF Capital Partners

Raj Pai is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the South Asia investment practice. He is based in Mumbai, India where he focuses on middle market growth equity opportunities in South Asia.

Mr. Pai joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2008 before founding GEF Capital Partners in 2018.   While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Pai worked across multiple portfolios and was involved in the establishment of the South Asia investment program.   In addition to overseeing guidance and operations of the South Asia program, including as ESG coordinator, Mr. Pai served as the nominee representative for several portfolio companies, including IEX (exited via IPO in 2017), iClean (sold to Takasago Thermal, Tokyo) and others.  He participated in the exit of Reva Electric Car to Mahindra Electric.

Mr. Pai has over 23 years of professional experience spanning entrepreneurial, operational and venture investing activities in India and in the US.  Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Mr. Pai was a Managing Director at CID Capital, a 30-year old growth equity investment firm investing growth and expansion stage capital in the US. During this period, Mr. Pai oversaw and/or worked on a number of the firm’s investments, leading efforts in technology, life sciences and clean technology.  Prior to CID, Mr. Pai worked in consulting and in operational capacities for various Fortune 1000 technology companies globally, including American Management Systems (AMS), British Telecom and AT&T.

Mr. Pai currently serves on the board of directors of ESDS, Inc. and is also the nominee representative for Global Environment Fund for Concord Enviro, Rishabh Instruments and Prince Pipes.

Mr. Pai received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Bombay, a Master of Computer Science from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a dual US–India citizen and speaks three native Indian languages as well as English.

Raj Seelam, MD, Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd

Raj Shastri, Principal, Kaizen Private Equity

Raj Shastri has 8 years of experience in private equity and has been involved in 10 investments and 2 exits. Prior to Kaizen, he was with Helix Investments and Guggenheim Partners, where he was involved in control transactions in Education and Consumer sectors. He has also spent around 5 years in institutional equities with leading research houses like Motilal Oswal. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from Jadavpur University and his MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

Raj Yarlagadda, Managing Director, People Combine Educational Initiatives limited

Mr. Rajasekar Babu is a true business personality with dynamism. He is one of the key visionaries behind various successful educational ventures like Oakridge, Vikas and Oi Play Schools and the key inceptor of People Combine Group.

Being the Managing Director of the company, Mr Babu has worked hard to provide the People Combine Group altogether a new identity in the business world. He has an insatiable desire to strive for excellence with a steadfastness to achieve.

Holding a graduate degree in civil engineering and a post graduate in management from Indian School of Business, Mr. Babu manages the Business Expansion, Fund Raising, Finance and Budgeting, Brand Management, Mergers and Acquisitions of the company. He is highly creative, design focused and an excellent organiser. Relation building is his forte and he is an opt solution finder. He has raised the turnover of the company manifold with a relentless quest for accomplishment.

Mr. Rajasekhar has also been recognised for his exemplary contribution towards the organisation. Not only that, he has also been awarded with Business Wizard of Andhra Pradesh by a leading Newsmagazine- India Today Group. On the life front, Mr. Rajasekhar is considered the most amiable and energetic soul to be with by his family and friends. He is also an avid book lover and loves to explore new places of the world.

@RajYarlagadda

Raja Kumar, CEO, Ascent Capital

Raja is among the earliest leaders of the Private Equity asset class in India. Raja founded Ascent Capital in association with UTI Ventures. Over the past ten years, he has recruited and nurtured a winning team, played a crucial role in all of the firm investments, and has forged significant LP relationships. Raja has a passion for supporting entrepreneurs and has worked closely with the teams of some of the most successful PE-backed companies in India.

Previously, Raja has served in various capacities such as Research Fellow at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Officer of the Indian Civil Services, Regional Manager of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India capital markets regulator and Executive Director of UTI Mutual Fund. During his association with SEBI, he oversaw the launch of several IPOs, regulated market intermediaries and also as member of Advisory Committee. He has also served as a director of five Indian stock exchanges and on the boards of several private and publicly listed companies.

Raja holds M.Sc. and M. Phil in Science, and is a graduate of AMP of the Harvard Business School.

Raja is an Advisory Board member of Next Wealth (fostering social entrepreneurship), and a charter Member of TiE. Raja is also a budding golfer.

Raja Lahiri, Partner, National Leader, Transaction Advisory & Technology Sector, Grant Thornton Bharat

Raja is a qualified chartered accountant with 27+ years of experience in accounting, consulting and transaction advisory in India. He is passionate about ethics and governance and being a trusted adviser to clients.

Currently, he is a Partner with Grant Thornton Bharat, and national Transaction Advisory Services Leader and National Technology Sector Leader for the Firm.

Raja has advised various private equity firms, venture capital funds, corporates (Indian and international) and entrepreneurs on business strategy, corporate finance, leadership consulting, and their growth agenda.

He has been truster adviser for clients across deal life-cycle from M&A, sell-side, PE, VC and Listings.

He has been involved in some of the marquee transactions for leading corporate and PE funds and has advised 500+ transactions on financial due diligence as well as transaction advisory support across the deal lifecycle.  Raja has also been part of the core team in the financial investigation of one of India’s biggest corporate frauds, in the technology sector.

Raja spent close to 14 years in one of the largest accounting and advisory firms in India, where he was part of the founding team of transaction advisory practice.  Some of key technology sector clients include Wipro, Infosys, TechMahindra, WNS, Microsoft, Hitachi etc and PE Funds like Blackstone, Warburg, KKR, TPG etc.

Raja is an active speaker at public forums like CNBC, CII, IVCA, VC Circle, Economic Times etc, and is frequently quoted in various business newspapers.

Raja Parthasarathy, Managing Director, IDFC Private Equity

Mr. Raja Parthasarathy is a Managing Director with IDFC Private Equity, an Indian infrastructure-focused private equity manager which manages US$1.3 billion across three funds. Mr. Parthasarathy is currently on the boards of Manipal Universal Learning, Green Infra Limited, International Recreation Parks and Windforce Management Services Limited. He previously served on the board of Manipal Health Systems. Prior to joining IDFC Private Equity, he was Executive Vice President – Finance with Jet Airways, India’s leading private-sector airline, and was earlier with UBS, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. Raja holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MA in Economics from Tufts University and a BA in Economics from Hamilton College.