Our speakers

Reji Kumar Pillai, General Partner, Magnetar Venture Pvt Ltd

Reji is a renowned expert in the power sector with 30+ years of international experience in the electricity industry in diverse functions across the entire value chain. He has been a key member of many multidisciplinary teams that were engaged in reform and restructuring of power and water utilities in Asia, Middle East, and Africa. He possesses advanced qualifications in Engineering, Finance, Management and Law.

In his most recent role as head of Energy & Utilities vertical in IBM India/South Asia, Reji was spearheading the mission for complete transformation of the electricity industry in the region through implementation of high-end IT & automation solutions for modernizing the industrial age power-grid to Smart Grid of the information age. Prior to IBM he has worked in NTPC and served as Senior Consultant with ADB, USAID and World Bank. A recognized thought leader in power sector, Reji is a popular key-note speaker at international symposiums and conferences on Smart Grids and Cleantech. He has also contributed to several articles and books.

Magnetar Venture, a VC Fund promoted by Reji is focused on cleantech domains. Reji is also a member of Indian Angel Network.

Renu Dhar, Business Head, Intuit

Renu Dhar is a management graduate from Pune University and cherishes 14 years of experience in sales & inside sales. Prior to Intuit, Renu has worked with leading IT companies like HP, Microsoft & Adobe. At Intuit, Renu manages different teams across on-boarding & telesales. She is the voice of customer when it comes to working on product development.

Renuka Ramnath, Founder, MD, and CEO, Multiples Alternate Asset Management

Renuka Ramnath, Founder, CEO and MD, Multiples Alternate Asset Management

Renuka has spent over two and half decades in the Indian financial sector across private equity, investment banking and structured finance. As one of the early private equity investors in India, she played a pivotal role in shaping the market both in terms of leading pioneering investments such as buy-outs as well as opening new pockets of capital for investment in Indian private equity. In her last role as the MD & CEO of ICICI Venture for close to a decade, she has contributed in many ways to the evolution of that firm to one of the largest private equity funds in India.

Renuka brings on board her deep experience of raising, investing and returning third party capital across several economic cycles. She looks to build Multiples as a platform to channelise long-term capital to create valuable enterprises and successful entrepreneurs. She draws motivation from the fact that supporting entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses has the potential to generate employment, to create ripple effects in the Indian economy and to facilitate the greater process of nation building.

Renuka, a mother of two, enjoys singing Indian classical music. She is a connoisseur of paintings and likes to spend time at her farm watching a fresh harvest. Renuka holds a Bachelor of Engineering from VJTI, University of Mumbai and an MBA from the University of Mumbai. She has also completed the AMP from the Harvard Business School.

Reshmi Khurana, Managing Director & Head of South Asia, Kroll | @KrollWire

Reshmi Khurana is a managing director and head of South Asia at Kroll based in India. She has more than 16 years of experience in the U.S., South Asia and South East Asia conducting complex corruption investigations, litigation support and due diligence on the management, operations and business models of organizations. Her experience includes helping clients identify and bridge gaps in internal controls and corporate governance through people, processes and technology. Her clients include asset management companies, law firms, and corporations in the financial services, infrastructure, power, real estate, consumer goods and pharmaceutical industries.

Revant Bhate, Partner, Kstart

Revant is a Partner at Kstart, the seed fund of Kalaari Capital and brings with him over a decade of experience of investing, building & fund raising in the nascent Indian start-up ecosystem. At Kstart, Revant leads investments, portfolio management and overseas the expansion of the seed stage initiatives.

Prior to joining Kstart, Revant was a founding team member and Entrepreneur in Residence at one of India’s leading consumer internet start-ups, Faasos, where he played a pivotal role in building the business from the early days to a US$400M valued enterprise. During his time there he initially played the role of CFO where he helped raise all rounds of external financing, post which as CMO, he incubated and built India’s largest Biryani brand - “Behrouz Biryani”. Before this stint, he worked as an investment banker, tracking India’s consumer and healthcare sectors.

Having now spent a decade in India’s start-up ecosystem, creating impact across multiple roles, Revant now also spends his time mentoring young founders & marketers, building new age consumer brands and decoding the Indian consumer.

Revathy Ashok, Angel Investor - IAN, Co-Founder Strategy Garage, IAN

Revathy Ashok is the Co-Founder of Strategy Garage a strategy and growth consulting firm for start ups, mid and early stage companies, helping them build value and  scale. She is an active Angel Investor, a member of the Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture investing platforms with investments in over 15 start ups such as Druva, Jigsee(exited), Pikkol, Wishberry, Xprime, Stelae, Saahas etc. and works closely with her investee companies on strategy, growth and governance.

Previously as Managing Director, Tishman Speyer, PE Fund (USD 53 Bn AUM), she set up the India operations, oversaw investments of USD 150 Mn over four years. During her tenure with Syntel, a US based Nasdaq listed IT services company as worldwide CFO, the company saw rapid growth and increase in market cap from USD 600 Mn to USD 1.2 Bn.

Revathy is a Member on Boards of several leading giants in the country listed or public limited such as Welspun, Quess Corporation, and also Chair of the Audit Committee in Astra Zeneca, ADC, Microland, Shell–MRPL, Sansera and on the Advisory Boards of start ups.

Recently Inc 42, named her as one of the leading women angel investors in the country. In 2011, Revathy was nominated by CII as one of the top women achievers in Business in South India and is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Richard B. Saldanha, Executive Director - Private Equity, Blackstone

Mr. Saldanha is a member of Blackstone’s portfolio operations group and is responsible for that group’s activities on behalf of portfolio companies of the Private Equity Group that are based in India.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Saldanha was Executive Director and a Member of the Board of The Times of India Group where he focused on helping build organizational capability, culture and competitiveness for its Newspapers, TV Channels, Internet, and Radio businesses.  Prior to that he was Managing Director of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.

Prior to that Mr. Saldanha was with Hindustan Lever & Unilever Plc for thirty years, spending almost ten years in Latin America.  Mr. Saldanha was Technical Director of Unilever Venezuela; and Vice-President – Supply Chain for Unilever Andina, (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador), rising to be Chairman and CEO of Unilever Peru.  He was also a Member of the Unilever Latin America Board.

Mr. Saldanha graduated with a Mechanical Engineering Degree (BE Mech) from Pune University.  He has gained wide international experience as a Founding member of the National Board of Advt Self Regulation (Peru); a Founding Member of the National Board for e-commerce (Peru); President of the International School in Valencia, Venezuela; and a member of the Dutch-Peru and UK-Peru Chambers of Commerce.  He was a Founding President of Save the Children India, and President of the Delhi Management Association.  He is currently on the Board of Bennet Coleman and Co, (the largest media group in India), and that of Asian Electronics.

Rinika Grover, Head Sustainability & CSR, Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Rinika has over 25 years of experience in Sustainable Development domain. She heads the global Sustainability function at Apollo Tyres Ltd (an Indian multinational tyre manufacturing company with about 19,000 employees across all geographies, with $2.8 billion turnover), where she has developed a Sustainability Management Framework for the organisation, dovetailing it with the ESG framework. Her prime focus is on developing a Climate Change Strategy for the organisation and linking all initiatives with Sustainable Development Goals.

She also heads CSR globally for Apollo Tyres Ltd and has concentrated on four areas: Healthcare for 
Trucking Community, Solid Waste Management and Sanitation, Livelihood for Underprivileged Women, and Biodiversity. She has been instrumental in ensuring collaborations with Private and Public Institutions, formulating meaningful partnerships to deliver the goals.

She has completed programmes in Climate Change Policy and Public Health from the University of 
Wisconsin–Madison, and Business Sustainability Management from The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Recently she was recognised and awarded by CSR Works, Singapore as Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen 2020.

She represents Apollo on multiple committees - FICCI Environment Committee, CII National CSR Council, and CII Gujarat Chapter. She is on the Advisory Council of Creative Dignity ( an online ecosystem for Indian Artisans), and National CSR (a platform for strategic CSR Alliance to assist companies in India on implementation of social and environmental development projects.

Further, she writes articles on sustainability in India CSR Networks (https://indiacsr.in/tag/rinikagrover/ ) and ET Edge Insights (https://etinsights.et-edge.com/is-renewable-energy-the-gamechanger/)

Rishab Malik, Co-founder & VP, Business Development, Droom.in

Rishab Malik is the Co-founder and VP, Business Development, at Droom. Rishab looks after Business Development and Category Management at Droom. With over 10 years of experience in Strategy, Finance, and Entrepreneurship in the US, UK, India and Singapore, he is passionate about consumer technologies and has been a founder, investor and mentor to several technology startups in S.E. Asia and India.

Prior to Droom, Rishab served as the Operating Partner and founding team member of GSF India - India’s largest and most successful technology accelerator program for early stage startups. At GSF, Rishab managed a portfolio of 11 startups, was responsible for deal flow for GSF, and also worked closely with the portfolio on product, business development, hiring, and fundraising strategies.

Rishab holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business from The University of Texas at Austin topped with a Master’s in Business Administration from INSEAD. In his spare time, he teaches Corporate Finance and Business Planning at a local business school and is an avid golfer and bridge player.