Our speakers

Sameer Nayar, Founder & CEO, BuildSupply

Mr. Nayar is an experienced real estate investment and finance professional with a twenty five year track record in the industry. He is the Founder and CEO at BuildSupply, a technology company focused on solving intractable problems in the construction and real estate sectors. Prior to this, he was Managing Director at Credit Suisse (CS) and the Head of Real Estate Finance for the Asia Pacific region. In this role he has deployed over USD 7.5 BN of debt and equity capital across Asia. Previously, he was the head of large loan structuring and pricing in the United States and handled over USD 75 BN of loan originations during his tenure.

Prior to joining Credit Suisse First Boston in 2001, Mr. Nayar was a Senior Vice President at Moody's Investors Service in New York where he was responsible for CMBS ratings and served as a member of the Global Ratings consistency committee.

He is a founding Managing Trustee of the Special Child Trust that raises awareness and funds for children with special needs.

He is the co-Founder of The Autism Centre for Excellence, India’s first school based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for children on the Autism Spectrum located in Gurgaon, NCR, India.

He is a co-sponsor and a member of the Board of Directors of Children First, India’s first fully integrated institute for child and adolescent mental health.

Mr. Nayar is a member of the Young President's Organization (YPO) and holds an MS in Real Estate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1996), a master's in building engineering from the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA, 1994-95), India and is a graduate of the Manipal Institute of Technology, India (1993).

Sameer Parwani, CEO & Founder, CouponDunia

Sameer Parwani is the founder and CEO of CouponDunia, India's largest couponing website. A techie at heart, Sameer has been at the fore - front of the start-up revolution, working on his own Facebook - like product targeted at the Asian community during his college days.

Sameer founded CouponDunia in 2010 while in Boston where he is originally from. He moved to India in 2012 to devote his full energies to the company. CouponDunia partners with more than 1800 online brands and 3000 restaurants across the country driving sales worth 500 crores in 2014 for its partners. While its traffic has increased to about 4 million unique visitors per month, CouponDunia has also grown in size itself, adding more than 80 people to its family and bringing the 2014 year - end total to about 120 employees across the country. In May, 2014, CouponDunia was acquired by Times Internet Limited.

Sameer Pitalwalla, Director - Video & Celebrity, Disney UTV

Sameer Pitalwalla has been a part of the media and internet domain for over 9 years now. He is currently responsible for spear-heading Disney UTV’s digital video & celebrity division.  

 

Along with building a strong internet presence for UTV and its channels across social media, Sameer has also devised and launched Celebrity Audio Chats and Audio Blogs in the mobile space.

 

Prior to joining UTV, Sameer worked with the Times Group, where he created and built the Times Audience Network (TAN), the digital video arm of the Times Group. In addition to his role in TAN, Sameer was also the Business Head of Follo, the Group's foray into digital distribution of celebrity content. 

Sameer Pitalwalla, CEO, Culture Machine | @TweetToCM

Sameer Pitalwalla, co-founded Culture Machine in early 2013 along with Venkat Prasad with a vision to start a digital video company that creates entertainment for the internet generation. In his previous roles, he has headed the digital media business at Disney UTV, as well as built the digital video division at the Times Group.

@SameerPit

Sameer Prasad, CEO, Faces Cosmetics

Sameer Prasad is the CEO of FACES Cosmetics, overseeing the Canada and India operations of the business.  He has played a key role in the development of FACES as a significant player in the Colour Cosmetics industry in India.

Prior to FACES, Sameer was instrumental in the launch and early development of several international brands like The Body Shop, Kiehl’s, Accessorize, Next, Debenhams, M&S, Guess, Oshkosh B’Gosh and Nautica in India and the Far-East, a region where he has worked extensively.

An alumnus of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and Sri Ram College of Commerce, Sameer brings with him 24 years of rich international experience in retail and distribution of some of the leading global brands in the Health & Beauty, Sporting goods, Apparel, Children’s toys and Fashion Accessories space.  He has successfully worked in several early-stage, start-up and turnaround business situations during his career.

Sameer Sain, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Everstone Capital

Sameer Sain is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Everstone Capital, an India focused Private Equity and Real Estate investor.  Everstone has over 100 employees across 5 offices (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore and Mauritius) and manages approximately $1.6 billion. The firm follows an active and operational investing style with a focus on growth and platform transactions.

Previously, Sameer spent eleven years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director and head of the Special Investments Group (International) as well as Institutional Wealth Management (EMEA). He holds a B.Com from the University of Mumbai, a BBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from Cornell University.

Sameer Sampat, Executive Director, India School Leadership Institute

Sameer is the CEO of the India School Leadership Institute, an organization that currently support and trains with 200 urban government and budget private school heads to improve their management skills. ISLI aims to develop school leaders who drive high-performing schools that commit to academic achievement and character development of children from underserved communities. Prior to ISLI, Sameer had spent the last ten years working in various capacities in the field of education. Most recently, he worked as a Project Manager and Research Analyst with the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University where he designed, implemented, and evaluated interventions to close the racial achievement gap found in the United States. He has also worked with Teach For America, Akanksha, and Adharshila Shikshan Kendra. Sameer earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and also completed a Master’s degree in Economics and Education from Columbia University.

@SameerSampat

Sameer Shetty, EVP and Head - Digital Banking, Axis bank

Sameer Shetty joined Axis Bank in July 2019. He has over 15 years of experience in Digital and Analytics domains across geographies such as South East Asia, the Middle East & companies across India. Sameer previously worked with McKinsey as a Partner in the financial services practice in Mumbai and Leader of the Digital and Analytics practice for financial services.

Sameer holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Bangalore and a Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering from IIT-Bombay.

Sameer Shetty, President and Head - Digital Banking (Web Channel), Axis Bank Limited

Sameer leads digital for Axis Bank. In his role he works on launching and scaling new digital products, transforming select internal processes to enhance frontline experience and productivity and in running the bank’s digital channels. Before joining Axis, Sameer was a Partner with McKinsey and Co in the financial services practice. Sameer holds a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

Sameer Sood, Founder, Venture Highway

In addition to being the founder, Samir has helped grow and diversify India Forge, a family-run auto parts manufacturing business. Prior to this, Samir was the Head of South Asia, Australia - M&A and Investments for Google Inc., and in that capacity, he has led Google’s investments in several first time seed-stage funds in India: Erasmic Venture Fund (Accel India), SONG (Soros, Omydiar, Google Fund), Seedfund, and Ventureast TeNet Fund II.

Additionally, Samir was part of the team that coordinated the $750 million acquisition of AdMob. Earlier Samir was part of the Corporate Business Development team at Cisco Systems, Inc. where he led wireless acquisitions and investments, which included the $450 million acquisition of Airspace. Samir executed the first venture investment in India (India Games) for Cisco Systems, Inc. among many other acquisitions and investments. Samir has an MBA from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.