Our speakers

Sijo Kuruvilla George, Founding CEO, Startup Village

As CEO of Startup Village, Sijo provide leadership and vision in setting up the country’s first PPP model Technology Business Incubator.
Startup Village aims to bring together a powerful and vibrant ecosystem to reach out, identify, develop and accelerate the growth process of student startups. They have an ambitious plan of incubating 1000 companies over the next 10 years.

Sijo brings along management consulting experience with the two of the Big4’s, PwC & Deloitte. As a consultant with the Strategy & Operations practice, he have advised various public and private sector institutions on strategy, business plan, PPP, project feasibility, governance and urban infrastructure.

Fresh out of college and after a very brief stint with technology major Infosys, Sijo along with a few friends founded MobME, a young and vibrant startup in the Mobile VAS space. MobME today is the proud winner of many prestigious Innovation & Entrepreneurship Awards, the latest being the EMERGE50 by NASSCOM.

Soji speaks at college events and conferences in his efforts to evangelize technology & entrepreneurship. He also mentor students, young professionals, entrepreneurs and startups on various aspects related to business and productivity.

Simon Hopkins, CEO, Milltrust International Group &, Chairman, Milltrust Agricultural Investments Chairman, East India Capital Management

Simon Hopkins is a successful entrepreneur who has been a senior figure in the international investment management industry for more than two decades. He was an early advocate of hedge fund investing for institutional investors, and has been a prolific capital raiser for single manager funds, funds of funds and listed closed-end funds. He is passionate about emerging markets arena, having launched numerous closed end fund structures, and more recently a number of UCITS funds.

Mr. Hopkins started his career at S.G. Warburg, and UBS, subsequently holding senior roles at HSBC James Capel and Nomura International, in 1996 he created one of the industry's first dedicated research and investment consulting businesses in 1996 to provide truly objective analysis for investors. At its peak Global Fund Analysis (GFA) had over 27,000 registered users around the globe. Concurrently, he played a pioneering role in seeding many of the incipient European hedge funds through the Fortune Group, an award-winning alternatives investment advisory, and fund of hedge funds business. 

In 2011, Mr. Hopkins founded Milltrust International, an award-winning investment platform focusing on investment management in Emerging Markets, and specialist real asset solutions, driven by the changing demographics of the developing world. In addition to the group companies, he serves as an investment advisor to the British Innovation Fund, a U.K. University Venture Fund. He also serves as director of East India Investments Pte Ltd, SwallowcourtLimited, a healthcare business, Xoomtrip, a GCC-based online travel agent, Novare Fund Manager, an African asset management firm, Asian Film Fund, CITIC Securities One Belt One Road (CSOBOR), and Roslin Technologies (University of Edinburgh).  He sits on the International Council of the National University of Singapore Hospital Systems.

 He graduated with honours from the University of Bristol's Faculty of Law in1986 and speaks fluent French. He travels extensively but resides permanently with his family in Singapore.

Simon Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer, Milltrust International Group

Simon Hopkins is a successful entrepreneur who has been a senior figure in the international investment management industry for more than two decades. He was an early advocate of hedge fund investing for institutional investors, and has been a prolific capital raiser for single manager funds, funds of funds and listed closed-end funds. He passionate about emerging markets arena, having launched numerous closed end fund structures, and more recently a number of UCITS funds.

Mr. Hopkins started his career at S.G. Warburg, and UBS, subsequently holding senior roles at HSBC James Capel and Nomura International, in 1996 Mr. Hopkins created one of the industry’s first dedicated research and investment consulting businesses in 1996 to provide truly objective analysis for investors. At its peak Global Fund Analysis (GFA) had over 27,000 registered users around the globe.

Concurrently, Mr. Hopkins played a pioneering role in seeding many of the incipient European hedge funds through the Fortune Group, an award-winning alternatives investment advisory, and fund of hedge funds business. Fortune Group went on to become one of the UK’s pre-eminent multi-asset advisory firms managing over 7bn USD, with clients in 24 countries and a focus on pension funds, charities and endowments, as well as a number of the world’s leading families. The firm was successfully sold to UK-listed, financial services group, Close Brothers Group PLC, in 2006, culminating in its full integration in January 2010.

In 2011, Mr. Hopkins founded Milltrust International, an award-winning investment platform focusing on investment management in Emerging Markets, and specialist real asset solutions driven by the changing demographics of the developing world.

Milltrust advises the Irish-regulated Collective Asset Vehicle (ICAV), Milltrust International Managed Investments offering a range of world-class investment solutions including diversified farmland investments in Latin America and Australasia, hospitality in Asia and other specialist real estate investments. Milltrust Agricultural Investments is also an advisor to the British Innovation Fund, partnering with the leading Universities and Centres of Innovation in the UK and around the world.

Milltrust also delivers the industry’s first dedicated Emerging Markets Managed Accounts Platform which provides international investors with access to the local equity markets in the form of regulated Irish UCITS funds, through a selection of some of the world's best regional asset managers. It has structured investments with Value Partners (Greater China) and Keywise (Greater China), UTI International (India), Lion Global Investors (ASEAN), BTG Pactual (Brazil), ItaúUnibanco (Latin America), and Sedco (MENA).

Mr. Hopkins is a regular commentator on fund industry topics in the financial media and has addressed numerous conferences on both agriculture and alternative investments, as well as the OECD and the London School of Economics. He was profiled in a significant interview with the Financial Times in December 2008.

In addition to the group companies, Mr. Hopkins serves as an investment advisor to the British Innovation Fund, a U.K. University Venture Fund. He also serves as director of East India Investments Pte Ltd, SwallowcourtLimited, a healthcare business, Xoomtrip, a GCC-based online travel agent, Novare Fund Manager, an African asset management firm, Asian Film Fund, CITIC Securities One Belt One Road (CSOBOR), and Roslin Technologies (University of Edinburgh). He serves as a member of NUS Medicine International Council (NIC).

He graduated with honours from the University of Bristol's Faculty of Law in1986 and speaks fluent French. He travels extensively but resides permanently with his family in Singapore.

Simone Reis, Sr. Member, Competition Law Group , Nishith Desai Associates

Simone is a senior member of Mergers & Acquisitions and the Fund Investment practice of the firm. Simone's practice focuses on Mergers & Acquisitions, competition law, private equity and venture capital investments, domestic and international, capital markets, general corporate laws and advised a wide spectrum of clients, including companies and financial advisors, across several sectors such as manufacturing, pharma, information technology, banking and financial services and real estate. Simone has lead transactions relating to overseas investment, foreign investments, PIPE deals, buy outs, competition law matters and has been a speaker in various forums on issues such as competition law, foreign investments and corporate investments.

Sindhu Joseph, CEO & Co-founder, CogniCor Technologies | @cognicor

Dr. Sindhu Joseph Co-Founded CogniCor Technologies S.L in 2012 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Joseph is the inventor of 6 US Technology patents. She has developed the core technology used in CogniCor products. Dr. Joseph received training from Microsoft pre-incubation program in commercialization of technology in collaboration with Barcelona Activa, a public organization that prepare entrepreneurs transform an idea into a commercially viable product. She holds PhD in Artificial Intelligence and an experienced research Engineer.

@sindhutweet

Sitanshu Shah, Associate Partner, Bain & Company

Sitanshu Shah is an Associate Partner at Bain & Company’s Mumbai office. He is an integral member of the firm’s Construction, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Energy & Natural Resources, Advanced Manufacturing & Services and Private Equity practices.

With close to 15 years of experience in consulting, he has advised clients on Growth Strategy, Performance and Operations Improvement, Customer Experience, Digital Transformations and Corporate Venture Capital across multiple industries.

Prior to joining Bain, he has worked in Real Estate Advisory at Cushman & Wakefield where he was awarded the India Consulting Professional of the Year Award. Sitanshu earned an MBA from INSEAD and graduate degree in Economics, Mathematics & Political Science from Denison University, USA.

Sivaram Tadepalli, CIO Airport sector, GMR Group

Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMD, SIDBI

Shri S. Ramann, belongs to 1991 batch of Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IA&AS). He joined as Chairman & Managing Director, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) from 19th April 2021. Before joining SIDBI, he was MD & CEO of National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL) from December 2016. Prior to joining NeSL, Mr Ramann was the Principal Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, Ranchi during 2015-2016. He worked with SEBI as CGM and later Executive Director between 2007 & 2013.

He held various positions in the offices under the C&AG of India in various States and also worked as Executive Secretary to the C&AG of India. He worked as First Secretary, at Indian High Commission, London for auditing the accounts of various Indian Embassies in Europe. He is BA (Hons) Economics from St Stephens College and MBA from FMS, Delhi University. He has done M. Sc. in Regulations from London School of Economics and Certified Internal Auditor from IIA Florida. He completed LLB from Mumbai University and Post Graduate Diploma in Securities Law. 

Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMD, SIDBI

Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann is the Chairman and Managing Director of SIDBI.  Before this, Shri Ramann was serving as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of National E- Governance Services Ltd. (NeSL), India’s first information utility. Shri Ramann is an Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer of 1991 batch.

Prior to joining NeSL, Shri Ramann was the Principal Accountant General of State of Jharkhand from 2015 - 2016. He has also held the position of Executive Director with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), while he was on deputation from the Government of India from 2006 to 2013.

Shri Ramann has a BA in Economics and MBA from Delhi University. His professional qualifications include LLB, M Sc in Regulation from the London School of Economics, Certified Internal Auditor from the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Florida and Post Graduate Diploma in Securities Law.

Sivram SD, Vice President - Corporate Strategy and Planning, Ecom Express Private Limited

Sivram leads the strategy development and strategic planning function across all business units of the company. His focus areas include expanding strategic partnerships, identifying new business avenues, leading acquisitions and synergies for both domestic and international operations. He also leads the analytics function in optimizing the company’s operations, productivities and cost structures to improve business and performance metrics.

Sivram comes with over 6 years of experience in Strategy across sectors including Ecommerce. In his previous role at Rocket-internet E-commerce portal Jabong.com, he was the Head - Operations Analytics & Marketplace Pricing and also the lead on key strategic initiatives as a part of the Special Projects Team. He has also worked as a Management consultant at A.T Kearney.

Sivram holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS - Pilani and an MBA (PGDM) from IIM Bangalore.