Our speakers

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director Sales (India & SAARC), Sopho

Sunil Sharma joined Sophos in 2011 as vice president, sales, for India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. He is responsible for the company’s regional sales and channel organization. Sophos acquired India’s prominent network security company Cyberoam, where Sunil was responsible for the entire sales and operations for these regions since 2011.

His in depth understanding of sales channels like system integrators, value added resellers, distributors, retailers and OEM’s had helped grow the Cyberoam business by 500%. He also grew the channel base from 390 to 2500+ partners across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

With more than twenty four years of senior sales and channel experience at storage and security companies, Sunil most recently served as National Manager - Channels & Alliances at McAfee. In this role, he helped the company make alliances with Wipro, HCL Technologies & TCS and created the complete base for Tier II partners, which helped the company grow by 450% in 5 years.

Prior to joining McAfee, Sunil held the national channel sales position at EMC Corporation.

He has been awarded The Channel Chief of The Year in 2015 and 2016 from SME Channels and NCN Magazine respectively.

Sunil has a Master’s in Business Management with specialization in marketing and B.TECH in electronics & communications from the Delhi University.

Sunil Thakur, MD, Quadria Capital

Sunil has an extensive healthcare investment and transaction experience across the Asia-Pacific market and has been involved in some of the landmark deals in the healthcare space. In his career spanning 18+ years, Sunil has led and executed deals worth over US$ 7 billion across M&A and Capital Raise.

He serves on the board and committees of various healthcare companies and few prestigious institutions. He is a governing council member of NATHEALTH and a member on CII – National Committee on Biotechnology.

Prior to Quadria Capital, Sunil has worked with Religare Capital Markets and PNB Gilts at various senior positions. He has a Masters Degree in International Business from Delhi School of Economics.

Sunil Thakur, Partner, Quadria Capital

Sunil has an extensive healthcare investment and transaction experience across the Asia-Pacific market and has been involved in some of the landmark deals in the healthcare space. In his career spanning 18+ years, Sunil has led and executed deals worth over US$ 7 billion across M&A and Capital Raise.

He serves on the board and committees of various healthcare companies and few prestigious institutions. He is a governing council member of NATHEALTH and a member on CII – National Committee on Biotechnology.

Prior to Quadria Capital, Sunil has worked with Religare Capital Markets and PNB Gilts at various senior positions. He has a Masters Degree in International Business from Delhi School of Economics.

Sunil has an extensive healthcare investment and transaction experience across the Asia-Pacific market and has been involved in some of the landmark deals in the healthcare space. In his career spanning 18+ years, Sunil has led and executed deals worth over US$ 7 billion across M&A and Capital Raise.

He serves on the board and committees of various healthcare companies and few prestigious institutions. He is a governing council member of NATHEALTH and a member on CII – National Committee on Biotechnology.

Prior to Quadria Capital, Sunil has worked with Religare Capital Markets and PNB Gilts at various senior positions. He has a Masters Degree in International Business from Delhi School of Economics.

 

Sunil Udupa, Chairman & MD, Securens Systems Pvt Ltd

He is a Graduate from College of Engineering, Pune where he passed B.E. (Electrical Engineering) with distinction and then got his Masters in Information Engineering from the reputed City University, London.

Sunil R Udupa is a veteran in Banking & Payment Industry with 25 years of experience has a history of building many successful companies from scratch.He bought in the country’s first ATM with Diebold, took it through from a distributor company to a JV with Diebold that finally cumulated with merger with Diebold Inc of USA.

He also brought in the Country’s first ATM Switch, Base 24 from ACI, as a Director with HMA Data Systems for Indian Bank. He also envisioned the country’s first National Payment System under the Brand of Swadhan, an IBA initiative. He was the Managing Director of the India Switch Company, the company that delivered the solution.

He has many other successful firsts to his credit including the first ATM on VSAT, the first ATM on mobile network, the first mobile Branch, the first Biometric ATM, the first Lobby Banking and many others. Through his acute vision, he could foretell the need of the Banking industry with great accuracy. In his last role, he was instrumental in transforming AGS from a Color Technology company into leadership position in the ATM Business.

Sunil Varma Marri, Executive Vice President - Investment Banking and Head - Energy & Utilities, Centrum Capital Limited

Sunil heads the investment banking practice for the Energy, Utilities and Airports sectors at Centrum Capital Limited. In the last three years, he has played a key role in fund raise and M&A initiatives for several clients including stressed companies.

Before joining Centrum, Sunil headed the energy practice at ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited and advised marquee companies in the private sector, PE funds, governments and regulators on transactions, restructuring, strategy and risk.  

Sunil led multiple financial restructuring assignments totalling INR 360 billion. Sunil has also advised the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and IFC on policy and risk related assignments.  He played an important role in the restructuring of five power utilities in Andhra Pradesh as a member of the Reforms Group. Sunil is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur and NIT Warangal.

Sunish Sharma, Managing Partner, Kedaara Capital Advisors LLP

Sunish Sharma is the Managing Partner of Kedaara Capital Advisors LLP, a private equity investment advisory firm focused on India that he co-founded. Kedaara partners with strong entrepreneurs and management teams to build enduring value in growth-oriented businesses, and supports them to achieve higher levels of performance. Kedaara also actively engages with family owned business to identify and create carve-out plays, with a focused approach to create a win-win situation for promoters and Kedaara. Kedaara offers solution oriented capital combined with deep strategic and operational expertise in focused sectors, leveraging consultative approach and global connectivity to deliver superior returns. The firm has a strategic tie-up with Clayton Dubilier and Rice.

Prior to co-founding Kedaara, Sunish served as a Managing Director at the global private equity firm, General Atlantic, where he was a senior member of the India investment team since the start of 2004 and the second employee hired in the Mumbai office. Over the course of almost eight years at GA, Sunish played a critical lead advisory role in the majority of GA’s investments, and in the latter part of his career with GA played a key role in building GA’s local Indian investment program into a $1 billion portfolio by late 2011. He has extensive private equity investment experience in business services and technology, healthcare, financial services and the energy and resources sectors.  

Prior to GA, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey in India for over six years. He spent the majority of his time on strategic issues serving several Indian and MNC clients on multiple engagements and M&A transactions. He co-authored the first two NASSCOM-McKinsey reports on the information technology and business process outsourcing sectors. These reports are generally regarded as the authoritative research reports on each respective industry sector.

Sunish is a gold medalist from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta where he did his MBA after graduating with honors from Delhi University. Sunish also holds a cost accounting degree.

Sunish currently serves on the boards of Mahindra Logistics Limited, Manjushree Technopack Limited, Spandana Sphoorty Financial Limited and Vedant Fashion Private Limited (Manyavar). In the past, he has served on several other boards including that of Bill Forge Private Limited, Hexaware Limited, Cyient Limited, and IBS Software Services Limited amongst others. Sunish strongly believes education is the best way to give back to the society, and accordingly is one of the Founders of Ashoka University, a philanthropic initiative to provide a liberal education on par with the best universities around the world. He is also one of the founders of Young India Fellowship, launched in 2011 in collaboration with University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to develop change agents for India through a multi-disciplinary programme.

In 2011, he was profiled as one of the “25 hottest young executives below 40 in India” by Business Today, the leading business magazine in India.  In December 2011-January 2012, in the 20th anniversary issue of Business Today, he was also profiled as one of the Top 20 professional which represent the future of Indian Business “The Next Big Guns”. He has spoken at various conferences on PE in India and the region.

Sunita Handa, Chief General Manager (IT_Channels & Ops), State Bank of India

State Bank of India’s first lady CGM to head IT_Channels & Ops, Ms Sunita Handa has over 3 decades of insightful experience in various spheres of banking; more than half of it in technology initiatives and implementations, involving inter-alia, TechChannels, Payment Systems, Digital Solutions for Retail, Corporates & Govts and digitalisation of SBI’s overseas offices.  
 
She was posted in Frankfurt (2008 to 2012) as Sr VP to head Bank’s IT operations in Germany. 
An energetic and enthusiastic Team Leader with a proven track record of business & revenue enhancement and stepping up digital transformation through large scale technology projects using her exceptional analytical skills. 
Presently, Ms Handa heads the teams that are responsible for developing and implementing Bank's various technology initiatives in Mobility, e-Commerce, ATMs, UPI, SWIFT, Treasury, Payments Hub, Digital Collections/ Payments/ Cash Management for MSMEs, Corporates and Govts. as also the tech operations in Bank’s offices in 25 countries across the Globe. 
 
Prior to the current assignment, she headed the whole business and operations of 400 + branches of SBI in Central & South Gujarat. 
 
Ms. Sunita Handa holds a Masters degree in Science, specialising in Mathematics, a Course in Computer Applications (CCA) and is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).

Sunita Rebecca Cherian, Chief Culture officer & SVP, Wipro

Sunitha Lal, CHRO, Ather Energy

Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Government of Maharashtra