Our speakers

Thiru S.Krishnan, I.A.S, Principal Secretary, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Government of Tamil Nadu

S. Krishnan is an I.A.S. officer of 1989 batch.  He is presently Principal Secretary, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Government of Tamil Nadu.  He is also in full additional charge as Managing Director, New Tirupur Area Development Corporation; CEO, Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board; Officer on Special Duty, 14th Finance Commission and Chairman, Fifth State Finance Commission.  In the Government of Tamil Nadu he has earlier been Secretary (Expenditure) (2011-2013), Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (2011), Joint Secretary, Finance (2000),  District Collector, Virudhunagar (1997-2000), Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation and Member-Secretary of Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (1996-1997) and Sub-Collector, Cuddalore (1991-92).

He was Senior Advisor in the Office of the Executive Director for India, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC from 2007-2010 where  he had a ring side view of the multilateral response to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. He was Government of India’s representative in G20 Expert Groups on International Financial Architecture and Global Financial Safety Nets.  From 2004-2007 he was Private Secretary to Finance Minister, Government of India.  From 2000–2004 he was Deputy Director (Senior), Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder & CEO, Ninjacart | @ninjacart

Thirukumaran Nagarajan, an Anna University-CEG and IIM K alumnus, has over 8 years of experience and has worked with companies like Axis Bank, Aavishkaar Venture Management, Taxiforsure (Head of Mobile Products) and Commonfloor. Thiru is a serial entrepreneur, before starting Ninjacart, he built Shout App (location based social network, which saw more than 10,000 downloads within 3 months) and EduRaft (an Education Information Platform based out of Chennai).

Tinaz K. Mistry, Investment Manager, Mistry Family Office

Tinaz K. Mistry is currently serving as an Investment Manager for the Mistry Family Office. She has an undergrad in Business Studies from Cox School of Business, SMU, Dallas, Texas and an MSc in Public Policy from London School of Economics. She was part of the Marketing team at the erstwhile DSP BlackRock (now DSP Investment Managers), followed by a stint as a legislative assistant to industry veteran, Dr. Ashok Ganguly, in his capacity as a Member of Parliament. Her interest in public policy led to a role at IDFC Institute, a leading non-profit think-tank based out of Mumbai. She played a significant role in building the Institute and led several research projects in her four year stint. In her current role at the family office, she hopes to diversify the pool of assets and take a large exposure in the venture capital space.

Toby Linden, Lead Education Specialist, The World Bank Group

Toby Linden is a British national who joined the World Bank's South Asia Human Development Unit as a Lead Education Specialist in January 2011, and moved to Delhi in July 2011. Before joining the India team, he was on secondment from the Bank to serve as Director of the Roma Education Fund, an international NGO working to improve the educational outcomes Roma (Gypsies), the poorest minority in Europe.

Other positions in his 14 years with the World Bank include working in the Country Office in Bosnia and as part of the analytical and research unit of the Education Network. His publications in the education sector include the World Bank's first book on lifelong learning and papers in secondary and higher education.

Tomoharu Urabe, Principal Partner, MIXI Global Investments Inc.

Tonmoy Shingal, Co-Founder & COO, Mettl

Tonmoy Shingal is the Co-founder and COO of Mettl, an online assessments platform. Tonmoy, who is an electrical engineer from IIT Kanpur and  a MBA from IIM Bangalore brings experience from technology giants like Texas instruments and consulting companies like The Boston Consulting Group. He holds  three patents in the area of security algorithm design. Tutrr, an online Math practice assistant for school students is the brainchild of Tonmoy.

Toshan Tamhane, Sr. Partner, Mckinsey & Co.

Toshan is a Senior Partner in the Mumbai office of McKinsey & Company and joined the firm in 2002. Toshan leads McKinsey’s Payments Practice across Asia, helping traditional banks as well as fin-tech innovators think through their business models, operating strategies, technology issues etc. He also works extensively with private equity funds, SWFs and institutional investors on improving the value from their investments. His other interests include education and public policy. His expertise covers 2 main areas Financial Services & Payments and Corporate Finance and Transaction Advisory.

Toshan is an avid writer and has co-authored several external McKinsey publications over the last few years – ‘India Private Equity – Route to resurgence’ (2015), ‘Mutual Funds – Riding the wave of opportunity & optimism (2015)’, ‘Conglomerate value-creation in the next decade (2012)’, ‘India Banking 2010’, ‘Indian Asset Management Landscape 2012’, ‘Towards Superior Risk Management in Banking’(2009), and ‘New arenas in Indian banking (2013)’. Toshan also has significant buy-side experience, having worked with a leading private equity fund in India, focusing on investments in the financial services and infrastructure space.Toshan has done his Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Bombay and has received his M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad before joining McKinsey.

Tr Srinivas, MD, o3 Capital

T R Srinivas is a MD and co-founder of o3 Capital. Srinivas leads the firm’s investment banking activities in the Industrials and Real Estate sectors.  He has over 16 years of experience and has advised on more than 30 completed transactions totaling to more than INR 10,000 Crores in aggregate value.

Prior to founding o3 Capital, Srinivas headed the India investment banking operations of TAIB Bank, a leading Middle East based investment bank. Srinivas is a CFA and a M. Com from Bangalore University.

Tridibesh Satpathy, CEO, Edusys

Tridibesh is the Founder and CEO of Edusys Services Pvt Limited, a leading global test prep and certification technology platform company with offices in US, UK, India, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore. Boot-strapped by Tridibesh in 2005 with an investment of Rs. 3 lakhs, Edusys currently has 150,000+ customers from more than 3,500 companies and over 150 countries. In 2011, Edusys was ranked the 5th fastest growing IT company by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India Program, and in 2012 Edusys was awarded the Top 100 Asia Red Herring Award - which recognizes the top 100 entrepreneurial companies in Asia-Pacific Region. The company has always been profitable and recently got growth funding from Sequoia Capital.

Tridibesh has done his Senior Mangement Program from Wharton Business School, MBA from IIM Lucknow and Mechanical Engineering from IIT - BHU. Before Edusys, he had worked several companies including IBM, American Express, Wachovia Bank, TCS and Unit Trust of India. An accomplished trainer, Tridibesh has personally taught classes in fields like adult learning techniques, project management, negotiation, quality, human resources, risk management and Information Technology to hundreds of students in US, UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, UAE and other countries.

He was also the founder and CEO of ExcelAtExams.com, an education venture which he sold to IMS in 2001.

TS Ashwin, MD, Odyssey India Ltd

T.S. Ashwin, Managing Director, Odyssey India Limited, the company that manages the ‘Odyssey’ chain of retail stores, is a first generation entrepreneur. From pursuing C.A., to a stint in Software as a Software Analyst and then onto retailing, Mr. Ashwin is someone who has now been part of the retail industry for more than 15 years.

The first ‘Odyssey’ store was set-up in 1995 in Adyar, a suburb of Chennai. Now there are over 50 stores across various formats spread over 12 cities in India.  While the expansion for ODYSSEY continues, he has now taken the company beyond books and music into niche and lifestyle segments of eyewear, premium writing instruments and toys with the launch of 3 new store concepts to retail them - STYLE i, EDITIONS and TOYOPIA.

Mr. Ashwin has since sold his entire stake in Odyssey India Limited to Deccan Chronicle, the media company, but continues to drive the business.