Our speakers

Suresh Raju, Executive Director, TVS Capital Funds Limited

Suresh is Executive Director at TVS Capital Funds Limited, which manages an India focused growth private equity fund. Suresh has been instrumental in structuring, fund raising and launching of the TVS Shriram Growth Fund, and is responsible for investments from the fund. Prior to joining the fund, Suresh worked at Deutsche Bank's technology investment banking practice in Boston. Suresh has several years of transactional experience that ranges from private equity, M&A to equity/debt financing transactions.

Suresh has executed over 25 advisory and capital raising transactions, primarily targeting mid-cap companies in US. In addition, Suresh spent several years in an operational role with experience across project management, product development, sales &; marketing. Suresh also worked closely with the management team of Yasu Technologies, a privately held software company based out of Hyderabad that was acquired by SAP. Suresh earned a B.Tech from IIT Madras, an MS from The Ohio State University and an MBA from University of Chicago.

Suresh Rangarajan, Founder & CEO, Colive

Suresh Rangarajan K (SRK) is a passionate & intense start-up professional. One of the early adopters of the internet world, he was part of the founding team of Citi-Times JV TimesOfMoney.com.

Under his enterprising leadership, remit2india.com went on to become the world’s #1 online money transfer portal & one of the most successful internet businesses in India.

SRK then founded an innovative real estate enterprise called Artha. The highlights of his stint at Artha includes the path breaking Start-up City & Knowledge Park – Emprasa. Combining his experience in banking, internet & real estate, SRK founded Colive to solve the housing challenges faced by millennials while offering a new asset class of Buy-to- let properties for investors.

SRK was conferred the prestigious Udyog Rattan award and WCRC and Ernst & Young also awarded him the “Trend Setter in Real Estate”. SRK is a Chartered Accountant and an alumnus of Yale School of Management.

Suresh Reddy, Chairman & CEO, Ybrant Digital

Suresh is the Chairman & CEO at Ybrant Digital and is responsible for strategic direction and expansion efforts in the company. Prior to co-founding two successful companies USAGreetings and Ybrant Technologies, he worked in various roles across different industries in Fortune 500 companies, such as Caterpillar, Chrysler, SBC(PacBell) and Charles Schwab.

Suresh holds an M. S. in Engineering from the Iowa State University and a B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

Suresh Sambandam, Founder & CEO, OrangeScape

Suresh is the Founder and CEO of OrangeScape, a rare breed of technology platform company creating products like KiSSFLOW that has 10000+ customers across 108 countries rising to #1 position in 2 years. Suresh is tech entrepreneur with a fine blend of deep technology foundation and acquired experience in sales and marketing. He as 3 US patents to his credit and worked in celebrated US companies like Hewlett-Packard and Selectica. Suresh is an adviser to many early stage product companies. Suresh actively engages in the Chennai startup ecosystem through TiE, iSPIRT.in and The Startup Centre.

LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/sureshsambandam
Twitter : twitter.com/sureshsambandam

Suresh Shanmugham, Managing Partner, Saama Capital

Suresh Shanmugham is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Saama Capital. Earlier, he was Managing Director of SICP and Senior Vice President for SVB Global. Prior to joining SVB, he was a founding Partner of Boston Millennia Partners, an early stage venture capital firm. Prior to that, he served as an Associate, and then a Principal, at Boston Capital Ventures. He started his career with McKinsey & Company's corporate finance practice. Over the years, Suresh has invested in a number of technology companies, including Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation, Tropos Networks, Yantra Corporation/Sterling Commerce (NYSE: SBC), netGenesis/SPSS (NASDAQ: IBM),Verio, Inc./NTT Communications, Inc. (NYSE: NTT), Tutorvista/Pearson and Shriram EPC.

He also represents Saama Capital on the boards of several companies including AgreeYa Mobility, Naaptol, Iyogi, Ideacts Innovations, Geodesic Techniques and Bluestone. In the past, Suresh Shanmugham has served on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Bengaluru and the United Way of India. Suresh is also a charter member of TiE. He holds a Bachelor's degree summa cum laude in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

@Suresh_SaamaCap

Suresh Soni, MD, Nova Medical Centers Pvt. Ltd

Suresh Soni is a Managing Director at the GTI Group based in Bangalore and Los Angeles. Mr. Soni has led the GTI Group's initiatives in India. At GTI, Mr. Soni has co-founded Glori Oil, Coldwatt and Nova Medical Centres. Mr. Soni led the investment for the GTI Group in Air Works Engineering India and serves as Chairperson. Mr. Soni is Co- Founder and Chairperson of Nova Medical Centres.

Mr. Soni has over twenty two years of front line experience in Private Equity, Venture Capital, General Management and Business Development for global organizations including Emerson Electric and Lucent Technologies. Mr. Soni was Vice President of Business Development at Brock Consulting, an industrial partner of Ripplewood Holdings LLC, where he assisted Ripplewood with new acquisitions and their management.

Mr. Soni has a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama, MPIB from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and a B.E. degree from Maharishi Dayanand University. Mr. Soni has a Diploma in Advanced Management from the Harvard Business School.

Suresh Vaidhyanathan, Chief Executive Officer I Abu Dhabi Food Hub, CEO - Special Projects, Ghassan Aboud Group, UAE

Suresh Vaidhyanathan is one of the region’s accomplished C-suite leaders with an experience of 25+ years with multi-business organizations.

Over the years, Suresh has extensively worked across diversified industry verticals including:
Food | Automotive | Hospitality | Agri-business| Logistics | Retail | Healthcare | Aviation | Real Estate | Agri-business | Manufacturing | Technology| Services.

Suresh has an excellent professional standing in the region and was listed amongst Forbes 2023 Top 100 CEOs in the Middle East. He was included in the Gulf Business Most Influential Indians in the Regions 2024 List, the Arabian Business Dubai 100 Power List, 2024 Indian Aces in the Middle East, and the Economic Times Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia 2022-23.

Earlier as CFO, he was amongst the Forbes List of Top 10 Indian CFOs in the Middle East in 2019 and the Top 20 CFOs in the GCC 2021 (Khaleej Times NAFA List).

He is an alumnus of the Leading Digital Business Transformation program at IMD Business School and is certified in Blockchain Technologies and Artificial Intelligence at MIT Sloan School of Management. He completed the M&A program at University of Chicago Booth School of Business and in addition to programs in governance and investing at Harvard, INSEAD and Wharton.

Suresh is also an alumnus of the Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Program.

On the governance front, Suresh is a Certified Board Director with IOD Hawkamah, UAE, Member of GCC Board Directors Institute, Fellow Member of IOD, India and was recognized as a 2012 Board Leadership Fellow NACD, USA. He is also a charter member of the Harvard Business Club of the GCC.

He has been a resident of the UAE for the past 25 years.

Surga Thilakan, Co-founder & CEO, iSTAR Skill Development Pvt Ltd

Surga Thilakan CEO iSTARSurga Thilakan, Co-Founder & CEO, oversees sales and operations along with the strategic directions at iSTAR. She is deeply interested in improving likelihood outcomes at the bottom of the economic pyramid though skill development interventions. Prior to co-founding iSTAR, Surga worked at Uijivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. (one of India’s largest MFIs) as head of marketing where she was instrumental in launching several new livelihood-oriented products. In her previous avatar, she worked at Goldman Sachs’ private equity group in the UK and Ernst & Young’s indirect tax advisory practice in India. Surga has an MBA form the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and is a Chartered Accountant.

@surga_thilakan

Surinder Dang, Regional Director, Cloudnine Healthcare

Mr Surinder Dang is the Regional Director West for Cloudnine Group of Hospitals. He is a seasoned professional with over 23 years of rich & comprehensive experience in Sales & Marketing, Business Development, and Key Account Management & Channel Management. Mr. Dang is experienced in developing procedures and service standards for business excellence and has led dedicated teams for running successful business operations for healthcare providers like Global Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Aventis India. He is an innovator, keen planner, strategist & implementer with demonstrated abilities in devising marketing activities and accelerating the business growth. Mr. Surinder Dang is an honorary faculty at Wellingkars Institute of Management, Mumbai and is a regular speaker in elite forums like Masicon, IMA on healthcare business development.

Surjendu Kuila, Co-founder, Zopper.com | @zopperapp

Surjendu is the co-founder of Zopper - Hyperlocal mobile marketplace. Prior to founding this company, Surjendu spent 8 years working in the USA for companies such as Apple, RSA and many other tech startups. He holds a B.Tech from IIT, Roorkee and an MBA from IIM, Calcutta