Our speakers

Tejeshwi Sharma, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP

As a Principal, Tejeshwi Sharma advises on growth stage consumer internet and SaaS investments for Sequoia in India.

He currently serves on the boards of companies such as Moglix, Rebel Foods and Whatfix amongst others.

He previously managed Tencent’s India investments, where he led the investment in BYJUs.

Tejeshwi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from Stanford GSB.

Tejpavan Singh Gandhok, CEO, Om Pizza & Eats

Mr. Tejpavan Singh Gandhok(Pavan)  has an MBA from UCLA (Dean’s list) and a BE Chem. Eng(Honours) from Univ. of Melbourne, as well as a qualification in journalism.

An Indian born, US educated, Australian citizen, permanent resident of Singapore and an Overseas Citizen of India. He has a very impressive entrepreneurial and professional track-record. He is co-founder of Litebite Foods chain of restaurants. He has over 18 yrs of international Senior Partner level experience in Country & Regional Head roles across Australia, US, South East & Middle East Asia with Strategy consulting & Private Equity firms such as Halycon, AT Kearney, Stern Stewart & co. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He has advised most of the leading blue chip Indian , SE Asian as well as global MNC clients on issues such as: corporate portfolio and business unit strategy ; organization design; business performance improvement; corporate finance and valuation; governance and senior executive remuneration. Mr.Tejpavan also worked with Monsanto as Director - business development and growth strategy for Asia-Pacific, ICI Australia and the University of Melbourne. He is also a co-founder and Lead Director of Natures Bounty an alcoholic beverages marketing company; co-founder and managing trustee of Madadghar a charitable trust.

Currently Mr. Tejpavan is the CEO of OM Pizzas & Eats India Pvt Ltd & Tex Mex Cusinie India Pvt Ltd. OM Pizzas has the following brands under it ie Papa Johns & The Great Kabab Factory. Tex Mex has the following brand under it ie Chilis Grill & Bar.

Thakur Pherwani, Chief Sustainability Officer, TVS Motors

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.