Our speakers

Upendra Namburi, Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance

Upendra Namburi is the Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer with Bharti AXA General Insurance, managing aspects related to Digital, Communications, Customer experience & data. He has been instrumental in setting up over 20 new products and three businesses in payments, banking and financial services during his association with leading BFSI organizations including ICICI Bank, ABN AMRO Bank (RBS), SBI Cards and now Bharti AXA General Insurance in span of 21 years. His driving force is innovative yet simple solutions that help build long term relationships with customers. He has been associated with setting up and growing digital business lines and channels for several years. He is also a columnist and a bestselling author. Upendra has authored 3 books in his journey as a writer, his latest book‘8 hours’ was launched this month.

Utkarsh Bandhu, Partner, JSA Advocates & Solicitors

Utkarsh Sinha, MD, Bexley Advisors

Utsav Baijal, Senior Partner & MD, Apollo Management

Mr. Baijal is a Senior Partner and Management Director with Apollo Management’s India office. He joined Apollo the firm in its New York office in 2008 and has worked actively on private equity, mezzanine and credit investments across the US and Asian markets. In 2012, he helped Apollo establish a joint venture with ICICI Bank and helped raise one of the largest India dedicated funds, AION. Prior to Apollo, Mr. Baijal was with the private equity team at Bain Capital in Boston (from 2005 to 2008), where he worked extensively on consumer and retail opportunities.  Mr. Baijal spent five years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company across the New Delhi and Hong Kong offices and was one of the founding members of the firm’s corporate finance practice in India. During his tenure at Mckinsey, he also completed a secondment at the Indian School of Business working for the Dean’s office and assisting in several aspects of institution building. He is on the Board of several companies, including IGT Solutions and PlanetCast Media Services Limited. Mr. Baijal graduated summa cum laude from St. Stephen’s College/University of Delhi with a BA in economics. He also completed his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where he was an Industry Scholar. He is an Aspen Fellow and the recipient of the 2018 IIMA Young Alumni Achiever Award.

Utsav Baijal, Partner & Head of India Private Equity, Apollo Global Management

Utsav Malhotra, COO, Noise

An Magna cum laude alumnus of Durham University, UK and IITB, Utsav is also a double gold medalist from NIFT where he pursued design. With a keen eye for product and a penchant for numbers, he found himself in leadership roles across businesses that anchored around lifestyle and luxury and sought hyper growth. Prior to his current role at Noise, he has had stints with Nicobar Design, AMPM, Fashion and You, Arvind Lifestyle Brands amidst others. Utsav lends his expertise to execute Noise’s vision and accelerate its business goals in the current avatar. He was recently included in the BW40u40 list for his achievements and contributions to the industry. Work-life aside, Utsav has an affinity for travel and deep sea diving and is an avid connoisseur of Indian Art

Uttam Kumar, Head - New Technologies Innovation & Incubation - IT, Aircel

V Laxmikanth, Managing Partner, Pavestone Capital

V P Kamath, Group Chief Operating Officer, Nova Medical Centers Pvt. Ltd.

Joining as a Management Trainee and choosing to involve himself in cross-functional fields, the past two decades saw him rise swiftly in positions of increasing responsibility. He has handled various assignments in the areas of General Management, Operations, Marketing, Sales, Strategic Planning, Business Development & Healthcare Communications. He has been associated with Healthcare majors - Lakme, Johnson & Johnson, Nicholas Piramal, Mudra Communications, Apollo Hospitals and Wockhardt Hospitals. Currently is the Group Chief Operating Officer at Nova Medical Centers Pvt. Ltd., responsible for General Management of Nova’s Specialty Hospitals, Infertility Clinics, IVIOMICS Genetic Testing Lab and ART Bank businesses at over 20 locations.

Mr. Kamath apart from being a Business Manager, loves to share his knowledge with professionals and students. A sought after speaker and presenter in business forums, seminars and conferences across the world, he is also a visiting faculty member at various Management Institutes, including I.I.M.

For his outstanding and extraordinary achievements in Healthcare and Education, Mr. Kamath was recently awarded the “Bharat Excellence Award” and the “Rashtrya Jewel Award”.

Mr.Kamath holds post-graduation in Science (Microbiology), MBA in Marketing and attended the Advanced Management Program conducted by the Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

V S Parthasarathy, President, Mobility Services Sector & Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra Group

Mr. V S Parthasarathy (fondly known as Partha) is the President of the Mobility Services Sector of Mahindra Group. Mobility Services Sector houses a range of businesses that provide innovative, technology-driven solutions for efficient movement of people and goods. It includes Mahindra Logistics, Mahindra First Choice Wheels, Meru, Porter and Zoomcar.

Partha is a member of the Mahindra Group’s supervisory board called ‘Group Executive Board’. He is the Chairman of the board of Mahindra Logistics Ltd., Smartshift Logistics Pvt. Ltd. and Meru Travel Solutions Pvt. Ltd., and a Director on the board of listed companies of the Mahindra Group

Partha’s journey at M&M began with an HR stint in organizational transformation and the tractors journey to be world No. 1. In this process, he was also a significant part of the journey towards Deming Prize and Japan Quality Medal.  His next stint was in International Business where he was tasked with taking M&M tractors global.  He acquired two companies in China, consolidated operations, scaled it up in USA, set up operations in Australia, South East Asia, Korea and seven plants and operations in Africa and helped positioned Mahindra on the global map.  He was a key player in Mahindra USA’s journey from 1,000 to 10,000 tractors per annum as Head FES - International Operations, M&M.  In his next assignment as Head M&A, he focused on enabling inorganic growth strategy of business through innovative solutions and set up systems and processes. Under his leadership, the M&A team executed more than 125 transactions across geographies. As Group CIO, he spearheaded digital and IT initiatives at M&M, took charge of ambitious Project Harmony, a Group-wide initiative, and led a team of 400+ professionals to achieve common processes on a single ERP platform (SAP).  He also led initiatives on Information Security, Business Process Management (IT-BPR) and Knowledge Management.  He took over as CFO in November 2013. In his Finance role, he ideated and implemented India’s first ever 50 years unsecured, rated, listed bullet bonds for Rs. 500 cr. which is still in the record of Indian history. In this tenure, he secured many firsts for M&M including AAA rating, establishing new financial models, etc. He later took over as Group CFO in April 2015 until 31st March 2020.  He started his career with Modi Xerox (later know as Xerox India) as Management Trainee and rose to a position of Associate Director rumbling through multiple positions and locations.

He is a much awarded professional, thought leader, and votary of transformational changes with over 3 decades of experience. He is a well-recognized speaker in the fields of finance and IT. He was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Awards for both his CFO and CIO roles. He is also the recipient of the Business World - Yes Bank Hall of Fame Award, Best CFO of India Award by IMA, Corporate Excellence Awards and Digital Icon of India Award by HPE and CIO 100 – Hall of Fame by CIO after winning the awards for 4 consecutive years.

Partha is the Chairman of the FICCI Council on Sustainable Mobility. He runs for Nanhi Kali (the Girl Child Education NGO) at the Mumbai Marathon and awarded as Change Legend for 2019 creating history in terms of the largest collection that year. This year Partha is supporting SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) at the Mumbai Marathon.

Partha is a CA from ICAI and ICAEW and an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s AMP (2011).