Our speakers

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

Surojit Gupta, General Manager, Brand Capital

Surojit has been a part of the founding team of Brand Capital ,managing a leadership role in Karnataka. He has been involved with 45+ media investments over the last 7 years across varied sectors ( viz – Travel, Internet, Logistics, Media, Real Estate, Retail, Consumer Durables ) in Brand Capital.

He has managed multiple engagements for Brand Capital over the last 7 years since its inception,  and has worked closely with the investee companies in redefining their marketing & branding strategies which has helped  in augmenting  business goals and performance of such organizations. He spends quality time analyzing innovative business concepts by new age entrepreneurs. He also mentors promoters to help them continue build a credible brand. In addition, he has spent 18 years with several leading organizations in the country (viz Indian Hotels Co Ltd , Shriram Group )  He holds his post graduate qualification from the University of Calcutta specializing in Marketing,  Accountancy, Taxation &  an MDP from ISB in  Private Equity, Strategy, and Executional Leadership. Traversing to new destinations is his hobby.

Surya Mantha, Managing Partner, Capria

Surya Prakash Madrecha, Chairman & MD, Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Ltd

Surya Prakash serves Trimax as Chairman and holds a bachelor's degree in Science. He is a technocrat and has been involved with the company since its inception. He carries comprehensive experience of more than 15 years, and took his first lessons while setting up the business in IT Hardware Industry. Surya Prakash is a successful IT service business strategist growing Trimax by leaps and bounds.

Suryanarayan CS, Country Category Manager, Aruba - A Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Sushane Chopra, Senior Director, Gaja Capital

Sushant Dubey, EVP & Business Head Digital Services, Sify Technologies Ltd.

Sushant has over two decades of diverse experience in the Information Technology industry. He is leading the Digital Services Business Unit in Sify and closely works with customers in co-creating new age digital led business transformation initiatives.

His prior experience includes leading sales, business development, and product management functions in global organizations including IBM, VeriSign and Red Hat that allowed him to drive successful digital transformation projects, delivering customer satisfaction across Open Source solutions, cloud ready platforms, applications, AI/ML and Analytics.