Our speakers

Ananthan NS, Senior Investment Officer, IFC

"Ananthan is a Senior Investment Officer with International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) in the Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services group and leads Agribusiness investments for IFC in South Asia. He has over 17 years of experience across Private Equity, M&A / Corporate Finance and Client Coverage in a wide range of sectors in India. Prior to joining IFC, Ananthan has worked with Standard Chartered Bank, Kotak Investment Banking and IL&FS. He holds a PGDM from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani."

Ananya Birla, Founder, Chairperson and Director, Svatantra Microfinance

Ananya Birla founded Svatantra Microfinance Pvt. Ltd at the age of 17 and in just over three years as the Chairperson and MD, she has established herself as a successful entrepreneur. When the risk perception in the industry was very high, Ananya in her independent capacity, played a significant role in changing minds in the regions where Svatantra operates. She is currently the Co-Chairperson of ASSOCHAM's Microfinance Council of India. Under her leadership Svatantra has won the “Gold Award for Best Start-Up” (Skoch Financial Inclusion and Deepening Awards, 2014), “Spirituality @ Work: Sach Bharat Samman” (Sach Bharat Confluence 2015) and has maintained a quality loan portfolio, offering one of the lowest interest rates in the country. She has also won titles like 'Leading Woman in Microfinance' (iiGlobal Business Information Pvt Ltd) and ‘Corporate Debutant’ (Hello! Hall of Fame Awards 2016) amongst others. One of the fastest growing microfinance institutions, Svatantra is differentiated by a 0% default rate as well as 100% cashless disbursements, and has been a driving catalyst for change in the industry. Svatantra is also currently pioneering cashless collections. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, Ananya is currently in the process of launching another venture in the ecommerce space, which revolves around travel and design. She has also co-founded the MPower movement, an awareness initiative to alleviate the stigma associated with mental health. 

@ananya_birla

Ananya Tripathi, SVP Planning & Strategy, Myntra

Ananya Tripathi currently heads Strategy & Planning at Myntra. Her focus areas include framing Myntra’s business approach, planning and investments (organic and inorganic) based on deep understanding of consumer behaviour, evolving landscape of e-commerce and data backed insights across all business areas.

Ananya has over a decade of experience in strategy, operations and technology across her stints at Myntra, being an Associate Partner at McKinsey and a Software Engineer at TCS. A gold medalist of her Computer Engineering and MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Ananya is passionate about making 10x impact happen on the ground.

Anchit Nishant, Customer Engineer, Google Cloud

Andrew McRobert, Commercial Banker, and a leading expert on International restructuring, and cross-border insolvency situations

Andrew McRobert is a commercial banker specializing in restructuring, insolvency and with nearly 32 years’ experience in credit, portfolio risk management, lending, and problem loans management. He has worked with some of the world's leading financial institutions including: Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Citicorp, Jakarta Initiative Task Force (JITF), African Development Bank, Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), and Coopers & Lybrand.

Andrew is a qualified Chartered Accountant, a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia, and a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has a demonstrable track record of identifying and implementing restructuring & recovery strategies for complex non-performing investments and loans all across Australasia, Asia and Africa; and is also experienced in conducting due diligence assignments, high-level problem resolution negotiations and team building in credit and portfolio risk management.

He is an engaging speaker and presenter and has developed and led very highly rated programs; consulted with clients across Asia Pacific, Africa, & Middle East including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Oman. UAE, & Saudi Arabia.

He has co-authored three acclaimed texts "Corporate Collapse” (published by McGraw-Hill), “Financial Literacy for Lawyers, Investors and Lenders” (published by Thomson Reuters) and “Financial literacy - Lessons from Centro” (published by Thomson Reuters).

Andy Khanna, Sr. Director M&A Transactions, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd

Andy Khanna is an M&A Transactions Services Partner with Deloitte is based in their Gurgaon office. He has over 10 years of experience as a full-time M&A specialist and has also worked with Deloitte in UK and the US prior to transferring to India in 2008. Andy has worked on over 100 domestic and cross border transactions across North America, Europe and Asia ranging in value from $5 million to $15 billion in diverse industries such as consumer products, life sciences, media, manufacturing retail, real estate, technology and software. Andy is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Aneesh Reddy, Co-founder & CEO, Capillary Technologies

Aneesh Reddy is the Co-founder & CEO of Capillary Technologies - leading a team that helps enterprises customers engage with their consumers intelligently, delivering personalized communications to the right consumers at the right time.

Aneesh is a featured expert at global retail, marketing and technology forums and  works closely with acclaimed institutions towards creating a product ecosystem in India. He is also a featured entrepreneur in leading publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review and The Economic Times.

Prior to founding Capillary, Aneesh worked with ITC Limited, invovleed in their facility management division. Aneesh holds a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Aneish Kumar, MD & Country Manager, The Bank of New York Mellon - India

Aneish Kumar is Managing Director and Country Executive of The Bank of New York Mellon’s Mumbai Representative Office in India. He has been with BNY Mellon since 1998. Based in Mumbai, Aneish leads the local liaison team which focusses on strengthening and broadening BNY Mellon’s local client relationships across all business lines.

Mr. Kumar has over 30 years of cross-functional expertise in banking and financial services. He has extensive experience in various facets of banking - from commercial, retail, corporate, International Business and Leasing. He has been a speaker at various forums, been a guest speaker at the Staff Training Colleges of Banks, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Bankers, Bankers Training College, and National Institute of Bank Management. He has written and published articles in several business and International financial publications on a variety of topics.

Mr. Kumar is also a gifted artist who enjoys painting in a realistic style in all mediums – from oil, acrylic, charcoal and water color. He enjoys listening to music and in his younger days played cricket at University and State levels.

Angad Banga, Chief Operating Officer, The Caravel Group

Mr. Angad Banga is the Chief Operating Officer of The Caravel Group.

Angad joined Caravel as an Executive Director at the Groups’ inception in 2013, before being promoted to his current role in 2016. The Caravel Group Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a diversified global conglomerate primarily focused on providing leading Maritime Services (including ship management, owning and operating) in addition to Investment Management activities across all sectors (including both public and private opportunities). The Group is also engaged in the trading and logistics of industrial dry bulk raw materials.

As the COO of the Caravel Group, Angad has direct operational and managerial oversight for the Group’s Asset Management, Investment, Finance & Operations and Administrative functions. In this capacity, Angad also has responsibility for corporate planning across the firm, which includes strategic investments, balance sheet and treasury management, business development and corporate finance activities. In addition, Angad is also a key member of the Group’s Management, Investment, Risk and Credit Committees.

Angad also serves on the Board of Directors of Fleet Management Limited (a Caravel Group company), Mandarin Shipping Limited, a Hong Kong-based shipping investment company, as well as serving as a Director on several other Caravel Group’s direct private equity investments.

Prior to joining Caravel, Angad was a Principal with KKR, one of the world’s leading global investment firms across multiple alternative asset classes. Based in Hong Kong, Angad was principally focused on investing in Leveraged Buy-out (LBO) transactions across the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to this, Angad also ran the Asian Leveraged Finance business for KKR Capital Markets Asia, where he helped finance some of the largest, most complex and highly structured private equity acquisitions in Asia. Angad was a key team member of many notable investments by KKR Asia during his tenure.

Angad began his career as an Analyst in the Syndicated & Leveraged Finance team at JPMorgan in Hong Kong where he provided advice to and raised capital for Private Equity firms and high growth and leveraged companies in Asia Pacific.

Angad is a Member of the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board (HKMPB), a Government organization established to steer the future direction of the development of the port and maritime industry in Hong Kong and both a Member of both the Promotion and External Relations and Sub-Committee and the Maritime and Port Development Committee of the HKMPB. In addition, Angad serves on the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association (HKSOA), one of the world’s largest Shipowner Associations, and as the Chairman of the Marine Sub-Committee of the HKSOA.

Angad is on the Board of Visitors of The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.

In 2015, Angad was named as the “Young Person of the Year” by Seatrade Asia.

Angad graduated with an AB with Honors in Economics from Dartmouth College, in the USA.

Angira Agarwal, Global SVP, GTM and Strategy, Exotel