Our speakers

Anand Sudarshan, Founder and Director, Sylvant Advisors Private Limited

Anand Sudarshan is Founder & Director, Sylvant Advisors Private Limited, which provides strategic advisory services in the education sector to Indian & global institutions, large enterprises, and investors. In addition, Sylvant also incubates, invests in, and advises start-up & early stage companies. He is currently an independent non-executive director of NIIT Limited, the pioneer in education & training. He also serves on a number of other private company boards, as well as government committees on policy advisory in education.

Till June 2012, he was Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Manipal Global Education (MaGE), with whom he had a distinguished career from May 2006. A pioneering global education entity headquartered out of Bangalore, MaGE is the largest higher education & related services entity out of India. Anand was instrumental in leading the team that built MaGE through expanding its global footprint to 6 campuses, in addition to propelling it as the definitive leader in technology-driven higher education out of India. Notable among the several milestones & achievements MaGE had during Anand’s tenure, are new campuses in Malaysia, Dubai, Antigua and India; an award-winning technology learning platform, EduNxt; a pioneering banking academy, probably the largest of its kind in the world; and expansion of MaGE’s multi-country footprint through organic & inorganic strategies. Post moving out of a full-time position, Anand served as an independent non-executive director of MaGE from July 2012 till September 2013.

Anand Sudarshan has been a recognised leader in the education sector since the last 9+ years. He is an active member of FICCI’s (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) national committees on Higher Education & School Education, is the Chair of its national committee on innovation & start-up’s, and is the Co-Chair of FICCI’s Karnataka State Council. He has in the past been a member of CII’s (Confederation of Indian Industry) national committee on Education. He is a founding member of EDGE (an education sector forum and think-tank) and the Vice-Chairman of EDGE’s Vision Group. He is also a trustee of Head Held High Foundation, which is doing seminal work in transforming rural poverty through empowering youth with low or no education through a dynamic combination of focus on training such youth, and creation of jobs through accelerating the rural economy.

Prior to his stint at MaGE, Anand was an entrepreneur & a senior executive at companies in the Information Technology industry, co-founding the Microland Group, and later driving Adea Solutions International. Anand holds a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India, and a PGDM (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India. Anand, his wife Padmashri & their son Dhruva live in Bangalore, India.

Anand Sunderji, Regional Representative, Paul Capital

Anand Sunderji began working with Paul Capital in early 2011 as a Regional Representative for sourcing secondary transactions in India. Mr Sunderji is also a Partner at Perpetual Value Partners, an emerging market focused private equity advisory firm. He has over seven years of private equity experience in Asia and was formerly the co-head of the India fund of funds at Guggenheim in Mumbai. Prior to this he was the co-lead of the Asian private equity fund of funds at Adveq in Zurich and also held the role of the Head of Investors at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and New York. He started his career at INVESCO in London as an European equity portfolio manager. Mr Sunderji holds a bachelors degree in Chemistry and Chemical Technology from the University of Bradford.

Anand Unnikrishnan, Managing Partner- Fund of Funds, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF)

Anand Unnikrishnan Managing Partner - Fund of FundsAnand has over two decades of experience across India and Australia in areas such as investment management, finance and consulting, of which, 12+ years have been in investment management in India. Through his career, Anand has been involved in several direct and fund investments in sectors such as roads, power, healthcare, renewable energy and real estate.He joined NIIF in 2018 and is currently the Managing Partner for NIIF’s Fund of Funds. At NIIF, he is responsible for developing and executing the strategy of the NIIF Fund of Funds, which is diversified fund investing into various sectors and strategies through third party fund managers. Prior to joining NIIF in March 2018, Anand was a senior member of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) team in India for about 10 years. He was part of the core team that established MIRA’s infrastructure funds management business in India in 2008. During his tenure with MIRA, in addition to his involvement with investments and his role on the Investment Committee of the India dedicated fund, Anand held many roles including head of finance, head of operations and an active role in fundraising for MIRA’s India fund and a broader Asia fund. Before MIRA, Anand worked with KPMG for over seven years in India and Australia, in the audit and financial advisory services divisions. During this period, Anand primarily worked with large clients primarily in the consumer, industrials, pharma and media and entertainment sectors. In the early part of his career, Anand has also worked with Universal Music Group in Mumbai as their Finance Manager for the India business. Anand holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is an Indian Chartered Accountant. He has also completed his Certified Public Accountancy (US).

Anandorup Ghose, Partner, Deloitte

Anant Goel, CEO & Co-Founder, Milkbasket

Anant Goel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Milkbasket, India’s first daily grocery delivery company. 

An entrepreneur at heart, Anant left his NRI life in the west to return to India with an objective to resolve real, daily user issues. He believes that opportunity lies in chaos and, if done right, new efficient models can be created in seemingly saturated industries too. Before founding Milkbasket in early 2015 with his friends Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Anant had the experience of running three ventures.

Anant has the vision to touch the lives of over a million households with Milkbasket’s micro-delivery model, which he believes, will redefine the online grocery delivery industry in India.

By 2023, Milkbasket aims to have the numero uno spot in the industry with over a billion dollars in annual turnover.

Anant started his entrepreneurial journey in 2011 with his first venture, Rungde, a painting services company. In 2012, he started Ursqft, a multi specialty real estate advisory, transaction and management firm which later diversified into real estate portal Zamoona. The knowledge of building this company lent itself significantly when he decided to enter and create the largest daily grocery delivery network in India with Milkbasket.

After receiving his B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from NIT Anant started his career with TATA Consultancy Services and went on to earn his MBA from INSEAD in 2004. Over the next decade, he consulted with Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 clients in strategy, supply chain, go-to-market, behavioural economics and technology domains across retail, financial services, automotive, lifestyle, manufacturing, real estate and new age technology industries in Asia, US & Europe. Apart from undertaking freelance assignments, Anant spent most of his management consulting career working with Capgemini Consulting in Chicago and later with Gallup Consulting in London.

Anant Gupta, Head-Financial Services, Google Cloud India

Anant Gupta leads the FSI cluster for Google Cloud in India and has extensive experience in the financial services sector especially in India and has co-led the Digital Operations and Finance Transformation practice for EY in India.

With over 22 years of experience and Anant has helped multiple Banks, NBFCs and Insurance firms in developing and implementing a wide range of strategic initiatives covering a wide range of topics including India entry strategies, new business build, distribution channel strategies, post-merger integration, business model innovation, organizational restructuring, operating model design and operational effectiveness, etc.

Anant Kharad, Director, TH Healthcare & Life Sciences, a division of TH Global Capital (formerly known as Technology Holdings)

Anant has over 11 years of Private Equity and M&A experience in the Healthcare and Life Sciences industry. At TH Healthcare & Life Sciences Anant leads the firm's M&A and private equity transactions for APAC and Middle East.

Anant Kharad, Vice President, TH Healthcare & Life Sciences

Anant has an experience of over 11 years in the healthcare and life sciences industry. In his previous role, Anant was leading investments for the Times Group focusing on healthcare, consumer and D2C brands. He has also worked at the healthcare practices of many boutique investment banks advising companies in PE and M&A transactions.

Anant Kochhar, Founder, Yippster Technologies

Anant is the co-founder of Yippster, an Indian operator billing startup. Yippster's mission is to usher in the future of operator billing, and to harness the full potential of this payment system for the growth of premium paid content and mobile apps ecosystem.

Anant was previously working in the field of cyber security for 6 years, mainly as a consultant with National Informatics Center(NIC). He dropped out from his engineering and math BS degree at New Mexico Tech, and is an autodidact.

Anant Kulkarni, Managing Partner, Milestone Religare Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd

Anant jointly leads the management of Milestone Religare and has more than 19 years of overall work experience of which around 17 years were in the financial services & the Indian PE & VC capital markets. In his earlier organization he was overseeing US$ 225 mn investments into sectors including manufacturing, auto components, life sciences, media and entertainment. Earlier to this he served at JM Financial as Executive Director, IL&FS Investment Managers, UTI Exchange & BOI Finance.

He is a B.E. Mechanical from PDA Engineering College, Gulbarga University, Karnataka, Executive Special Management Programme from IIM Calcutta.