Our speakers

Unmesh Pawar, Managing Director Human Resources, Accenture

An International HR Leader with a track record of exceptional transformational results across businesses and geographies. In his over two decades of experience he has been a catalyst who thrives in unleashing the human potential in transforming organizations.

Unmesh has successfully built and led high performing internationally dispersed HR leadership teams to help achieve business outcomes. In Accenture, he has helped businesses build differentiated capabilities in the marketplace through designing and implementing innovative people practices on a global scale.

Unmesh has a passion for teaching and coaching leaders.

Upal Basu, MD, Nokia Growth Partners

Upal brings more 18 years of technology and telecom experience both as an entrepreneur and strategy consultant. As Founder and CEO of Mformation Technologies, Upal helped establish the company as the leading Mobile Device Management software provider.

Prior to mFormation, he was a strategic management consultant for McKinsey & Company in New York and London where he advised clients on major acquisitions, new market entry strategies, and the creation of new businesses. Prior to joining McKinsey, Upal led Product Management activities for Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a leading provider of software technologies for the management of insurance risks. Upal has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Engineering from Stanford University, and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Imperial College, London. Upal is based in India.

Upasana Taku, Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer, MobiKwik

Upasana Rupkrishan Taku is the Chairperson of our Board, Executive Director, Co-Founder and COO of our Group. She co-founded MobiKwik with a vision to transform the digital payments landscape in India, which was close to nil when we started in 2009. She believes that the India Fintech opportunity will be at least 1TN$ by 2025 and that MobiKwik will be a significant part of it.

Upasana is our Closer who loves getting Deals/Projects done in record time while running a tight ship. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Punjab Technical University and a Master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She has 17+ years of experience in product, payments and financial services. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, she worked as a Product Manager at PayPal, San Jose in the Financial Services, Global Payments and Risk divisions. She also had a stint with HSBC, San Diego working in the Product team of their auto finance division.

She has always been passionate about creating an impact at the grassroot levels, which brought her back to India from US in 2008. Her hard work and desire to serve the community have made her an inspirational figure who has been recognized many times as one of India’s leading Tech founders.

In 2018, she was felicitated by the President of India as the First woman to lead a Payments Startup. In 2019, she was featured in Forbes Asia's Power Businesswomen list of 25 accomplished women shaping Asia’s business landscape. She was featured in the Kotak Wealth Hurun – Leading Wealthy Women List 2020, ranked as the 12th richest self-made woman in India.

Upasana Taku, Co-founder, MobiKwik | @MobiKwik

Upasana’s mission is to simplify payment acceptance for retailers in India. Her current focus is to bring a million retailers into the MobiKwik payments network. She is also in charge of bank partnerships, business operations, and talent acquisition at MobiKwik. Upasana comes with a strong background in payments as a senior product manager with PayPal in the Silicon Valley and prior to that with HSBC in San Diego, US.

In 2008, Upasana decided to return to India and contribute to the ecosystem back home. The year after she joined MobiKwik as its co-founder. From a handful of early employees to a headcount of around 250, Upasana has been chiefly responsible for holding things together at MobiKwik, keeping the team focused on the goal of building India’s largest independent mobile payments network.

Upasana graduated with Bachelors in Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and holds a Masters in Management Science from Stanford University. She has 13 years of extensive experience in Payments & Financial Services and has been an entrepreneur in India for over 6 years now. Away from web products and startups, Upasana can be found traveling to offbeat destinations or doing triathlons. Acknowledging her achievements in the tech startup ecosystem of India she was featured by Forbes under "Asia's Women to Watch in 2016".

@UpasanaTaku

Upen Rai, Co-Founder & MD, Fork Media

Upen has over 25 years of extensive experience in General Management, Sales & Marketing in the Broadcast Media , Digital , Mobile, commerce & information technology industry.

 

As Head of Revenue at Times Internet had successfully monetized new verticals, ~ mobile, Music ( Gaana) and sports - IPL. Upen was instrumental in Launching Zoom TV ~ Lifestyle channel for Bennett Coleman.

 

Has had vast experience in international media firms like ~ Walt Disney, ESPN, Newsweek, Pan McMillan to Zee Network & The Times of India group. Upen was key member of the Zee TV take over team of TV Asia in UK and part of due diligence team at Walt Disney for establishing India's first subscription channel ESPN. He represented MaCmillan UK to the UGC (University Grants Commission) to establish Mac College series as selected text books at under grad levels across the country.

 

Established Times Venture Partners as a start up fund for Times Internet to invest in early stage start ups and series A' funding. Upen has held various positions in these companies the last being Director & Business Head Sales at Times Internet ltd.

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