Speakers | Events and Training

VS Kannan Sitaram, Partner, Fireside Ventures

VSS Mani, Founder& MD, Just Dial

V.S.S. Mani, Founder and Managing Director, Just Dial Private Limited, is a first generation entrepreneur. A strong visionary and an experienced management professional, he revolutionized the process of searching for information by allowing people to pick up the telephone and call for instant access to a huge database of information.

Mani started Just Dial with some borrowed furniture, rented PCs, a 3x5 feet garage on hire, a seed capital of Rs 50,000, and a dream! Today JustDial describes itself as India’s no.1 local search destination. The company caters to over 57 million unique users. It is accessible from across 2000 towns and cities in India on phone. JustDial employs a 4000 strong work force and has more than 1,35,000 paid advertisers.

VT Bharadwaj , Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India

VT Bharadwaj is a managing director with Sequoia Capital, and is on the boards of Vasan, Prataap Snacks, Lovable, Celon Labs and Genesis Colors. At Sequoia Capital, he spearheads investments in Consumer, Retail and Healthcare sectors. He was previously associated with McKinsey & Company where he advised senior management in energy, consumer, retail and manufacturing companies on key strategic and operational issues.

He is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad where he was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal and an alumnus of BITS Pilani.

@vtbharadwaj

Vyapak Desai, Senior Attorney | Arbitrator | Lead - International Disputes & Investigations, Nishith Desai Associates

Wallace Guo, Managing Partner, Taihecap (TH Capital)

Wallace Guo is a Managing Partner at Taihecap (TH Capital), focusing on technology, automotive, logistics and enterprise services sectors. He is also in charge of emerging market business, focusing on consumption, logistics and finance sectors. He is responsible for the deal closing in Guazi.com (largest used-car platform), with a total of over US$3 billion in financing since 2016.

As a well-recognized investment banker, Mr.Guo has led top deals including Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD, pioneer of new e-commerce), G7 (Leading intelligent IOT company mainly serving logistics industry), Manbang (Largest freight service provider to maximize the power of big data to improve logistics efficiency), Renrendai (Pioneer of personal financial platform)? ShareChat (India’s largest regional social network), Kuaidi Dache (One of the top two taxihailing apps, merged with Didi in 2015), Aihuishou (Largest platform for recycling and selling second-hand electronic items), Horizon Robotics (Pioneer in AI edge computing for smart mobility), Lixiang Automotive (Leading new energy intelligent vehicle manufacturer), and Xiaozhu.com (Leading short-term rental and home sharing platform)?which are all top leading players in new economy.

Prior to this, he worked in KPMG's Financial Advisory, participating in the investment and M&A transactions of international funds and large foreign-funded enterprises in China. He also served in Accenture, providing Fortune 500 companies with business and strategic advisory
services.

Mr.Guo was honored “Fortune's 2018 40 Under 40” in China, an annual selection of the most influential young people in business. He became the only investment banker on the list.

Waqar Azmi, Founder & CEO, SutraHR

Waqar Azmi is the Founder & CEO of SutraHR, one of Asia's top exec search firms specializing in startup recruitment. Working with 1000+ new age startups in India, SutraHR is known to place a candidate every 12 hours. With the growing demand for HR solutions, Waqar went on to partner with Jay Thakker and co-founded sumHR, a cloud-based HR & Payroll software. Providing HR & Payroll solutions to 360+ customers across India. Waqar leads a team of over 170 professionals, exercising in a holistic HR Management Solutions. One of his recent ventures includes Mumbai Coworking, a unique and quirky coworking space in Andheri West. This shared workspace is created and designed by Waqar himself.

His entrepreneurial strike got him to start his journey into the business world at an adolescent age of 11, and there was no stopping after. He's been featured for his thought leadership in the HR domain by BBC, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC, ET NOW, Hindustan Times, Bloomberg, News Asia, Economic Times, YourStory, Inc magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine. Also, been a facilitator and guest lecturer in India's Top B Schools.

Most people recognise him as a successful entrepreneur, undaunted bootstrapper, nonstop hustler, an adventurous traveller, food junkie and passionate dreamer.

Weibo Xiong, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Advisors

Weibo Xiong is a Senior Vice President of Portfolio Advisors. Weibo joined Portfolio Advisors in 2013 and primarily supports Portfolio Advisors’ primary and secondary investment activities in Asia. Previously, he was a Manager in the UOB Investment Management Division’s alternative investment fund-of-funds advisory business where he had worked with Portfolio Advisors since 2010 through a joint-venture, Asia Select Management, Ltd. He graduated from Singapore Management University with a double degree in Economics and Business Management and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Will Poole, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Unitus Seed Fund

Will Poole is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor, focused on improving ecosystems that bring social and economic opportunity to low-income populations. In 2012, he co-founded Unitus Seed Fund, now the leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses in India. In 2015, Will co-founded Capria Accelerator, the first global accelerator for impact VCs. Unitus Seed Fund is an affiliate of Unitus Group, a premier financial services group operating in India and other emerging markets since 2000.

Will co-founded Bangalore-based Vidyanext, whose mission is to change the way India learns. He is active in Social Venture Partners Seattle’s initiatives around social entrepreneurship including founding SVP Fast Pitch, and he co-founded SVP Bangalore. He serves on the investment committee of the W-Fund and on the board of Village Reach. Will was previously Chairman of NComputing, a leader in low-cost, low-energy computing, and a corporate vice president at Microsoft where he led several global businesses, including Windows. His career started by founding two startups at the dawn of the PC era, working in the early days at Sun Microsystems, and pioneering e-commerce at eShop which was acquired by Microsoft in 1996. Will is passionate about education from early learning to higher ed, where he advises Western Governors University and Brown University on technology and is a Trustee of Pinchot (formerly Bainbridge Graduate Institute). Will received a degree in Computer Science from Brown University.

Xavier Kurian, Director Solutions and Alliances, India, Dell Technologies

Xavier is the owner for key growth verticals including Bid-Data, Cloud, HPC and VDI among others. He is also responsible for ISV & Strategic Alliances and evangelizing the broad Dell EMC Portfolio of products and solutions

”Xavier has over 16 years of experience in the IT industry, with skills spanning across enterprise architecture, data center design and optimization, consulting, and building Technologist teams, he also has in-depth knowledge with respect to the Indian enterprise Market and trends across the Industry.

His experience spans working with customers in multiple regions and in various market segments including RISC Platforms and Security. He carries multiple industry certifications with regard to administration, process, and design of enterprise infrastructure.

Currently as Director of Enterprise Solution and Alliances he is the owner for key growth verticals including Bid-Data, Cloud, HPC and VDI among others. He is also responsible for Strategic Alliances and evangelizing Dell’s solutions and portfolio across the broad Dell EMC Portfolio of products and solutions.

Xavier is also an avid Scuba diver exploring sunken wrecks and underwater cave systems.

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