Our speakers

Ashwini Vittalachar, Partner, Samvad Partners

Ashwini Vittalachar is a Partner at Samv?d: Partners, and has been instrumental in the establishment of the New Delhi office of the Firm. Ashwini works extensively on private equity and venture capital transactions; as well as M&A and joint ventures. Recently, she has advised on several transactions in the e-commerce sector; the clients being both investors / VC funds, as well as the target companies / promoters. Her expertise extends not just to deal negotiations, but also to general corporate / commercial and advisory matters as well as employment law. The breadth of her expertise helps her provide a full range of services to her clients, and tackle complex issues with a holistic perspective.

Ashwini completed BA-LLB in Bangalore, India and obtained a masters in law (LL.M), at the Law School, University of Chicago, USA. She has authored articles on several topics at national and international fora, including on private equity and employment laws. In addition to being a partner at Samv?d: Partners, she has taught elective courses on ‘Private Equity & Venture Capital Transactions in India’, at the O.P. Jindal Global Law School. ‘Ashwini is singled out by clients for her "communication skills, quick understanding of key business issues, and negotiating ability." She has acted on several mandates for clients in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors of late.’ (Chambers 2014 and 2015).

Ashwyn Misra, Partner, Trilegal

Ashwyn Misra is a Partner at Trilegal, and is a part of the corporate practice group. He primarily focusses on entry strategies, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, private equity and fund formations.

Ashwyn has a wide experience in transactions in various sectors in India and advises clients on all aspects, including structuring advice from an Indian legal and regulatory perspective impacting entry and exit strategies, due diligence, documentation and negotiations, partnerships, inbound and outbound investments, both strategic cross-border as well as financial, mergers and joint ventures.

Ashwyn has advised multinational corporates like Macquarie Group, Publicis Groupe, Engie, JP Morgan, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Standard Chartered Bank, Bando Chemical Industries Ltd, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group, Assa Abloy Group, Citibank, Goldman Sachs., M3 Inc., Groupe PSA, Daido Steel, Stripe Inc., Asahi Tec Corporation, Vesuvius, Tadano Ltd., Olympus Capital Asia Credit, Tree Line Investment Management and Hitachi.

Some of the domestic companies he has advised include Godrej Industries, Reliance Energy, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, JSW Steel, Crompton Greaves, Rare Enterprises, Reliance Capital, Shriram Group, Raheja Group, Future Group, Faering Capital, Emaar MGF, Wadhwa Group, Paysense, Alchemy Capital Management, PhillipCapital, Artha Property (part of Bennett & Coleman Group) and Sun Area Property Partners.

Ashwyn is an alumnus of Government Law College, Mumbai. He is a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, India.

Asif Merchant, MD, Catwalk Worldwide

Asif Merchant is the Managing Director of Catwalk Worldwide since inception. With focus on product design and development he anchors retail & strategic planning for the business. With 30 years of experience in Indian footwear industry he governs designing, developing & implementing of all strategic plans for the organisation.

Asim Dalal, Managing Director, The Bombay Store

Asit B. Shah, Founder & President, Metro Wireless Engineering

Asit B Shah has done his MBA with Master of Information Technology and Telecommunication from the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. He also possesses Bachelor Degree in Electronics and Communication from DDIT, Gujarat University.

Prior to launching of a Global telecom company Mr. Shah had been associated with Singapore Telecom where he has held various challenging positions for 10 years. His excellent management skills have given him various opportunities in to Telecom field. He has also worked with Telstra to start his career in Wireless field.

Asit Kumar, CHRO, Lendingkart

Asit Oberoi, Group President & Chief Operating Officer, YES BANK

Asit Oberoi is the Group President & Chief Operating Officer at YES BANK. He is responsible for overall operations and service delivery including policy framework for the Corporate Bank and Financial Markets products across all channels - including Branch Service Delivery and National Operating Centers. Asit is responsible for the management of the Policy framework and its related matters, operational risk and bank-wide Quality Assurance. Asit also leads Cash Management Sales and Product at Yes Bank.

At YES BANK, Asit is involved in creating the significantly important total Service proposition at the branch level, and works closely with all the Business Heads, to provide the necessary touch points and enhance and offer a superior customer experience at YES BANK.

Asit is a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai and a Chartered Accountant. He brings with him over 20 years of experience in Banking & Financial services industry spanning across Fidelity International, Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank & Bank of America. He has General management experience which includes leading teams in a range of Finance & Operations functions. He also has experience in new business set ups.

Asit Oberoi, Group President & Global Head, Transaction Banking, Yes Bank

Asit Oberoi is Group President & Global Head for Transaction Banking Group at YES BANK. He heads the Product and Sales streams across all Transaction Banking Products in the Bank. Additionally he is also responsible for the Corporate Current Account offerings of the bank. In his role he engages extensively with corporate clients across all business segments Pan India.

Under the product management gamut, he is the chief sponsor of all the Digitization efforts in the B2B and B2B2C Segments including creating cross sell across the value chain. The roll out of innovative products and customized solutions is a special area of interest.

Under his leader YES BANK has won many awards from leading global agencies including from ‘The Banker’- London, Global Finance London, Asian Banker and from Indian agencies like ‘The Banking Frontier - Finnoviti Awards and Skoch. Asit is responsible for the management of the Policy framework and its related matters, operational risk and Information risk management across his functions.

Asit is a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai and a Chartered Accountant. He brings with him over 20 years of experience in Banking & Financial services industry spanning across Fidelity International, Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank & Bank of America. He has General management experience which includes leading teams in a range of Finance & Operations functions. He also has experience in new business set ups. He is regularly invited to speak at various national and international forums related to Banking products, innovation & technology.

Aspy Engineer, President & Country Head - ATM Management & Currency Chest, YES BANK

Aspy Engineer is the President & Country Head - ATM Management & Currency Chest at YES BANK. He is responsible for conceptualizing and successfully implementing industry defining direct banking initiatives, reinforcing technology as a key pillar of YES BANK’s growth story.

He brings with him over 20 years of experience in the Banking & Financial services sector. Prior to joining YES BANK, he was the Senior Vice President - Special Relationships at Axis Bank. Before that , he was the Head - Alternate Channels Group. He was responsible for initiatives related to setting up over 7000 ATMs, as well as the operations and management of the entire ATM network at Axis Bank. Besides the above, he was also instrumental for the launch and implementation of Mobile Banking Services, Internet Banking Services and the Corporate Website. He was also responsible for launching Axis Bank’s wide suite of mobile banking products.

He is a BCom graduate, and has a Masters in Marketing Management (MMM ) from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai University.

Asutosh Upadhyay, Head - Programs, Axilor Ventures

Asutosh leads Programs at Axilor.

Asutosh is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka. With nearly 13 years of experience, Asutosh has worked across several industries and industry verticals with deep exposure to Digital Payments, Telecom and Digital Media. He started his career at TVS Motor Company and then started his entrepreneurial journey, and did two startups, which were in the HR services and Gaming space. Subsequently he worked with OnMobile Global in product and marketing roles. In his last assignment, he was heading product and marketing for a digital payments company called TranServ (Udio) . He was responsible for product roadmap and business growth for TranServ’s fintech business. He was instrumental in setting up Udio's consumer business during his stint. Having handled multiple roles across varied domains and functions, he brings in an eclectic mix of skills and experiences which would be ideal for early stage companies.