Our speakers

Atul Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, Ozonetel

Atul Sharma, Cofounder & CTO, Ozonetel

Atul Tewari, COO, Quikr

Atul is COO at Quikr. He has over 17 years of strong operating experience in scaling organizations through talent acquisition, process & financial control and infrastructure. At Quikr, his responsibilities include Content-Operations, HR and Infrastructure. Prior to Quikr, Atul was working as CEO-India for Helix Advisors, which was acquired by BlackRock (NASDAQ BLK). As MD/COO for BlackRock, India, he was instrumental in growth of the organization from 100 to 700 people within a span of two years.  Before joining BlackRock, Atul set-up a global shared services center in India for CalibratedGroup, a private equity fund based out of Los Angeles.  The operation, scaled to 500 employees within a span of 3+years, before being acquired by one of the anchor clients. Prior to that, Atul was based in USA and worked in Sales/Business Development role in Media and Software Firms.

 

Atul has an MBA from Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve Univerity, Cleveland Ohio. He did his BTech from IIT Delhi.

Avani Davda, Managing Director, Godrej Nature's Basket

Avani Davda is the Managing Director of Godrej Nature’s Basket, India’s foremost retail destination for fine foods from across the world. She is a results driven, selfmotivated and resourceful leader. Her strengths lie in developing business strategy and ability to execute with a sharp focus on business sustainability – focusing on growth and profitability.

Avani was nominated as a Young Global Leader in 2014 by the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Also featured in Fortune US’s annual global list of “40 under 40 leaders” in 2013 and Fortune and Food & Wine’s list of “25 Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink” in 2014 – the only Indian woman on the list. Prior to her current role, she worked as Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Private Ltd., the 50/50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL). In a span of 3 years she has successfully led aggressive expansion of over 80 Starbucks stores across six key metros of India.

Before Tata Starbucks Private Ltd., she worked as Vice president in the office of Director, Tata Sons who oversaw consumer companies of the Tata Group: Tata Global Beverages, Taj Hotels, Infiniti Retail, Tata Housing and Tata Infrastructure and Realty. She worked closely on the strategic initiatives for TGBL and Infiniti Retail. She also played a pivotal role in the development of two joint ventures namely TGBL and PepsiCo India and also between Starbucks and TGBL in preparation for entry into the India market. She started her career with Tata Group as a recruit into the Group’s flagship leadership program ‘TAS’ (Tata Administrative Services). Following her training period in 2003 she joined The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (Taj Hotels), as Manager in the Business Development team. In 2006, she moved to Sales and Marketing, with the key responsibility of Taj Luxury Hotels in India and was promoted to General Manager-Marketing in 2007.

Avani holds a Masters degree in Management Studies from NMIMS and a Bachelors degree in Commerce with Honors (Advertising & Media) from H.R. College, University of Mumbai. Avani is based in Mumbai, India, and is married to Vishal Davda. They are proud parents of their nine year old son, Param. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and theatre.

Avani Saglani Davda, Managing Director, Godrej Nature’s Basket

Ms. Avani Davda is the Managing Director of Godrej Nature’s Basket. Ms. Davda was nominated as a Young Global Leader in 2014 by the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Also featured in Fortune US’s annual global list of ‘40 under 40 leaders’ in 2013 and Fortune and Food & Wine’s list of ‘25 Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink’ in 2014 – the only Indian woman on the list. Prior to her current role, she worked as Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Private Ltd. In a span of 3 years she has successfully led aggressive expansion of over 80 Starbucks stores across six key metros of India. Before Tata Starbucks Private Ltd., she worked as Vice president in the office of Director, Tata Sons who oversaw consumer companies of the Tata Group: Tata Global Beverages, Taj Hotels, Infiniti Retail, Tata Housing and Tata Infrastructure and Realty. Ms. Davda has worked closely on the strategic initiatives for TGBL and Infiniti Retail. She also played a pivotal role in the development of two joint ventures namely TGBL and PepsiCo India and also between Starbucks and TGBL in preparation for entry into the India market. Ms. Davda started her career with Tata Group as a recruit into the Group’s flagship leadership program ‘TAS’. Ms. Davda holds a Master’s degree in Management Studies from NMIMS and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce with Honors (Advertising & Media) from H.R. College, University of Mumbai.

Avani Saglani Davda, CEO, Tata Starbucks Ltd

Avani Saglani Davda is the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Limited, the 50/50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages Limited. In this role, Avani will provide overall strategic direction and leadership to the joint venture in India.

Avani, who has worked for the Tata companies for more than ten years, joined the Tata Group as a TAS (Tata Administrative Service) probationer in 2002. Most recently, she worked in the Vice Chairman’s office for Tata Global Beverages, where she was responsible for driving and facilitating key strategies and initiatives for the company as well as Marketing and Business Development assignments. She also played a pivotal role in the development of the joint venture relationship between the two companies in preparation for entry into the India market.

Avani holds a Masters degree in Management Studies from NMIMS, University of Mumbai and Bachelor degree in Commerce with Honors in Advertising & Media from H.R. College, University of Mumbai.

Avani is based in Mumbai, India, and is married with a son. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and cruises.

Avanish Tripathi, CISO, Pay with Ring

Avijit Nanda, CEO, TimesofMoney

Avijit Nanda is the Chief Executive Officer - TimesofMoney, which is the leading digital payment service provider catering to a diverse base of clients, individuals and companies across the globe. It provides a wide spectrum of offerings including retail online remittances, specialized NRI services, a managed white-label remittance platform & ecommerce payment solutions. Avijit heads the company operations with a prime focus to build and scale the business globally.

In November 2012, he was instrumental in leading the strategic divestment of TimesofMoney to Network International, the largest acquirer and one of the leading payment solutions providers in the Middle East.

With over 17 years of experience, prior to TimesofMoney he has worked with HSBC & ICICI Bank in their Wholesale, Consumer Banking & International Banking divisions respectively. While at HSBC he was responsible for scaling up the bank’s consumer assets and payment business. At ICICI he was responsible for setting up the Assets Origination franchise across key global markets along with key alliances to drive cross border payments and remittances.

Avijit is on the Advisory Board of IAMTN (International Association of Money Transfer Networks), an active member of PIF (Prepaid International Forum) India and has been a global representative of the World Bank and G8's Private Public Partnership Steering Group. An MBA by qualification, he spends his leisure time playing cricket. An ardent lover of music, he also loves traveling and exploring new destinations.

Avinash Godkhindi, MD & CEO, Zaggle

Avinash Godkhindi is an International FinTech &Payments Leader with over a decade and half years of experience in 12 countries across 5 continents. Avinash has worked in leadership roles in Digital Payments, FinTech and Cash Management businesses in Product, Sales, Marketing, Strategy, Technology and Operations roles with banks like Citibank, Barclays & ING Bank and FinTech companies like Zaggle, Misys & NIIT Technologies.

Avinash  has been the CEO of Zaggle for the past 8 years and focusses on  Business Development. Growth and new opportunities, Banking and Network partnerships, Go to Market Strategy and Operations. Prior to Zaggle, Avinash launched and ran the Citibank PremierMiles credit card in India as the Product Head for PremierMiles.  

Avinash has done his Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University and MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Avinash’s interests include a variety of sports, reading, music, current affairs, travelling, running and spending time with family & friends!

Avinash Mishra, Portfolio Manager-Education, Acumen | @Acumen

Avinash is a Portfolio Manager with Acumen India, where he leads Acumen’s investments in both the Education and Agriculture sector portfolios. He has been with Acumen for over two years and also serves as a Director on the Boards of various Acumen education investees including Ignis Careers, Vikalp and Seed Education. Over the past four years, Acumen has invested over USD 4.6 million in six innovative impact enterprises operating in the education space in India.

Avinash has over 4 years’ of hands on experience in the Indian education space and has been an active thought leader. He’s written a number of articles and spoken at numerous education conferences and summits, such as the 3rd India Education Entrepreneurship Day organized by TiE; USAID Read Connect 2015; 2015 India Education Conference; and the NSDC Bi-Annual Partner Meet.

Prior to joining Acumen, Avinash co-founded TAO Education, a Delhi-based education technology start-up that built an online learning platform for K-10 students. Earlier, he worked with the Citibank Corporate and Investment Banking team as a relationship manager for top MNC clients. Avinash holds a MBA from FMS, University of Delhi and a BE (Electronics and Communications) from NSIT, University of Delhi.