Our speakers

DA Prasad, CEO & Director, Abhay Cotex Pvt. Ltd

Daljit Mirchandani, Founder, Gyan Prakash Foundation

Daljit L Mirchandani's career has spanned 40 years in the Corporate world covering diversified businesses. During this period he worked with State and National Level Committees to influence policy changes in the field of infrastructure and post-harvest technologies for perishables.

He retired as the Chairman of Ingersoll-Rand Ltd in 2008. At present he is on the Statutory and Advisory Board of various Indian and MNC companies in the field of bio fuels, water, infrastructure development, infrastructure finance , auto components and energy management.

In 2012 in partnership with the Sarva Shikhsha Abhayan, the flagship project of the Government of India, and NGO partners, he embarked on  the development of a replicable and sustainable “Social Change Model" in education to improve Enrollment, Retention and Learning levels in Zilla Parishad schools in Maharashtra  .

Dalveer Singh, Head Experiential Marketing - APAC, Dialogue Factory

His journey from having being born in a small village in Haryana – India; to having worked in major cities of the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia, gives Dalveer Singh an edge when it comes to understanding the dynamics of the emerging markets. The fusion of culture and the contemporary clearly reflects in his ideas and solutions.

It is his extensive travel across the length and breadth of India and other parts of the world that fuels his comprehensive knowledge on emerging markets and drives his ability to come up with deeper consumer insights.

He has been a pioneer in successfully implementing and replicating the Indian model on Rural & Low Income Consumer Marketing in 10 other emerging markets including the sub-continent (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Morocco, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and South America (Brazil, Mexico & Argentina). This makes Dalveer the one single name today that clients identify with to reach the growing segment of consumers in the emerging markets.

After having served at leadership positions across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia at agencies like Ogilvy Action, 141 Worldwide and at Reliance ADAG, Dalveer channeled his expertise to successfully set up Dialogue Factory – a GroupM experiential marketing agency aimed at breaking market clutter through Talkability, Word-of-Mouth and Brand Advocacy. Here he has been creating memorable brand experiences for consumers and building business for some of the high-profile clients like Unilever, Colgate, L’Oreal, Pepsi, Lenovo, Dell, Citibank, HSBC, American Express, Castrol, Flipkart, Titan, Kellogg’s and Google by helping them create stronger consumer connect across geographies.

By challenging the traditional and breaking conventions over the last two decades, Dalveer has turned many a start-ups into stars across business categories. In his eventful career, of which he has spent 16 years with WPP, Dalveer has garnered glory at various Advertising & Marketing award shows for his strategic acumen and path-breaking work.

Apart from marketing, exploring new places and learning from life is Dalveer’s raison d'etre.

@dalveers

Daman Soni, Business Head, LINE - India

At LINE, Daman is responsible for strategic partnerships, marketing and developing unique offerings for the Indian market for the LINE suite of apps. Daman is based in Gurgaon.

Previously as a Cofounder at PK Online Ventures, Daman successfully led the company to create unique services in digital content & marketing. He headed the Adchakra Ad Network and made its presence felt by developing partnerships with leading brands and extending its reach to over 60% of the Indian audience online with its cross channel ad network. His responsibilities included managing the P&L, strategy, business development and creating a world class operations team.

Over the past decade, Daman has worked in UK and USA and led functions like Strategy, Sales, and new product development. Earlier he headed Telecoms Business Development for Infosys in UK. He also headed sales in North Indian states for Nokia and cofounded a company in the education space.

Daman has an MBA from ISB Hyderabad and has done his Engineering from NIT Rourkela. He is a basketball player, a gadget freak and an avid reader.

Damandeep Singh Soni, Head of India Business Development, LINE Corp

At LINE, Daman is responsible for strategic partnerships, marketing and developing unique offerings for the Indian market for the LINE suite of apps. Daman is based in Gurgaon.

Previously as a Cofounder at PK Online Ventures, Daman successfully led the company to create unique services in digital content & marketing. He headed the Adchakra Ad Network and made its presence felt by developing partnerships with leading brands and extending its reach to over 60% of the Indian audience online with its cross channel ad network. His responsibilities included managing the P&L, strategy, business development and creating a world class operations team.

Over the past decade, Daman has worked in UK and USA and led functions like Strategy, Sales, and new product development. Earlier he headed Telecoms Business Development for Infosys in UK. He also headed sales in North Indian states for Nokia and cofounded a company in the education space.

Daman has an MBA from ISB Hyderabad and has done his Engineering from NIT Rourkela. He is a basketball player, a gadget freak and an avid reader.

Daniel Brunelli Brondex, Country Head India, Fives Group

Daniel is the Country Head India for FIVES, an engineering group who supplies process equipment for MNE, including some of India's leading industrial companies. He is a member of the executive committee since 2003.

Daniel joined FIVES in 1991 and has 20 years experience as managing director of a number of companies located in 12 countries and as head of business units. As part of his experience, he has worked in a number of cross border acquisitions.

Since 2014, Daniel is responsible for the corporate management of Indian companies and the business development of FIVES, including business acquisition of Indian companies.
Daniel holds an engineering degree from INSA Lyon and a MBA from EM Lyon - France

Daniel dos Reis, Head of imvestments, Wamda capital

Daniel is an experienced Venture Capitalist with 19 years in the technology sector. As Investment Director at Wamda Capital, he manages early-stage investments in the MENA region for one of the region's leading early-stage Venture Capital firms. Previously, Daniel led the investment unit Dtec Ventures of the Freezone Authority Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) and directed the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) in Saudi Arabia. He holds a Diplom from the University of Hamburg.

Daniel Hand, Chief Technology Officer, APAC, Cloudera

Danny Wettreich, Chairman & CEO, GreenBank Capital Inc

Danny Wettreich is Chairman and CEO of GreenBank Capital Inc and of its subsidiary GreenCoinX. GreenBank is a Canadian public company which has developed the world’s first cryptocurrency requiring user identification. GreenCoinX meets the same “Know Your Customer” identification standards as the banking community, and makes the promise of cryptocurrency a reality by alleviating concerns that crooks and terrorists can use cryptocurrency to hide their activities. GreenBank’s other subsidiary GreenBank Financial Inc. is a licensed Canadian investment bank. Danny is also Chairman and director of five publicly listed natural resource companies in Canada. He has been CEO of Churchill Venture Capital LP, a Dallas, Texas private equity business, for more than 25 years.  He has been a director of public companies listed on NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange, and the Vancouver Stock Exchange, a predecessor to the TSX Venture Exchange. These public companies have been in diverse businesses in internet technologies, oil and gas, retailing, telecommunications, media, and real estate. He has facilitated 13 reverse takeover transactions of public companies in Canada, the USA and England. He is a graduate of the University of Westminster with a BA in Business.

@dannywettreich

Darius D. Pandole, Partner, New Silk Route Advisors

Darius joined New Silk Route Advisors at its inception in February 2007 and focuses on private equity opportunities in the Indian sub-continent out of the Mumbai office.

Darius previously worked at IDFC PE Ltd. which he joined in February 2003. Darius was the Executive Director, and later Chief Operating Officer of this asset management company that managed the India Development Fund, an infrastructure focused private equity fund. While at IDFC PE, Darius participated as a Director on the Boards of portfolio companies and also represented the firm in interactions with regulatory authorities and at industry forums, such as the SEBI, IVCA, etc.

In February 1999, Darius co-founded and served as Managing Director of IndAsia Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd., the Indian advisor to the AMP-IndAsia India Fund – a private equity fund established in partnership with AMP of Australia. Whilst establishing this fund, he completed numerous successful private equity investments in the Information Technology, Telecom and Media sectors on a “club basis”. Prior to this, in 1997, Darius joined the investment team at the IndOcean Fund, amongst the first private equity funds to be established in India. As a principal at this Fund, he was involved in evaluating potential investment proposals and in working with portfolio companies.

Darius has a BA (Economics) from Harvard and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a frequent speaker at venture capital industry forums in India.