World Renowned Faculties

Sonalika Dhar, Associate Director, Private Equity Group, KPMG

Sonalika has over 8 years of experience across Investment Banking and Financial Sponsor Coverage within IB. At KPMG, she is responsible for managing relationships and engaging with financial sponsors and their portfolio companies. She has worked on facilitating fund investments into private companies,fund investments through QIPs and exits through the IPO and open market route.

Sorabh Kataria, Executive Director, Ernst & Young India

Sorabh is an Executive Director in the Valuation and Business Modelling Group in  EY Mumbai. The group provides valuation and modelling assistance to a broad range of clients through building new models or reviewing existing models.  Sorabh has been extensively involved in helping his clients navigate the transaction cycle. HIs experience across both the private sector and advisory role has given him invaluable insights into the valuation and find raising cycle.

His previous role was with EY Australia where he spent 8 years providing decision support, valuation and transaction services to some of Australia’s largest businesses and technology companies.

Prior to joining Ernst & Young Sydney in Jan 2007, Sorabh worked for General Electric  for over ten years. In his years of GE experience, Sorabh has done  a number of  roles across the d Capital units roles in Finance, Integration , Risk, Quality and Operations.

Sorabh is a six Sigma quality black belt and an engineer and MBA (FMS ) by education.

Sreenivasulu (Srini) Vudayagiri, Director, Peepul Capital Advisors

Srini Vudayagiri is partner director at Peepul Capital which is a private equity platform with about US$700 million under management. Peepul Capital is a growth-focused private equity platform with more than 40 investments across consumer services, consumer products, healthcare, financial services, media and entertainment and technology.

Being among the early entrants into Indian private equity industry, Srini started his private equity career as part of founding team of ACTIS India (then known as Commonwealth Development Corporation). Over the last 20 years in the industry, Srini played a key role at Intel Capital (as partner of South Asian operations), Thomas Weisel International (as founding head of Indian operations) and Lightspeed Ventures (as founding Managing Director of Indian operations).

As an active investor, Srini has been involved in investing close to $300 million across 15 companies. He was instrumental in identifying, making and managing some of the early PE investments in sectors like education, power and financial services. Srini currently serves on the boards of Motherhood Hospitals, Vishal Personal Care, Unibic Cookies and VSoft. In the past, he has invested and served on the boards of BPL Cellular, Lanco Power, First Leasing, Career Launcher, Netkraft and Accel Frontline among others. He played a key role in value creation in his investments by his contributions in areas of global expansion, long term strategy, mergers & acquisitions, senior talent recruitment and public market listings.

Srini has been actively involved in supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India as TiE Charter Member, IIMA CIIE advisor and CII-NVI steering committee member. Srini is an active mentor and angel investor in select companies across e-commerce, healthcare, education and cleantech.

Srini has MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, BS (engineering) from NIT Surathkal and is a CFA.

Sridhar Ramachandran, Partner, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP

Sridhar has over 24 years post qualification experience in tax and regulatory matters. A significant part of his career was spent in Delhi where he gained expertise in dealing with complex and varied tax and regulatory matters of multinational corporations. He shifted to Chennai in 2006 and prior to joining the Firm, ran a boutique consulting firm which specialized in tax, regulatory and M&A functions.

Sridhar is a tax partner in Grant Thornton LLP where he is responsible for the tax practice of Chennai and Kochi offices. He also responsible for the Transaction Tax practice of the firm for South India. Some of his key experiences include:

• Assistance in planning and execution of very large investments in India in the Special Economic Zones/ Free Trade Zone Models.
• Assistance in structuring foreign direct investments in various sectors including Special Economic Zones, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trading, e-commerce, financial services, infrastructure, real estate etc. in a tax efficient and regulatory compliant manner.
• Assistance in setting up business entities in India for various businesses in Company, partnership and LLP forms, including in Special Economic Zones (sector specific, free trade zones or multi product/ service units) or domestic units.
• Assistance in setting up offices abroad, making overseas investments and structuring acquisitions

Sridhar is a regular speaker at forums across India, including the ICAI, ICSI and various trade/professional bodies where he speaks on foreign direct investment policy, exchange control law, special economic zones and income-tax law. He has contributed to Policy making on the Special Economic Zone laws across state and central government agencies.

He is the author of a book on Exchange Control Law in India published by Bloomsbury.

Srividya Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director, Valuation Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps Singapore Pte Ltd

Srividya is the managing director of Duff & Phelps Singapore Pte Ltd. She set up American Appraisal Singapore operations in 2012, which later got acquired by Duff & Phelps, the largest global independent valuation advisory firm.

She provides a range of services relating to valuation, transaction consulting and related advisory services. She has over 18 years of experience in valuations, M&A, corporate finance, corporate strategy and management consulting. She has advised numerous companies on valuations for the purposes of transaction, restructuring, financial reporting, dispute resolution and financing.

Prior to joining American Appraisal, Srividya was the Partner and Practice Leader – Valuations at Grant Thornton India. She established their valuation practice in 2004. Under her leadership, the practice grew to one of the largest, at a national level. Srividya has also worked with Baring Communications Equity Asia (BCEA), a private equity fund in Singapore, part of the ING-Barings group and with A.F. Ferguson & Co (part of Deloitte) earlier in her career.

Srividya has advised several global and Asian clients including Oracle, Berkshire Hathway Group, Crowncork, Carlyle, OCBC, Advent, Wipro, Genpact, WNS, Dr. Reddys Labs, Biocon, Statschippac, Ford, Arvin Merritor, Nippon Express, Marubeni Itochu, First Pacific, Heineken, Cairn Energy, Vedanta Group, FMCG etc across a variety of sectors such as technology, life sciences, manufacturing, energy & resources etc.

Srividya has published various articles on valuation, PE/VC and M&A, and has been interviewed by several television channels, newspapers and magazines. She is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars.

Srividya is a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (equivalent to MBA). She is also a Graduate of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and has a Bachelor of Commerce.

Subashini R, Partner – PE, M&A Banking and Finance, ALMT Legal

Subashini is a partner in the corporate-commercial practice of the firm. Her areas of specialization at ALMT Legal include corporate transactional work such as equity and debt funding and other advisory work involving foreign investment, foreign exchange, company law, securities law and other economic legislations.As a part of the core team of the firm engaged in banking and project finance, she has advised banks and acted on behalf of the consortium of lenders in project finance transactions for infrastructure projects. She has vast experience in structuring and strategizing to achieve commercial objectives within the framework of Indian laws and in drafting business contracts for sale, supply, distribution, licensing, procurement and agreements with agent/contractor/technical personnel, contract manufacturing and other business requirements. She also has advised securities market intermediaries on SEBI regulations and various securities laws in India.

She has advised on FDI in an Indian sugar refinery and drafted commercial contracts between the parties.She has also acted as Indian legal counsel in respect of foreign currency loan availed by overseas branch of scheduled bank from foreign banks and financial institutions.

She is also a member of ICSI and Bar Council of Tamil Nadu.

Subhayu Sen, Associate Partner, Khaitan & Co

Subhayu is an Associate Partner with the Securities, Capital Market and Corporate Group in Mumbai. He has advised on a range of capital market transactions including initial public offerings, follow on offerings, rights issues, private placements and qualified institutions placements. Has also advised private equity investors who seek an exit, as selling shareholders, from a company proposing an IPO. As on date, has been involved in the execution of approximately 37 capital market transactions.

Sudha G Bhushan, Director, Taxpert Professionals

•   Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary
•   Advisors to Corporates and Government Authorities
•   Expert in FEMA and the Indian FDI policy
Sudha G. Bhushan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary with more than a decade of experience in the field of Foreign Exchange Management. She has wide exposure in Indian Corporate Taxation, tax treaties and Companies Act, 1956 and vast knowledge relating to FEMA and RBI. Sudha has also authored book on Foreign Exchange Management Act and her articles are regularly published in the Journals of lot of Institutes and Newspapers.
 
Backed by experience in international firms like Deloitte & Rodl and Partner Sudha has extensive experience of handling international transactions. She is an expert in Foreign Exchange Management Act and the Indian FDI policy and has been speaking on national and international forums on Foreign Exchange laws and its implementation. She has been advising corporate as well as government authorities on the effectiveness of foreign exchange policy ans is instrumental in executing lot of complex transactions.
 
Sudha in essence is practicing in the field of Foreign Investment [inbound and outbound], NRI investment and repatriation, compounding cases relating to FEMA and other matters relating to Foreign Exchange Management Act and RBI.

Suhail Nathani, Partner, Economic Laws Practice (ELP)

Suhail Nathani is a co-founding partner at Economic Laws Practice (ELP). He earned his Master’s Degree at Cambridge University, England and has also received an LL.M. from Duke University, USA. Apart from India, he is also admitted to the State Bar of New York.

Suhail is actively involved with the Corporate & Commercial, Private Equity & Venture Capital, International Trade & Customs, Competition Law & Policy and Capital Markets & Securities Laws practices of the firm. He has appeared for the Government of India before the WTO Panel and Appellate Body in Geneva, represented the Competition Commission of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India at the Supreme Court and various other courts in India.

Suhail has been ranked by the Chambers Asia-Pacific 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 for his expertise in Competition/Antitrust, Corporate M&A and International Trade and has been recommended as a Leading Lawyer for International Trade by The Asia-Pacific Legal500 consistently for the past 7 years. He has been recognised for his expertise in Trade & Customs and Franchise in the Who’s Who Legal 2013 & 2014. He has also been ranked as a Leading Lawyer for Corporate/M&A by Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2014 & 2015. He has also featured as a Highly Recommended Individual in Asialaw Profiles 2015; and a Leading Lawyer in IFLR1000 Financial & Corporate 2015.

Suhail serves as an independent director on three listed companies in India, including a scheduled bank. He also sits on the board of a privately held “strategically important” NBFC. Prior to ELP, he was the General Counsel in a start-up FCC licensed telecommunications carrier in Washington, DC that went public.

Sumeet Abrol, Executive Director - Lead Advisory, Grant Thornton

Sumeet combines 7 years of entrepreneurial experience in manufacturing with 8 years of investment banking. He supports clients on strategic & financial advisory, focusing on capital raising and M&A initiatives.
 
His capital raising and M&A advisory experience encompasses a wide spectrum of sectors including Consumer & Retail, Media & Entertainment, Real Estate & Hospitality, Manufacturing, Food Services and Logistics.
 
He has also worked closely with industry organizations such as CII and ASSOCHAM on developing publications around the M&A and funding environment.