World Renowned Faculties
Tejeshwi Sharma, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP
As a Principal, Tejeshwi Sharma advises on growth stage consumer internet and SaaS investments for Sequoia in India.
He currently serves on the boards of companies such as Moglix, Rebel Foods and Whatfix amongst others.
He previously managed Tencent’s India investments, where he led the investment in BYJUs.
Tejeshwi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from Stanford GSB.
Thomas George, Associate Partner, Khaitan & Co.
Thomas George is an Associate Partner in the Capital Markets and Securities Law Practice in the Bengaluru office. Prior to joining the Khaitan & Co, Thomas was part of the capital markets practice at Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. in Mumbai.
Thomas has advised on a wide range of capital markets transactions including initial public offerings, follow-on public offerings, rights issues, qualified institutions placements, American depository receipts issuances, institutional placement programmes, offer for sale through stock exchange mechanism and offshore high yield bond issuances.
Tushar Sachade, Co-Head - Private Equity, B B S R & Co. Chartered Accountants
Tushar is a partner in B B S R & Co, Chartered Accountants and is the Co-Head - Private Equity Practice. He is a Chartered Accountant from 1993 batch and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Tushar has a vast experience of over 20 years. Prior to joining KPMG in 2010, he was with PwC from 2007 onwards and prior to that he was a part of RSM & Co., a leading accounting and tax consultancy firms, which merged its practices with PwC in April 2007.
Tushar specializes in advising on tax and regulatory issues relating to the Financial Services sector with emphasis on structuring investment strategies of Private Equity Funds, Foreign Venture Capital Funds, Real Estate Funds, Foreign Institutional Investors, NBFCs, etc. He is a regular speaker at seminars, both in India and overseas and a contributor to the media. He is the Co-chair of FICCI Private Equity subgroup.
Umakanta Panigrahi, Managing Director, Kroll
Umakanta is a managing director in the Valuation Advisory Services group in Duff & Phelps based in Mumbai. In his current capacity, he is responsible for the overall financial valuation practice in Mumbai.
Umakanta joined Duff & Phelps in 2015 through the firm’s acquisition of American Appraisal. He has over 15 years of experience in financial advisory services including valuation, equity research, credit research and other advisory services. Umakanta has managed a range of valuation and consulting services including business valuation, portfolio valuation, intellectual property valuation, purchase price allocation and impairment assessment, financial instrument valuations and other IFRS and USGAAP related engagements.
He has also advised several clients on swap ratio determination, corporate finance, business plan development and review, exit strategies and dispute consulting.
Umakanta has managed and executed a range of financial advisory engagements for energy, utilities, infrastructure, private equity, insurance and financial services healthcare, telecom, media and entertainment, retail and IT and ITES industries for mergers & acquisitions, accounting and tax reporting, transfer pricing, litigation and strategic purposes.
His specialization includes valuation of complex financial instrument (such as complex convertible instruments, earn-out and contingent payments, cross-currency interest rate swaps, options and other hedging instruments). He has also advised several companies on distress debt transaction, earn-out structuring and ESOP structuring.
Prior to joining American Appraisal, Umakanta has worked with the Financial Advisory Services practice of Deloitte and Investment Research & Valuation team of Evalueserve.
Umakanta holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
Umakantha Panigarhi, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps
Upasana Rao, Partner, Trilegal
Upasana Rao is Partner, Trilegal and is part of the corporate practice, with a focus on mergers & acquisitions, private equity and cross border investments. Upasana has advised various multinational and Indian corporations across industries on general corporate and commercial laws, securities laws and regulatory issues.
Her transactional experience includes a number of share and asset acquisitions, private equity investments, debt/equity investments in infrastructure, corporate restructuring, securities offerings, due diligences and merger control analysis.
Upasana regularly advises on corporate governance and compliance issues (both in listed and private companies). She has also advised on contentious issues and conflict management in joint ventures and shareholder’s disputes.
Upasana has been recognised as a ‘Notable Practitioner’ by IFLR1000.
Upasana also contributes to policy analysis and drafting and has represented clients and industry bodies before regulators such as the DIPP, SEBI and MCA. Recently, she was part of the drafting team for India’s new Bankruptcy Code. She represented various French luxury brands before the DIPP, Ministry of Commerce for deliberations on the issue of foreign investment in retail.
Upasana is an alumnus of King's College London, University of London and Symbiosis Law School, University of Pune. She is a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, India.
Upasana is a board member and Communications Chair of International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC- India network). She is also a consultant member of the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce - Consumer Goods & Services committee and U.S. India Business Council – Food, Retail & Agriculture committee.
Vaibhav Kakkar, Partner, Saraf & Partners
Vaibhav Kakkar is a Partner in the Corporate and Regulatory Practices Team of Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, New Delhi and has over eleven years of experience. He has a unique mix of extensive regulatory and transactional expertise, and specializes in structuring transactions (especially cross-border), and advising on foreign investment/exchange laws, company law, securities laws, TMT laws and gaming laws.
As part of his profile, he has advised several global corporations on appropriate strategies in relation to investments in India and domestic and multinational clients on significant and complex corporate matters including cross border mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions.
He has also taken the lead in drafting and negotiating the entire spectrum of definitive agreements and commercial contracts in relation to the same. He has in-depth experience with industry-specific legal and regulatory issues in sectors including (retail, real estate, telecommunications, gaming, hospitals, pharma, education mutual funds, education and the financial sector (banking and non-banking). He regularly advises and works with the Government on policy issues relating to company law, exchange control, and is key member of the Firm’s advocacy and policy development team.
On the transactional side, he has advised on many notable joint ventures including Tata Boeing, Tata-Starbucks, DLF-Pramerica Mutual Fund and Khazanah-IDFC road venture. He has advised clients including DLF, Moser Baer Group and Devyani International in raising capital totalling nearly USD 600 million from top-flight PE and financial investors.
Vaibhav Kakkar, Partner (Regulatory Practices & General Corporate), Luthra & Luthra Law Offices
Vaibhav Kakkar is a Partner in the Corporate and Regulatory Practices Team of Luthra & Luthra Law Offices and has more than eight years of experience. He has a unique mix of extensive regulatory and transactional expertise, and specializes in structuring transactions (especially cross-border), and advising on foreign investment/exchange laws, company law and securities laws.
As part of his profile, he has advised several global corporations on appropriate strategies in relation to investments in India and domestic and multinational clients on significant and complex corporate matters including cross border mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions. He has also taken the lead in drafting and negotiating the entire spectrum of definitive agreements and commercial contracts in relation to the same. He has in-depth experience with industry-specific legal and regulatory issues in sectors including retail, real estate, telecommunications, gaming, hospitals, pharma, education mutual funds, education and the financial sector (banking and non-banking). He regularly advises and works with the Government on policy issues relating to company law, exchange control, and is key member of the Firm’s advocacy and policy development team.
He has advised on many notable joint ventures including Tata- Starbucks, DLF-Pramerica Mutual Fund and Khazanah-IDFC road venture. He has advised clients including DLF, Moser Baer Group and Devyani International in raising capital totaling nearly USD 600 million from top-flight PE and financial investors. Some of the prominent M&A deals that he has been involved in the last few years include: (i) Cairn India in relation to the acquisition of a controlling stake in Cairn India by Vedanta Resources;(ii) buy-out of Fallaron Capital’s investment in seven projects of Indiabulls Real Estate Limited worth USD 190 million; (iii) Mylan Inc. on the acquisition of Agila Specialities Division from Strides Acrolab, India for approx USD 1.6 billion; (iv) Ranbaxy Laboratories in relation to their recent merger with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd worth USD 3.2 billion.
Vaibhav Parikh, Partner, Nishith Desai Associates
Mr. Vaibhav Parikh is the Partner in - charge of the Bangalore office of the multi-skilled, research-based international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates (www.nishithdesai.com). He is Partner in-charge of the M&A and Private Equity practice groups. He also heads the Fund Investments practice group. He is a member of firm’s executive committee.
He has a wide range of experience in corporate and technology transactions. He has advised several private equity and venture capital funds in their investments, specifically in e-commerce, technology, media and life sciences industry. He also has significant experience in M&A transactions including advising on India’s largest e-commerce transaction till date.
He has been passionately involved in setting up operations and raising finance for several start-up companies. He is actively involved in the Intellectual Property Practice and is in charge of industry focus group for IT, Telecom, and Media. He has advised many leading Indian e-commerce companies in their operations from a legal and regulatory stand point.
He has been nominated as one of Leading Lawyer in Private Equity Practice by IFLR1000 in the year 2013. He has also been nominated as one of the world's leading practitioners in ‘Who's Who Legal’ for Regulatory Communications. He is recommended by Legal 500 as an expert in TMT and competition law in 2014. He has been ranked number one for TMT by Chambers and Partners in 2015.
Vaibhav Parikh is regularly sought after for his extensive experience in advising on technology matters, with an emphasis on corporate transactions.
He has authored several papers and lectured at several prestigious gatherings on a worldwide basis. He has also been acknowledged as a ‘Highly Recommended Lawyer’ for Outsourcing, and Telecom and IT and ‘Recommended Lawyer’ for Intellectual Property by the PLC Which Lawyer? 2009. He has represented NASSCOM at a WTO symposium at Geneva for presenting a paper on ‘Movement of Natural Persons’ in 2001. He is a Charter Member of TiE, Bangalore Chapter and is also on the executive council of the Franchising Association of India.
Vandana Sekhri, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Vandana Sekhri is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ Mumbai office.
She is currently part of the general corporate practice group and specialises in private equity, joint ventures and corporate commercial transactions. She has advised private equity funds, banks, financial institutions, hedge funds in their investments across various companies in India.
She has graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai. She joined the firm in May 2012.