Sudhir is Founder & Chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. Chiratae Ventures is a leading VC firm advising AUM of $ 1B, invested in 100 plus companies, exited 39 plus, has taken 3 companies public, funded 8 Unicorns and backed 11 market leaders. The firm is based out of Bangalore with an office in Delhi.

Since 1998 Sudhir and his team have advised on investments into 100+ firms across Deep Tech, Agri Tech, Digital Consumer, SAAS, Fintech and Healthcare Sectors. Key investments include Myntra, Flipkart, FirstCry, Lenskart, Policy Bazaar, Curefit, Agrostar, Emotix, Uniphore and PlaySimple amongst others.

Today Chiratae Ventures is a leading tech VC in India with Mr Ratan Tata, Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Mr Bruno Raschle and Mr Manish Choksi as well as Dr Ferzaan Engineer on its Global Advisory Board and India Advisory Board.

Sudhir, today serves on the EC of NASSCOM and is part of the Advisory Group on Tech and Internet Economy, Minister of State (Meity).

In 2001, Sudhir was recognized by Red Herring as one of the leading venture capitalists in the country. He has been named among the Top Ten IT Professionals by Dataquest and by Bloomberg UTV as ‘’Visionary Venture Capitalist” in 2011. Sudhir has been featured in Subroto Bagchi’s book ‘’Zen Garden – Conversations with Pathmakers’’, in 2014.

In addition to leading Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, Sudhir has served on EMPEA Venture Capital Council (Emerging Markets Private Equity Association). He has served as Advisor on the Technology Innovation and Productivity Council of the GMR Group. He also served on the Executive Committee of Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA), Investment Committee of UTI Ventures, on the Board of Ascent Capital and on the Board of Advisors at N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurship, IIM Bangalore. With over 30 years of experience Sudhir has served at various leadership positions at HCL, Wipro and Cyient, as well as Country Head of Walden International India.

Sudhir holds a B.Tech in Engineering and an MBA Degree from FMS, Delhi.

His interests include wild life photography.

TC Meenakshisundaram (TCM) is the Founder and Vice Chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 38 years of industry experience, including 18+ years of venture experience. He serves on the Boards of Lenskart, AgroStar, Vayana, Kristal.ai, Metadome, Bounce, HUVIAiR, and Pando amongst others.

TCM is well respected and regarded by the Indian VC/PE ecosystem as a pioneer. In the past fifteen years, TCM has led many initiatives to success in investments, exits, firm building, finance and legal, amongst others. TCM has also led the Fintech Sector, contributed and led Fundraising, including opening new investor platforms such as Rupee Capital, DFIs and Insurance companies partnerships and, in more recent past, taking the portfolio to scale and IPO.

Earlier, as part of Walden International’s team, he was involved with investments in Mindtree, Venture Infotek and Jobstreet. Before Chiratae Ventures, TCM served as Chief Financial Officer and President – Corporate Services at Venture Infotek, a leading payment processing company in India. Before Walden International, he has worked for 14 years at Wipro, where he last served as General Manager – eCommerce Division.

Mr. Venkatesh Peddi is Managing Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 20 years of industry experience, including 14 years of venture experience.

Venkatesh has been with Chiratae for more than a decade and leads its SaaS / Cloud practice. He has been instrumental in driving several SaaS investments and has authored report on “Indian SaaS Revolution” (can be accessed here – https://saas.chiratae.com/), amongst the 1st and detailed report on outlook of SaaS from India. Meeting early stage founders and working closely in their initial journey is what Venkatesh enjoys the most.

Venkatesh has led investments in Deepfence, GetVantage, Healthplix, Hevo Data, Pixis, Questt, Rentomojo, SquadCast and SquadStack and support role in Lenskart. In addition, he has generated exits from investments in Unbxd, Hiree, Hansel.io and Infisecure.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Venkatesh has over 6 years of experience in Venture Capital, Investment Banking and Start-up leadership roles at Reliance Ventures, Credit-Suisse, Adventity and Blue Star Infotech.

Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA institute, USA and holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Master’s degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS).

Mr. Ranjith Menon is Managing Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has been in the industry since 2000 and in the venture investment advisory since 2007.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Ranjith worked with Cyient (earlier Infotech Enterprises), India’s premier Design Engineering and GIS Company. As Manager-Marketing he played a key role in conceptualizing and launching new service offerings for the Aerospace vertical, which is one of the largest offshore Aerospace practices out of India. Earlier in his career, Ranjith has served as a stress test engineer at Infotech Enterprises and also gained shop floor experience at Bharat Earth Movers Limited, India’s largest earth moving equipment manufacturers.

Ranjith is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

Anoop is Principal in the Investment team and leads Chiratae’s work in Consumer Tech. He is also looking at Investments in the Web3, Metaverse and Crypto space. Anoop oversees the Seed stage investment program – Sonic.

Prior to Chiratae, Anoop worked at Accenture Ventures – partnering, investing and acquiring startups with Deep-tech capabilities for its Open Innovation platform in India. He led the organisation’s lone acquisition of a Data-AI startup in India in May 2020. Anoop was responsible for driving Innovation Strategy and Corporate Venturing as a Service for Accenture’s clients and was part of Accenture India’s Investment Committee for its CSR Investments into Social startups. He also conceptualised and launched Accenture’s 2 Centers of Excellence with IISc, Bangalore and IIT-Madras in Advanced Computing and Industry 4.0 respectively. In a career spanning over 15+ years across Management Consulting, Family Office VC – leading and managing an early-stage portfolio to leading a portfolio company in Mediatech space as CEO, Anoop has donned multiple hats. As an operator, he has served on the Board of the largest News Media House in South India and successfully launched and scaled the Mediatech startup.

Taking his interest in early-stage investments forward, he founded the IIM Indore Alumni Angel fund and served on its Fund-1 as an investment committee member. He has advised and mentored a few startups in Consumertech, Media & Fintech spaces, as well as a Social Entrepreneurship Incubator run by Telangana State.

Anoop holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from University of Madras and MBA (PGDM) from Indian Institute of Management – Indore.

Amish will focus on developing a network with Investors, Strategic Players and Bankers, to enable growth for the Portfolio in terms of follow-on investments, acquisitions and exits.

Amish has experience in the consulting and investment banking domain. He started his career with McKinsey & Co. as a Research Analyst. He has over 15 years of experience in the Investment Banking domain with YES Bank and PwC. Experience covers products like M&A, Fund Raise and Capital Markets. At PwC, he was responsible for establishing the TMT vertical for the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking team. Along with deal experience, he brings an extensive network in the ecosystem.

Amish is actively involved with an NGO, which undertakes activities of Eye Donation and Blood Donation in Mumbai.

Amish holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Narsee Monjee College, Master’s in Commerce from University of Mumbai and MBA from IIM Indore.

Vijay is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Chiratae Ventures. He has over 14 years of experience in product strategy, leading technology transformations and building tech platforms in BFSI sector. At Chiratae, he will lead the planning and development of technology for our clients, partners, and internal employees to improve productivity and business output to reduce the cost and time.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Vijay worked with Edelweiss Wealth Management where he worked as a CTO leading the team of 200+ engineers to build India’s one of the best Wealth and Asset Management tech platforms. His technology specialisation extends to Data analytics, Digital platforms, Mobile experiences, Cloud, Enterprise transformation and scaling them to increase their viability.

Vijay holds B.Tech degree from Mumbai university. He is passionate about cricket and football. He is a hard-core supporter of Mumbai Indians and Manchester United.

Mandeep Julka is Vice President at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, and leads investing in Seed and Series A deals.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Mandeep worked with Ola, where she headed Business Finance for Ola Financial Services, including Digital Lending and Digital Insurance verticals. Before that, she worked in the FinTech investing team at IFC, Washington DC, and at Brightriver Capital, a sector agnostic PE fund, in Singapore. Earlier in her career, she has worked at SBI Capital Markets, Mumbai, where she led fund raising for maritime projects. 

Mandeep enjoys reading, travelling, and staying up-to-date with her watchlists.

Kailash is a part of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures where he focuses on seed stage investment opportunities in early stage tech companies. He supports the team in identifying promising tech ventures, conducting due-diligence and documentation, and post-investment portfolio management and tracking the performance of investee companies.
 
Prior to joining Chiratae, Kailash was a part of the investment teams at Bharat Innovation Fund, an early stage deeptech focused venture capital fund and Unitus Ventures, an seed stage investor in companies building technology solutions for the masses. He comes with a healthcare management background having started his career and served as the Vice President at the Corporate office of Narayana Health, one of the leading hospital chains in the country.
 
In 2021, Kailash was recognised as one among the Top Under 40 in the alternative investments space in India by AAAIF and AIWMI.
 
Kailash has completed his MBA (PGDM) from IIM-Bangalore, holds a bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NITK Surathkal and is a CFA Charterholder. Over the years, he has been an active member of Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Among Youth (SPICMACAY). Apart from early stage investments, Carnatic music and Tamarind rice (Puliyogare) with South Indian filter coffee hold special place in his heart.

Avni is a member of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures, where she focuses across all stages of the investment cycle – from building investment thesis, sourcing, business diligence, deal management, value creation and portfolio management. She also supports fund raising and special office initiatives. Her key focus sectors are Fin-Tech and Consumer Tech.

Prior to Chiratae, Avni was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where she focused on the BFSI space and served multiple clients across banking, wealth management and insurance. She has led multiple engagements with both Indian and MNC clients across a wide range of topics including due diligence, business strategy, new product launches and operations. She also served multiple clients in the consumer and tech space, helping them think through their digital transformation journey. Prior to McKinsey & Company, Avni worked at Goldman Sachs in their markets and program trading division.

Avni has done her MBA (PGP) from IIM Ahmedabad and graduated top of her batch in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Delhi. She has a keen interest in dance, having been part of multiple dance clubs/societies across her education. She also enjoys cooking, traveling and is a fitness enthusiast.

Anubhav has been a part of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures since July 2019, where he focuses on evaluating investments in early-stage tech companies. His key focus sectors include B2B, consumer-tech and health-tech. He also spends time on helping portfolio companies, building investment thesis and tracking the Indian macro and private markets.

Anubhav started his career as a Management consultant working with a boutique consulting firm in their South-East Asia office in the Philippines. He worked on CEO – agenda issues across industries including logistics, infrastructure, telecommunications and IT. While in college, he co-founded a social startup on the lines of a mechanical Turk to supplement the income of gig economy workers. His team finished in the top 6 at the Boston Regional Finals of HULT Prize where they represented India after winning the national pitch event at IIM Ahmedabad.

Anubhav is a silver medalist from IIT Kharagpur from where he graduated with a Dual Degree (B. Tech & M. Tech) in Industrial Engineering and Management. He participated in various inter-collegiate case study competitions and was an active member of the institute’s automotive racing team and Branding & Public Relations Cell for which he was awarded the G.S Sanyal trophy for being the best outgoing all-rounder with distinction in technology.

Tarang is a part of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures India where he focuses on evaluating early stage investments in Health-Tech, Enterprise SaaS and Consumer Media and Technology. Apart from identifying opportunities across sectors, he also supports in helping the portfolio companies grow and building investment thesis around sectors.

Earlier, as a part of the expansion team at Curefit, he was responsible for the expansion of Cult in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi. Prior to that, he had a short stint with the team launching Amazon Business in India with pilots for the FMCG division in Karnataka. Tarang has also spent time with several early stage startups and advised founding team members across Ed-Tech, Consumer and Consumer-Tech on PMF and growth strategy.

Tarang graduated from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, where he played a vital role to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the college. He also enjoys playing tennis and often picks up the brush due to his interest in art.

Saketh works for the investment team at Chiratae Ventures, where he focuses on investing in early-stage startups with a focus on Consumer Technology. Through focused efforts of sourcing, evaluation, thesis building, and diligence, he focuses on partnering with strong entrepreneurs at the early stage. Areas of investment include Edtech, Gaming, Web3, Commerce & commerce enablers, Consumer-facing fintech & consumer-facing health-tech products.

Swami is Chiratae’s Chief Financial Officer, Compliance officer and E&S Manager. A professionally qualified Chartered accountant and a Company Secretary with over 12+ years of industry experiences, he has management responsibility over the firm’s finance, treasury, investor relations and compliance functions. Also oversees target company diligence, regulatory relationships and corporate development activities. Prior to this, he was with Sequoia Capital, as Vice President Finance, was involved in Strategic, IPO, secondary exits of several investee companies. Specialises in tax structuring, financial reporting, automation and project management of strategic activities of portfolio companies.

Subhrajit is a member of the investments team at Chiratae Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage investments in tech startups – by building investment theses, conducting diligences and sourcing new companies. He works actively with portfolio companies, in the capacity of a board observer, to support them as they grow.

Previously, Subhrajit worked as a Business Analyst in Flipkart where he drove business design and growth through strategic decision making. He worked across categories, leveraging technology and big data to optimize portfolio, supply chain and user experience across business initiatives. Apart from this he has interned across sectors in organizations like Dasra, Reliance Industries Limited and has also led advocacy campaigns addressing issues of urban habitation with Young Leaders for Active Citizenship.

Subhrajit graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2019 majoring in Chemical Engineering (B. Tech). He was actively involved in shaping the culture of public speaking on campus, leading the institute Debating Society to several laurels in international debate tournaments including the Gold Medal at the Inter-IIT Debate. He also enjoys music and occasionally performs at cafes around the city.

Chandraneel is a part of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures, where he focuses on evaluating investments in early stage companies. In addition to evaluating new investments, he actively engages in building investment thesis around the sectors and supports the portfolio companies as they grow

Prior to joining Chiratae, Chandraneel worked as an Investment Banking Associate at JP Morgan in the North American Healthcare group, where he was involved on various M&A and equity capital raises

Chandraneel holds a B.E (hons) Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree from BITS Pilani, where he was an elected member of the student council. He has also cleared 2 levels of the CFA program and is currently a Level 3 candidate. Outside of work, he enjoys outdoor sport namely badminton and cricket and is a fitness enthusiast

Abhishek Raj is the Vice President – Finance at Chiratae Ventures, he joined the firm in 2018 and is responsible for managing the fund accounting, investor reporting, taxation and compliance activities for Chiratae advised funds. He also works with portfolio companies to address specific financial reporting and tax-related matters.

Prior to joining Chiratae, he has worked in the finance team of Sequoia Capital and at the finance division of Goldman Sachs in Bengaluru.

Abhishek is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and holds a B.Com (Hons) degree from Banaras Hindu University. He has also cleared 2 Levels of CFA program and is a candidate of Level III.

Thejeswi is a part of the investment team at Chiratae Ventures, where she focuses on early-stage investments in tech startups by building investment theses, conducting diligences and sourcing new companies. Apart from evaluating new investments, she also focuses on actively working with portfolio companies as they build and grow their businesses.

Prior to this, Thejeswi worked at JP Morgan as a Structurer for their EMEA Equity Derivatives desk. As part of the role, she developed structured product solutions for clients such as Banks, Family Offices and HNIs to achieve their investment goals and effectively manage investment risk. She also interned at organizations like MSCI, Deloitte and Halliburton across a variety of sectors.

Thejeswi graduated from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) in 2020 with a B.E. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Finance. In college she was the Convener of Waves, the annual cultural festival of BITS and an active member of the institute Dance Society, being a trained classical dancer.

Raghu leads whole gamut of administrative areas ranging from travel, accommodation, vendor management, contract administration, inventory management, security and safety of assets and overall infrastructure management. He plans, organizes, and controls the work activities of the admin team members in order to provide prompt and efficient services and ensures 24/7 smooth operations and healthy functioning of the overall facilities. He also manages the complete arrangements for the annual events, conferences, seminars and other functions of the firm organized from time to time.

Prior to joining Chiratae Ventures, Raghu has worked for CYIENT (Infotech Enterprises), Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd., SOL Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Hyderabad. With over 31 years of work experience, he comes with rich experience in Office Administration, Corporate Communications, Secretarial, Sales and Trading works.

Raghu holds a Masters Degree in Commerce, Bachelors Degree in Law and MBA (HR) from IGNOU, New Delhi.

Vinutha is the Head of Human Resources at Chiratae Ventures. She has over 16 years of experience cutting across industries in tech, consulting, training, engineering and infrastructure, leading People Practices helping organisations translate business strategies into transformation and growth. At Chiratae, she heads the People Function anchoring strategic, cultural, operational and talent related initiatives, partnering and working very closely with all stakeholders within the organization to create world class people practices for Chiratae.

Vinutha started her career with HCL technologies, where she was involved in strategic HR business partnering, learning and organizational development, talent management, talent acquisition. After a 9 year stint at HCL, she was associated with Leadership Management International (LMI) a US based global learning organisation, where as a certified Leadership Coach, she was engaged in coaching middle management and senior corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, helping them enhance their professional and personal productivity. She also played a key role in expanding LMI’s business presence in India. At LMI, she was conferred the honour of “World Facilitator of the year” for the Asian region, being one of the youngest to receive this coveted recognition. Prior to joining Chiratae, Vinutha led the Learning and Talent Transformation function at L&T Construction, for one of their largest business divisions’.

Vinutha holds an Engineering degree in Information Technology and Masters in Business Administration from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai from where she graduated as a gold medallist in Human Resources. Vinutha has keen interest in music and is also an amateur singer, loves travelling and exploring new places, besides understanding people behaviours and motivations.

Puranjay is a member of the investments team at Chiratae Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage investments in tech startups – by building investment theses, conducting diligences and sourcing new companies.

Previously, Puranjay interned with Chiratae where he worked on developing sourcing pipelines and conducting diligences for Sonic-Chiratae’s flagship seed initiative. He has had short stints with Anthill Ventures where he helped them launch their urban-tech investing practice, Dalberg Advisors where he worked on a multi-continental clean energy project, the business team at Urban Company and with the CM Office-Govt. of Gujarat.

Puranjay graduated from BITS Pilani-Pilani Campus in 2022. He led the Model UN Society there and led the Sales & Marketing for Oasis one of the largest cultural festivals in Asia. He is a licensed advanced scuba diver with 75+ dives around the world and has also been a national level basketball player. He enjoys geopolitics, history, backpacking, sports and cinema.

Amritha is the Head-Legal at Chiratae Ventures. She has more than 16 years of post-qualification experience. At Chiratae, Amritha advises on strategic matters. She considers working with people to help facilitate what they want to achieve, as her core value.

Amritha started her career as a generalist advising on different areas of law, including, dispute resolution, public policy, intellectual property, real estate, and general corporate advisory before finding her area of interest and specializing in venture and private equity investments, acquisitions, commercial contracts and anti-harassment laws.

Prior to joining Chiratae, Amritha worked at leading law firms for 16 years, spending close to a decade as partner at law firms. Amritha has advised and represented financial investors including some of the biggest venture capital firms with their investments in multiple jurisdictions; and companies and promoters with their legal requirements.

She is a gold medalist and holds a B.A., LL.B., Law degree from University Law College, Bengaluru.

Amritha is a hodophile, fitness enthusiast and enjoys reading and trekking the Himalayas.

Vikram is a part of the finance team at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, where he manages the fund accounting, investor reporting, financial activities and focuses on all the statutory compliances, MIS and financial reporting of entities and manages audits and tax related activities at Chiratae Ventures India.

Prior to Chiratae, he was part of the KPMG India, where he was responsible for performing statutory audits of various clients in different sectors like PE funds, Real estate and Service companies and in other industry sectors as well like manufacturing and trading companies. He was also involved in engagements with reporting under Ind AS, IGAAP, US GAAP and IFC environment.

Vikram is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a bachelor degree in commerce from Kuvempu University.

Vineetha is Asst. Manager – Legal at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors.

Before joining Chiratae, she worked at leading Indian law firms such as Samvad Partners and Poovayya & Co., Bangalore. She has advised domestic and international clients throughout her career, including venture capital and private equity funds, startups, MNCs, unicorns, promoters and HNI’s on investment transactions, deal structuring, and domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Vineetha is a B.A., LLB (Hons.) graduate from the School of Law, Christ University.

Her interests revolve around cooking, gardening, home décor and travelling.

Aarti is a Chartered Accountant and holds a B.Com (Hons.) degree from the Lady Shri Ram College for women, Delhi University. She has a work experience of over 7 years in the startup space and has worked across diverse areas like fund raising, regulatory and policy advocacy and M&A. She has previously worked with Invest India under the Startup India Initiative, launched by the Government of India and was instrumental in bringing about various regulatory reforms for the betterment of the Startup ecosystem. Prior to this, she worked with Clix Capital (formerly GE Capital) and contributed to the development, launch and execution of their Supply Chain Finance product. She has also worked with a boutique investment bank towards deal advisory, fund raise and valuations.

Aarti is an avid painter and has her work displayed at a reputed art Gallery in Delhi. She is a nature and wildlife enthusiast and is always keen to explore the untouched bits of nature. She is an animal lover and is involved in various animal welfare activities.

Tanvi Dubey is Manager- Marketing at Chiratae Ventures. She is focused on building and executing the Marketing Strategy of the brand.

She was previously with Sigma Ventures, a VC fund. Tanvi has also worked closely with different ecosystem stakeholders during her time at YourStory. She brings her experience of storytelling, brand positioning, building communities, and leveraging new age media to create value.

Tanvi did her graduation and post-graduation from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

A pet parent, she is a foodie who can cook and buys books faster than she can read them.

Ratan N Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, from 1991 till his retirement on December 28, 2012. He was also chairman of the major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. During his tenure, the group’s revenues grew manifold, totalling over $100 billion in 2011-12.

Mr Tata is also associated with various organisations in India and overseas. He is the chairman of two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India. He is a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry. He is the president of the Court of the Indian Institute of Science and chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He also serves on the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California. Mr Tata serves on the board of directors of Alcoa, and is also on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation, JP Morgan Chase, Rolls-Royce, Temasek Holdings and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Mr Tata received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell in 1962. He worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1975.

The Government of India honoured Mr Tata with its second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008. He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities in India and overseas.

Mr Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, a seed fund. Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys. Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He also was selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. He was elected President of India’s apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.

In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Mr. Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honour.

Mr Gopalakrishnan serves on the Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and is the Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore. He is the Chairman of the Vision Group on Information Technology of Karnataka Government and the Chairman of CII Start-up Council. Mr Gopalakrishnan invests in promoting research on Brain sciences, aging related disorders as well as investing in start-ups and start-up ecosystem.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan holds Master’s degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Kris is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) and an Honorary Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) of India.

Mr. Bruno E. Raschle is the Founder, Managing Director, and Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Schroder Adveq. He served as an Executive Chairman. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer and founded the firm in 1997.

Mr. Raschle served as the Founder and Managing Director at the MC Partners fund of funds investment programs at Motor Columbus. His operational experience includes the management of start-up, turn-around, and expansion opportunities in various industries on different continents. From 1994 to 1997, he was the General Manager of the Fastening Division of the privately-held SFS Stadler Group, Heerbrugg, Switzerland, for three years.

Mr. Raschle has also financed over a dozen start-up companies and served on several of their Board of Directors, including Ballard Power Systems. Mr. Raschle has over 15 years of experience in venture capital investing. He has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Mr. Raschle holds an M.S. in Construction Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

Dr. Andreas is the Chair of Hettich Group Advisory Board. The Hettich Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of furniture fittings with annual revenue of €1.1 billion. Dr. Hettich is non-executive director of Hettich India private limited and he is also the Managing Partner of his own holding group, Dr. Hettich Beteiligungen GmbH, which has investments in other companies like EWIKON, Halemeier, the educational company “das Forscherhaus” amongst other entrepreneurial holdings.

Dr. Hettich also serves as a member of advisory councils, supervisory boards of companies Jowat, Peter Lacke, FSB and Georg Nordmann Holding.

Manish Choksi is currently Vice Chairman and member of the Board of Directors of Asian Paints Limited, he joined Asian Paints Limited in the year 1992 as an Executive and has grown in ranks by holding various positions across Sales, Information Technology, Supply Chain, Chemicals, HR and General Management in the Company.

Before being inducted as the Vice Chairman / Non – Executive Director on the Board of Directors of the Company, he held the position of President – International Business, IT, HR and Chemicals. He was a member of the Executive Council of Asian Paints group and reported to the Managing Director & CEO of the Company.  He spearheaded the Information Technology function of the Company and has been instrumental in leveraging IT solutions across the extended enterprise and achieving improved business performance. He led the International Business of the Company and has led the Company’s efforts in expansion of its emerging markets portfolio. He has been a catalyst for the company’s foray into home improvement. Manish has significantly contributed in achieving the Company’s growth plans and more particularly in the critical areas of implementation of Supply Chain management solutions. He has also played an active role in restructuring the Joint Venture companies of the Company with PPG Industries Inc., USA.

He is an active angel investor with particular interest in investing in companies that champion cross leverage of physical and ecommerce models with a focus on consumers and data / analytics.

A leader in the IT community and the former Chairman of INDUS, a 1100+ company network of SAP users.  He has been on the advisory boards of IBMs Collaboration business, the Asia Pacific Executive Advisory Board of SAP APAC, member of the Global Chemical Executive Advisory Board of SAP SE and a member of SUGEN, a global executive network of the all SAP user groups worldwide.

Dr. Ferzaan comes with over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, currently serving as the Co-founder and Chairman of Cytecare Hospitals. He is also the Co-founder and Joint Chairman of Medwell Ventures, which offers home healthcare services under the Nightingales brand.

Dr. Ferzaan serves on the Board of Directors of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd (SPARC) and Cytespace Research Pvt Ltd. He is an Observer on the Board of AUM Biosciences, Singapore. Prior to that, Dr. Ferzaan helped launch the international CRO industry in India and served as Chairman and CEO of Quintiles India from 1997 to 2010. Also, he served on the Asia Pacific board of Quintiles Transnational for over 5 years (2005-2010).

He has been a member of professional bodies such as AAPS and AACP. He received the AACP New Investigator’s Award in 1990 and received research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. He has published papers in leading international journals and lectured at several conferences and at management schools such as IIMA and the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) and has been a member of the CII National Committee on Drugs and Pharmaceuticals and the FICCI Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Committee.

A graduate of the LM College of Pharmacy in Ahmedabad, Dr. Ferzaan completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of South Carolina, USA. He attended executive management programs at INSEAD (France), IIMA (India) and the Kenan-Flagler Business School (USA). He enjoys travel, jazz and art.