Anita Ramchandran Cerebrus
in India.
She has worked for 19 years in the management consultancy division of
AF Ferguson & Co., formerly the KPMG associate in India. In her long stint with
AFF she worked extensively in various areas of human resources and corporate strategy
and headed the Human Resources practice. This included consultancy in recruitment,
compensation and benefits, performance management, job evaluation, organisation
reviews and change management programs.
Anita has headed several major assignments for a wide variety of clients including
multinational and Indian companies in diverse industries.
She left AFF in 1994 to set up Cerebrus and is now involved in a variety of assignments
in organisation restructuring, HR policies, change management, and compensation
and benefits. Anita is acknowledged as one of the foremost HR consultants in India
and is an authority on compensation and benefits. She is frequently and widely quoted
by Indian and international business publications. She contributes to a large number
of business and academic magazines and is actively associated with various management
and academic associations.
Bharati JacobSeedFund
Bharati Jacob is Managing Partner, Seedfund, Bangalore. She has over 18 years of operating experience in diverse areas such as marketing research, financial planning and analysis and investment banking and venture capital.
Presently, she is the managing partner of Seedfund, India’s only, dedicated early-stage investment fund. Seedfund aims to target small, innovative startups with seed-stage funding of around US$500,000 (Rs. 2.25 crores) and provide all the mentoring and guidance needed to get the business from idea to proven reality. Seedfund has backing from global leaders who believe in backing true innovation from India – investors in the fund include, Motorola Ventures, Reliance Capital and SVB Financial Group and Sierra Ventures.
Bharati graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, majoring in marketing and finance. Prior to the Wharton School, Bharati worked in a marketing research agency and a leading petroleum company in India. Bharati is a charter member of TiE and an active member of the TiE Womens Chapter.
Chanda KochharICICI Bank
will be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of the bank
in May 2009. Currently, the bank?s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the official
spokesperson, Chanda heads the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank.
She has also consistently figured in Fortune?s list of ‘Most Powerful
Women in Business’ since 2005. At present, she ranks at number 25.
An alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Rama continues to be
involved with her alma mater where she is a Visiting Faculty and also serves on
the Board of Governors.
Chanda joined ICICI as a Management Trainee in 1984, after her Masters in Management Studies (Finance), Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.
In the initial years she handled the basic core function in ICICI i.e. Project Appraisal and Monitoring. She also handled projects in various industries like Petrochemicals,Textile, Paper and Cement.
Farzana Haque TATA Consultancy Services
technology company with over US$6 Billion in revenues. The Large Accounts SBU at
TCS has leading brand names as its clients. Prior to taking on this role, she was
based in New York and was part of the e-business vertical at TCS, where she was an instrumental part of a team that helped grow that business since inception.
Farzana began her career with the TATA Group in Mumbai as a management trainee.
In recognition of her leadership at TCS, Farzana was recently nominated to the World
Economic Forum as a ‘Young Global Leader’ . She has been profiled by CNBC-TV 18 in the ‘Young
Turks’ series which profiles India?s next generation business leaders.
Farzana is also the recipient of the ‘INDIRA Super Achiever Award 2008′
in recognition of her outstanding contribution to her organization. Farzana is a
Charter member of TiE.
Farzana is a frequent speaker at business schools around the globe and India on
topics covering leadership, building global brands, and innovation. She is passionate
about social development in India and works with NGO’s and foundations in
order to further the cause, besides being on the foundations board.
Gita Dang Talent Advisory Services
search firm that focuses on working with top MNC and Indian companies in a variety
of ways to help them execute world-class talent management strategies.
Geeta was a Senior Client Partner for more than ten years with the global search
firm Korn/Ferry International, where she was Regional Leader for India and focused
much of her work in the Technology space. Prior to Korn/Ferry, geeta has worked
as an Investment Banker with HSBC and with ANZ Grindlays. She has also held executive
positions in retail operations and corporate, merchant, and international banking.
Geeta holds a Masters degree in Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi,
and she is a Charter Member and on the Board of Directors of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs)
Delhi.
Geeta has spent part of her career in publishing, and she has co-authored English
language text books and workbooks for primary schools as well as written on Special
Needs. Her interests include mentoring Women in Business Group as well as working
with a Parent Support Group on Special Needs.
Ireena VittalMcKinsey
for the world’s best-known consulting firm, KPMG (formerly McKinsey).
According to Ireena, the more the competition the more the noise and better the
results; perhaps that’s why she continues to encourage her clients to welcome
all competition. “The job, despite having spent 10 years on it, is still fun”,
says Ireena, because she is ‘still learning’. Even her stints with Nestle
(her first job) and Max (she helped launch Max’s mobile telephony service
in Mumbai), she claims, were good learning experiences.
The lady, believes that this is a good time to be in India. Therefore in an age
when every business is looking at ways to conquer the Indian consumer, she has suggested
ways for MNCs for ‘Winning the Indian Consumer’.
Since 1996, when she signed on with McKinsey & Company, she has been ‘complicating
it’ in sectors such as retail, consumer goods and energy, and ‘complicating’
it successfully at that.
Purvi Sheth Shilputsi Consultants
Search and Human Resource advisory services at Top & Middle Management levels
for multinationals & large Indian groups in a cross section of industries, in
India & Abroad.
Purvi has successfully headed research projects; Initiated specialized consulting
and advisory services for business process outsourcing companies, Headed a very
successful research project on Preferences of Business School students- a
census of 2000 MBA students in 14 business school campuses in India- syndicated
by 50 companies. She has been responsible for Consultancy and Advisory services
for Compensation & Benefits, organization design, talent acquisition strategy,
performance management as well as executive and entrepreneurship development programs.
Purvi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree,Xavier’s College, Mumbai and has
done a Professional Development Program (Strategy and Leadership) – Wharton Business School, USA.
Rama BijapurkarAuthor, Market Strategist
strategy and consumer related issues in India. She is also a keen commentator on
social and cultural changes in the evolving liberalizing India. Rama has her own
market strategy consulting practice and works with an impressive list of Indian
and global companies, guiding the development of their business-market strategies.
She describes her mission as bringing ‘market focus to business strategy’.
Rama serves as an independent director on the boards of Infosys Technologies, CRISIL,
Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, ENIL (Radio Mirchi), Give Foundation (a not-for-profit
company), Subhiksha Trading Services Ltd. and Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India
Ltd.
An alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Rama continues to be
involved with her alma mater where she is a Visiting Faculty and also serves on
the Board of Governors.
Rama’s work experience has been in market research and strategy consulting
and includes leadership positions with McKinsey & Company, MARG (now AC Nielsen
India), and full time consulting with Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever India).
Her new book ‘We are like that only- Understanding the Logic of Consumer
India’, (The Indian edition, Penguin) has been well received and very favourably
reviewed. The international edition is called ‘Winning in the Indian Market
- Understanding the Transformation of Consumer India’, (John Wiley &
Sons).
Shikha SharmaAxis Bank
Company, which was amongst the first private sector companies in India to be awarded
a life license in December 2000, and since its inception the company has established
itself as India’s leading private life insurer, offering a complete range
of products to meet the varying needs of the Indian customer.
Shikha is a B.A. (Hons.) graduate, has a Post Graduate Diploma in Software Technology,
National Centre for Software Technology, Mumbai and completed her Masters
of Business Administration at the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad.
She began her career with ICICI, one of India’s largest financial services
providers, in 1980. She has been instrumental in setting up various group businesses
for the company, including investment banking and retail finance.
Shilpi Kapoor Barrier Break Technologies
consultancy firm of India, started teaching computers to visually impaired students
at her residence, way back in 1995 . Since then she has not looked back and along
with Bill Gates Foundation she set up the first Computer Training Centre for the
visually challenged in Mumbai at Indian Association for the Visually Handicapped
(IAVH).
Shilpi then moved on and set up a company, Net Systems Solutions now known as Net
Systems Informatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. (N-syst) that provides Knowledge Management
and Accessibility solutions. The year 2007 saw the birth of BarrierBreak Technologies
a subsidiary of N-syst, adding on to Shilpi’s achievements.
In 2008, Shilpi (BarrierBreak Technologies) along with the Royal National Institute
of Blind people (RNIB) UK organized Techshare India conference and assistive technology
exhibition in New Delhi. Techshare India was the first ever Accessibility and Disability
conference to be organized in India. Techshare India received an overwhelming response
thanks to the disabled people, NGOs, corporate sector and Government bodies.Shilpi has always
believed in giving employment opportunities to the disabled rather than looking
at them as the dependent segment of our society. More than 50% of the employees
at BarrierBreak Technologies are people with disabilities.
She received the Shell Helen Keller 2008 award on the eve of World Disability Day,
for the Role Model category (non-disabled role model supporter of increased employment
opportunities for disable people).
Sridar IyengarBessemer
of TiE Global and TiE Mumbai. He serves as a director on the boards of several other companies,
including Rediff.com India Limited, Rediff Holdings, Kovari Software Inc, Career
Launcher Limited, ICICI Bank Limited, OnMobile Global Limited, and Infosys BPO.
Mr. Iyengar is the Chairman of the Audit Committee of ICICI Bank Limited, Career
Launcher Limited and Rediff.com India Limited. He also serves as the Chairman of
Compensation Committee of OnMobile Global Limited and as member of the Compensation
Committee of Infosys BPO.
Sridar is an independent mentor investor in early stage entrepreneurs and companies.
For more than 35 years, he has worked in the UK, US and India with a large number
of companies at all stages of growth, globalization, etc., advising them on strategic
and other issues. He is also the President of Foundation for Democratic Reforms
in India and serves as a director of American India Foundation, both of which are
US-based non-profit organizations.
Sridar was previously a senior partner with KPMG in the US and the UK and served
for three years as Chairperson and CEO of KPMG’s operations in India. He is
also an advisor to several venture and private equity funds with respect to India.
He is now also an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.
Mr. Iyengar has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree, the University of Calcutta
and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
