2016-2017

Abanti Sankaranarayanan is the Business Head for Luxury and Corporate Relations of United Spirits Limited, the largest spirit manufacturing company in India. Prior to this, she served as Marketing Director at DIAGEO India Pvt Ltd. She has over 15 years of work experience in Manufacturing and Hospitality Industry. She serves as Member of The Board of Governors at Advertising Standards Council of India. She was the Executive Director of Mount Everest Mineral Water Limited from 2007-10. She is a University Gold medalist & graduate in Economics from St Stephens College, Delhi, and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

Anuradha Acharya is the founder and CEO of Map My Genome, a molecular diagnostics company for people who are proactive about their health. Mapmygenome’s products include prognostics and diagnostics tests.
Anu is the Founder and was the CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions from 2000 to 2013. Ocimum combines its Bioinformatics products, reference databases, data generation and data analytics on “big data” using a LIMS backbone through its proprietary platform called RaaS. She served as a governing board member at CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), the premier R&D Organization in India and currently serves as a governing board member at the NIBMG .
Prior to founding Ocimum, Acharya held positions in a consulting company called SEI Information and a telecommunications software company called Mantiss Information which has since been acquired by Dynegy Corporation. She was awarded Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011.

A 1989 graduate of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India Ashwini is the co-founder of Elephant, India’s largest independent integrated design consultancy with offices in India & Singapore.
Elephant represents India at the Design Alliance Asia and Ashwini is part of the core group that steers the consortium of 13 countries.
She has done award-winning work for global brands in automobile, FMCG, food service, healthcare & personal care segments. Awards include CII Design excellence, AsiaStar Packaging Excellence & eight times Global ReBrand (USA) rankings.

Ashwini was invited by Rockefeller Foundation to participate in a global Social Impact summit and by Danish Design Foundation at the Global Co-creation Summit at Copenhagen. She has been a guest speaker at more that 20 countries.
Most recently, Ashwini was awarded a place among 50 Most Influential Women in Media by Impact magazine in March’15. She will on the Design jury of Cannes Lions in France 2015 later this year.

She has been advising a Media Conglomerate to create user-centric approach across several publications. She is on a colour forecast panel since 2003. She has been a brand ambassador for HP. She is the editor of “Colours of Asia” book that was published in Hong Kong as part of a project by the Design Alliance Asia. The book has contributions from designers across 13 Asian countries. “Colours of Asia” was recently awarded Special ‘Culture’ Design for Asia Award at the Business of Design Week in Hong Kong.

Babita Baruah is an Executive Business Director, managing PepsiCo Beverages, Nokia, and a few other Indian brands. She has worked with Unilever brands – Lux, Sunsilk, Knorr and Radiant – and was part of the regional and global teams operating out of India for both Unilever and J&J. Furthermore, she is passionate about teaching and thus jumps on the occasion of being able to be a guest lecturer at leading Indian institutions such as Indian Management Institutes like IIM, IIPM, SP Jain, MDI etc.

Her vision includes being India’s top woman leader, to impact lives and drive optimism through the work our community creates.

Debolina Dutta has 23 years of work experience in HR & Sales domain. She had a degree in Electrical Engineering from College of Engineering, Pune, a Post Graduate Degree in management from IIM, Bangalore and completed her FPM-Industry program from IIM Indore. She is working as Director and Head of HR, VF Brands (I).

Dilpreet Brar Singh is the Managing Director and founder of MedECUBE Healthcare. Prior to founding the company, she was the Regional Director for Fortis Healthcare and Executive Director at Max Healthcare Group.

Fazila Allana born in South Mumbai, 1970 is an Indian businesswoman. She studied at Queen Mary School and Sydenham College and graduated in 1991. After a couple of years in Oulu, Finland she moved back to Mumbai.She has produced popular shows such as Koffee With Karan, Kya Mast Hai Life, Mai Ka Laal, Nach Baliye and Rakhi Ka Swayamwar. She launched the, Sol Production Pvt. Ltd, an independent production house with Kamna Nirula-Menezes. SOL is one of the leading television production houses in India.

Gunjan Soni is the Executive Vice President of Star India. Previously Gunjan was a Principal at McKinsey and Company, serving clients across industries on marketing and sales topics and long term performance transformations. She has deep expertise on use of big data/advanced analytics in marketing and sales. Gujan holds an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Hitu Chawla is the India Head for Enterprise Marketing at Microsoft. Hitu has over 16 years of corporate exposure across wide latitude of functions in the areas of strategic consulting, research, relationship & audience marketing, creative leadership and marketing communications. She has previously led Business Management and Strategy at Microsoft and has also worked as a Senior Research Analyst at McKinsey and Company.
Hitu holds an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi.

Dr Jyotsna Puri is the Head of GCF’s Independent Evaluation Unit. She has more than 20 years of experience in evaluation research in agriculture, environment, health and infrastructure related poverty alleviation policies. She is a well-recognized leader in using qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation. Jo has worked in a variety of multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, UNDP, and UNEP. Before joining GCF she was Deputy Executive Director and Head of Evaluation at the International Initiative of Impact Evaluation (3ie). She is also Adjunct Associate Professor, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, USA. Jo holds a Master degree in development economics, and an MSc, as well as a PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics. She has published widely on methods to assess environmental programmes.

Kalpana Rumburg , Vice President, Global Risk Oversight at American Express, is an experienced executive with a distinguished track record as a business and people leader in the financial services industry. She has proven success record in launching new ventures, entering new markets and driving major change initiatives. She has strong credentials in business modeling, comprehensive business process re-design and credit risk management. Kalpana is a creative and strategic thinker with excellent communications skills and ability to engage with C-level executives within an organization. She is a self-directed strategist with a track record of profitable growth within business segments of responsibility.

Currently the Division Legal Counsel at ABB India Limited, Kavery holds an LLB from SDM Law college, Mangalore and LL.M with a specialization in Business Law from National Law School of India. Kavery has worked with the Bangalore International Airport for over half a decade as both the Deputy Manager and Manager and was also a Manager at Novo Nordisk India Pvt. Ltd. Her specialities include negotiating and drafting of various types of contracts and preparation of legal opinions.

Kshama Fernandes is the Managing Director and CEO of IFMR Capital, a NBFC that uses a structured finance approach to provide capital to institutions that work with the financially excluded. She is a founding member of IFMR Trust and IFMR Capital and was the Chief Risk Officer of IFMR Capital before taking over as CEO in 2012. She was responsible for structuring the first Multi Origination Securitisation in 2010, a structure that has now become mainstream, not just in microfinance but across asset classes in India. Over the past eight years, she has been closely involved in institution building via strategy formulation and implementation of the mission of financial inclusion and capital markets access at IFMR Trust and IFMR Capital. She is also a Trustee of IFMR Trust.

Kshama has an MBA, a Ph.D. in Finance, and is a GARP certified Financial Risk Manager. Prior to joining IFMR Trust, she was the Head of the Finance faculty at the Goa Institute of Management. She has been a member of several high powered committees set up by the Government of India related to capital markets as well as financial inclusion, and has extensive experience across policy, financial advisory, consulting, and academia. Kshama is an avid biker, sky diver, sailor, trekker and mountaineer.

Lavang Khare’s expertise lay in business development, media counseling, media and crisis training and organizing employee related programs for local community initiatives among many more. She is currently working for LINOPINION Golin Harris as their executive vice president. Prior to that, she worked with Bharti Walmart, IPAN Hill & Knowlton and Lintas India (Pvt. Ltd.)

Lulu Raghavan is the Managing Director of Landor Mumbai and has been at Landor for the past 17 years. She has worked at Landor’s San Francisco, New York and London offices before establishing the Mumbai office and has vast experience in different international markets. Lulu is a renowned industry commentator and thought leader. She anchored Bloomberg UTV’s Beyond Logo show and is a sought-after speaker and moderator at brand-focused conferences. Lulu was named one of India’s 50 most influential women in media, marketing and advertising in 2015 by IMPACT Magazine.

Mandira is Head of Research at PRS Legilative Research. She led PRS’ engagement with MPs, to provide them legislative and policy support. Mandira also anchored the LAMP Fellowship during its initial years.

Meena is one of India’s foremost business leaders and most successful entrepreneurs with nearly three decades of experience in industries including healthcare, consulting, technology, outsourcing, education and e-commerce.She is MD & CEO of Portea Medical, India’s largest and fastest growing home healthcare company, which she co-founded in July 2013. Meena is leading the charge as the company expands to 50 cities over the next 2 years providing affordable and convenient healthcare solutions. Meena has also been a promoter and board member of TutorVista, and CEO and MD of Pearson Education Services, which included innovative and successful brands such as leading online tutoring company, TutorVista, and Edurite, a provider of technology-based solutions and digital content. As a partner of the platform, Growthstory.in, she is also co-promoter of nearly a dozen, new-age Internet/ Technology enabled start-ups.  She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Bigbasket.com, Bluestone.com and avagmah.com. In addition, she is a non-executive director on the board of a few other private limited companies in the financial services sector.

Prior to her stint with Pearson, Meena set up the Tesco Hindustan Service Center, Tesco’s outsourced IT services and analytics operation in India, and served as the CEO. Meena has also co-founded one of India’s pioneering BPO companies: Customer Asset, which she sold to ICICI OneSource. She was the Chief Operations Officer of Customer Asset and helped build the organization to nearly 4,000 people‚ servicing large corporate customers in UK and US markets.Meena also worked with Microsoft India‚ during which she set up multiple business units including Microsoft Consulting‚ Internet and Application Development/Business services units.

Meena is a PGDM holder from IIM Calcutta has a graduate degree in Physics from the Madras University. In 2011, she was conferred the ‘Distinguished Alumnus’ award by IIM Calcutta. She was also one of the 5 finalists for the Forbes Leadership Award in 2012. In 2015, Meena was among the 7-member jury for the inaugural Economic Times Startup Awards.

Miniya Chatterji is Chief Sustainability Officer for the Jindal Steel and Power Group of Companies. She works closely with the group CEO to ensure long term, holistic, and strategic growth of the group of companies. She represents the changing face of global leaders who are young, distinctly authentic, and female. Miniya is currently on the Steering Group for Sustainability United Nations Global Compact India, the World Steel Association Sustainability Expert Group, jury of the Million Dollar Global Teacher Prize, 100 Women in Hedge Funds network, and loves classic styles in fashion and in art. She is also the founder of the NGO, The Stargazers Foundation that works on education and health for women and children in economically underprivileged regions. She writes for the Harvard Business Review, is a columnist for The Indian Express and The Pioneer in India, and watches more number of old French and Swedish movies than she reads books. She has lived in Agra, Jorhat, Chennai, Lucknow, Delhi, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, New York, London, Cairo, Beijing, Geneva, of which her favourite cities are Jorhat and Paris. Earlier Miniya worked with the World Economic Forum in Geneva, HSBC in Paris, and Goldman Sachs in London. Her first job was that of Policy Analyst with the Chief Advisor to France’s President Jacques Chirac in Paris.

Miniya has a PhD in Political Sciences from Sciences-po Paris during which she was a PhD fellow at Harvard University in Boston and at Columbia University in New York.She has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Sciences-po Paris, and an undergraduate degree from JNU in Delhi. She has Executive Management degrees at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, INSEAD, and at Columbia University, as part of being a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Mishti Bose is currently part of the founding team, to lead launch operations in India for the UK based luxury lifestyle concierge services company Quintessentially Lifestyle. She is responsible for driving strategic and expansion plans, business development, customer retention, service excellence and employee motivation. She was previously engaged with American Express as Head of Product Benefits for Platinum Cards, managing the benefits and experiential marketing portfolios directed towards club members. She also worked for Publicis as Vice President and Mudra as Business Director, where she managed brand and product launches and marketing strategy for key clients. She began her career with J Walter Thompson managing premium key clients. 

Mrs. Bose proves to be a dynamic and a result oriented professional with 18+ years of experience in marketing communications and lifestyle products.

Nirupa is a Director of Brigade Group’s Hospitality division, Brigade Hospitality & a Director of Brigade REAP. She oversees the operations & strategy for the company’s self-managed assets. She also asset manages the group’s hospitality ventures. Nirupa conceptualised and successfully launched a unique lounge bar atop the World Trade Centre-Bangalore, called HIGH Ultra Lounge, the highest point for food and beverage in South India. Prior to joining Brigade she worked as a Senior Business Analyst with Ernst & Young LLP out of the New York, Washington DC and North Carolina offices. She has bachelors in Economics from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Management in Hospitality from Cornell University. She has been identified as one of CNBC’s “Young Turks” and was listed in Hotelier India’s Top 50 Power List 2014. She is the only woman advisory board member for the “Hotelier India” publication. She has been awarded the Young Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, 2014 at the Infra & Realty Sutra Awards, Rising Star Award 2015 – South Asia by the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, Restaurant Owner of the Year – India 2016 at the Hospitality Leaders’ Industry Choice Awards.

Padmaja been in the Indian entrepreneurial eco system for the last 15 years. She operationalised TiE Delhi, number 1 chapter amongst 60 TiE chapters. As Executive Director of Indian Venture Capital Association she helped set up Lankan Angel Network and contributed actively to the Planning Commission’s report : “Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India”. She is actively engaged with the various committees of Ministry of Finance, SEBI, & was involved in the “India Inclusive Innovation Fund”, a US$1 bn. dollar fund which focuses on the Base of the Economic Pyramid to bring public, private & development fund investors, driven by professional management,promising financial & impact returns.

Prior to that she was working with Xansa India, a $800mn company listed on LSE (before being acquired by Steria) and managed recruitment, built brand & communication strategy, led CSR initiative. She was a key member of the corporate strategy & M&A team, when it went public, forged JVs and finally acquisition.

Poonam Muttreja is the Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India (PFI) and a member of the Family Planning 2020 Reference Group. Poonam has more than 30 years of experience in the socio-development sector. Before joining PFI, Poonam worked with the McArthur Foundation as India Country Director where she was responsible for the Foundation’s grants in India which had a focus on population and development issues.

An innovator in the field of development, in the earlier stage of her career she has founded organizations in areas of social justice (SRUTI), craft (DASTKAR) and programs on leadership (Founder Director of the Ashoka Foundation, India) especially in the field of women’s health.

She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Preeta Sukhtankar is the Founder of Label life. Prior to founding Label Corp Pvt. Ltd, she played a management role at a celebrity and entertainment marketing company. Before which she served as Vice President and Publisher of the Apricot group of magazine. She was a producer at MTV India leading the fashion and talent endeavours including conceiving shows like MTV Style Check and MTV Style Awards that shaped the fashion mindset of the young Indian teen. Further, she successfully contributed as part of the ‘early’ team at India’s first fashion magazine ELLE India and was the youngest editor at the Sunday Observer in her teens.

Preeti Reddy has been named the president of global market research agency, IMRB where she currently serves as the Senior Vice-President.

She has close to three decades of experience in research and consulting, working with leading Indian and multinational companies. She joined IMRB in 2009 when she was appointed CEO of LMRB in Sri Lanka. Preeti has also headed Mindscape – the strategic consumer consulting division of India’s leading consulting firm, Technopak and has been a Senior Vice President with TNS – one of the largest marketing information groups in the world. Preeti has earlier worked with the BAT group in India and in management consulting with Besant Raj Consultants. She holds an Honours degree in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, India

Pritha is a Partner in Bridgespan’s Mumbai office. She has advised governments, donors, foundations and philanthropies, multilateral organizations, nonprofits, and the private sector on a wide range of global development challenges. Her experience includes public policy formulation, design and implementation of global development interventions, strategy and financial advisory, and evaluation of programs.

Pritha has been a Research Scholar at the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics where she published on innovative financing of infrastructure at the sub-national level, and municipal finance systems in India and Tanzania. She has also written on immunization and health financing, and presented at seminars and workshops on public health issues.

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Pritha established and led the New Delhi office of Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she co-led the Global Health and Nutrition practice area. Previously, Pritha was a Director at Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) UK, where she worked for almost a decade. She set up CEPA’s first international office in New Delhi and directed development mandates in Asia and Africa across public health, agriculture and infrastructure sectors. Pritha’s earlier responsibilities include being a financial specialist at the World Bank on urban infrastructure projects, and a Senior Consultant at Accenture in London and New Delhi.

Pritha holds a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore including an exchange program at Melbourne Business School. She is a recipient of the Citibank Leadership Award.

Priyadarshini Narendra is a marketing professional with experience of over 17 years with in advertising, brand planning, consulting and innovation. She currently heads the qualitative research division of IMRB in Delhi. She considers herself to be an innovator, a creative thinker and an ideas person. Mrs. Narendra enjoys being in the leadership team at start-up/ fast growth organizations and has substantial experience in leading cross-functional teams. Working with global project teams across multiple projects has honed her project management and delivery skills.

Purnima Sahni Mohanty is a senior communications leader with more than 25 years of experience in setting up, spearheading and executing world class communications programs for Fortune 100 Companies. She helped in the building of the corporate citizenship program for GE in India to become a benchmark and a role model in preserving the environment, promote education, facilitate healthcare plus many more initiatives which gives back to the communities in which we live and work. She currently works for DuPont as Director and head of communications. Her past work experiences include being director of communications for Samsung, GE, Alcatel and Oracle.

Purnima is senior communications leader with outstanding skills and experience in spearheading and executing world class communications programs for Fortune 100 Companies.  Purnima Sahni Mohanty is the Communications Director for Microsoft India and leads the communications function for the organization. Purnima is a senior communications leader with over 27 years of experience in the Industry and joined Microsoft in May 2019. She has a strong blend of global and local expertise having led strategic communications, reputation management, and citizenship programs at DuPont, GE, Samsung, Alcatel and Oracle. Purnima has received prominent industry recognition for her exemplary work in Communications and CSR.

Ms. Rachna Aggarwal serves as the Chief Executive Officer – FLFL Brands at Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited and the Chief Executive Officer of Indus League Clothing Limited as well at Future Ventures India Ltd. Ms. Aggarwal has been advising the Business Ventures engaged in fashion retailing. She has approximately 18 years of experience in brand management, information systems management, and logistics and supply chain management. She served at Madura Garments Limited. She holds bachelor’s degree of science in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and a post-graduate diploma in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Ratna Vishwanathan is Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN). She has served as Deputy CEO, MFIN for the past one year and designated as the Compliance Officer on behalf of the RBI after MFIN was assigned to be a Self Regulatory Organisation by the RBI. She has a combination of government and development sector experience. Belonging to the 1987 batch of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Ms. Vishwanathan comes with extensive experience across a range of departments of the Government of India including Defense and Prasar Bharti. In the development sector she has served at very senior levels in well-known international NGOs such as Oxfam and VSO. She steered these entities through critical change management processes as they transitioned from international liaison offices to national entities.

Reshma Anand is the founder of the Earthy Goods Foundation;a venture that supports agriculture based enterprises in remote parts of India to help them grow into competitive and viable businesses. Reshma graduated from IIM Bangalore in 1997. She worked with Hindustan Unilever Limited and then transitioned to the social sector to work with Development Alternatives and ICICI Bank. Reshma has worked extensively in rural India in areas including Bundelkhand, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Reshma is a TED India Fellow and an Aspen Fellow.

Roxanne Hakim was the first Fellow in Urgent Anthropology and held the post at Goldsmiths College from 1985-1987. She completed her PhD from King’s College, University of Cambridge and recently joined the World Bank under its Young Professionals Program and is based in Washington.

Ms. Rumjhum Chatterjee is a co-founder of Feedback Infrastructure Services and serves as its Managing Director and Head of Human Capital. She started her career with Indian Market Research Bureau and has been involved in the growth and evolution of Feedback Infra since the start up days. She holds key responsibilities in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and has served as the Chairperson for the Delhi State Council for October 2009. She is a member of the HRD committee and the National Committee for Women’s Empowerment.

Rumjhum Chatterjee has become the first woman chairperson of the Confederation of Indian Industry Northern Regional Council for the year 2016-17.

Speaking on the occasion Rumjhum said, “The driving force behind the much-propagated entrepreneurship development and startups are the youth of the nation. India needs to have an improved strategic framework to effectively skill lakhs of people, in skills to help them achieve better careers and job prospects. With this our industries will be more competitive and give real teeth to the ambitions of Make in India, the Digital Literacy Mission and the dreams of a 100 Smart Cities”.

Samina Vaziralli is part of the senior management team at Cipla, and the grand-daughter of the founder, K A Hamied.

Samina has played a significant role in the company’s ongoing leadership transition and transformation process. She is currently engaged in leading the Project Management Office (PMO) for the India business that is focusing on building the key strategic enablers like HR, Distribution, Portfolio and Project Management for India. She is also leading Cipla’s Consumer Healthcare initiatives.

She has previously executed roles with the investment management division of Goldman Sachs, overseas. Samina brings diverse experience of working in the United States, the United Kingdom, and more recently India. Samina graduated from the London School of Economics with a MSc. in Finance.

Sasha Sanyal is Genpact’s global leader for Corporate Strategy, Lean Six Sigma & Transitions. In this capacity, Sasha is responsible for building and executing Genpact’s five-year financial blueprint and capability strategy for Genpact’s industry verticals, horizontal solutions and services offerings, and geographies. As the leader of the company’s Corporate Initiatives Group (CIG), she is also responsible for key capability build initiatives in areas such as mobility, crowdsourcing and risk.

Prior to this, Sasha was responsible for Smart Enterprise Processes (SEPSM). SEPSM is Genpact’s proprietary methodology for measuring the effectiveness of end-to-end business processes that was built using data and experience gathered across 2,500 processes and millions of transactions since Genpact’s inception. Sasha was involved in the development of the framework and its supporting solutions, creating a key differentiator that generates significant and measurable business outcomes for Genpact clients. In her 10+ years at Genpact, Sasha has held additional roles of increasing responsibility including business development for the financial services vertical and digitization leader. In her role as digitization leader, Sasha led the revamping of the processes, analysis, delivery and support of Genpact’s digitization initiatives.

Sasha joined Genpact from EXL where she held various management roles in operations and transitions and as a relationship manager for EXL’s largest insurance client. Prior to EXL, she spent five years as an IT consultant at Ernst & Young where she was part of a team that was responsible for the start-up of firm’s operations in India.

Sathya helps craft and support the implementation of the medium term business plan for the company. She comes with deep experience and expertise in management consulting, particularly in government, non-profits, healthcare and infrastructure over eight years with McKinsey & Company. She has had wide-ranging experience formulating strategy for public sector, private sector and multinational clients and has led operational implementation and organisational capability building programmes as well.

Sathya holds a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore,USA.

Seema Bansal leads The Boston Consulting Group’s Social Impact practice in India and is a member of the firm’s People & Organization and Public Sector practices. She earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and a degree in electronics and electrical communication from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. Since joining BCG, Seema has worked extensively in financial services and telecommunications, focusing primarily on strategy, operational excellence, culture, and organization design. She has significant experience in organization-related topics and has spearheaded BCG’s work on aspiration-driven transformation. Seema Bansal forged a path to public education reform for 15,000 schools in Haryana, India, by setting an ambitious goal: by 2020, 80 percent of children should have grade-level knowledge. She’s looking to meet this goal by seeking reforms that will work in every school without additional resources. Bansal and her team have found success using creative, straightforward techniques such as communicating with teachers using SMS group chats, and they have already measurably improved learning and engagement in Haryana’s schools.

Shradha Sharma believes that people are just as extraordinary as they believe themselves to be. On this premise she founded YourStory in 2008, with the aim of championing the untold stories of entrepreneurship in India. She strongly believes that stories have the power to transform, connect and inspire people all over the world. But she is more curious about the stories people live than the ones that they tell. She is keen to look into the unembellished, true and raw stories of people’s. Furthermore, making these stories matter is what she tries to portray at YourStory every day.

In these seven years her team has incubated the narratives of over 20,000 entrepreneurs. Mrs. Sharma’s prior mainstream media experience at CNBC and Times of India gives her an understanding of how media businesses run, what works and what does not and she therefore relies on those learnings to everyday improve and channelize herself to be a better professional and create a business that makes a difference.

Shuchi Sinha: Partner, AZB & Partners

With a decade of experience in the practice of corporate law, Shuchi Sinha has worked in mergers and acquisitions, private equity investment and debt finance. She has advised a large number of clients including multilateral international organisations, foreign banks and Indian corporate houses.

She was one of the lead Partners advising the investor in a foreign direct investment M&A deal in the Indian telecom infrastructure sector that won the M&A Deal of the Year – South Asia award at the Asia Legal Awards 2016, held recently in Hong Kong.

Prior to her law practice, Shuchi spent many years in journalism, including at India Today magazine where she covered various beats, including business and legal.

Shveta Raina is an entrepreneur aiming to make a difference. She is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and returned home to India to set up a new venture –Talerang– to develop skills in India’s workforce. She led an independent research project at HBS under the guidance of Professor Das Narayan Das to find a solution to India’s employability crisis, which grew into a business-plan and finally into her start-up, Talerang. Her research and pilots were funded by a grant from the Social Enterprise Initiative at HBS. Mrs. Raina has been recognized as one of India Inc’s Rising Women Leaders (2015) by the Economic Times Corporate Dossier and Spencer Stuart India.

Prior to HBS, Shveta Raina was on the start-up team of Teach For India as the Director of Recruitment, Marketing and Selection. Under her leadership, Teach For India launched a nationwide campaign and successfully brought in hundreds of young leaders to teach full-time in low-income schools in India. She started her career as a consultant at McKinsey’s New York City office, where she worked on client engagements for several global financial institutions, and founded and ran the Female Business Analyst Mentorship Program (North America). She graduated Magna cum Laude from Brown University in Applied Mathematics, International Studies and Economics.

Shweta Jain is the Marketing Head at William Grants. Shweta has an extensive premiumisation strategy, cross cultural team management and new product development experience on various consumer product genres. She also has an eclectic experience across advertising, commercial comms & account management arenas that define the early foundations of her work life.

Simeran Bhasin’s initial experience in sales across 2 industries gave her valuable hands-on experience at the ground level, as well as a keen understanding of how business and brand strategy ultimately plays out in the field. She started off handling brands across diverse consumer segments – children, youth and luxury, giving her the exposure to experiment with and understand how aspirational brands need to operate in each of these segments. Furthermore, the opportunity and freedom given to her at this early stage to reposition and relaunch a youth brand Fastrack, became her calling card.

In March 2014, she moved on to her next challenge – homegrown outdoor gear brand, Wildcraft. A challenge not just to build a brand with far fewer resources and backing, but a challenge to create an outdoors culture and lead and shape the contours of the outdoor industry in India.

Ms. Suparna Mitra has been the Chief Marketing Officer of Watches & Accessories at Titan Company Limited since mid 2015. She has 13 years of experience and worked at Arvind Brands Limited. She holds a BE., and a PGDM degrees.

Swati Rustagi is Max Healthcare’s Chief People officer, responsible for designing and implementing differentiated, best in Class People & Leadership practices for the 15000 people of Max healthcare with a view to enabling them to succeed both professionally and personally. With the support of her team, Swati is reinvigorating leadership and talent practices to create the most truly human work environment, fueling MHC’s differentiation in the market and ability to improve the way the patient care is delivered. Swati Rustagi has a very strong background in HR, Executive Leadership & Change Management and is a strong advocate for inclusion and diversity.Prior to joining Max Health Care, Swati was the Global Head of Human Resources at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, managing the HR function across 32 countries & 10,000 employees.Swati is an Economics graduate from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai University and holds a post-graduate qualification in Human Resources from TISS Mumbai. She is a Dorab Tata scholar and holds several certifications such as OD certification from NTL USA, certification in ISO 9002 Audit, Total Productivity Maintenance Instructor from Japanese Institute of Plant Management, Coaching Skills certification from Hay group as well as an Executive Coach certification from ICT.

Upasana joined MobiKwik with a mission to simplify payment acceptance for retailers in India.From a handful of early employees to a headcount of around 200, Upasana has been chiefly responsible for holding things together at MobiKwik, keeping the team focused on the goal of making MobiKwik payments ubiquitous in India.

Her current focus is to bring a million retailers into the MobiKwik payments network. She is also in charge of bank partnerships, business operations, and talent acquisition at MobiKwik. Upasana comes with a strong background in payments as a senior product manager with PayPal in the Silicon Valley and prior to that with HSBC in San Diego, US.

Upasana graduated with Bachelors in Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and holds a Masters in Management Science from Stanford University. She has 13 years of extensive experience in Payments & Financial Services and has been an entrepreneur in India for over 7 years now. Away from web products and startups, Upasana can be found traveling to offbeat destinations or doing triathlons.

Acknowledging her achievements in the tech startup ecosystem of India she was featured by Forbes under “Asia’s Women to Watch in 20

Urmil Khurana is the Regional Director Finance-South Asia for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Prior to this she served as Vice President Finance-Northern Region

Vaishali Nigam Sinha is the Chief Sustainability, CSR and Communication Officer at ReNew Power, which is India’s largest renewable energy IPP (Independent Power Producer). Under the ambit of ReNew India Initiative (RII), Vaishali drives the company’s engagement, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives. A strong advocate of equal participation of women in economic activities, Vaishali is also passionate about Climate Change, Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership. She has been a speaker at international forums like the Clinton Global Initiative and United Nations Global Compact Network India (UN GCNI). She is a President’s invitee to Columbia World Projects – a high-level forum at Columbia University created to tackle major global challenges. She also serves on the President’s Advisory Council at Wellesley College. Vaishali has been leading from the front to convert her passion into affirmative action in the areas of Climate Change and Gender Equality and to that effect, is deeply engaged with industry bodies, think tanks and educational institutions.

She is the Chairperson of the UN GCNI Gender Committee; Member of the Steering Committee of CII Foundation Woman Exemplar Program and an active member of the Women Presidents’ Organization. To help sustain the earth for future generations, Vaishali chairs the Northern Region Committee on CSR and Affirmative Action and the CII Task Force on Making NCR Less Polluted. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Advisory Council of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development.

Vaishali is a recipient of the CSR Leadership Award 2015 at the National Awards for Excellence in CSR and Sustainability; and is a jury member of India Impact CSR – Business Awards (IICBA) 2017 that recognizes and awards grassroots NGOs and innovators. Vaishali has a Masters’ in Public Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she was an American Association of University Women (AAUW) scholar. After stints on Wall Street and then London as an investment banker, she returned to India, where after several years in banking, she is a social entrepreneur.

Valerie has over 18 years of experience in the field of communications and image management. She has been a strategic counselor to fortune 500 companies and C-suite executives on shaping their reputation with influential stakeholders. She has been nominated as top 40 professionals under 40 by Campaign Asia Across media advertising digital and PR in 2015. She has a successful track record of entering new markets / businesses in India and turning them around and placing them on a growth and trajectory.

As the CEO of Weber Shandwick in india, Valerie is tasked with the role of building profile for the brand in with a focus on content first approach. The key focus is to change the game and raise service standards not just within the company but in the PR industry as a whole.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, valerie was with Perfect Relations, where she built the agency to become one of the largest Public Relations consultancies in India with over 400 professionals and 200 prestigious clients. Under her leadership, the firm grew to become a force to reckon with in business sectors such as Consumer and lifestyle, corporate and finance, technology, litigation management, crisis communications and digital PR.

Furthermore, prior to working with Perfect Relations Valerie held a communications role in UTV India. She started her career as a sales and marketing professional with Taj Group of Hotels, Cadbury’s India and Standard Chartered Bank.

Valerie holds a postgraduate degree in communications from Xavier’s Institute of Communications. She has been a topper in Economics from Mumbai University. A National Level Heptathlon Athlete and a State level Basketball Player are her achievement in sports. In her personal life, she is described as an avid traveler for food, an animal lover and a talented pastry chef.