Speakers

Neeraj Akhoury
CEO India Holcim and Managing Director & CEO, Ambuja Cements Ltd.

Mr. Akhoury brings with him over 28 years of rich experience in the steel and cement industries. He has worked in leadership roles in India and other emerging markets. He began his career with Tata Steel in 1993 and joined the LafargeHolcim Group in 1999. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Lafarge India, heading Corporate Affairs followed by Sales. In 2011, he moved to Nigeria as CEO & Managing Director of Lafarge AshakaCem PLC. Thereafter, he was appointed as Strategy & Business Development Director for Middle East & Africa at the Lafarge headquarters in Paris. He was also CEO of Lafarge Surma Cement Limited and Country representative of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh.

Mr. Akhoury moved to India as Managing Director & CEO of ACC Limited in February 2017 and in February this year took over his current role.

Mr. Akhoury has a degree in Economics and MBA from the University of Liverpool; General Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur; and an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

Sumit Gupta
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, CoinDCX

Sumit Gupta is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CoinDCX, India’s largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange and liquidity aggregator. Beginning his journey in the world of business at the age of eight, Sumit showed an early proclivity for entrepreneurship. When Bitcoin began gaining traction in 2014, Sumit saw the potential of leveraging blockchain technology to enable financial inclusion. He actualised this vision by founding CoinDCX, which has grown to become India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. At CoinDCX, Sumit has been the driving force behind onboarding 50 million Indians into crypto. To turn that statement into a reality, Sumit has been instrumental in introducing CoinDCX Go- an app that simplifies buying and selling crypto in minimal steps, through INR. He holds an Undergraduate and Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Vipul Sabharwal
Managing Director, Luminous Power Technologies

Vipul Sabharwal is the Managing Director of Luminous Power Technologies and is responsible for all company operations. Vipul joined Luminous in September 2014 and has been part of the Luminous family for almost six years now. Vipul is a strategic leader and has been a catalyst for driving growth for Luminous Power Technologies.

A highly skilled Sales and Marketing leader, Vipul has over three decades of experience spanning across FMCG, Telecom and White Goods industries. He has brought extensive knowledge of the retail space to the company, gathered through multiple business leadership roles.

Vipul Sabharwal previously worked with companies such as Whirlpool Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Gillette India and Nokia. He was instrumental in launching new products and building new categories for businesses in several of these companies.

Vipul is an Economics (Honours) graduate from Delhi University and an alumnus of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Himanshu Bakshi
Managing Director, Danone India

Himanshu is the managing director of Danone India and is responsible for leading India operations. A results-driven business leader, Himanshu comes with more than 21 years of experience in some of the most competitive FMCG, OTC Healthcare and Surface Care categories across multiple geographies and cultures. He has handled large teams in varied roles across sales and marketing including management of multi-functional and multi-cultural teams, management of media, market research and design agencies, and sales and commercial Management in different geographies. Himanshu began his career with Dabur and moved to PepsiCo. He started his brand marketing journey with Reckitt Benckiser, responsible for marketing brands like Lizol and Dettol. Himanshu joined Danone as a marketing director in 2013. In June 2015, he was promoted to the post of Director, marketing, and commercial operations. In August 2017, he moved up to director - marketing, heading the marketing function for all business verticals. Under his leadership, Protinex started its trajectory from an OTC brand to a consumer-facing brand with key initiatives launched to forge awareness around the relevance of protein. He was elevated as an interim MD in September 2018.

Shreevar Kheruka
CEO & MD, Borosil Ltd.

Mr. Shreevar Kheruka is the Managing Director of Borosil Glass Works Ltd, India’s largest glassware company established in 1962. He is responsible for delivering growth for the consumer and scientific divisions. Under the leadership of Mr Kheruka, Borosil diversified from a laboratory glassware company to becoming a complete lifestyle brand with an incredible product diversification now including kitchen appliances, storage containers, hydration bottles and kitchenware among others.

Mr Kheruka holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science in Economics with a concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School of Business and Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an active member of The Entrepreneurs' Organization. In his leisure time, Mr Kheruka enjoy traveling, scuba diving and playing tennis.

Shreevar Kheruka has been recognised and selected as a WEF’s Young Global Leaders for the class of 2021.

Anand Bhadkamkar
CEO, dentsu India

Coming soon...

Rohit Dosi
Director - Microsoft Advertising, InMobi

Coming soon...

Venkatesh Adavi
Vice President - Monetization, Strategy and Partnerships, Verse Innovation, Josh

Coming soon...

Mani Rangarajan
Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com

Mani Rangarajan is the Group Chief Operating Officer- Housing.com, PropTiger.com, Makaan.com and is responsible for all business lines and operations (Housing, PropTiger, Makaan)

Mani has extensive global experience in P&L management, monetization, operations, finance and strategy in the internet and financial services sectors in over 25 countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle- East, Asia and Africa. Mani has held executive level roles in companies such as Citigroup, Yahoo! and with leading Silicon Valley start-up companies including Boku, Kosmix, Cloudera and the Climate Corporation. He has also held advisory roles in several start-ups in India.

Mani started his career with Citibank where he acquired a strong expertise in operations and risk management and was considered a global expert in the transaction services business. Post Citibank, he joined Yahoo! and worked closely with the executive team on strategic planning, business operations, corporate finance, investor relations and data solutions. For the past seven years, Mani has been a part of the Silicon Valley start-up community and was on the management team of start-ups with responsibilities across revenue, business development, monetization, operations, and finance including fund-raising and M&A.

Mani holds an M.B.A degree from the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He is also a PGDM from IIM Kolkata and a qualified Cost & Works Accountant.

Sidharth Shakdher
EVP & CMO, Hotstar

Sidharth leads marketing and consumer growth at Disney+ Hotstar. His mandate traverses the entire consumer journey from freemium users to subscribers, and he leads the direct-to-consumer acquisitions, marketing and communications, and partnership marketing. With vast experience in spearheading marketing and business mandates across the US, India and South-East Asia, Sidharth has been one of the key people responsible for building Hotstar. Prior to joining Disney+ Hotstar, Sidharth led one of the largest retail categories for Amazon in the US. He worked with Reckitt Benckiser before that, also in the US, leading some of its most successful new product launches and building Reckitt’s digital business. He holds an MBA degree from Cornell University in the US, and a BE from Pune University, India.

Ashish Lingamneni
Head of Brand, Swiggy

Coming soon....

Esha Nagar
Managing Director, Nepa India Pvt Ltd

Esha Nagar leads the country hat for Nepa India. She is based in Mumbai and overseas Nepa research and client development efforts across a range of vertical industries. Esha brings in vast experience through her multiple stints at Kantar & Nielsen prior to Nepa, where she led the West Region Media and Digital practices, among other roles. Over her career, Esha has worked in both the research focused consulting side and business development space in the industry. Her work cuts across multiple verticals like Consumer - Retail panels, Digital focused solutions, Path-to-Purchase Understanding & Media Effectiveness. All things around content, campaigns and marketing come from a place of personal passion for Esha. She is also responsible for shaping the culture of Nepa in India. Nepa is a Stockholm Headquartered leading consumer science firm with a mantra of delivering insights that matter. The India team is young, unconventional and is creating fluid solutions in digital consumer science for their clients in content & beyond.

Siddharth Dabhade
Managing Director - India & SAARC, MiQ

Siddharth is currently the Managing Director of MiQ India & SAARC. In his current role he is responsible for commercial business & operations for MiQ in India and SAARC region.

Siddharth has an extensive experience in the technology industry and has worked with major technology giants like Criteo, Google, Microsoft and IBM. In his earlier role he was the Managing Director for Criteo India, leading the business and operations. Having worked with Google for almost seven years, Siddharth was heading its India travel business. One of his key achievements was balancing client satisfaction with innovations in the industry and growing the business 10x. During his stint at the technology conglomerates Microsoft and IBM, he headed business expansion for the southern India region, looked after country sales operations and channel sales.

Siddharth is a mindfulness practitioner and likes to understand how these practices change the thought patterns and outlook which can help navigate life & work in a better way.

Sai Narayan
Chief Marketing Officer, Paisabazaar.com

Sai Narayan is the Chief Marketing Officer of Paisabazaar.com - India's largest lending marketplace and credit score platform.

Sai is one of India's most prominent marketing professionals, with over 15 years of experience leading teams and creating compelling brand stories and consumer experiences. His extensive marketing background includes an impressive body of work in varied marketing verticals like advertising, brand, digital marketing, consumer research and insights along with social media, PR and communications.

As CMO of Paisabazaar.com, Sai spearheads brand, digital marketing, PR and social media efforts at Paisabazaar.com. Right from the onset, the core focus for Paisabazaar.com's team under Sai has been on deep business-linked performance marketing.

Prior to taking over this role, Sai was Director & Head of Marketing at Policybazaar.com Group. Sai has played a pivotal role as a marketing leader in establishing both Policybazaar and Paisabazaar as household consumer brands.

During his career, he has also held prominent marketing and brand management positions at leading insurance companies like Max Life insurance and Aviva India. During the early part of his career, he worked with top advertising agencies like JWT and Publicis India.