Salil Parekh
Chief Executive and Managing Director of Infosys
Salil Parekh has around thirty years of global experience in the IT services industry with a strong track record of driving digital transformation for enterprises, executing business turnarounds, and managing successful acquisition. Before Infosys, Parekh was a member of the Group Executive Board at Capgemini. There, he worked at a number of leadership positions over a period of 25 years. He was hailed for steering applications and cloud infrastructure services in the company that helped in rapid client additions. Parekh has Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. He did his Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT Bombay.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Cofounder, Info Edge
Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the cofounder of Info Edge which owns Naukri.com, 99acres and, Jeevansathi online portals. He is also the co-founder of Ashoka University besides investing actively in startups through Info Edge and its venture arm. Bikhchandani counts Zomato and Policybazaar as two of its top technology investments–which are also now publicly listed firms. Some of his other early-stage bets include Shopkirana, Sunrise Mentors, Shipsy, and Dotpe among others. In 2020, he was given the Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian award in India. Bikhchandani completed his schooling from St. Columba’s School, graduation from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Shailendra Singh
Managing Director, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia
Shailendra joined Sequoia Capital India in 2006 and has been instrumental in shaping the firm’s presence in India and the ASEAN region. Over the last 16 years, Sequoia India & SEA has raised 13 funds dedicated to this region, and invested in over 500 startups at seed, venture and growth stages, across multiple sectors. Singh led the firm’s expansion into ASEAN region a decade ago. He also launched the firm’s seed stage program, Surge, which has had a major impact on the seed landscape in the region. In addition to his role in India & SEA, Singh has served on the firm’s Global Governing Council since 2013. Singh has advised on investments in multiple category leading companies including Carousell, Cred, Druva, Gojek, MPL, Pine Labs, Tokopedia and Unacademy. He was included on the Forbes Midas List of top global VCs in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay. Singh is also a Kauffman Fellow.
Arundhati Bhattacharya
CEO, Salesforce India
In April 2020, a few years into retirement, Arundhati Bhattacharya, the first Chairwoman of the State Bank of India, took up a new role as chairperson and CEO of Salesforce, India. Her move to Salesforce, a US software company, marked the beginning of a bold new professional chapter on several fronts; moving from the public sector to the private sector, from banking to technology, and from working for a legacy Indian institution to an American company that was only starting to expand in the country. Under her leadership, Salesforce has significantly expanded its presence in the country, and is engaging with the broader ecosystem of academia and industry as well.
Sriharsha Majety
Cofounder & CEO, Swiggy
Sriharsha Majety, a BITS Pilani and IIM-Calcutta alumnus, cofounded Swiggy with Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini in 2014. The company is among the two biggest food delivery companies in the country along with the publically listed Zomato. Today, Swiggy is the most valuable startup in the country after Byju’s valued at $10.7 billion. Backed by the likes of SoftBank, Tencent, Accel Partners and Prosus Ventures, Swiggy has diversified beyond food-delivery during the pandemic to expand into quick commerce, pick-up and drop-off service, and a new direct-to-commerce e-commerce platform called Minis.
Girish Mathrubootham
Founder & CEO, Freshworks
Girish Mathrubootham is founder and CEO of Freshworks. He co-founded the company in 2010, overseeing its growth from an idea to a multi-billion dollar software enterprise listed on the Nasdaq. Freshworks’ public listing worth $13 billion last year marked a significant milestone for India’s startup journey, bolstering ambitions of several Indian entrepreneurs to take their companies to global exchanges. Under his leadership, Freshworks has expanded its operations to 13 global locations to serve over 50,000 customers throughout the world. Being one of the foremost names in the Indian software-as-service (SaaS) circuit, Mathrubootham is also a prominent venture capital investor and adviser to over 60 companies, and a founding member of SaaSBOOMi, Asia’s largest community of founders and product builders.
Satyan Gajwani,
Vice chairman, Times Internet
Satyan Gajwani is the vice-chairman of Times Internet, the digital arm of Times Group that reaches over 450 million online users a month through its internet companies like Gaana, MX Player, Cricbuzz, MagicBricks, among others. Gajwani grew up in Miami in the US and did his graduation in mathematical and computational science and his masters in management science and engineering from Stanford University. He then worked as a consumer equities trader at Lehman Brothers for a year between 2007-08 before the global recession hit the world economy. Late 2008, Gajwani moved to India and joined The Times Group where he worked for over a year and a half across print, radio and television departments, and eventually joined its digital new media entity, now called Times Internet.
Hemant Taneja
Managing Director, General Catalyst;
Hemant Taneja is managing partner at General Catalyst, the US-based venture capital firm he joined in 2002. An investor in Anduril, Grammarly, Gusto, Samsara and Stripe, he scored a big win for his firm as an investor in social media platform Snap. More recently, Taneja’s focused on healthcare. General Catalyst has decided to increase its India focus now after having invested in startups like Cred.Taneja is also on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, and he has worked on climate and energy issues as the cofounder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy besides being a founding board member of Khan Lab School, an innovative K-12 school.
Lizzie Chapman
Cofounder & CEO, ZestMoney;
Lizzie Chapman’s journey in financial services goes back to 2003 when she joined Goldman Sachs in London. In 2011, she moved from the United Kingdom to India to set-up and spearhead the India operations for digital lender Wonga, one of the biggest fintech companies in the world at that point. In 2015, amid a funding frenzy in the startup ecosystem locally, she founded ZestMoney with former colleagues from Wonga, to make digital credit accessible to the masses. Chapman currently serves on the boards of – B2B marketplace, IndiaMart; early-stage venture fund, IndiaQuotient and hospital chain, Cloudnine Hospitals. Last year, she was nominated by the Government of India to the National Startup Council and advises the government on measures to nature and boost innovation in the country. Chapman is also part of the Innovation Council at the National Payments Corporation of India.
Sahil Barua
Cofounder & CEO, Delivery
Sahil Barua is the cofounder & CEO of ecommerce focussed logistics company Delhivery. In a year when tech companies, not just in India, but across the world, saw their valuations plummet, Sahil Barua’s Delhivery decided to go public. Barua, who keeps a low profile, is known for his execution chops in scaling the core business while quietly building verticals for new revenue streams. Delhivery’s market leadership in express parcel delivery, which is focussed on ecommerce shipments, looks stronger than ever before. It is also doubling down on B2B verticals and sees this becoming bigger in future. Delhivery won the prestigious Startup of the Year category at the ET Startup Awards in 2019. Before confounding Delhivery, Barua, an IIM- Bangalore graduate, was a consultant at Bains and Co.
