VCCircle

Prior to founding CX Partners, Ajay Relan headed Citigroup's Private Equity business in India since its inception in 1995. During this period he has demonstrated a strong and recurring ability to identify very early strong managements in sectors that were undergoing dramatic change, accelerated growth and improving margins. His excellent relationship skills and ability to add value to entrepreneurs often resulted in getting preferential deal pricing for Citigroup over other private equity investors. Ajay is a B.A.Economics with honors from St. Stephens College, Delhi University and an MBA from I.I.M., Ahmedabad.

Rahul Bhasin is the Managing Partner of Baring Private Equity Partners India and a Senior Partner and Global Board Member of Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP) International. Rahul is also a member of the Investment Committee at Baring Vostok Capital Partners and has also been an advisory board member of the ING group in India. He serves on the boards of various companies funded by Barings in India partnering with the entrepreneurs and senior management for building and growing their businesses. He has served as the Chairman of MphasiS BFL Limited and oversaw its transformation from a loss making to a profit making company, instituted ESOP schemes for talent retention, introduced transparency and corporate governance, facilitated a management change and drove a consolidation and bulking up strategy.  The company was recently acquired by EDS (and subsequently by HP) and enjoys a market cap in excess of $ 3.0 billion. He has served as the Chair of the Audit and Investment Committee of HOEC, one of the largest independent Oil & Gas players in India. He presently serves on the boards of Sphaera Pharma, Auro Mira Energy, JRG Securities, Integra Software Services and Cethar Vessels Ltd.

Prior to Barings, Rahul was in the Global Asset Allocation Committee of the Global Asset Management Group at Citibank based in London. Besides his experience in the developed markets, he has actively invested in the emerging markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and India. In addition to equity markets, he has also managed a portfolio of derivative securities in the developed markets.  Prior to moving to London, he was the youngest Independent Treasurer within the Citibank system as Treasurer, Northern India. Rahul is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Praneet Singh is a Managing Director of Siguler Guff and head of the Firm's Mumbai office.  Mr. Singh joined Siguler Guff in September 2008 and brings a unique mix of operations, marketing and consulting experience to the BRIC Opportunities Fund investment team.

Prior to joining Siguler Guff, Mr. Singh headed the $325 million Indian operations of Piramal Healthcare Limited, India's fourth largest pharmaceutical company.  Prior to that, he worked for more than seven years in the Mumbai, Delhi, Boston and Santiago offices of McKinsey and Company, focusing on operations, marketing and strategy.  Mr. Singh also worked in marketing at Procter & Gamble in India for five years.  He was born and raised in Delhi, India.

Mr. Singh holds a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata.

Achal is the Founder and Managing Partner of Avigo Capital Partners (Avigo), a Private Equity Firm based in India. He started the firm in 2003 after having spent 20 years in Corporate & Investment Banking across India, Dubai & Canada with International banks like American Express, HSBC, SCB, EBIL and more recently six years as Director-Western Canada/USA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, specializing in Corporate Finance, Equity Investing and Investment banking.
 
Achal serves as a director on several company boards and advises conglomerates in Canada, UK, Malaysia, Dubai & India.
 
He has extensive experience in structuring capital market listing & private equity transactions. He has the proven ability to add value through corporate governance & liquidity enhancing measures. His in depth involvement in PE investments beginning from deal initiation, investment (negotiation, deal structuring, term sheet, legal documentation, funding) to the IPO provides the competitive edge in terms of being the ‘PE Investor’ of choice.
 
Achal is a Bachelor of Commerce and MBA by education.

Jason Sambanju joined Paul Capital in August 2007 as a Director of its newly-established Hong Kong office. His responsibilities include transaction sourcing and execution and the general development of Paul Capital’s business within the Asian region. Mr. Sambanju’s 11 years of transactional experience include over 7 years at Symphony Capital Partners, one of the longest-established private equity groups in Asia. As a Principal, Mr. Sambanju executed transactions across a wide range of industries and geographies, as well as providing business development support to investee companies. Prior to this, Mr. Sambanju was an Associate in Deutsche Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions investment banking group in New York. Mr. Sambanju has dual bachelor degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (from the Wharton School and College of Arts & Sciences) and spent a year at the London School of Economics.

Kiran focuses on fund investment activities across sectors, including fund due diligence and evaluation, as well as monitoring existing investments.  He participates in all Investment Committee meetings.  As a former physician trained in neurosurgery and strategy consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, Kiran’s knowledge and experience is particularly deep in biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services.  He also actively works with GSA’s India funds.  Kiran brings leadership to GSA’s performance analytic capabilities and is an important contributor to mining GSA’s databases, as well as client portfolios, to evaluate performance of current and potential fund managers.

Prior to joining GSA in 2009, Kiran was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. He has experience leading strategy consulting projects and developing client relationships across three continents with BCG, having worked for significant periods in BCG's Boston, Zurich and Mumbai offices.  Kiran worked on a broad range of strategy, finance, and operations projects in a variety of industries ranging from healthcare and financial services to consumer and industrial goods.  He specialized in BCG's healthcare practice area where he led cases with large pharma, medical technology and health services companies.

Education:
MBBS, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (Bangalore)
MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Fluent in Hindi and Kannada

Deepak I. Shahdadpuri is the Founder and Managing Director of BCP Advisors, advisors to the Beacon India Private Equity Fund ($320M under management including co-investment pool).  Prior to that he was Managing Director at private equity fund GEM India Advisors, and worked with Reuters Venture Capital and Bain & Company. Deepak is a FCA (ICAEW) and qualified as a UK Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young.   Deepak currently serves on the board of Baker's Circle, Bhayana Builders, Impresario, Indostar Capital Finance, Sula Wines, Saffronart, Vatika and Trak.  Deepak also serves on the Advisory Board of Dawn Capital, a UK focused VC Fund. Deepak has an MBA with distinction from INSEAD (Dean's List) and an LLB (Hons) from King's College London.

Nirav Kachalia is a Managing Director of Investments at Morgan Creek and one of the founding members of the investment team with a principal focus on private investments. Mr. Kachalia joined Morgan Creek in December 2004 and during his tenure the firm has completed approximately $2.8 billion in commitments to private assets. In January of 2007, after several years of covering the Asia Pacific region, Nirav moved with his family to Hong Kong to open and head Morgan Creek's Hong Kong office. Prior to joining Morgan Creek, Mr. Kachalia was co-founder and Vice President for Strategy for HiFusion, an education technology company. Mr. Kachalia assisted in all start-up activities including raising over $16 million and growing the company to over 150 employees before negotiating a successful sale to a joint venture corporation established by Sylvan Learning Systems and Aether Systems. Prior to starting HiFusion, Mr. Kachalia was an Associate at Winslow Partners, the personal investment vehicle for Kenneth Brody, a former Management Committee member of Goldman, Sachs. At Winslow he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investment opportunities within early stage and late stage private equity. Prior to joining Winslow Partners, Mr. Kachalia was in the Investment Banking Program at Morgan Stanley in the health care group, where he analyzed and executed strategic corporate finance alternatives for both small and large capitalization companies. Mr. Kachalia received his Bachelor of Science in Biology and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Vincent is a partner of Pantheon, a premier private equity fund of funds with over USD24bn under management globally. He is in charge of investments in growth equity and venture funds in Asia with a particular focus on China and India. He is personally responsible for deploying USD~500m and sits on over 10 advisory boards of leading private equity and venture funds such as TPG Asia, Baring Asia, and Hony Capital. Vincent is a member of Pantheon’s global co-investment committee and is leading the firm’s direct investment efforts in Asia.

Prior to joining Pantheon in December 2004, Vincent was the Chief Representative for AIGGIC’s Shanghai office, where he was responsible for the firm’s direct investment activities in mainland China for over three years.

Before his private equity career, Vincent was the Chief Representative of Merrill Lynch’s Shanghai office, where he was responsible for deal origination in Eastern China. He also worked at investment banking divisions of Schroders and Robertson, Stephens & Co. since 1995, all based in China.

Vincent received a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 1991. He is now based in Hong Kong.

Gopal is the founder and a Chairman of TVS-Electronics, Director of Sundaram-Clayton Ltd, and several other TVS Group businesses. Gopal has incubated over eight businesses, and has over twenty five years of operational experience in India, along with a wide network of relationships across the world.

Gopal has been serving as the Board member of several Indian companies further, he was the Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu State Council for the fiscal year 2007-08.  He is also the Chairman for India-Taiwan task force at CII National Council. He has served as the President of Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) for the fiscal year 95-96. Gopal earned a B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai and an MBA from University of Michigan, USA.

Over the course of his career, Gopal has founded several companies operating in diverse sectors including computer peripherals, technology, financial services, and auto components. Many of these businesses started by Gopal are operational today, and a professional management team is in place to run these businesses. TVS Electronics, a company he established in 1986 has revenue of about Rs.191 crores in 2008-09. The company provides transaction automation products and has market leadership position in the dot-matrix printer segment.

Another business that Gopal started, Harita Seating, is in the business of manufacturing and supplying vehicle seats and has sales of Rs.198 crores in 2008-09. Other companies that Gopal has founded and are currently operational include TVS Finance & Services, Harita Plastics, TVS-E Technology, TVS-E Servicetec and Harita Techserv. In addition, Gopal has successfully exited several businesses including TVS Whirlpool, TVS Contract Manufacturing, Harita Networks

Rohan is a Managing Partner at Capvent India Private Equity (CIPE) and Partner at Capvent AG. He is responsible for sourcing and managing our fund investments in India. He has been working with Capvent for three years, and came on board CIPE in 2007. Previously, he was Founder & CEO of Indiamarkets.com, a pioneer in the online and offline B2B eCommerce in India with volumes over US$ 1 billion in transaction volume over the past four years. He began his career as a credit rating research analyst with CRISIL-S&P, then as an Investment Banker at Trans Arabian Investment Bank (TAIB) and advised MAPE, an Indian investment bank, on investment opportunities in India. He holds a Masters degree in Finance and International Business from the University of Houston.

Jennifer Choi manages EMPEA’s member and industry engagement initiatives. Jennifer runs the association's regional Member Councils, and works with EMPEA's Legal and Regulatory Council to encourage policy frameworks that support the growth of the asset class. A frequent speaker and commentator on the industry, Jennifer also oversees the association's communications with the media and non-industry audiences, as well as EMPEA's institutional partnerships and global collaboration efforts.

As EMPEA’s first research director from 2006 to 2011, Jennifer built EMPEA's content portfolio, including the EMPEA Insights and Private Equity Impact Case Studies series, and led the creation of the industry's first global database of private equity activity in emerging markets. Prior to EMPEA, Jennifer was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., leading due diligence engagements and providing advisory services and portfolio company strategic planning support for the private equity industry. Jennifer’s previous experience includes organizational development and strategy consulting for clients in the healthcare, financial services and pharmaceutical sectors.

Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.

Kutty is an Investment Manager based in the firm’s London office.

Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2006, Kutty was Head of Development at Invicta Capital, a structured finance advisory firm focusing on film finance. Previously, he worked as an Analyst in the M&A team at Morgan Stanley in London, and as a Relationship Manager in the Corporate banking team at Standard Chartered in London.

Sudhir Sethi is Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of IDG Ventures India, a US$150 Million early-stage technology venture capital fund backed by IDG, the world's largest IT-focused media company.  Sudhir founded IDG Ventures in 2006 after 26 years in the technology and venture industry. IDG Ventures India invests across the country in all areas of technology and technology enabled services.

Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Sudhir served as a President and Executive Director of Infotech Enterprises, India's premier design engineering and GIS services leader. Previously, he was a General Partner for Walden International for four years where he was responsible for leading their venture capital operations in India.  Sudhir served the IT industry for twelve years as a senior executive at Wipro and five years at HCL, both leading global IT service firms.

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 Professional by Dataquest. Sudhir also served on the Investment Committee of UTI Ventures for four years, on Advisory Board of Westbridge Capital (now Sequoia Capital) and on the Board of Advisors at N. S. Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurship, IIM Bangalore. Sudhir was the seed investor in Mindtree Consulting and served on the Board for 4 years. He has also served on the Board of Directors at Infotech Enterprises, Venture Infotek, Jobstreet, Webvision and Webdunia.  Mr Sethi today serves on the Boards of Manthan Systems, ConnectM, iViZ Techno Solutions, 3D Solid Compression, Perfint, Aujas Networks, Myntra and US IVCA (India Venture Capital Association) as well as Emploi Globale Consulting.

Ameet H. Desai is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Advisory LLP which is the family office of the $ 5 billion Adani Group. He has over 25 years of experience developing infrastructure projects including ports, Special Economic Zones, logistics, power and city gas distribution. Previously he has worked as the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Adani Power Ltd. and Mundra Port & SEZ Ltd. He was also responsible for successfully raising almost $ 1 billion capital through the IPO route and $ 1.2 billion through private equity and QIP route. He has also mobilized debt of over $ 8.5 billion.

Prior to  Adani Group, he was Vice President (Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Planning) at Indian pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and worked at Core Healthcare before that.

He is a Management Graduate and also lectures at Business Schools as a guest lecturer.

Amul Gabrani - Amul Gabrani, is Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Tecpro Systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Delhi. He started his career with Ingersoll Rand in 1981 and has more than 28 years of experience in the material handling industry. He was associated with Voltas Limited from 1984 to 1986 and thereafter worked with Fenner (India) Limited until 1990. He has been a member of Board of Directors since incorporation.

Maninder Saluja co-manages the emerging markets private equity program at Quilvest, a global institution that primarily manages the investments for one large family group as well as third party investors. Mani is involved in both the fund and direct private equity investment activities of the group.

Prior to joining Quilvest, Mani worked at Alvarez & Marsal, a crisis management and restructuring firm, where he assisted various North & South American companies and their creditors with operational and financial turnaround situations. Mani also worked in the New York and Hong Kong offices of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he worked on a variety of high yield, M&A, restructuring, public and private equity transactions in the United States, Western Europe, Russia, South America and Asia. In addition, Mani worked as the Director of Finance and Strategic Planning for a US based regional communications provider.

Mani received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Michigan.

Ravi Shankar is a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Ravi Shankar worked at McKinsey & Company in Mumbai, where he advised senior management of top Indian companies on a variety of issues including business building, channel management and leadership development. Prior to McKinsey, Ravi Shankar worked at Wipro Technologies in their Embedded and Internet Access division. At Wipro, Ravi Shankar helped several venture-backed networking start-up clients design and build customer premise equipment for next generation applications like VoDSL and Internet over Cable. Ravi Shankar received an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he was awarded the President’s Gold Medal. He also holds a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from REC Trichy.

Himanshu is the co-founder of Client Associates. He has 15 years of experience behind him in the areas of Investment Banking & Private Banking. Prior to setting up CA he worked with Deutsche Bank Private Banking, DSP Merrill Lynch and London Forfaiting Group.

Over the years, Himanshu has earned the distinction of pioneering the concept of Family Office in India and has built one of the finest teams of private bankers which works with some of the most distinguished wealthy families of India. He has built up a specialization in providing complex wealth management solutions to the needs of Family Business Owners & Entrepreneurs in India. He authors the quarterly chronicle of Client Associates – CA Quarterly – which has built its own following in the industry. He pioneered the concept of Portfolio Reallocation, a Risk Management technique, in the Indian Market.

Kelvin Yap joined the direct investment group in HarbourVest’s London-based subsidiary in 2006 to focus on European direct growth equity and buyout investments and became a vice president in 2011.  Kelvin has been involved in several of the Firm’s direct investments, including Avio, Finjan, Minimax, MYOB, Schenck Process, SuperMax, Trainline, and TynTec.  In 2009, Kelvin transferred to HarbourVest’s Hong Kong-based subsidiary to focus on partnership, direct growth equity, and buyout investments in Asia Pacific.  

Kelvin joined HarbourVest from Deloitte in London, where he managed merger and acquisition (including demergers and IPOs) due diligence for both private and public transactions in the Corporate Finance Transactions Services division.  Prior to that, Kelvin was a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  

He received a BC with a double major in Accounting and Finance from Monash University in Australia in 2001.  Kelvin is a Chartered Accountant with The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.  In addition, he received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2007 from the CFA Institute. He speaks fluent Cantonese, Indonesian, and Malay.

Mukul Gulati is the Managing Director for Zephyr Peacock India Management. Mukul performs deal origination, evaluation, structuring and portfolio monitoring activities for Zephyr’s India Private Equity Funds and is responsible for overall leadership of Zephyr’s Bangalore office. Mukul serves on the Boards of Miles Software, WLC India, Metro Wireless, Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services Ltd and Aizant Research.

Mukul has more than 15 years of experience in the investment business including private equity, investment research and general management. He has extensive experience in corporate M&A and due diligence activities. Previously, he worked at Multex and Reuters, where he was in senior leadership roles and co-founded an equity research product now widely used by institutional investors.

Mukul received an MBA with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is a cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland, where he was a Dean’s Scholar at the Department of Economics.

Rebecca A. Fannin is author of Silicon Dragon (McGraw-Hill, 2008) and Startup Asia (Wiley, 2011), a contributor to Forbes, and a consultant and public speaker. Her news and events group, Silicon Asia, publishes e-newsletters for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and develops conferences in the world’s tech hotspots

Her consulting work includes a KPMG white paper on China outsourcing, Sony research projects, and Econsultancy editorial content.  She has partnered with NASDAQ OMX, Morrison & Foerster, KPMG, SVB Financial Group, O’Melveny & Myers, Sidley Austin, Deloitte, K&L Gates, DLA Piper, InvestHK, SecondMarket, and Wells Fargo on China and India business events. Rebecca has testified as an expert witness on China’s Internet before a U.S.-China Commission in Washington, D.C.

Shankar Narayanan is a Managing Director responsible for leading growth capital investments in India. He is based in Mumbai.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Narayanan spent six years at Hathway Investments in Mumbai and during that time served as Managing Director and CEO. He was also with Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, based in Hong Kong, as a Director covering South Asia and India. Mr. Narayanan has led or been associated with a number of prominent private equity investments in India, including Johnson Tiles, Exide Industries, Hathway Cable, Asianet Satellite Communications, Pushpa Polymers, Tata Infomedia, and AFL Limited. He had served on the Board of Directors of all these Companies. Prior to Hathway Investments, Mr. Narayanan worked at Citibank in Mumbai.

Mr. Narayanan is currently on the Boards of Newgen Imaging Systems, Allsec Technologies, Elitecore Technologies and Repco Home Finance. Mr. Narayanan is associated with PE investments in Claris Lifesciences, Great Offshore, Financial Software & Systems, Learning Mate Solutions, QuEST, etc., and has served on the boards of these companies.

Vikram is a Managing Director in the Customized Fund Investment Group, where he is involved in relationship management, deal sourcing and conducting due diligence on private equity investments. Previously, he was an Investment Banking Associate at DLJ and CS. Prior to joining DLJ, Vikram was a Relationship Manager with Deutsche Bank from 1993 to 1997. Vikram was also an Audit professional for a KPMG affiliate in India from 1989 to 1992.Vikram is a Managing Director of CFIG, where he leads the group’s infrastructure investment team. Vikram is involved in relationship management, deal sourcing and conducting due diligence on infrastructure investments. Vikram has extensive emerging markets investment experience throughout Asia and is the portfolio manager responsible for several of CFIG’s fund-of-funds products focused on the emerging markets, including a ~$170 million program focused on fund investments in Asia, a ~$129 million program focused on fund investments in India and a ~$50 million separate account program focused on real estate and infrastructure fund investments and co-investments located in the emerging markets.

Previously, Vikram was at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette ("DLJ") and Credit Suisse from 1997-2000. Prior to joining DLJ, Vikram was a Relationship Manager with Deutsche Bank from 1993 to 1997, where he financed toll roads, a public-private railroad company, a water treatment plant and two wireless infrastructure rollouts located in the emerging markets. In addition, Vikram began his career as an Audit professional for a KPMG affiliate in India from 1989 to 1992. Vikram received his MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Commerce degree with honors from the University of Delhi. Vikram is also a qualified chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Praneet Garg is a Principal in the Hong Kong office. Mr. Garg co-leads Asia Alternatives’ investments in India and South East Asia, and is primarily responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management of private equity fund investments and direct co-investments in these geographies. Mr. Garg also leads Asia Alternatives' market research function.

Prior to joining Asia Alternatives, Mr. Garg had over five years of consulting and research experience with the Private Equity Practice at McKinsey & Company in the Delhi and London offices. He joined McKinsey & Company in 2001 and led several Private Equity knowledge development projects. He worked with McKinsey Private Equity client teams on issues of Private Equity strategy, organization, performance and due diligence. He also led the Private Equity research team and authored several market research pieces on Asia Private Equity and other related topics.

Mr. Garg holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from Mumbai University. He is fluent in Hindi, Punjabi, and English.

Mr. Garg currently serves on the Advisory Boards for Nexus India I and II.

Vikram has been an active venture investor in India over the last 11 years and has successfully invested in and had exits from his early-stage and growth-stage investments in the wireless, retail, financial services and manufacturing sectors.  Vikram focuses on sectors such as Logistics, Consumer & Engineering Services, and Education.

He sits on the boards of Centum Learning (Bharti Group’s Education Company), Fourcee Infrastructure (Liquid Logistics Company), Genesis Colors (a high-end apparel company) and Geodesic Techniques (a specialty construction company).

Prior to joining Mayfield, Vikram was a founding member of JM Financial Investment Managers Limited, a broad-based, multi-sector private equity fund. While there, Vikram helped raise the fund and led some of the key investments and served on several boards including Satya Paul (a high-end retail company), the Sona Group (an auto components company) and International Tractors Ltd. (a tractor & farm equipment company).

Prior to joining JM Financial Investment Managers Limited, Vikram worked for Cisco's investment arm, where he led the investment in Bharti Telesoft. Prior to that, he was involved in one of the earliest venture capital funds in India, Infinity Venture Fund, where his notable investments include Indiagames (a wireless media company) and Brainvisa (an e-learning company), and he was also involved with investments such as Avendus and Indiabulls (both financial service companies). Vikram's prior experience includes working at Chase and Barclays Capital as part of their investment banking practices in Mumbai for 4 years.

Vikram received his Bachelor's degree in Commerce and a Master's in Management Studies from the University of Bombay.

Amit Dabas is a Vice President at Guggenheim Partners, and takes a lead role in sourcing and evaluating secondary transactions and co-investments in India. He has more than 11 years of private equity, investment research and operational experience. Prior to joining Guggenheim, he was an equity research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners covering Indian telecom, media and Internet stocks. Previously, he worked at Ericsson and Tata Consultancy Services, where he held various roles ranging from product management to technology consulting.
 
Amit graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and holds an M.B.A. (Director’s List) from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is a CFA charterholder.

Mr. Ajay Kumar Vij was formerly the CEO of Dabur Pharma, a fully integrated global pharmaceutical company which he successfully built up over 13 years into one of the world's largest specialty oncology groups that operated in 40 countries around the world including USA, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. He was instrumental in selling the company to European healthcare major Fresenius for over USD $360 million in 2008. He has broad exposure to the Asian healthcare sector and has wide experience in identifying promising business opportunities, developing a growth strategy and implementing profitable exits.

Mr. Vij serves as Non-Executive Director in Diwan Chand Medical Services P. Ltd., Dabur Research Foundation, Althea Lifesciences Limited and Famy Care Limited.

Mr. Vij is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).

He holds a MBA and Bachelor degree in Science from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India.

Tapan has been involved in private equity and venture capital since the late 90’s. Currently at State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), the sovereign wealth fund of Sultanate of Oman, he is managing direct investments in UK, Central and Eastern Europe. He is a Director on the board of companies in UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. He also advises and sits on the Investment committee of SGRF’s private equity fund JV’s in several geographies including Vietnam. Prior to SGRF, Tapan spent a considerable time as Vice President for investments in metals and chemicals sector at Gulf Investment Corporation, Kuwait, one of the oldest investment holding companies established in 1983 and held equally by the six GCC countries.

Tapan gained operational experience while working for GE, Unilever and previously also managed the Funds and PE investments portfolio for Emirates Bank International, Dubai. He first entered the world of investments by accident when as an entrepreneur along with his IITian buddies he sold his Indian information security company to a venture capitalist in the US. Since then he has managed over USD 1 billion in equity investments.

Tapan holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT- Delhi and an MBA from FMS- Delhi University.

Sameer Sain is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Everstone Capital, an India focused Private Equity and Real Estate investor.  Everstone has over 100 employees across 5 offices (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore and Mauritius) and manages approximately $1.6 billion.  The firm follows an active and operational investing style with a focus on growth and platform transactions.

Previously, Sameer spent eleven years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director and head of the Special Investments Group (International) as well as Institutional Wealth Management (EMEA). He holds a B.Com from the University of Mumbai, a BBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from Cornell University.

Raj is the Senior Managing Director at FIL Capital Advisors (India) Private Limited. Raj has over twelve years of leadership experience in the Indian private equity industry, with experience of investing across multiple stages and industries.

During his private equity career, Raj has also worked in The Carlyle Group and Merlion (Temasek-Standard Chartered JV) and was earlier the co-founder and Managing Director of WestBridge Capital Partners.

Raj started his career as a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton where he worked both in USA and India. He subsequently worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs where he was responsible for India coverage and served on the board of Goldman’s then JV partner Kotak Mahindra Capital.

Raj holds an AB degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Kanwal is a well-known and respected entrepreneur and venture investor in both Silicon Valley and India. He has been the CEO of three venture-backed companies, was the first Indo-American to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ, co-founded and built the largest global network of Indian entrepreneurs, and co-founded Inventus to devote his full energy and experience to establish a leading US-India venture franchise.

Kanwal came to the United States from India for graduate studies, became a U.S. citizen, and advanced through the engineering ranks in a number of companies. In 1982 he co-founded Excelan in Silicon Valley to commercialize ethernet and TCP/IP - standards which became the basis of the Internet. In 1987 he took Excelan public and became the first Indo-American Founder & CEO to list a venture-backed company on the NASDAQ. Excelan later merged with Novell, where Kanwal served as EVP, CTO and a Board Director for five years, established Novell's operations in India, grew the company into the second largest software vendor in the world and returned 100X to his venture investors. Later, Kanwal was CEO of Ensim and also CEO of Cybermedia, both companies in which he was initially a lead venture investor and board member. Kanwal negotiated Cybermedia's successful acquisition by Network Associates.

Nishesh has over 14 years of M&A/transaction experience including 10+ years of transaction services experience,  where he has led due diligence engagements primarily for private equity funds, e.g., Blackstone, General Atlantic, Carlyle, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Barings Asia, Navis Capital Partners, etc. and also a year of experience on the buy-side, having worked with a private equity fund  (in 2008).  

Nishesh is a member of the Transaction Services practise with a focus on Private Equity.

Punit Shah is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with a post qualification experience of more than 23 years.

He is a member of KPMG Global Steering Committees on private equity and real estate funds.Prior to joining KPMG, he was a partner with RSM for 10 years and was an Executive Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. and he was the national leader of the Financial Services (Tax and Regulatory Services) practice of PwC. He was also a member of the PwC Global Financial Services Tax Leadership Team.

Punit has in-depth knowledge and experience of banking and financial services laws in India. He renders extensive professional advice to Private Equity /Real estate/Venture Capital Funds, Indian and Foreign Banks, Insurance Companies, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Mutual Funds, etc. Some of the key private equity funds he has advised are: Aditya Birla, Apollo, Ambit Pragma, Ashmore, Cannan, Carlyle, CX Capital, IDFC, IL&FS, Milestone, Multiples,Red Fort, Tishman, TPG, Westbridge etc .
He has been a regular contributor of articles on the above subjects in leading financial newspapers as well as journals of several professional Institutes.
He has been a speaker for various forums including Professional Institutes, Indo- American Chamber of Commerce and International Fiscal Association.