TiECon GNY 2011: Focus Topics

Panel discussions and speakers at TieCon GNY 2011

Early Stage

Getting creative in raising capital - from seed stage to first institutional round

The panel will provide insights about bootstrapping and finding alternate sources of outside capital during the stage between inception and first institutional capital. The panel speakers consist of Tri State region based early stage investors and successful entrepreneurs who have successfully gone through this journey. The attendees will have an opportunity to hear about speakers experience about some of the best practices and success stories in the marketplace.

Moderator

Kartik Hosanagar  
Co-founder Yodle/Associate professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Kartik is a cofounder of Yodle Inc, a venture-backed firm recently listed among the top 50 fastest growing private firms in the US. In addition, he is an investor in or advisor to several startups including Milo which was acquired by eBay in December 2010. He is also the youngest tenured professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kartik´s research work focuses on Internet media and Internet marketing.

Kartik has received several teaching awards including the MBA and Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching awards at the Wharton School.

His research has received several awards, including the William Cooper award for best thesis in Management Science. Kartik graduated as a valedictorian from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India with a Bachelors degree in Electronics and a Masters in Information Systems, and has an MPhil in Management Science and a PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

Speakers

Owen Davis
MD, NYC Seed

Owen is currently Managing Director of NYC Seed, a seed stage venture capital fund in New York City.

He created one of the first 200 web sites on-line and founded Thinking Media in the summer of 1995, an online marketing firm which pioneered client-side tracking of pages and advertisements, which has become the standard method for online measurement. He co-founded Sonata in 1999, a wireless company that provided location-based services and marketing to cell phones.

Owen also co-founded, Petal Computing, a firm that developed software which allowed large numbers of commodity PCs to act like a single unit, useful in industries ranging from image rendering to pharmaceuticals.

Owen is the author of various patents in Internet methods and technologies. He is also the author of the book Instant Java Applets, available from Ziff-Davis Press. He is an original member of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, and served on that group's original board. He was also an original member of the Board setting online advertising and media specifications and has served as Managing Director of the Wireless Advertising Association. Owen was named at various times as one of the 100 Top Internet Executives in New York by The Silicon Alley Reporter and most recently was named one of the 100 most influential people in Silicon Alley for 2008. He received his bachelor's degree from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Paul Cimino
CEO, Brilig

Paul is a well-known innovator of new media and leader in e-commerce, previously served as CTO/SVP of R&D at QualityHealth/MTS, a leading interactive marketing and media company in the health sector.

Prior to MTS he was COO at CAC Media an early IPTV technology and CDN firm, and was cofounder/CEO of Snickelways Interactive, a leading e-commerce solutions provider.

He holds a B.A. from New York University.

Warren Lee
Venture Partner, Canaan Partners

Warren Lee is one of the preeminent digital media investors in the industry. A recognized thought leader on the future of online advertising and the evolution of the media landscape, Warren joined Canaan Partners’ East Coast office in 2005 and is based in New York City. He focuses on investments in digital media companies that are successfully leveraging the creative know-how of Madison Avenue and the technological advances of Silicon Valley to become global leaders. Warren led Canaan’s investments in Tremor Media, the world’s largest online video advertising network; Motionbox, the leading personal video sharing service; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, the leading provider of voice services for online games and virtual worlds.

Warren is also the co-creator and host of Startup@Work Founders Speakers Series, an ongoing event series in which he interviews successful entrepreneurs and angel investors from across the country.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of blip.tv, Peer39, Tremor Media, and Vivox.

CleanTech

This panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges of the cleantech community in New York and review the present landscape. We will also discuss current initiatives and how this will create opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as highlighting the assistance available for raising capital from present programs, organisations and venture capitalists.

Moderator

Micah Kotch
Director of the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE)

Micah Kotch currently serves as Director of the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE) initiative at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, where he is helping develop New York City's emerging cleantech sector. NYC ACRE helps cleantech and renewable energy companies in New York City grow, advancing the City as a role model for a low-carbon future.

A Chinese major at Colgate University, Micah graduated with distinction and wrote his first business plan while working in Ningbo, China.  After securing funding for his plan from w-Technologies, he developed new business for wireless telecom carriers and device manufacturers, brokering licensing deals with large media companies and game publishers.  In 2004 he was recruited to serve as green initiatives coordinator for Pratt Institute, helping grow the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and establishing the Center for Sustainable Design Studies and Research (funded by a Federal DOE grant).  He serves on the Board of the NY Chapter of the US Association of Energy Economists, the Green Finance Board of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and the NYU Sustainability Task Force. The son of the former Inspector General of the FDNY and a lifelong educator in New York City's public school system, Micah has deep roots in Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife.

Speakers

Arrun Kapoor
Managing Director, SJF Ventures                                                                         

Arrun Kapoor is the Managing Director for SJF Ventures’ New York City office and a Ventures Advisor to the SJF Institute.  He leads the NYC CleanLinks program and is an Advisory Board Member of NYC ACRE: NYU-Poly and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Green Business Accelerator.  He is on the Board of FieldView Solutions and a Board Observer to ServiceChannel and Truist.  Kapoor was most recently with Bain & Company in London and Delhi where he launched the firm’s internal green practice initiatives.  He worked with Bain’s private equity consulting practice and gained experience in a range of cleantech-related industries.  Prior to Bain, he was a founding member and Manager with a successful consulting start-up in New York and London.  He holds a Master’s in International Political Economics from the London School of Economics and completed a BA from New York University with an economics and business focus

Mei Shibata
Chief Business Officer, ThinkEco, Inc

Mei leads the business side of ThinkEco where her broad experience has helped to shape the modlet system into a hip, user-friendly product. Most recently, she was Managing Director of Strategy and Strategic Planning at communications agency Euro RSCG Life, where she helped numerous brand teams commercialize their products and lead them through lifecycle management.

Mei also has broad corporate experience, including her Worldwide Marketing role at Pfizer and equity research work at Citigroup. Mei received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA (physics) and MS (medical engineering, HST) from Harvard University.

Thomas Scaramellino
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Efficiency20.com 

Tom oversees the strategic direction of the company and ensures alignment among energy science, technical and business development groups. He has previously worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell, and the Governor of New York, where he managed a legislative portfolio spanning energy, environmental and pension law. Tom received a bachelor's and master's degree with honors from Harvard University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Oliver Guinness

Clearpoint Ventures, Co Founder and Managing Director

Oliver Guinness is the co-founder and Managing Director of Clearpoint Ventures, a clean economy venture capital fund. Previously, Oliver advised companies on energy technologies, policies and risks, developed a telecom project and related training program in South America, helped grow a Silicon Valley startup, and worked in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch and Greyrock Capital. Oliver completed the Venture Capital Executive Program at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has a Masters in International Affairs and Business in Emerging Markets from Columbia and a degree in Economics from Cornell. www.clearpointventures.com

Financial Services

The panelists will comment on the current conditions and opportunities in the investment management, commercial banking, venture capital and financial technology areas. They will also share their personal experiences working within different segments of the industry. The session will discuss the challenges that await potential entrepreneurs in the FS sector, identifying business opportunities and developing products/services to fit them and advice on raising and deploying capital.

Moderator

Subir Grewal
Washington Square Capital Management

Subir Grewal is a Principal and Co-Founder of Washington Square Capital Management, a New York based, independent investment manager. Prior to founding WSQ Capital in 2009, Subir worked for three years as a financial advisor at UBS Wealth Management in New York. Between 1999 and 2006, Subir worked for UBS Investment Bank in Stamford, CT and Zurich, Switzerland building and overseeing trading and risk management systems for the Foreign Exchange Derivatives, Short Term Interest Rates and Credit Derivatives businesses.

Subir holds the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) designation and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He graduated from Duke University in 1998 with an MA in Economics. Subir earned a BA (magna cum laude) from New York University in 1996, with majors in Economics, English and American Literature. Prior to enrolling at NYU, Subir lived in Bombay, India.

Mazy Dar
OpenFin

Mazy Dar is Co-Founder and CEO of OpenFin, a financial technology startup based in New York.

 The company is developing a new, innovative platform for the global financial services industry. Prior to OpenFin, Mr. Dar was Vice President of CDS Strategy at IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) where he was responsible for ICE’s credit derivative strategy and the company's credit derivative e-trading, auction and trade processing platforms. He also led ICE's launch of central clearing of credit derivative products for major buy-side market participants.

Prior to ICE, Mr. Dar served as Chief Strategy Officer of Creditex which was backed by JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and TA Associates and acquired by ICE in 2008.  He joined the firm in 2000, prior to the company's launch, and was a key architect of Creditex's innovative products and services.  He spearheaded the introduction of e-trading for the credit derivative market and was responsible for Creditex's launches of auction platforms and processing services which are critical pieces of today's global credit derivative market infrastructure.

Mr. Dar has over 13 years of experience in financial technology.  Prior to joining Creditex, he worked in information technology at UBS. Mr. Dar earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science and French Literature from Cornell University.

Thatcher Bell
Principal, DFJ Gotham Ventures

He works closely with DFJ Gotham portfolio companies SinglePlatform, Philo, Altruik, Fynanz, Solvate, Worktopia, ExpoTV, and Lumeta. In addition, Thatcher serves on the Board of Directors of the NY Tech MeetUp and is Co-Chair of the New York chapter of Wharton Private Equity Partners. Thatcher’s background includes venture investing, operating and consulting roles with software, Internet, and financial services companies.

Prior to joining DFJ Gotham, Thatcher was a Senior Analyst at North Hill Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Capital One Financial, where he was a deal team member for the firm’s investments in DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK), Higher One (NYSE:  ONE), Compete (acquired by TNS), and Exchange Solutions.

Before joining North Hill, Thatcher held business and corporate development roles at enterprise software vendor OpenPages (acquired by IBM) and SharkTank, an online marketplace connecting lawyers and potential clients. Thatcher began his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young (now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young).

Thatcher has a B.S. cum laude in Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton, he was a Summer Associate with Silicon Alley Venture Partners (now Greenhill SAVP) in New York, an early-stage technology venture capital firm.  Thatcher also serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City.

Merrill W. Sherman
President & CEO, Bancorp Rhode Island, Inc.

Merrill W. Sherman is President & CEO of Bancorp Rhode Island, Inc., a publicly traded bank holding company, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Bank Rhode Island. Ms. Sherman spearheaded the 1996 creation of Bank Rhode Island, the second largest de novo bank in American history. Bank Rhode Island has grown to be a leading commercial bank with $1.6 billion in total assets, a rock solid reputation and a lending capacity that rivals major national banks. Sherman also has overseen Bank Rhode Island's expansion in accessibility and convenience for customers, with a well-located network of 17 branches.

Andrey Krakovsky
Co-founder and Portfolio Manager, Tacticus Capital

Andrey Krakovsky is a PM and co-founder of Tacticus Capital, a New York -based start-up hedge fund. Prior to founding Tacticus, Andrey was a principal PM of Highland ShortPlus fund, which achieved Paulson-like returns in `07 and `08 and had received top industry rankings for those years. Before that Andrey ran Emerging Markets structured credit trading at Morgan Stanley, and traded capital structure arbitrage at Deutsche Bank Prop Trading. Andrey holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from New York University

Digital Media

Is print really dead? How do mobile and digital media intersect? The panel will discuss these themes and more focused on Indian and US geographies. They will also highlight opportunities in digital media both for entrepreneurs and investors and how to get consumers to pay for digital media.

Moderator

Shantanu Surpure
Managing Attorney, Sand Hill Counsel

He focuses on venture capital, private equity, corporate, M&A and capital markets transactions.

Shantanu has a special focus on cross-border India-US transactions and has previously practiced law with large US law firms in Silicon Valley.Shantanu holds a BA from Brown University/London School of Economics, an MA Juris from Oxford University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. Shantanu is admitted to practice law in India, California, New York and England and Wales.

Shantanu is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and is active in mentoring entrepreneurs and start-up companies in developing the Silicon Valley "ecosystem" in India.  Shantanu is also a founder director of the Mumbai Angels, which is an initiative for organized angel investing in India.  Shantanu has previously spoken on cross border M&A, venture capital and entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay, the Indian Institute of Technology - Chennai and the Indian School of Business - Hyderabad.

Somak Chattopadhyay
GSA Venture Partners

Somak Chattopadhyay is a Principal at GSA Venture Partners. Previously, he was at Edison Venture Fund, where he sourced and evaluated investments in the tech-enabled services sector and launched the firm’s New York office. Prior thereto, Somak held senior marketing/business development roles at Medtower, a pharmaceutical IT software company and DealTime, a comparison shopping company that was later acquired by eBay. Somak started his career at Broadview International (now Jefferies) and was previously director of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

Somak currently serves or observes on the boards of Ignighter, MyNines, ReachForce . He also is on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations including MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and NYCVC. Somak is a past EC member of TiE Tri-State and serves as Vice Chair of the SIIA Private Equity Forum.

He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Sameer Nigam
Founder and CEO, Mallers Inc.

At Mallers, Inc. Sameer leads the long-term product strategy of the company, and also holds day-to-day responsibility for the company’s global business operations. In 2008, Sameer won the coveted Wharton Venture Award, bestowed by the prestigious Wharton Business School - University of Pennsylvania.

His previous work experience includes a seven year stint at Shopzilla Inc, where he left as Director of Product Management at Shopzilla, Inc.. While at Shopzilla, Sameer worked in five different business units at the company including Engineering, Site Operations and Customer Acquisition. In 2002, Sameer designed Bizrate.com's keyword-marketing system, which currently powers a US $100 mn global SEM campaign. In 2004, Sameer developed Bizrate.com's industry-standard product indexing system will allowed the company to update 65 million product offer prices & bids in real time. Shopzilla, Inc. was acquired by media conglomerate E.W.Scripps for US $560 mn.

 Sameer holds a MBA from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Gautam Gandhi
Head New Business Development, Google India

In this role, he is responsible for identifying new business opportunities that can help Google further drive its objectives in India, these includes management of early-stage partnerships, explorations, technology licensing and acquisitions. In his last three years Gautam has successfully contributed to many new products and has been instrumental in the launch of popular products in India like Google music search that offers users access to live streaming of Hindi film songs online and SMS Channels on Google.

Prior to Google, Gautam co-founded ClearCount Medical Solutions, a medical device company. The company developed patented RFID technology to track surgical sponges and instruments during surgery. He led the company from the initial business plan through FDA approval and is named on the patents. He has also been a part of the founding team for BlueMountain.com, a leading e-greeting cards company that was acquired by excite.com.

He holds a management degree from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University where he was also named the Roseman - Canfield Entrepreneur of the Year. He completed his graduation in Information Decision Systems and Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Gautam is also a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award for researching entrepreneurship in India.

Social Media Marketing

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This panel will provide an opportunity for the audience to learn the latest development in the social media landscape. Leading industry experts with successful track record will talk about social marketing opportunities and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and the companies interested in taking advantage of this growing channel. The session will also touch upon the overall digital marketing space along with the online tools available. The attendees will have an opportunity to hear about the “hype versus results” with some best practices and success stories in the marketplace. The speakers will also discuss the challenges faced by new entrepreneurs in raising capital, developing infrastructure, creating a successful business model and attracting desirable talent force. Our experts will also share the business forecasting in the social media space in the changing marketplace.

Moderator

Tariq Khan
Founder & CEO, Global Diversity Marketing

Tariq Khan is a recognized business leader in marketing, branding, segmentation, customer relationship, digital marketing, social media services, and diversity arena.

Tariq’s work, interviews and articles have been published in several trade and industry publications. He is the founder and President of Global Diversity Marketing, Inc., a management consulting firm focused on helping organizations to better understand the changing marketplace.

Tariq Khan is also the President of Muxlim Inc., a venture backed and a leading lifestyle media company, focused on lifestyle as a part of a diverse, all-inclusive world which recognizes and welcomes people of all faiths and background. Tariq is best known for his thought leadership in leading the diversity initiatives in global fortune companies while making the business case for diversity and inclusion.

Tariq has had a distinguished twenty-year career, mostly at global Fortune companies including MetLife, Nationwide, and ING. Tariq has held several senior management roles with the major fortune companies. In his last corporate position, Tariq was senior vice president and head of market development for ING, where he led ING’s strategy to expand growing emerging markets. During his corporate career, Tariq has developed several award winning marketing and branding campaigns for emerging markets. Tariq has equally impressive contributions in the non-profit area. He is a board of director at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the largest U.S. organizations devoted to scholarships for Asian and Pacific Islander American students. He conceived and managed scholarship benefits events for APIASF students that generated over $3 million in the first five years.

Tariq is also an adjunct professor of marketing and public relations at New York University SCPS. His expertise/courses include Integrated Marketing Communications, Competitive Intelligence, Multi-channel Marketing, Marketing Principles, Marketing Planning, and Using PR as a Marketing Tool. Tariq earned a bachelor’s degree in international marketing and advertising from Baruch College, New York, an MBA in marketing and management from St. John’s University, New York, and an Executive Management Certificate from Babson College, MA.

Speakers

Ted Shergalis
Founder & Chief Product Officer, [X+1]

Ted Shergalis is an online marketing expert, visionary and strategic thinker. His foresight in applying analytics techniques to Internet marketing led to early breakthroughs in predictive marketing.

As a founder of [x+1] in 1999, he was one of the first marketers to develop products using the “software as a service” model and applying advanced statistical analysis for online user data. Today [x+1]’s products are used by many leading brands including Delta Airlines, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, GEICO, Allstate Insurance, and others.

Before founding [x+1], Ted worked from 1997 to 2000 in both the debt and equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley. Working with senior management at emerging technology and online companies, he gained a unique and early perspective on the emerging trend of media quantification. At [x+1], Ted has worked with industry leaders like Andreas Weigend, Ph.D, Amazon’s Chief Scientist, to advance predictive marketing and online media knowledge. In addition, Ted partnered with SAS to bring an analytics and marketing suite to online marketing. His understanding of the seismic shifts in the media market helped underpin the founding of [x+1].

Ted graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Philosophy with Honors and was a Teaching Fellow in cosmology, set theory, and the history of science. [x+1] was recently featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and Ted appeared on FOX Business News on August 9th 2010 , discussing website personalization. (http://www.xplusone.com/plus/2010/08/09/ted-shergalis-speaks-about-xplusone-on-fox-business-news/).

Zainab Ali
Sr. Marketing Manager, MoneyGram International

Zainab Ali brings over 10 years of global marketing and communications experience with a proven track record at the agency as well as the client side of the business, Zainab has over a decade of experience in marketing and advertising.

Currently she is a senior marketing manager at MoneyGram International, a leading global payment services company. She has held several management positions since joining MoneyGram International in 2004. Prior to joining MoneyGram, Zainab spent 5 years on the agency side working with and supporting leading companies with their advertising needs.

Zainab has worked extensively within the realm of social media and helped launch MoneyGram’s Facebook page in 2009. She is currently responsible for overseeing all marketing activity related to South Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe including creative execution, promotions, media buying, events and street team activities. In addition, she also launched several branding and social media campaigns in the growing multicultural markets in the U.S. Zainab has an Undergraduate degree in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s degree in Marketing Communications and Advertising from Emerson College in Boston, MA. Zainab has traveled around the globe for both business and pleasure; she currently resides in Orange County, CA with her husband and three kids.

Mirza Zia Baig
Principal, Tipton Equity Partners

Mirza Baig is a senior corporate executive turned serial entrepreneur and angel investor.

After a dozen years in the corporate world, Mirza co-founded five companies in health care, legal services, and technology. He is also an active angel investor in early stage technology and services companies that define their industry and category. He frequently takes on operating roles to help these companies achieve scale and grow.

Prior to his many operating and board roles at TEP, Mirza was a CFO and Executive Director of AOL’s e-commerce division, a $350 million revenue generating unit of AOL. At AOL, he closed over $450 million in investments and deals which earned over $300 million in profits for the company. In his CFO role, Mirza oversaw a multi-disciplinary team comprised of marketing managers, technical engineers and financial analysts who maximized member response and increased profitability across this critical AOL business unit. Mirza was originally selected to lead the organizational evaluation and re-structuring of AOL Commerce direct marketing group. After successfully completing the reorganization, he was appointed as CFO of the entire Commerce division.

In his tenure at AOL Business Affairs & Development group, Mirza structured and successfully negotiated a myriad of complex interactive marketing and acquisition relationships totaling over $550MM in deal value. Mirza was charged with creating strategic alliances with such key AOL partners as Philips Electronics, Amazon.com, eBay, and American Greetings. Mirza successfully led the negotiations for AOL-TW first transformational deal with Philips Electronics. This $106MM multi-year contract was an unprecedented global strategic alliance between AOL and Philips incorporating global distribution, online and offline marketing, and extensive hardware technology collaboration. Mirza received his BS from Cornell and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

From Idea to Exit

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Idea to Exit' panel will have four very successful entrepreneurs who have a terrific background, top school education, high growth non – entrepreneurial career prior to starting their own business, who instead chose to plunge into the uncertain and challenging realm of Entrepreneurship, dreamed of a business Idea, overcame the fear and effectively managed the risk of starting, running and selling a business, thereby creating tremendous financial and intrinsic value for themselves, their investors, their employees, their customers and the buyers of their business

Moderator
Manoj Daga
Citigroup

Manoj has spent his career equally between Founding, Growing and Exiting businesses; Consulting and Corporate America.  He started and sold a Software Development company.  He also acquired a Chemical Company, expanded into Plastics and Fertilizers, established joint ventures, and exited through an IPO. He also started an internet based venture. Manoj provided Consulting and Financial services to a range of clients while working at Booz Allen, Andersen and PriceWaterhouse Coopers.  

As Head of Strategy & Business Development at MasterCard International, Manoj conceptualized and launched a range of Advisory Services businesses.  He is currently working at Citigroup.  His work at Citigroup includes transformation & re-engineering of all Consumer Businesses in North America, growth of Cross-Sell and Diners Credit Card (including exit) businesses.

Manoj is also actively engaged in Community Services.  He is actively engaged and leads non-profit activities of an organization that strives to uplift and empower humanity through humanitarianism (eye hospital and orthopedic centers), education (primary to college education and vocational training) and inner development (personal developement courses and workshops).  The services are performed in different parts of India without regard to caste, creed, race, religion or socio economic status.

Manoj is a Chartered Accountant.  He has completed his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and Executive Management from Harvard Business School.

Speakers

Michelle Peluso
Global Consumer Chief Marketing/Internet Officer
Citigroup

Michelle Peluso is the Global Consumer Chief Marketing and Internet Officer for Citigroup.

She is passionate about ensuring the Citibank brand shines for consumers around the world, and that the company continues to make strides to lead in a digital world. In February of 2009, Michelle left Travelocity where she had been CEO since 2003, after serving as the company’s chief operating officer and senior vice president of product strategy and distribution for several years prior.

Under her leadership, Travelocity experienced a dramatic turnaround in both growth of revenue and profitability. In her role as CEO, she launched Travelocity’s innovative net rate hotel and dynamic packaging programs, which catapulted Travelocity back to growth and profitability, and she helped lead the build-out of the company’s dreaming and planning tool, ExperienceFinder. She also launched the award-winning Roaming Gnome marketing campaign and led the rollout of The Travelocity Guarantee, a one-of-a-kind proposition that shows Travelocity’s commitment to the customer experience. Peluso also spearheaded Travelocity’s emergence as a global player with the acquisition of lastminute.com and the organic growth of ZUJI. Under her watch, Travelocity extended its role in the corporate space with Travelocity Business.

Peluso joined Travelocity following the company’s acquisition of Site59, a travel site she created and launched in 2000. Site59 became the leader in the US "last minute deals" arena and won numerous honors for innovation, before it was acquired by Travelocity in March 2002. Prior to leading Site59, Peluso served as a White House Fellow and Senior Advisor to Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and worked as a case leader for The Boston Consulting Group in New York and London.

Peluso has been tapped as an executive to watch by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and has been featured in several “40 under 40” lists. She received the Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Business; she has been recognized by the National Italian American Foundation with the Special Achievement Award in Business; Fast Company Magazine named her a “customer-centered leader”; and she is a noted speaker as well. She serves on the Board of Directors for Open Table and the Gilt Groupe.

Peluso received her master’s degree in economics, philosophy and politics from Pembroke College at Oxford University where she was a Thoroun Scholar, and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. She lives in New York with her husband, Marc, and their two children, Auden Grace and Cole Hudson.

Lorien Gabel
Founder, Pingg.com

 Lorien is an entrepreneur and lawyer who was born in Malaysia while his dad was curing tropical diseases with the Peace Corps.  Off to a cool start, he spent the next few years of his life in Hawaii, San Diego, India…before settling into the much more exciting, colorful and exceedingly polite land of Canada. more » In 1994, at the age of 24, when Lorien's younger brother Matt asked him to run his bourgeoning internet company, Lorien did what any self-respecting lawyer of 6 months would do -- he quit.

He moved the company from their parent's basement and over the next four years managed the growth of Interlog, one of Canada's first commercial ISP's, to over 150 employees, 65,000 customers and annualized revenue exceeding $12M.

The company was then acquired by a large multinational telecommunications provider. Determined not to be one hit wonders, Lorien and Matt teamed up again and co-founded Bird on a Wire Networks - a managed web hosting and data-center provider which was one of the first of its kind in Canada. Within two years, the company was acquired by AT&T Canada. In 2003, Lorien moved to New York City. When not snowboarding or surfing, Lorien has been known to run divisions of Fortune 500 companies (Micron), spearhead the exponential U.S. growth of a UK based tech company (MessageLabs) as Global VP, Business Development, serve on the advisory board of a number of start-ups (including Canada Web Hosting) and whip up a mean breakfast of Spanish eggs. Lorien has a LLB from Toronto's Osgoode Hall Law School and is a member in good standing with the Ontario Bar. He resides in NYC where he can be seen running along the west side highway listening to the latest DJ mix or a CBC Canada political podcast.

Chet Kanojia
Founder & CEO of Navic Networks

 Chet Kanojia is the founder of Bamboo. Bamboo is currently in stealth mode. Prior to founding Bamboo, Chet was the Founder and CEO of Navic Networks. Under Chet’s direction Navic become the most widely deployed advanced advertising and digital television solution provider as well as the industry leader for developing solutions that are directly addressing the challenges of today’s highly fragmented media landscape. 

As a recognized thought leader in the space, Chet’s strategic vision helped the company to raise more than 40 million in venture capital from Pequot Ventures and Highland Capital Partners and drove the subsequent, highly strategic sale of the company to Microsoft in 2008. After being acquired by Microsoft, Navic's technologies and business became what is know the Microsoft Television Media business unit.

Chet Kanojia is an innovative leader known for pushing beyond the conventional to discover breakthrough solutions. Chet was recognized in Multichannel News’ “40 under 40” as a young executive making a lasting impact on his company as well as on the cable and telecommunications industries.

Chet honed his entrepreneurial edge at Product Genesis, Inc., a strategic product development and consulting firm spun out of the MIT Innovation Center. Chet's background also includes doctoral-level work on the commercial applications of artificial intelligence. He holds a master's degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Northeastern University and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Bhopal in India.

Rohit Kapoor
President and CEO- ExLService Holdings, Inc.

 Rohit co-founded EXL Service Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: EXLS), a leading global Business Process Outsourcing company. Rohit currently serves as the President and CEO of ExlService and is also a Director on the Board. EXL is a leading provider of Transformation and Outsourcing services to Global 1000 companies in multiple industries including insurance, banking, financial services, utilities, transportation and travel. EXL’s solutions integrate knowledge and experience in Decision Analytics, Financial & Risk Management, Operational & Process Excellence, Re-engineering and Integrated Transaction Processing to provide clients with immediate business impact and long term financial value. EXL is a U.S. company that was incorporated in 1999. It is headquartered in New York City and has global delivery centers in India, Philippines, US, Czech Republic, and Romania. It has over 12,500 employees and is ranked 47th by Forbes in the best 100 small companies in the US.

Rohit has over 20 years of rich experience working in Asia and in the US. Prior to founding EXL, Rohit worked at Deutsche Bank as Director & Business Head for the Private Bank managing clients in Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Sub-continent. He also managed venture capital and private equity investments on behalf of several Ultra High Net Worth clients in start-up companies both in the U.S. and Indian TMT sectors. Previously, Rohit worked with Bank of America. During his eight years with the Bank he worked for five years in Private Banking in New York and three in Corporate Banking in India.

Rohit is an active CEO member of the Business Process Outsourcing Forum of NASSCOM (the premier industry association of IT and BPO companies in India) and is widely considered an expert on the global BPO industry. His views and insights on the industry appear frequently in both print and electronic media around the world.

Rohit lives in Scarsdale, New York. He is married with two children. Rohit holds a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He completed his Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (an affiliate of Harvard Business School) in 1988.

Private Equity- Global Growth Investing

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This panel will provide an opportunity for the audience, largely the Indian entrepreneurs to better understand the growth equity investing environment, with a strong focus on growth equity investing in the US-India corridor. The panel will discuss the evolution of the private equity landscape in both the U.S. and India as well as the investment strategies being adopted by various players in the growth equity space. The panel will also focus on areas/sectors that are exciting for investors in the U.S. – India corridor. Finally, the panelists will also discuss both the challenges as well as potential benefits of doing transactions in the Indian market.

Moderator

Abhishek Sud
Vice President Investcorp Technology Partners

Abhishek Sud joined Investcorp Technology Partners in 2006. Previously he was a senior analyst with Morgan Stanley's technology investment banking group in Menlo Park, California, and an analyst with Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions and financial institutions groups in Hong Kong. Abhishek has also worked with IBM Global Services in Delhi, Pune and Bangalore as a software consultant focusing on enterprise workflow management solutions.

Abhishek is a board director of FleetMatics, and also serves as a board observer at CSIdentity and Magnum Semiconductor. Abhishek is actively involved with TiE TriState, New York Private Equity Network and New York City Venture Capitalists.

Abhishek graduated with a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Delhi, where he was a gold medalist. He also holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he was an Aditya Birla Scholar.

Speakers

Sundip Murthy
Principal, 3i

 Sundip Murthy is a New York based Principal of 3i Group, a global private equity firm that currently has $20 billion of assets under management. Prior to joining 3i, Sundip was a founding member and Senior Vice President of the US buyout consumer/retail practice of The Carlyle Group. At Carlyle, Sundip held key governance and investment roles for the Dunkin' Brands, OTC and philosophy transactions. 

 Previously, Sundip worked at Ripplewood Holdings focusing on US and Japanese buyouts in the industrials, financials and telecom sectors. Sundip began his career in the investment banking and principal investment groups of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York and London, respectively. He has also worked at McKinsey & Co. as a strategy consultant.

Sundip graduated with distinction from Cornell University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has sat on a number of corporate Boards and is currently a Director of Phibro Animal Health. Sundip also remains active in philanthropic activities and is on the Boards of Youth, I.N.C. (Improving Non-Profits for Children) and the New York Private Equity Network.

Dr. Kiran S Rao
Principal, Grove Street Advisors

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

Anand Radhakrishnan
Principal, Investcorp Technology Partners

Anand Radhakrishnan joined Investcorp Technology Partners in 2002. Previously, he was with The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Venture Capital Group and at Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Team. He currently sits on the boards of Kentrox, OpSec Security Group and Zeta Interactive.

Anand holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.

Adarsh Sarma
MD, Warburg Pincus

Mr. Sarma joined Warburg Pincus in 2005 to focus on Business Services, Education and Financial Technology investments. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Principal at ChrysCapital, a $2 billion private equity fund focused on India. Previously, Mr. Sarma was Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Radiowave, a technology start-up funded by Warburg Pincus, Intel and Motorola. Prior to that, he worked at McCown De Leeuw, a leveraged buy-out fund and at Merrill Lynch & Co.

He received a B.A. from Knox College, Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Mr. Sarma was formerly a director of Metavante Technologies, now FIS Global (NYSE:FIS), and is currently a director of Bridgepoint Education (NYSE:BPI), MLM Information Services and Wall Street Systems.