cybersecurity professional
Harshada Pathare, a multifaceted new-generation Indian, has carved a distinct identity as an author and Contrarian thinker. Her author brand prominently features in major publications alongside bestselling books, marking her presence as a thought leader. She is a recipient of the All India Blogger Award 2022, her impactful writing earned recognition, showcasing her ability to craft insightful content resonating widely. At the Tagore International Film Festival (TIFF) and Jaisalmer International Film Festival (JIFF), her contributions in filmmaking and storytelling garnered acclaim, establishing her as a significant figure in the industry.
Harshada's documentary, "Shodh," received multiple awards, showcasing cultural heritage and fostering cultural insights. Her influence extends across diverse creative endeavors, highlighting her versatility and innovative approach.
Pooja boasts over 15 years in diverse industries, showcasing a fervor for tackling challenges head-on. Presently at Versuni, she directs Business & Marketing, crafting a visionary roadmap for exponential growth in a competitive market. At Coke, she pioneered a transformative marketing function, shifting focus to consumer experiences, restructuring teams in South West Asia, and setting industry benchmarks.
Her tenure at Philips saw her driving market leadership and profitability, pioneering E-commerce strategies for exceptional RoAS. Pooja's extensive involvement with ITC spans brand, strategy, and sales. In 2012, she launched and divested India’s inaugural food delivery e-commerce portal, now dedicated to mentoring D2C startups, leveraging insights from her journey.
Recognized among India’s 100 Most Influential CMOs and in Pitch's 40 Under 40, her commitment to innovation and impactful leadership defines her professional trajectory.
With Life Architecting as his mission, Anbu has played a breakthrough role in coaching on the Design Mind, Engaging Learning Culture, Mindfulness Leadership Development and Transforming OD. As Chief Design Officer in Intellect Design Arena, he is currently focusing on balancing eastern (mind) and western (brain) philosophy to leverage Design Thinking as a problem solving approach in all walks of life. The Strength Philosophy coaching model that he has designed, complimented by his deep experience in both Project Delivery for U.S Department of Defense (DoD) and Academics, helps corporate leaders, managers, Faculty and teachers in focusing on lasting impact and creating a tribe within the teams to ensure delivery excellence.
He is a co-founder of School of Design Thinking and has been instrumental in launching several initiatives for academics to change the self-image of students and faculties. The copyrighted Design The Thinking™ approach is flagship program developed under his leadership.
Vikas have more than 21 years of experience and presently working as a Independent Consultant as well as working as a Co-founder/CTO in Hawk Aerospace Private Limited since Dec 2022. He has worked in Kohler Co. has Global Associate Director for 1.6 years, LG Electronics Global R&D Center as R&D Head for 17 years and Moser Baer India Limited as Leader Quality/R&D for 2 years.
He has a proven track record of success in leading and managing teams of engineering managers while developing and implementing innovative technology solutions. He has a strong background in Research and Development, Global R&D Centre Setup, Program Management, Portfolio Management, Operations and Quality. He is also well-versed in the latest trends in market.
Most importantly, he is a strategic thinker and thought leader with a proven ability to see the big picture and develop long-term plans that align with the company’s vision and goals.
Gladson Joshua is also an International Certified Career Coach (via Career Development Alliance) and holds several certifications across the IT, Services, and Non-Profit sectors.Gladson's public-spirited endeavours helped him co-found Cross Global, a non-profit organization that strives to protect the most vulnerable from contemporary slavery in India. The NGO works closely with the State and Central governments to rescue and rehabilitate victims of human trafficking. Cross Global has multiple ongoing humanitarian projects that span vital areas such as building awareness, facilitating education and development of skills, promoting fruitful policies, and more.
Gopi has over 25 years of experience in the engineering and global automotive industry, spanning design, analysis, validation, product launch, and business planning. He is the founder of iNCAETEK Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a company specializing in engineering, simulation, and skilling. Additionally, he created dsynXPO.com, the world’s first portal for design talent management. He is also developing India’s first Engineering Design Center of Excellence under the Indian Government’s ACIC scheme. His efforts are focused on enriching product development and engineering R&D through a variety of up-skilling programs, aimed at infusing skill-certified talent into the global engineering sector. He has prior experience with Daimler R&D in Germany and GM-Opel (EU), GM-Korea.
Anurag currently serves as the Director of Analytics at Honeywell Technology Labs, specializing in emerging technologies. With expertise in Gen AI, Open AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Data Science, Anurag holds certifications in Design Thinking from IIT Madras (2019) and Big Data Analytics from SP JIMR, Mumbai (2017). He also completed an internship in Data Science using R from IIM Lucknow in 2017. Anurag's professional interests include Gen AI, MLOPS, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Services. With over 15 years of experience in software application development, Anurag is currently focused on practicing Gen AI, Data Science, and Machine Learning. He has extensive experience in Microsoft Web Technologies, particularly ASP.Net-related web front-end technologies, distributed services, and database development, spanning 7 years.
Pulak Ghosh is IIMB Chair of Excellence and Professor of Decision Sciences at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). He is a member of Center of Public Policy at IIMb. Prior to Joining IIMB, he was a Professor at the Georgia State University and Emory University, Atlanta, USA. He was also senior associate Director for Novartis Pharmaceuticals, USA. He has a Phd, Msc., Bsc in Statistics. He was named as the "top 10 most Influential Analytics Leader" in 2015 and was the only academician in the list. He has been named as the top 5 Indian data Scientist in the WORLD, by techradar. His rise from Assistant to Full Professor in mere 8 years is widely considered in the top 5 fastest in the history of Statistics, Analytics and Marketing globally.
Saptarshi, a.k.a. Sapta, is an engineer from IIT Madras who has turned into a product designer & content creator, based in Bangalore. He is a Director of Design at Swiggy and is a highly influential figure in the fields of design, startups & content creation. He has conducted 100+ talks & workshops, including 3 TEDx talks. He has the ability to explain complex concepts in a way that is easily understandable to everyone. He uses everyday examples and analogies to simplify ideas. He is an Engineer from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras but chose Digital Experience Designing as his profession because problem-solving can go well beyond the limits of engineering. As a professional, he has worked with some of the well known startups of India like Housing.com, Zeta and many other big and small names around the world. He presently oversees Consumer Design at Swiggy, India's largest food ordering and delivery platform.
Operating at the intersection of business, brand, and culture, Nishant is a strategist passionate about uncovering the emerging relationships between new technologies and everyday life to drive significant business value and inform products and services that people love. He is currently the CEO and Co-founder of a stealth mode startup in social networking domain. A Delhi College of Engineering alumnus, he worked with Maruti Suzuki's RandD division, before moving to Netherlands for his M.Sc. in Strategic Product Design at Delft University of Technology.
Nakul Shenoy aka The Mind Reader is an Indian mentalist, magician, author, and critical thinker. A speaker of choice for Fortune-500 companies, he has delivered high-impact, mind-reading experiences across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, UK, and the USA. With 10 TEDx Talks and numerous television appearances to his credit, Nakul has earned a global following for his mesmerising performances. Drawing on his strong academic background and leveraging his vast industry experience, Nakul can create and deliver bespoke magical presentations that perfectly fit the specialised asks of any occasion. Whether delivering world-class mystery entertainment or a highly-engaging and inspirational keynote, Nakul guarantees an experience that is truly unique, most enchanting, and unforgettable.
Ashish Chawla, with over 20 years of experience, is a business leader, a startup evangelist, a creative thinker, a storyteller, a musician, and an ever-enthusiastic speaker. After driving value in companies like KPMG, GE; Ashish along with the co-founding team started India's one of the first E-Commerce portals and was instrumental in raising INR 400 crores. Ashish understands the power of Digital and how creative storytelling in the form of Videos can be used to attract customers and increase sales by 10x. He is currently a Partner at Treemouse, a strategy consultancy focused on designing creative solutions for user-led challenges in impact and corporate sectors: lead strategy and growth and Founder and Creative Head at Ahsomeness, a content strategy and design consultancy which designs creative strategy and content interventions for top brands to influence behavior change of target groups.
Profile : Priya Patra, Director, Capgemini
Priya is a mother of two, Author, Blogger, Women Empower believer, Dreamer, Creator and a Futurist
An Agile Evangelist and a Delivery Director spearheading the quality engineering – India team for Energy- Utilities and Chemicals sector
She Leads an Agile Community of Practice within the organization of 800 members, across 40 countries evangelizing Agile practices across all levels of the organization
She is a speaker for national and International conferences on Digital, Agile, and Project Management
Since Jan 2020, she has been building a women's community Women PowerUP Network – a virtual community of around 878 women across the globe. #BeingGoodEnougIsAmazing #WePowerUP
https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyapatra/
https://twitter.com/priyaPatra
Developing and Growing people is my passion and I am fortunate to live my passion every day. I help people realize their true potential and translate their potential into meaningful work that supports building high performing organizations. I am a Certified Learning and Development Manager (CLDM) and a seasoned Learning professional with 23+ years of work experience out of which 21+ years have been dedicated to Learning and Development (L&D). My experience ranges from end to end management of the L&D function to supporting organizational development initiatives.
Sidharth Balakrishna has over 20 years' experience in senior management roles; holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and an Economics degree from SRCC.
His experience includes the media & entertainment, artificial intelligence, energy, renewables and education sectors; has been an Executive Board Director and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at one of India's largest conglomerates; been employed with Royal Dutch Shell, Cairn India (Vedanta) in Corporate Strategy roles and Management Consultants such as KPMG & Accenture.
Has authored academic 6 books, published by Pearson and SAGE; writes a column for the Economic Times, the Hindu-Business Line.
He mentors startups in US, Israel, India; is an Adjunct Faculty at a number of top management institutes including IIM Indore, IIM Shillong, IIM Nagpur, BITS Pilani, SRCC etc; has presented papers in 12+ countries. He has also delivered over 250 training sessions for corporate executives
Prahlad Kakar, acclaimed as India’s "Ad Guru," is a pioneering force in the advertising industry and founder of Genesis Film Production. With a career spanning over 45 years, he’s renowned for revolutionizing Indian advertising by blending humor and cultural depth. His collaboration with prominent brands across India and the Asia Pacific has yielded numerous award-winning commercials that encapsulate relatable, vibrant narratives. His commitment to impactful storytelling and regional authenticity continues to influence modern advertising and mentorship in creative workshops and media.
Avinash Jhangiani, an award-winning design thinking, innovation, and digital transformation leader, boasts 23+ years of experience with US Big 4 Consulting, MNCs, and global agencies. As Play2Transform Group's founder and CEO, he employs design and play principles to foster innovative, human-centric mindsets via management training for corporates, startups, and education sectors. Avinash led Omnicom Media Group to win multiple local and international awards, including 4 Gold Lions at Cannes Lions Festival. He's recognized as an Exemplary Mentor of Change by NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission and is a global TeachSDGs ambassador promoting the UN's sustainable development goals. Certified by IDEO and INSEAD, he teaches at S.P. Jain School of Global Management and NMIMS, Mumbai. Avinash authored 'Beyond 2020 Mindset,' a leadership playbook with practical mindset shift strategies and case studies from global giants.
Priyanka, a foremost pitch expert and startup advisor in India, brings a decade of experience transforming investment pitches for over 10,000 entrepreneurs through Easy To Pitch, her founded venture. Acknowledged on platforms like Josh Talk, her startup validation and fundraising prowess led to features in 30+ publications, including YourStory and ET Times, alongside multiple excellence awards. As Chief Investment Officer at Terex Ventures, Priyanka bridges the startup-investor gap, demonstrating her unwavering commitment to global pitch readiness. She mentors at prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs, and DU, while her SaaS platform, Incudash, pioneers comprehensive support from idea validation to successful startups. Priyanka's dedication extends to her latest book, "Idea to Market," a vital resource offering real-world examples and practical insights for entrepreneurs across all levels.
Vineet, an expert in Design Thinking, extends problem-solving prowess to User Experience, Product, Gamification, and Animation Storytelling. Engaging globally as a Jury and Speaker, he continually expands horizons. Acknowledged for influential ideas, Vineet aids nations in fostering next-gen designers. His doors are open to foreigners seeking sabbaticals in India, transforming through visual and experiential design. Leading a design studio with a training facility, he's a passionate Design Mentor with a knack for Game Design since 1980. Transitioning into an Artist, Engineer, Writer, and Designer, Vineet now educates on infusing fun into games and advancing society through Gamification. With a love for chess, he motivates students worldwide, fostering a platform for artists and guiding career paths altruistically.
Param, co-founder of '3 Big Things', boasts 26 years of design and innovation leadership, spanning roles at IDEO, Fractal.ai, and Tata Digital. Starting in Interaction design, he progressed to Design Research & Strategy, shaping strategic design capabilities in organizations. At Tata Digital, he spearheaded the Experience Innovation Lab, driving advancements in e-commerce and super-app platforms. As Chief Design Officer at Fractal.ai, he built a team of 75+ specialists in Design & Behavioral Science. Prior, at Dr. Reddy’s, he established Studio 5B, pioneering digital health solutions and promoting patient-centricity. His work is showcased in IDEO U’s course on Designing for Change. Param also contributes to academia, serving on the Executive Council at the Indian School of Business. A mindfulness advocate, he annually shares insights through a toolkit blending Mindfulness and Design Thinking.
Niket Karajagi is a versatile professional with expertise as a Design Thinking Facilitator, Business Resilience Scientist, and VUCA Research Scholar. With over two decades of consulting and organization development experience, he has contributed to 175+ organizations globally and trained more than 200,000 leaders. An accomplished Mechanical Engineer and MBA in International Business Management, Niket is also an author, podcaster, blogger, and ICF-accredited Business Coach.
He has designed and implemented 120+ training programs and numerous leadership competency interventions across diverse sectors such as manufacturing, IT, pharmaceuticals, and FMCG. Niket is a certified coach in Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching Process and an assessor for MBTI, DISC, and Emotional Intelligence.
As the founder of Atyaasaa Consulting, he leads initiatives in business sustainability, change management, and scale-ups while empowering SMEs, NGOs, and global enterprises. His work embodies a mission to awaken human and business excellence.
Nitin is an innovative Design Thinker and Lead UX Designer with 14 years of expertise, specializing in crafting exceptional digital products across diverse platforms, particularly in Enterprise Solution Design. He has a proven track record of consistently delivering cutting-edge, user-centric solutions. Renowned for seamlessly integrating strategic thinking with design principles, Nitin brings creativity to every project. His skills extend beyond design execution to articulating the strategic significance of superior UX through compelling presentations, highlighting the transformative value of investing in user experience. Nitin is eager to play a pivotal role in the next groundbreaking venture, driven by his passion for creating unparalleled user experiences.
Devansh is a founder and startup coach with a diverse background spanning Education, Finance, Engineering, Design, and Product. With nearly a decade of experience advising founders and professionals, he has become a trusted voice in career building. Devansh is passionate about helping ambitious and driven individuals navigate their careers without the struggles he believes are often unnecessary. Through his coaching, he aims to provide early career training and investment, empowering others to reach their full potential from the start. His dedication to fostering growth and success in others reflects his commitment to shaping the next generation of leaders.
Soumita runs her award-winning fashion brand, Zyenika, which makes fashishion inclusive particularly for people with visible and invisible disabilities, and the elderly. She also enables brands with inclusive solutions, for customer service, product design, employee diversity sensitisation, accessibility and organisational inclusion policy. She has been awarded with the prestigious Global Honeybee Network Creativity and Inclusive Innovations Awards amongst others.
Soumita uses her lived experience of an acquired disability at the age of 32, along with that of policy researcher and communications strategist to drive inclusion as an entrepreneur and storyteller. Her commitment towards DEI can be seen in her strong ties with the community and her constant awareness building through her books, as well as being an expert panellist and speaker on TEDx, CNBC, NDTV, etc. More recently, she is published in an anthology of fairytales, retold from a feminist DEI lens.
Tuhin Mukharjee is a business coach, corporate trainer, TEDx keynote speaker, and management consultant with over 20 years of experience. He is the co-author of Essentials of Modern Marketing (India edition) with Dr. Philip Kotler, the Father of Modern Marketing, and is also partnering with Dr. Marc Oliver Opresnik for the book 100 Minutes Marketing. Tuhin mentors the RISE Incubation Center in Jhansi, supporting young entrepreneurs with startup programs.
With a diverse background in education, consulting, business development, and academics, he has contributed significantly to teaching, research, and training in various domains. He holds a postgraduate degree in supply chain management, an MBA in marketing, and is a Six Sigma certified professional. Additionally, Tuhin is an expert in design thinking, helping organizations achieve exceptional performance through innovative solutions and strategies.
With over 20 years of experience in supply chain operations, digital marketing, and consulting, Ranjani Rao transitioned into coaching and leadership development, accumulating 1,500+ coaching hours over the past nine years. She specializes in leadership growth, career transitions, executive presence, and design thinking, working with professionals from first-time managers to C-suite leaders across IT/ITES, consulting, and global enterprises.
She has coached 350+ clients from 50+ organizations, including IBM, Accenture, HP, Wipro, Meta, Siemens, LinkedIn, and Stripe. Her coaching integrates Design Thinking, Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, and Strengths-Based Coaching, helping leaders gain clarity, confidence, and strategic thinking for holistic success.
Ranjani is an ICF-PCC Coach, NLP & Self-Hypnosis Practitioner, Design Thinking Expert (IBM & Virginia University), and Growth Mindset Mentor. Her mission is to empower leaders to navigate change, drive innovation, and achieve lasting success.
