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Abhijit Bose
Abhijit Bose
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, EZETAP
Abhijit is CEO and Co-Founder of Ezetap, which was started in 2011 to help merchants leapfrog India’s cash economy by using mobile solutions built on next generation web technology. The Ezetap platform allows merchants to become a banking service point and accept any type of electronic payment through a mobile handset or tablet. Abhijit has over 20 years of experience in building and launching mobile and software products, and Ezetap is the third mobile product he has launched in India. Previous experience includes leadership positions at ngpay (acquired by Flipkart) and Siebel Systems. Abhijit has a BS in Engineering from Cornell University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Adam Sadowsky
Adam Sadowsky
CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT SYYN LABS
Adam Sadowsky is Creative Director and founder of Syyn Labs, an award-winning art & engineering production company that specializes in unexpected and jaw-dropping kinetic installations for ads, viral videos, commercial spaces, events, and whenever the mood strikes. Clients include Google, Red Bull, Target, Allstate, Sears, ESPN, Ford, Chevy, and Willy Wonka.
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Amitabh Kant
Amitabh Kant
CEO, NITI AAYOG
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), is a Government of India initiative that aims to catalyze India’s developmental process; creating an enabling environment through partnerships, think tanks and information sharing through cooperative federalism.
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Ananth Menon
Ananth Menon
MUSICIAN
Ananth Menon is a guitarist and singer from Bangalore, India. Ananth has been active in the blues and rock scene for the last 16 years and is one of Bangalore's most recognisable voices today.
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Anil Menon
Anil Menon
GLOBAL PRESIDENT, SMART+CONNECTED COMMUNITIES, CISCO
Anil Menon is global president of Cisco Smart+Connected Communities; helping cities become more efficient and sustainable. It provides solutions for urban services and data sharing challenges in communities, cities and even entire nations worldwide through digital transformation of infrastructure, data, and services.
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Anirudh Sharma
Anirudh Sharma
ENTREPRENEUR, GRAVIKY LABS
In 2011 Anirudh started the LeChal project. Anirudh won the MIT Tech Review TR35 ‘Innovator of the Year’ award.
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Anubhav Gupta
Anubhav Gupta
CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, GODREJ PROPERTIES
Anubhav currently serves as the Chief Design Officer, Business Head Vikhroli and Head of CSR and Sustainability at Godrej Properties Limited. It is one of India’ s fastest growing developers with over 120 million square feet under development in 12 cities across 50 projects in India.
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Bala Deshpande
Bala Deshpande
SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEW ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATES (INDIA)
Bala is based in Mumbai and responsible for creating and building the NEA India platform. She serves on the board of several NEA portfolio companies such as Financial Software and Services, GOQii Inc, Nova Medical, IndiaWorld Technologies, Panacea Medical, etc.
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Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce
CHAIR, BITCOIN FOUNDATION
Brock Pierce is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur with an extensive track record of founding, advising and investing in disruptive businesses. He pioneered the market for digital currency in games and has raised more than $200 million for companies he founded. Brock is an early investor in Bitcoin, founding board member of Omni, and one of the largest investors in the Ethereum crowd sale. He is the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and founder and Managing Partner of Blockchain Capital, the first sector-focused venture fund that invests in Blockchain technology companies (more than 40 to date) and the Bitcoin ecosystem.
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C J Meadows
C J Meadows
DIRECTOR, SP JAIN SCHOOL OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
Dr. Meadows is the Director of i2i - the Innovation & Insights Center at SP Jain School of Global Management, a Forbes Top-20 International Business School. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
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Christopher Kirchhoff
Christopher Kirchhoff
PARTNER AT DEFENCE INNOVATION UNIT EXPERIMENTAL
Christopher Kirchhoff was appointed by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to lead the Pentagon's Silicon Valley Office, Defense Innovation Unit X (DIUx), as one of four partners overseeing the Defense Department's nation-wide investment portfolio harnessing emerging commercial technology for national security innovation. Christopher along with his team will steer nearly $100M of R&D co-investment funds and run offices in Boston and Silicon Valley scouting for technology that can be integrated into military systems. Chris previously worked as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He investigated and documented the space shuttle Columbia’s accident report and co-authored the historical U.S. Government paper titled Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, that was coined “The Iraq Pentagon Papers” by the New York Times.
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Crystal Rose
Crystal Rose
CO-FOUNDER, SENSAY
Crystal Rose is an entrepreneur and technologist based in Los Angeles, California. She has founded a digital interactive agency and co-founded two technology startups. Crystal is currently co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Sensay, an interactive platform that lets you message strangers around the world about anything. Crystal is also founder and Director of the LA Startup Week, a 5-day series of events celebrating entrepreneurs and startups in Los Angeles. Crystal was previously involved in the Code for America Brigade in Los Angeles (Code for LA) supporting open government and civic hacking for the Mayor's Office.
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Dale Fox
Dale Fox
CEO, TRIBOGENICS
Dale Fox is CEO of Tribogenics where he leads a team that is revolutionizing X-ray technology across a $20B market space encompassing major industries such as recycling, mining, military, medical imaging, and security. Tribogenics has developed a technology that eliminates the need for high voltage, allowing miniature, low-cost X-ray sources to drive products and solutions. Tribogenics technology is venture-backed by prominent investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
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Dali and Finn
Dali and Finn
FOUNDERS, NALU
Dali Schonfelder is 15 years old and attends the Green School in Bali, Indonesia. She loves design and fashion and started her own fashion label when she was just 13. Her label is called Nalu. Nalu is not your ordinary label – it provides school uniforms to children who require them to remain in school, with the profits generated from sales. Dali also enjoys travelling to remote parts of the world and immersing herself in new cultures.
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David Rowan
David Rowan
Editor, WIRED UK magazine
David Rowan is editor-in-chief of WIRED’s UK edition. He’s taken 120 flights in the past year to investigate the companies and entrepreneurs changing our world, recently spending time with the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Nest, Twitter and countless other disruptive startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. His recent keynote talks have included events for banks, governments and Fortune 100 companies, and recent stage interviews have ranged from will.i.am to James Murdoch and David Cameron. David has been a columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Guardian. At WIRED he has extended the brand into conferences, apps, and a consulting business. He is co-founder of FlowJourneys.com, taking amazing people for weekend adventures in the world’s most extraordinary locations. And he is still searching for the future.
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Gaurav Hinduja
Gaurav Hinduja
CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, CAPITAL FLOAT
Gaurav Hinduja co-founded Capital Float, an online lending platform, in 2013. Under his direction, the company has grown to become the largest digital lender in India. As the Managing Director of Capital Float, he continues to drive leadership in the Fintech space through numerous strategic partnerships with industry leaders in the e-commerce, travel, hospitality and trade segments.
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Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood
CO-FOUNDER, ETHCORE
Before co-founding Ethcore, Gavin was the CTO and co-founder of the Ethereum Project. He is the co-designer of the Ethereum Protocol, the lead programmer on the C++ Ethereum software client, and was the project chief of the IDE, Solidity programming language, and the Swarm and Whisper protocols. He has pushed the state-of-the-art in video analysis tools and programming languages, as well as co-founding several technology start-ups. Gavin has given seminars and presented to numerous audiences around the world from keynotes at regional technology conferences to musings on the future of legal systems. He coined the terms 'web three' and 'alegality'.
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Gouri Mirpuri
Gouri Mirpuri
COFOUNDER, THE LEARNING FARM
Gouri Mirpuri as the founder of Connected for Good, endeavours to connect the unseen dots around the world, for 'good'. Born in India, now a Singaporean living in Washington DC, Gouri will talk about her award-winning 'Learning Farm' in Indonesia, a residential organic farm for vulnerable street youth. 'The Leaning Farm' is an upstream program which has given hope to hundreds throughout Indonesia as it helps the disadvantaged young people “sow the seeds of change” in their own lives, as well as become agents of transformation in their communities.
Read More »
Heather Blair
Heather Blair
FEMINIST
Heather Blair is 17 years old and a recent graduate of The Green School in Bali, Indonesia. She lives between Canada, California, Bali and the Caribbean. Having studied musical theatre, acting and improv since she was five, Heather has taken these skills and put them towards speaking about sexual assault.
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Jesko von den Steinen
Jesko von den Steinen
SENIOR ADVISOR, BRAND IDENTITY - THE VENETIAN MACAO RESORT
Jesko von den Steinen was formerly a principal solo artist with Cirque du Soleil, and at The House Of Dancing Water, the world’s largest water-based show created by the Franco Dragone Entertainment Group. He is currently working with Las Vegas Sands and Sands China as the Senior Advisor for Brand Identity developing the brand experience for a major upcoming integrated resort in Macau.
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Jill Sobule
Jill Sobule
SINGER/SONGWRITER
Jill Sobule is a Denver-born, critically acclaimed, singer-writer with over 11 albums and over two decades of recording and performing. 1995’s Jill Sobule proved a major popular breakthrough and included the hit singles “Supermodel” (featured in Clueless) and the original, “I Kissed A Girl”.
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Kalyan Varma
Kalyan Varma
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER
Kalyan Varma is a wildlife photographer and filmmaker specializing in environmental issues in India. He is a freelancer with many of the world’s leading magazines and channels like National Geographic and BBC.
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Kenneth Lacovara
Kenneth Lacovara
PALEONTOLOGIST/EXPLORER
Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara has excavated some of the largest dinosaurs ever, including the infamous Dreadnoughtus, which weighs 65 tons and is one of the largest known land animals! Kenneth’s discovery of Dreadnoughtus in September 2014 made international headlines, and is the most complete skeleton of any super-huge dinosaur. When he's not digging-up fossils from far corners of the planet, Kenneth works on integrating new technology such as 3D printing, robotics to the study of paleontology.
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Krithi K. Karanth
Krithi K. Karanth
CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST
Dr. Karanth is Chief Conservation Scientist and Director at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Adjunct Faculty at Duke and National Centre for Biological Sciences. She has a Ph.D from Duke (2008), a M.E.Sc from Yale (2003), and, B.S and B.A degrees from the University of Florida (2001). Her research in India and Asia spans 22 years, encompassing many issues in human dimensions of wildlife conservation. She has conducted research assessing patterns of species distributions and extinctions, impacts of wildlife tourism, consequences of voluntary resettlement, land use change and understanding human-wildlife interactions. She has published over 100 scientific and popular articles. Karanth served on the editorial boards of journals Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. She has mentored over 200 young scientists and engaged 700 citizen science volunteers in her research and conservation projects.
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Kumar Mahadevan
Kumar Mahadevan
CHEF, MEDIA PERSONALITY
Kumar, often referred to as the "Guru of Indian cuisine" in Sydney's dining circles, is recognised for popularizing authentic Indian food in Australia through his restaurants named after his sons, Abhi's and Aki’s.
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Kunal Shah
Kunal Shah
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, FREECHARGE
Kunal Shah graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Mumbai and briefly studied towards an MBA before dropping out to become an entrepreneur.
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Luis Dias
Luis Dias
FOUNDER, CHILD'S PLAY INDIA FOUNDATION
Dr. Luis Dias is a physician, musician, and founder of Child’s Play India Foundation, a charity which works to bring classical music to underprivileged children in India. Child’s Play india Foundation is inspired by El Sistema, a Venezuelan initiative that promotes the collective practice of music and music education as a means of social change and empowerment. The creation of Child’s Play India Foundation was triggered by the stupendous performances of two orchestras, both made up of underprivileged youth from separate corners of the globe, at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2007.
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Madan Padaki
Madan Padaki
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, RUBANBRIDGE
Madan Padaki is co-founder and CEO, RubanBridge, a last-mile services platform for Rural India; Co-founder & Director of Sylvant Advisors, an education advisory & investments entity and Co-founder & Trustee of Head Held High Foundation, a social organisation for eradicating rural poverty where he leads the Global Action on Poverty (GAP) Initiative. He is also co-founder & former CEO of MeritTrac Services, one of India’s largest Skills assessment company; acquired by Manipal Global Education. In 2011, Madan was conferred The Young Education Leader Award by the EDGE Forum – a forum of leading educationists and educational institutions in India.
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Meenakshi Raghavan
Meenakshi Raghavan
KALARIPAYATTU PROFESSIONAL
Meenakshi, is a 75 year old Kalaripayattu professional. Kalaripayattu, is one of the oldest forms of martial arts, originating from Kerala, India.
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Narayana Peesapaty
Narayana Peesapaty
FOUNDER, BAYKEYS FOOD
Narayana came up with the idea of edible cutlery, which he supplies through Bakeys Food. He holds bachelor of science degree in Chemistry from Osmania University and an MBA from IIFM-Bhopal.
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Ravi Venkatesan
Ravi Venkatesan
BUSINESS LEADER/ AUTHOR/ MENTOR
Ravi Venkatesan is Chairman of the Board at Bank of Baroda. He is also the founder Chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a partner at Unitus Seed Fund and a fund advisor at Kalaari Capital. Ravi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Infosys Ltd and several advisory Boards. He authored Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere which was published by the Harvard Business Review.
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Ricky Kej
Ricky Kej
COMPOSER & CONSERVATIONIST
Ricky's Grammy award winning album Winds of Samsara is based on the ideals of peace set by Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. He was also a featured musician on a Grammy Winning album and 2 Grammy Nominated albums at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
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Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh Agarwal
FOUNDER & CEO, OYO
Ritesh is the founder & CEO of OYO, India’s largest branded network of hotels. 22-year-old Ritesh started travelling across India when he was 17 and realized that the lack of predictable and affordable hotels was plaguing the Indian hospitality sector.
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Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani
FOUNDER-CHAIRPERSON, ARGHYAM
Rohini Nilekani is the Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam, a Foundation she set up with a private endowment to work on water and sanitation issues in India. She is also founder of Pratham Books, a charitable trust which seeks to put "a book in every child's hand".
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Samim Rizvi
Samim Rizvi
INTERNATIONAL CYCLIST
Samim is an international cyclist and the first Indian to qualify and compete in Race Across America - a 5000 kilometer race that spans across 12 days.
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Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, NAUKRI.COM
Sanjeev graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and then proceeded to set up Info Edge (India), which is the parent company of the job portal Naukri.com.
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Sekou Andrews
Sekou Andrews
POETIC VOICE
Sekou is an elementary schoolteacher turned actor, musician, national poetry slam champion, entrepreneur, and now award-winning Poetic Voice. aAny given day may now find him presenting an original talk for international marketing executives, giving a keynote speech at a leadership conference, or performing pieces for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard.
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Shradha Sharma
Shradha Sharma
FOUNDER AND CEO, YOURSTORY
Shradha Sharma is founder and CEO of YourStory, India’s biggest and most popular media platform for stories of entrepreneurs and change-makers. Shradha lives her life in stories and believes that every story is unique and every story matters.
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Sonia Shirsat
Sonia Shirsat
FADISTA GOESA-GOAN FADISTA
Goan singer Sonia Shirsat is rated as one of the best Fadistas in India of all time. She has been singing professionally for the last 10 years, and has performed in Goa, Luxembourg, Macau, Kuwait, France, Hawaii -and all over the world, really. Sonia has sung and performed in 13 languages and in 2010, released her debut album, Saudades de Fado; recorded in Lisbon.
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Subodh Kerkar
Subodh Kerkar
ARTIST
Subodh Kerkar was born in a small picturesque village of Keri on the northern border of Goa in 1959, just 2 years before the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese rule.
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Sunil Rao
Sunil Rao
Partner (Business Services) - LSIP
Sunil Rao joined Lightspeed India Partners Advisors LLP (LSIP) in 2016 as a Partner (Business Services) and is focused on providing a broad range of business development, recruiting and value-add services to the Lightspeed India portfolio companies.
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Sunitha Krishnan
Sunitha Krishnan
ANTI-TRAFFICKING CRUSADER
Sunitha Krishnan, Founder and Director of Prajwala, or “an eternal flame”, is an eminent anti-trafficking activist internationally known for her fight against girl child trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. A mental health professional, she has done extensive research and is essentially a field practitioner. Prajwala runs 17 schools throughout Andhra Pradesh, India, for 6,000 children and has rescued more than 4,200 women from prostitution, 2,100 of whom Krishnan personally liberated.
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Swetha Suresh
Swetha Suresh
ARTIST
Swetha is a singer, dancer and whistler who secured first place at the World Whistling Competitions, held in Tokyo, Japan. In 2014, Swetha entered the Asia Book of Records, India Book of Records and the Tamilnadu Book of Records, for whistling 197 songs in 18 hours, starting at 4.52am and ending at 10.52pm.
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Thomas John Muthoot
Thomas John Muthoot
CHAIRMAN, MUTHOOT PAPPACHAN GROUP
The Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG) is one of the leading family promoted corporate houses in South India with a total business turnover of Rs. 20,000 crores and a loyal business base of over one million. The multifarious economic activities of the MPG include Retail Banking & Financial Services, Power Generation, Hospitality, Real Estate and Health Care. Thomas John Muthoot was awarded the "Business Man of the Year" title by the Chamber of Commerce in 2009.
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Abhijit Bose
Abhijit Bose
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, EZETAP
Abhijit is CEO and Co-Founder of Ezetap, which was started in 2011 to help merchants leapfrog India’s cash economy by using mobile solutions built on next generation web technology. The Ezetap platform allows merchants to become a banking service point and accept any type of electronic payment through a mobile handset or tablet. Abhijit has over 20 years of experience in building and launching mobile and software products, and Ezetap is the third mobile product he has launched in India. Previous experience includes leadership positions at ngpay (acquired by Flipkart) and Siebel Systems. Abhijit has a BS in Engineering from Cornell University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Adam Sadowsky
Adam Sadowsky
CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT SYYN LABS
Adam Sadowsky is Creative Director and founder of Syyn Labs, an award-winning art & engineering production company that specializes in unexpected and jaw-dropping kinetic installations for ads, viral videos, commercial spaces, events, and whenever the mood strikes. Clients include Google, Red Bull, Target, Allstate, Sears, ESPN, Ford, Chevy, and Willy Wonka.
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Amitabh Kant
Amitabh Kant
CEO, NITI AAYOG
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), is a Government of India initiative that aims to catalyze India’s developmental process; creating an enabling environment through partnerships, think tanks and information sharing through cooperative federalism.
Read More »
Ananth Menon
Ananth Menon
MUSICIAN
Ananth Menon is a guitarist and singer from Bangalore, India. Ananth has been active in the blues and rock scene for the last 16 years and is one of Bangalore's most recognisable voices today.
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Anil Menon
Anil Menon
GLOBAL PRESIDENT, SMART+CONNECTED COMMUNITIES, CISCO
Anil Menon is global president of Cisco Smart+Connected Communities; helping cities become more efficient and sustainable. It provides solutions for urban services and data sharing challenges in communities, cities and even entire nations worldwide through digital transformation of infrastructure, data, and services.
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Anirudh Sharma
Anirudh Sharma
ENTREPRENEUR, GRAVIKY LABS
In 2011 Anirudh started the LeChal project. Anirudh won the MIT Tech Review TR35 ‘Innovator of the Year’ award.
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Anubhav Gupta
Anubhav Gupta
CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, GODREJ PROPERTIES
Anubhav currently serves as the Chief Design Officer, Business Head Vikhroli and Head of CSR and Sustainability at Godrej Properties Limited. It is one of India’ s fastest growing developers with over 120 million square feet under development in 12 cities across 50 projects in India.
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Bala Deshpande
Bala Deshpande
SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEW ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATES (INDIA)
Bala is based in Mumbai and responsible for creating and building the NEA India platform. She serves on the board of several NEA portfolio companies such as Financial Software and Services, GOQii Inc, Nova Medical, IndiaWorld Technologies, Panacea Medical, etc.
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Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce
CHAIR, BITCOIN FOUNDATION
Brock Pierce is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur with an extensive track record of founding, advising and investing in disruptive businesses. He pioneered the market for digital currency in games and has raised more than $200 million for companies he founded. Brock is an early investor in Bitcoin, founding board member of Omni, and one of the largest investors in the Ethereum crowd sale. He is the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and founder and Managing Partner of Blockchain Capital, the first sector-focused venture fund that invests in Blockchain technology companies (more than 40 to date) and the Bitcoin ecosystem.
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C J Meadows
C J Meadows
DIRECTOR, SP JAIN SCHOOL OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
Dr. Meadows is the Director of i2i - the Innovation & Insights Center at SP Jain School of Global Management, a Forbes Top-20 International Business School. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
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Christopher Kirchhoff
Christopher Kirchhoff
PARTNER AT DEFENCE INNOVATION UNIT EXPERIMENTAL
Christopher Kirchhoff was appointed by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to lead the Pentagon's Silicon Valley Office, Defense Innovation Unit X (DIUx), as one of four partners overseeing the Defense Department's nation-wide investment portfolio harnessing emerging commercial technology for national security innovation. Christopher along with his team will steer nearly $100M of R&D co-investment funds and run offices in Boston and Silicon Valley scouting for technology that can be integrated into military systems. Chris previously worked as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He investigated and documented the space shuttle Columbia’s accident report and co-authored the historical U.S. Government paper titled Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, that was coined “The Iraq Pentagon Papers” by the New York Times.
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Crystal Rose
Crystal Rose
CO-FOUNDER, SENSAY
Crystal Rose is an entrepreneur and technologist based in Los Angeles, California. She has founded a digital interactive agency and co-founded two technology startups. Crystal is currently co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Sensay, an interactive platform that lets you message strangers around the world about anything. Crystal is also founder and Director of the LA Startup Week, a 5-day series of events celebrating entrepreneurs and startups in Los Angeles. Crystal was previously involved in the Code for America Brigade in Los Angeles (Code for LA) supporting open government and civic hacking for the Mayor's Office.
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Dale Fox
Dale Fox
CEO, TRIBOGENICS
Dale Fox is CEO of Tribogenics where he leads a team that is revolutionizing X-ray technology across a $20B market space encompassing major industries such as recycling, mining, military, medical imaging, and security. Tribogenics has developed a technology that eliminates the need for high voltage, allowing miniature, low-cost X-ray sources to drive products and solutions. Tribogenics technology is venture-backed by prominent investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
Read More »
Dali and Finn
Dali and Finn
FOUNDERS, NALU
Dali Schonfelder is 15 years old and attends the Green School in Bali, Indonesia. She loves design and fashion and started her own fashion label when she was just 13. Her label is called Nalu. Nalu is not your ordinary label – it provides school uniforms to children who require them to remain in school, with the profits generated from sales. Dali also enjoys travelling to remote parts of the world and immersing herself in new cultures.
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David Rowan
David Rowan
Editor, WIRED UK magazine
David Rowan is editor-in-chief of WIRED’s UK edition. He’s taken 120 flights in the past year to investigate the companies and entrepreneurs changing our world, recently spending time with the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Nest, Twitter and countless other disruptive startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. His recent keynote talks have included events for banks, governments and Fortune 100 companies, and recent stage interviews have ranged from will.i.am to James Murdoch and David Cameron. David has been a columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Guardian. At WIRED he has extended the brand into conferences, apps, and a consulting business. He is co-founder of FlowJourneys.com, taking amazing people for weekend adventures in the world’s most extraordinary locations. And he is still searching for the future.
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Gaurav Hinduja
Gaurav Hinduja
CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, CAPITAL FLOAT
Gaurav Hinduja co-founded Capital Float, an online lending platform, in 2013. Under his direction, the company has grown to become the largest digital lender in India. As the Managing Director of Capital Float, he continues to drive leadership in the Fintech space through numerous strategic partnerships with industry leaders in the e-commerce, travel, hospitality and trade segments.
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Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood
CO-FOUNDER, ETHCORE
Before co-founding Ethcore, Gavin was the CTO and co-founder of the Ethereum Project. He is the co-designer of the Ethereum Protocol, the lead programmer on the C++ Ethereum software client, and was the project chief of the IDE, Solidity programming language, and the Swarm and Whisper protocols. He has pushed the state-of-the-art in video analysis tools and programming languages, as well as co-founding several technology start-ups. Gavin has given seminars and presented to numerous audiences around the world from keynotes at regional technology conferences to musings on the future of legal systems. He coined the terms 'web three' and 'alegality'.
Read More »
Gouri Mirpuri
Gouri Mirpuri
COFOUNDER, THE LEARNING FARM
Gouri Mirpuri as the founder of Connected for Good, endeavours to connect the unseen dots around the world, for 'good'. Born in India, now a Singaporean living in Washington DC, Gouri will talk about her award-winning 'Learning Farm' in Indonesia, a residential organic farm for vulnerable street youth. 'The Leaning Farm' is an upstream program which has given hope to hundreds throughout Indonesia as it helps the disadvantaged young people “sow the seeds of change” in their own lives, as well as become agents of transformation in their communities.
Read More »
Heather Blair
Heather Blair
FEMINIST
Heather Blair is 17 years old and a recent graduate of The Green School in Bali, Indonesia. She lives between Canada, California, Bali and the Caribbean. Having studied musical theatre, acting and improv since she was five, Heather has taken these skills and put them towards speaking about sexual assault.
Read More »
Jesko von den Steinen
Jesko von den Steinen
SENIOR ADVISOR, BRAND IDENTITY - THE VENETIAN MACAO RESORT
Jesko von den Steinen was formerly a principal solo artist with Cirque du Soleil, and at The House Of Dancing Water, the world’s largest water-based show created by the Franco Dragone Entertainment Group. He is currently working with Las Vegas Sands and Sands China as the Senior Advisor for Brand Identity developing the brand experience for a major upcoming integrated resort in Macau.
Read More »
Jill Sobule
Jill Sobule
SINGER/SONGWRITER
Jill Sobule is a Denver-born, critically acclaimed, singer-writer with over 11 albums and over two decades of recording and performing. 1995’s Jill Sobule proved a major popular breakthrough and included the hit singles “Supermodel” (featured in Clueless) and the original, “I Kissed A Girl”.
Read More »
Kalyan Varma
Kalyan Varma
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER
Kalyan Varma is a wildlife photographer and filmmaker specializing in environmental issues in India. He is a freelancer with many of the world’s leading magazines and channels like National Geographic and BBC.
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Kenneth Lacovara
Kenneth Lacovara
PALEONTOLOGIST/EXPLORER
Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara has excavated some of the largest dinosaurs ever, including the infamous Dreadnoughtus, which weighs 65 tons and is one of the largest known land animals! Kenneth’s discovery of Dreadnoughtus in September 2014 made international headlines, and is the most complete skeleton of any super-huge dinosaur. When he's not digging-up fossils from far corners of the planet, Kenneth works on integrating new technology such as 3D printing, robotics to the study of paleontology.
Read More »
Krithi K. Karanth
Krithi K. Karanth
CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST
Dr. Karanth is Chief Conservation Scientist and Director at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Adjunct Faculty at Duke and National Centre for Biological Sciences. She has a Ph.D from Duke (2008), a M.E.Sc from Yale (2003), and, B.S and B.A degrees from the University of Florida (2001). Her research in India and Asia spans 22 years, encompassing many issues in human dimensions of wildlife conservation. She has conducted research assessing patterns of species distributions and extinctions, impacts of wildlife tourism, consequences of voluntary resettlement, land use change and understanding human-wildlife interactions. She has published over 100 scientific and popular articles. Karanth served on the editorial boards of journals Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. She has mentored over 200 young scientists and engaged 700 citizen science volunteers in her research and conservation projects.
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Kumar Mahadevan
Kumar Mahadevan
CHEF, MEDIA PERSONALITY
Kumar, often referred to as the "Guru of Indian cuisine" in Sydney's dining circles, is recognised for popularizing authentic Indian food in Australia through his restaurants named after his sons, Abhi's and Aki’s.
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Kunal Shah
Kunal Shah
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, FREECHARGE
Kunal Shah graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Mumbai and briefly studied towards an MBA before dropping out to become an entrepreneur.
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Luis Dias
Luis Dias
FOUNDER, CHILD'S PLAY INDIA FOUNDATION
Dr. Luis Dias is a physician, musician, and founder of Child’s Play India Foundation, a charity which works to bring classical music to underprivileged children in India. Child’s Play india Foundation is inspired by El Sistema, a Venezuelan initiative that promotes the collective practice of music and music education as a means of social change and empowerment. The creation of Child’s Play India Foundation was triggered by the stupendous performances of two orchestras, both made up of underprivileged youth from separate corners of the globe, at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2007.
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Madan Padaki
Madan Padaki
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, RUBANBRIDGE
Madan Padaki is co-founder and CEO, RubanBridge, a last-mile services platform for Rural India; Co-founder & Director of Sylvant Advisors, an education advisory & investments entity and Co-founder & Trustee of Head Held High Foundation, a social organisation for eradicating rural poverty where he leads the Global Action on Poverty (GAP) Initiative. He is also co-founder & former CEO of MeritTrac Services, one of India’s largest Skills assessment company; acquired by Manipal Global Education. In 2011, Madan was conferred The Young Education Leader Award by the EDGE Forum – a forum of leading educationists and educational institutions in India.
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Meenakshi Raghavan
Meenakshi Raghavan
KALARIPAYATTU PROFESSIONAL
Meenakshi, is a 75 year old Kalaripayattu professional. Kalaripayattu, is one of the oldest forms of martial arts, originating from Kerala, India.
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Narayana Peesapaty
Narayana Peesapaty
FOUNDER, BAYKEYS FOOD
Narayana came up with the idea of edible cutlery, which he supplies through Bakeys Food. He holds bachelor of science degree in Chemistry from Osmania University and an MBA from IIFM-Bhopal.
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Ravi Venkatesan
Ravi Venkatesan
BUSINESS LEADER/ AUTHOR/ MENTOR
Ravi Venkatesan is Chairman of the Board at Bank of Baroda. He is also the founder Chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a partner at Unitus Seed Fund and a fund advisor at Kalaari Capital. Ravi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Infosys Ltd and several advisory Boards. He authored Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere which was published by the Harvard Business Review.
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Ricky Kej
Ricky Kej
COMPOSER & CONSERVATIONIST
Ricky's Grammy award winning album Winds of Samsara is based on the ideals of peace set by Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. He was also a featured musician on a Grammy Winning album and 2 Grammy Nominated albums at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
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Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh Agarwal
FOUNDER & CEO, OYO
Ritesh is the founder & CEO of OYO, India’s largest branded network of hotels. 22-year-old Ritesh started travelling across India when he was 17 and realized that the lack of predictable and affordable hotels was plaguing the Indian hospitality sector.
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Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani
FOUNDER-CHAIRPERSON, ARGHYAM
Rohini Nilekani is the Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam, a Foundation she set up with a private endowment to work on water and sanitation issues in India. She is also founder of Pratham Books, a charitable trust which seeks to put "a book in every child's hand".
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Samim Rizvi
Samim Rizvi
INTERNATIONAL CYCLIST
Samim is an international cyclist and the first Indian to qualify and compete in Race Across America - a 5000 kilometer race that spans across 12 days.
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Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, NAUKRI.COM
Sanjeev graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and then proceeded to set up Info Edge (India), which is the parent company of the job portal Naukri.com.
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Sekou Andrews
Sekou Andrews
POETIC VOICE
Sekou is an elementary schoolteacher turned actor, musician, national poetry slam champion, entrepreneur, and now award-winning Poetic Voice. aAny given day may now find him presenting an original talk for international marketing executives, giving a keynote speech at a leadership conference, or performing pieces for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard.
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Shradha Sharma
Shradha Sharma
FOUNDER AND CEO, YOURSTORY
Shradha Sharma is founder and CEO of YourStory, India’s biggest and most popular media platform for stories of entrepreneurs and change-makers. Shradha lives her life in stories and believes that every story is unique and every story matters.
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Sonia Shirsat
Sonia Shirsat
FADISTA GOESA-GOAN FADISTA
Goan singer Sonia Shirsat is rated as one of the best Fadistas in India of all time. She has been singing professionally for the last 10 years, and has performed in Goa, Luxembourg, Macau, Kuwait, France, Hawaii -and all over the world, really. Sonia has sung and performed in 13 languages and in 2010, released her debut album, Saudades de Fado; recorded in Lisbon.
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Subodh Kerkar
Subodh Kerkar
ARTIST
Subodh Kerkar was born in a small picturesque village of Keri on the northern border of Goa in 1959, just 2 years before the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese rule.
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Sunil Rao
Sunil Rao
Partner (Business Services) - LSIP
Sunil Rao joined Lightspeed India Partners Advisors LLP (LSIP) in 2016 as a Partner (Business Services) and is focused on providing a broad range of business development, recruiting and value-add services to the Lightspeed India portfolio companies.
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Sunitha Krishnan
Sunitha Krishnan
ANTI-TRAFFICKING CRUSADER
Sunitha Krishnan, Founder and Director of Prajwala, or “an eternal flame”, is an eminent anti-trafficking activist internationally known for her fight against girl child trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. A mental health professional, she has done extensive research and is essentially a field practitioner. Prajwala runs 17 schools throughout Andhra Pradesh, India, for 6,000 children and has rescued more than 4,200 women from prostitution, 2,100 of whom Krishnan personally liberated.
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Swetha Suresh
Swetha Suresh
ARTIST
Swetha is a singer, dancer and whistler who secured first place at the World Whistling Competitions, held in Tokyo, Japan. In 2014, Swetha entered the Asia Book of Records, India Book of Records and the Tamilnadu Book of Records, for whistling 197 songs in 18 hours, starting at 4.52am and ending at 10.52pm.
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Thomas John Muthoot
Thomas John Muthoot
CHAIRMAN, MUTHOOT PAPPACHAN GROUP
The Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG) is one of the leading family promoted corporate houses in South India with a total business turnover of Rs. 20,000 crores and a loyal business base of over one million. The multifarious economic activities of the MPG include Retail Banking & Financial Services, Power Generation, Hospitality, Real Estate and Health Care. Thomas John Muthoot was awarded the "Business Man of the Year" title by the Chamber of Commerce in 2009.
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