VCCircle

Abhay is a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Abhay was head of Real Estate and Infrastructure investment banking at DSP Merrill Lynch where he led capital raising for the largest Indian companies in these sectors including the largest Indian initial public offering for DLF Ltd. Prior to that, Abhay worked at McKinsey & Co, in Mumbai and Johannesburg. At McKinsey, Abhay worked with a number of leading Indian corporations in the Media and Entertainment and Manufacturing sectors. Abhay received an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B. Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay.

Dhanpal Jhaveri is a Partner and CEO of Everstone Capital Advisors.

As the CEO of Everstone Capital Advisors, Dhanpal is involved in all facets of the firm’s private equity investment process. Prior to joining Everstone in 2008, he had seventeen years of experience in corporate finance and strategy. Dhanpal previously worked with Vedanta Resources as Director of Corporate Strategy, with ICICI Securities as the Head – Investment Banking and with KPMG as a Partner. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Babson College.

Rehan brings twelve years of experience building and managing internet businesses to Remindo. Prior to Remindo, Rehan founded Flora2000 in 1999. Under his leadership, Flora has evolved into a multimillion dollar company, active in over 150 countries and with offices in Gibraltar, the US and India. As CEO of Flora2000, Rehan oversees corporate management, strategic brand positioning and execution, ensuring the company's hyper speed organic growth from a start up to the world's premier overseas floral delivery specialist.

In addition to Remindo, Rehan also holds several directors positions. Currently, Rehan is a director of Druvaa Software Pvt. Ltd., which provides next generation backups for enterprise laptops & pdas. Under his leadership Druvaa is one of the first start ups in India to secure pre-revenue funding. Rehan is also the director of 'GoSmellTheFlowers.com', a blog that addresses Well Being in the US and the UK.

Rehan holds a BA in Economics from St. Xavier's College in Mumbai; and has completed the Post Graduate ICAEW Accounting Foundation Course from the University of London.

Sanjay Singh is an MBA from the prestigious management Institute, IIM Ahmedabad, with more than 10 yrs of experience in Healthcare Industry. He left his job with one of the top Pharmaceuticals companies in 2005 to set up India's first chain of Naturopathy Clinics and Hospitals, Swas Healthcare.

Swas Healthcare provides good quality, safe and affordable treatment for chronic diseases through the use of traditional medicine, namely Naturopathy, Ayurveda, and Yoga.

As a founder he has been advancing the mission of Swas Healthcare against all odds.

Ashwani Khare, Partner Corporate Finance, KPMG India Pvt Ltd with qualification in BE (Electrical & Electronics) and Master in Business Administration (Finance) has over 12 years of experience in Investment Banking and Financial Services Consulting.  He has worked extensively with the PE players in India and has successfully closed several PE transactions. He has been instrumental in successful closure of Polycab transaction which involved close to USD 100 mn equity funding from IFC Washington.Some of his other successfully completed PE deals include Electrotherm, Gini Jony, Maxwell, Salzer , EMI Transmission. He has also completed one of the cross border M&A deals involving the sale promoters’ stake in Indotech Transformers to General Electric USA as one of the marquee deals in the transformer sector in India. He has also carried out valuations in the cement, power and metals sector including key valuations for  CESC, Neelanchal Ispat, Essar, Ultratech, Rallis and Suzlon.He currently focuses on Merger & Acquisitions, Valuations and Private Equity transactions in the Industrial Markets space for KPMG.

Punit Shah is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with a post qualification experience of 25 years. He is a member of KPMG Global Steering Committees on private equity and real estate funds.

Prior to joining KPMG, he was a partner with RSM for 10 years and thereafter was the national leader of the Financial Services (Tax and Regulatory Services) practice of PwC.

Mr Shah has in-depth knowledge and experience of banking and financial services laws in India. He renders extensive professional advice to Private Equity /Real estate/Venture Capital Funds, Indian and Foreign Banks, Insurance Companies, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Mutual Funds, etc.

He has been a regular contributor of articles on the above subjects in leading financial newspapers as well as journals of several professional Institutes. He has spearheaded several initiatives in making representations to the Government on behalf of the industry.

He has been a speaker for various forums including several Professional Institutes, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and International Fiscal Association.

Rajan Vasa has recently been elected President of TiE Ahmedabad chapter.  Mr. Vasa is the Chairman & Managing Director of Contech BPO Services Private Limited (CBSPL) – A Healthcare, Music and Customer Interaction BPO Services Company based out of Ahmedabad. CBSPL works with various clients in the US, UK, Europe and India.  Mr. Vasa is also the Managing Director of Rajka Realty Pvt. Ltd, a Real Estate Development, Marketing and Maintenance Management services company.  Mr. Vasa has recently been appointed as Senior Advisor to KPMG India, to help KPMG establish and grow strong presence in Gujarat.  Prior to this, Mr. Vasa was Managing Director of Contech Software Limited.

Earlier, Mr. Vasa has spent eight years in the US and prior to returning to India, had received Practical Training as a Product Marketing Manager at Oracle Corporation, USA for close to two years.

Mr. Vasa has more than twenty years experience in the Services Industry.  He is a dynamic leader and a strong believer in Human Relations.  Due to his long stay in the US and good understanding of the Global Market, he has been seamlessly working on combining the business opportunities and strengths of the Global Clients and Indian Resources ever since his return to his homeland of Gujarat in 1990.    
 
Mr. Vasa is also involved in several professional organizations like IACC, TiE, GESIA, AMA, NASSCOM, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and GCCI.  He has contributed to the cause of the Industry and Entrepreneurship in the State of Gujarat, India by founding and/or heading organizations like Gujarat Electronics And Software Industries Association (GESIA), TiE Ahmedabad Chapter, Indo American Education Society (IAES) and IACC Gujarat. He has been a committee member of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( GCCI ), Ahmedabad Management Association ( AMA ) and an advisor to the Government of Gujarat.  Mr. Vasa is an active member of Stanford and USC Alumni Associations.

Mr. Leo Mavely is the CEO of Axio Biosolutions Pvt. Ltd, a biomedical startup focused on wound management, and the first company in India to design, develop and commercialize a haemostatic emergency dressing for pre-hospital care. For this product innovation, Axio had recently won CNBC-Samsung Innovation Quotient Award 2012. They were also the finalists of the Piramal Prize in 2010 and was chosen by Dare magazine as one of the 75 best startups to invest in India. A bioengineer by qualification, Leo has been instrumental in creating Axio with an idea as an incubatee at NirmaLabs, secured DST funding and VC investments to take the idea further to market.

Asit B Shah has done his MBA with Master of Information Technology and Telecommunication from the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. He also possesses Bachelor Degree in Electronics and Communication from DDIT, Gujarat University. Prior to launching of a Global telecom company Mr. Shah had been associated with Singapore Telecom where he has held various challenging positions for 10 years. His excellent management skills have given him various opportunities in to Telecom field. He has also worked with Telstra to start his career in Wireless field.

Rajendra Barot, Senior Partner at AZB & Partners, earned his Bachelor of Law from the University of Bombay in 1994. He is a member of the Bombay Incorporated Law Society. He has been a partner of the Firm since its inception.

The focal areas of his practice include Dispute Resolution, Restructuring Of Companies and Mergers and Acquisitions with a special focus on insurance and mining. Mr. Barot heads the Litigation and Arbitration Team of AZB’s Mumbai office. He has advised clients in a variety of forums including quasi-judicial tribunals, High Courts of several States in India and the Supreme Court of India, including for corporate commercial disputes, monetary suits, administrative actions and constitutional matters. Mr. Barot has also advised several large insurance companies in connection with their entry into the insurance sector in India in the life insurance, non-life insurance and health insurance space by setting up new joint venture companies and also by acquiring a stake in existing insurance companies. He has advised on all aspects of transactions in the insurance sector, starting from structuring of the transaction, advising on various Indian legal issues, negotiating and drafting the transaction documents, up to filing of the necessary applications with the insurance regulator. Within the mining sector, he has advised clients in relation to acquisition and transfer of mining rights in relation in Major and Minor Minerals, including limestone, bauxite, aggregates and coal linkages.

Varoon Chandra, Partner at AZB & Partners, earned his Bachelor of Law from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law, Hyderabad, in 2004. He is a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. He has been a partner of the Firm since 2011.

The focal areas of his practice include Capital Markets, Securities Laws, Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity. He has been involved in a number of international and domestic capital market transactions, including issuances of FCCBs, ADRs and and GDRs as well as Indian initial public offers, rights issues and qualified institutions placements. He has also advised on a number of FCCB restructuring transactions undertaken by Indian issuers, including consent solicitations and exchange offers. He has advised on securities regulations issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India pertaining to matters such as takeover regulations, the investment/acquisition of shares in Indian listed companies, insider trading in the context of investment/ acquisition of shares in Indian listed companies and the listing of companies on an Indian stock exchange. He has also advised on the structuring of joint venture companies and private equity investments and has assisted in drafting and negotiating documentation for such transactions.

Rajiv is the CEO of Sterling Addlife India Limited that owns and manages largest chain of corporate hospitals in Gujarat under the brand name of Sterling Hospitals.

He joined Sterling Addlife in May, 2008 as CEO, after spending 11 years with Johnson & Johnson, the largest and most diversified healthcare company in the world. He has been instrumental in framing and implementing growth strategy for Sterling hospitals. Under his leadership, from a single hospital in Ahmedabad, Sterling hospitals has emerged to be the largest and dominant chain of corporate hospitals in Gujarat with 5 operational Hospitals in all major cities in Gujarat with more than 1000 beds under management. The lead hospital of the chain, Sterling Hospital at Ahmedabad has been rated as the best Hospital in Ahmedabad (IMRB-The WEEK survey) for last three years and has become the first corporate hospital in Gujarat to have received NABH accreditation from QCI.

Rajiv is a B.E.(Mechanical) from PEC Chandigarh and a postgraduate in management from IIM, Ahmedabad.

With a stellar academic record, Mr Mehta entered Cornell University where he studied Operations Research & Management. After graduating with honours, Mr Mehta chose to gain some real world experience about the industry first by joining Dell and then pursued management studies at MIT. In the post Internet-bubble burst era where raising capital became difficult and the future of ecommerce was doubtful, he joined Amazon. Vishal worked at Amazon for several years in technology, finance and corporate development roles.

In 2007, he wanted to move back to India to pursue his dream of starting and building a technology company. After more than ten years of his life in the US, he liquidated his assets to venture out and founded Infibeam. Today, InfiBeam has more than 50 lakh visits per month by Indians online who buy everything from books to music to mobiles and more than one crore retail products. Infibeam has also opened up its technology platform under the URL www.buildabazaar.com where any store owner without software training can open an online store themselves in less than ten minutes.  More than 15 thousand retailers in India today use buildabazaar to create and run their online stores including themobilestore, crossword, vijay sales, VIP bags, airtel and many more.

Mahesh has a firm belief in the emerging market growth story and corporate India’s push to go global. He decided to to act on this belief by joining Actis which is recognised as a long-standing investor in India with an emerging market sector-based approach to investing both in minority and control deals.

Mahesh previously worked at 3i India, where he was a partner in the firm’s Growth Capital Group and the lead partner globally for the Healthcare sector, heading up and contributing to 3i investments in India and international markets. Before making the move to private equity in 2006, Mahesh was co-head of investment banking at Enam, one of the leading domestic investment banks in India. Mahesh holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai, and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Since joining Actis in 2010, Mahesh has plunged himself into the business: forging new contacts, and calling upon his existing network to help build value in Actis’s India-based portfolio.

Padmaja Ruparel is the President of Indian Angel Network (IAN), India's first and now the largest group of business angels, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas. She built this organisation from inception, which in a little over 3 years has over 130 investors in the network with a portfolio of 22 companies across multiple sectors and geographies; and the most dynamic media strategy in the early stage entrepreneurial eco system.

With a wide range of experience of over 22 years, Padmaja has been deeply involved in starting and growing organisations in the IT and investing space. She has been a key player in the entrepreneurial eco system as she operationalised the TiE Delhi chapter and set it on a sound foundation for it to become one of the top three profitable and consistently performing chapters of the TiE world. She has been key in reviving the Indian Venture Capital Association, India's oldest and largest association of VC and PE firms and is the CFO of the organization today.

In her corporate avatar at Xansa India (an US$800mn company listed on LSE and now merged with Steria) she joined the team when it was a start up. She led the recruitment plan and operations, built and successfully executed an innovative brand and communication strategy, led the corporate social responsibility initiative which engaged the government, employees as well as the clients. She was a key member of the corporate strategy and M&A team and has the unique credit of being awarded individually by the global board of Xansa.

In her entrepreneurial avatar, Padmaja has grown a real estate business multifold from a single building to multiple complexes of commercial space.

Vishal Gada is a Director in KPMG India’s Tax & Regulatory Practice. He focuses on the Gujarat market.

Vishal is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has also completed the “Business Consultancy Studies”  Course conducted by Jamanalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies jointly with the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. He also holds the Bachelor of Laws degree.

Vishal practices in the field of Domestic and International Taxation, including Transfer Pricing, with specific emphasis on cross border transactions and regulatory laws with respect to Inbound and Outbound Investments. He advises various reputed corporate groups in Gujarat, including private equity funds.

Driven by passion and vision, Prayaag is responsible for constantly re-aligning strategies to make  bookadspace better platform for clients. He spends time designing product features, finding solutions to  technical problems and planning product roadmap. He is responsible for defining sales strategies and even occasionally does sales pitches too. By the way he also writes help articles and even designs graphics for say website, brochure.
 
Software Engineer by education, he started with small web solutions company upon finishing graduation after working as freelance developer and contractor. He has architected many web solutions and has broad knowledge of computing & web technologies. He finds hidden pleasure in building something amazing.