Innovation for a Smarter Future

Linda Honour

PMO Officer Lead Allstate Technology & Strategic Ventures Program Management Office

Linda Honour is the PMO Lead for the Program Management Office of Allstate Technology & Strategic Ventures (ATSV). ATSV provides technology support to Allstate’s business units with the PMO accountable for ensuring delivery of over $350 million of discretionary project investments and for establishing consistent delivery practices across the firm. As the lead of the newly created PMO, Linda drove the transformation that increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. These efforts brought industry recognition from Celent (Best IT Management Model Insurer), Association of Project Management (Runner-Up Company of the Year), PMI Magazine, Insurance Networking News and Gartner. Before joining ATSV, Linda was the Senior Managing Director of Investment Technology for Allstate Investments, LLC. , where she managed the technology for the company’s $100 billion investment portfolio across all asset classes. Linda was accountable for maintaining and implementing the core technology required to support the front, middle and back office business functions including trading, portfolio management, risk management, financial reporting and securities accounting. With 25 years experience, Linda joined Allstate in 2006. She was previously a Sector Information Officer for John Hancock Financial Services. Prior to joining John Hancock in 1997, Linda was an executive at Prudential Financial where she held a variety of senior technology and operations roles in both investment management and retirement services. Linda received her undergraduate degree in Economics from Kean College of New Jersey. She is an enrolled Actuary and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Opal Perry

Vice President and Divisional Chief Information Officer

Opal Perry is vice president and divisional chief information officer of Claims Technology Services at Allstate Insurance, leading a global engineering workforce developing and sustaining critical software systems for property and casualty claims. Opal has over 20 years of expertise in building and growing global technology organizations across a variety of software engineering disciplines in both software development and technology infrastructure. Prior to assuming her current role, she served as the interim Managing Director of Allstate Northern Ireland and the Chief Operating Officer of the Allstate Technology and Strategic Ventures International organization, leading the business and cultural integration of Allstate's global technology and operations workforce across the U.S., Northern Ireland and India. Opal earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering with a double major in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and MBA degrees from the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business and Columbia Business School. Opal serves as a member of both the Industrial Advisory Board of the Center for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queens University Belfast and the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Opal currently resides in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Jitendra Kavathekar

Managing Director - Accenture Open Innovation

Jitendra Kavathekar leads Accenture Open Innovation within Accenture’s Global R&D organization, transforming technology innovation from vibrant ecosystems—such as startups, universities and corporate labs around the globe—into transformative business results for Accenture’s clients. As Managing Director, Jitendra leads an entrepreneurial team whose mission is to build a bridge between the rapidly growing supply of innovation found today in these ecosystems to the demand for that innovation expressed through corporations, governments and organizations that serve developing regions, thereby helping economies and societies move forward in rapid and transformative ways. Previously, Jitendra formed and led Accenture’s Digital Health organization within Accenture Technology Labs. He was responsible for exploring and implementing emerging, disruptive and transformative technologies that will shape the frontier of global health. Prior to Accenture, Jitendra had a 20-year track record of bringing disruptive innovation to scale. In his early career, he served as part of the core R&D team taking the highly successful HP printer product lines to the Asia-Pacific market. Successive career highlights included leading engineering for the pioneering startup Pixo; running core technologies for all devices at Palm; leading the technology organization at Motorola, which developed the Technical Emmy Award-nominated Screen3 product; and forming and leading the business that put Yahoo on the map for web analytics. Just prior to Accenture, Jitendra served as President and CEO of Twiki Incorporated, a pioneer and leader in open source enterprise collaboration technologies with 60,000 installations worldwide. Jitendra holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and was presented with an honorary Ph.D. from the International Technology University.He is on the board of SVForum, one of the largest organizations in Silicon Valley bringing together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporates. He is also a Fellow at the Tribeca Film Festival Disruptor Foundation

Patricia L. Saporito

Sr. Director – BI, Global Analytics Center of Excellence SAP Labs, LLC

Pat provides best practices and thought leadership to assist customers in maximizing their technology and data assets investments to improve business performance. She has over 20 years in data warehousing and analytics across various industries globally. She manages SAP's BI Strategy Program which helps companies assess and evolve their analytic maturity. Pat has been with SAP since 2006; prior to SAP Business Objects, she led the insurance and healthcare industry consulting team at Teradata. Pat is an expert on insurance industry analytics and is the author of the book, Applied Insurance Analytics published by FT Press/Pearson. She speaks and writes frequently on the topic. In addition, she was on the Healthcare Advisory Research Council faculty for the International Institute for Analytics, co-founded by Tom Davenport. Further, she was a contributor to the book, Analytics in Healthcare & Life Sciences, also published by FT Press/Pearson. Pat is a graduate of Pace University and resides on the "far west side" of Manhattan -- in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.

Jay Topper

Chief Information Officer & Chief Technology Officer

Jay Topper joined Vitacost.com, part of the Kroger Company, in August 2012 as Chief Information Officer & Chief Technology Officer and has responsibilities for the Company’s ecommerce, IT and services organization. Mr. Topper has over 20 years of senior level leadership experience most recently as SVP of Customer Success of Rosetta Stone Inc., a leading provider of technology enabled language learning solutions, managing their first global CRM program. He also served as Rosetta Stone’s first Chief Information Officer from 2007 through 2009, leading the technology department through the initial public offering. Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, Mr. Topper was SVP of Operations at Apex Covantage, Chief Information Officer and SVP of Indian Operations of Seven Worldwide (now Schawk.com), and Chief Information Officer of PRG.com, the world’s largest entertainment technology company. Mr. Topper was a commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard from 1986 to 1997, serving in many areas of distinction. Mr. Topper holds an M.S. in Telecommunications & Information Management from Polytechnic Institute of New York University and a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from the United States Coast Guard Academy.

NED CURIC

Chief technology officer for Toyota Motor Sales

Ned Curic is chief technology officer for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, Inc. Curic is responsible for defining and executing the overall technology strategy for TMS and ensuring alignment of regional and global efforts. Curic also oversees the development and promotion of architectural standards and frameworks to maintain a vision of future technology. Additionally, Curic is responsible for designing and delivering security and business intelligence frameworks to address the increase of complex technology. Curic leads the Innovation and Technology Centers of excellence designed to deliver innovative technology solutions. He evaluates those innovative technologies and determines how to use them to enhance IT flexibility and support business needs. Prior to joining TMS, Curic spent 13 years at Microsoft. Most recently he was the platform strategy advisor where he was responsible for engaging senior business decision makers, customers and partners in order to define the business value of Microsoft platform and cloud services. While at Microsoft, Curic held several other leadership roles including principal architect, security advisor and consultant with national security team and Microsoft consulting services. Curic identified and managed projects that utilized key innovative technologies creating new business value for the customers and partners. During this time, Curic also played a key role in assisting Toyota with several activities including, the creation of technologically advanced prototype showcases at the consumer electronics show and Toyota’s dealer shows. Curic spent seven years as a systems architect, consulting DoD contractors, internet startups and large financial enterprises before beginning a career at Microsoft. Curic studied computer science at the Technical University of Vienna in Austria and holds Masters of Business Administration from Pepperdine University .

AKSHAYA GAUR

CIO, Mashreq Bank and the CEO, Technology subsidiary, Mindscape IT.

Akshaya was the Chief Information Officer of Mashreq Bank and the CEO of Mindscape IT from 2013 till 2015. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Global Services, Mashreq’s fully-owned subsidiary in Bangalore and a Member of the Executive Leadership Forum of the Bank. Manage a budget in excess of AED300 million with a strong focus on the customer, business alignment, innovation, service management and cost management. He successfully delivered Mashreq Bank’s strategic agenda of creating a culture of innovation with a focus on mobility, cloud, big data, infrastructure, social, customer solutions and straight-through processing. Leveraged and grew the Bank’s captive operations in Bangalore in terms of numbers (more than 60% of Mashreq’s Technology resources are based there) and capability. During his leadership the Bank won more than 40 awards in 2014 for the innovative solutions brought to the market.

Prior to this Akshaya worked with Standard Chartered Bank for 23 years in various senior leadership roles

JAY JAYARAMAN

Vice President Global Strategic Innovation & Technology Alliances Colgate-Palmolive Company

Jay Jayaraman is Vice President, Global Strategic Innovation and Technology Alliances with global responsibility for breakthrough innovation and advancing innovation capabilities across the organization. Jay's team is responsible for technology outreach, external partnership efforts and in identifying external innovation opportunities. His group works closely with the Global Divisions and Categories to build a sustainable long-term innovation pipeline. Most recently Jay was Vice President, Global Oral Care where he played a key role in the development of the Global Oral Care category and business. Jay provided thought leadership to the development of a well-defined and globally aligned Oral Care Strategy. In addition, the Oral Care Innovation Grids have become stronger and more focused. Jay's tremendous effort and dedication were instrumental in the acquisition and commercialization of a novel technology platform that is driving innovation globally. Jay also contributed to the development of the global Oral Care Brand strategy and the processes that support its consistent and impactful implementation on the ground. Most recently he championed the Colgate Global Facebook Initiative.Jay joined C-P India in 1979, and held various positions of increasing responsibility, including Senior Group Product Manager, before moving to C-P Australia in 1987 as New Products Manager. He later returned to India as Marketing Director, helping to grow sales significantly in three years. In 1997, Jay was promoted to Vice President and Managing Director of C-P India, where he was instrumental in building a solid infrastructure and expanding our business.Jay holds a BE (honors) degree in electronics and communication engineering from University of Madras and an MBA from Indian institute of Management (Ahmedabad).

Harmeen Mehta

Global Chief Information Officer – Bharti Airtel Limited

Harmeen Mehta is the Global Chief Information Officer of Bharti Airtel Limited. She is responsible for providing the leadership to the Group IT function across 20 countries of its operations in Asia and Africa and leading the digitization strategy across Bharti Airtel. Harmeen has over 17 years of experience in Technology with companies such as Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and HSBC. She also worked as a consultant to British Airways and Qantas. Harmeen has lived in 11 countries and worked across over 30 countries in all continents. She has held various leadership positions such as Global Head of Corporate, Investment and Private Banking IT at HSBC Global Technology Centres, MD at Merrill Lynch India Technology Services across India, Singapore, Ireland and Canada, and as Asia CIO for Global Markets and Research technology at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. At BBVA, Harmeen was the CIO for Global Markets and Risk and Operations for Corporate and Investment Banking and led large-scale business and IT transformation programs across Europe, US and Latin America. Harmeen is currently a member of the Cyber Security Taskforce at NASSCOM, India’s leading industry association for IT sector.

JONATHAN KALMAN

President, Insurance Business Unit

A thought-leader in Core Systems Transformation, Digital Strategies and Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Solutions, and a frequent speaker on such topics as the Future of Insurance and Driving Margin Improvement with Analytics, Mr. Kalman is President, Insurance Solutions, of Return on Intelligence, Inc. and is responsible for global sales and delivery of software and implementation services. Mr. Kalman is also Global Partnership Manager for SAP, and is responsible for corporate M&A. Return on Intelligence, Inc. is a global IT Services firm with just under 1000 employees and clients in the US, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, Latin America and Asia. Mr. Kalman works with senior executives of Insurance companies on competitive strategy, digital strategy, Customer-centric engagement and transformation initiatives, and draws on his expertise as a technologist and investor to develop pragmatic technical solutions that provide competitive advantage and differentiation to insurance company offerings. He is former Executive Chairman of UNIRISX LLC, a global insurance software provider specializing in SaaS-based policy administration. Mr. Kalman is former President and CEO of Jaguar Acquisition Corporation, a company that he led the IPO (NASDAQ: JGACU.OB) and later merged in a landmark transaction with China Cablecom, Ltd. (NASDAQ: CABL) marking the first foreign investment in the Chinese cable TV industry. Jonathan Kalman served previously as Managing Partner of Jaguar Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm that specializes in software and technology investments in the insurance, banking and payments industries. Mr. Kalman was President and CEO of Katalyst LLC, a merchant bank. Mr. Kalman oversaw over 50 transactions totaling over $1B in value, including the investment into Breakaway Solutions (NASDAQ: BWAY), where Mr. Kalman assisted the company through its explosive growth from 20 employees to more than 1,000 and an IPO led by Morgan Stanley. A physicist by training, Mr. Kalman began his career at IBM. Mr. Kalman holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Science, Applied Physics, from Cornell University.

DARSHAN APPAYANNA

Chief Information and Knowledge Officer

Darshan Appayanna is the Chief Information and Knowledge Officer at Happiest Minds Technologies. He also holds additional responsibility as the Chief Information Security Officer for the company. With 22 years of experience in varied functions in the IT services industry across multiple domains, Darshan brings immense experience in Sales and Business Development, Evangelising Technology Solutions, Solutions delivery, business process consulting and Product Management in the Hi-Tech, Manufacturing, Retail and Aerospace domains. He has championed multi-million dollar sales growth, driven process efficiencies and improved productivity for large enterprises using technology and has spearheaded multiple global operations and sales improvement programs within companies. He is a passionate follower of technology, a thrill seeker, traveller, a gadget geek and technology evangelist!

S.SIVA KUMARAN

CEO NTT DATA, SINGAPORE

Overall in-charge of NDFS, a subsidiary of NTT DATA Japan since acquisition of FirstApex. Director in NDFS Boards Spearheading the next phase of growth for NDFS within NTT DATA Group Responsible  for all strategic initiatives and overseeing Customer Delivery, Product Architecture/Development and all other company functions. Responsible for all strategic initiatives in business development for existing and new territories The territories covered are Asia, Europe & ME, US, LATAM and Japan. Over 32 years of Experience in IT industry. 29 years in Insurance IT. Long experience in NDFS in variety of roles including; Architecture and Development of non-life, life and reinsurance products. Experience and management of more than 80 customer projects throughout Asia, Japan, Europe and ME. Pioneer in setting up NDFS operations and facilities in India, Japan and Korea and current ventures to US, Europe and Middle East. Spearheaded the ground up redesign and development of all NDFS products in Java/J2EE platform.

PARTHA SRINIVASA

SVP and Group CIO HCC

Partha Srinivasa joined HCC as SVP and Group CIO in July, 2013. His primary responsibility is to drive technology as key and strategic enabler for the business. Prior to this, Partha was the Group CTO and Global CIO of Zurich Insurance Group since early 2010, and before that he was the divisional CIO, CTO and SVP at Farmers Insurance Group (since 2004). Partha has over 20 years' experience in Insurance and Financial Services Industry with experience in some of the industry leading companies like Zurich Insurance, Farmers Insurance Group, Deutsche Bank, HP, Tata, etc. In addition, Partha has been technology advisor to many companies and is an ardent industry speaker on technology and innovation. Partha holds MS in Management from IIT, Chennai, India and holds Bachelor of Engineering.

DENISE BARTICK

CEO, MAX Technical Training

Denise Bartick, President and CEO of MAX Technical Training is passionate about technology and education. In 1998 she started MAX Technical Training because she believed there was an unfilled need for adult IT training targeted to the educational needs of the student rather than on the curriculum that was readily available. Since that time Denise has successfully grown her business and acquired two other synergistic businesses in IT consulting and Career Placement. She is an acting member of the, a  founding Board Member and President of Epic Learning Network and a former member of the University of Cincinnati's IS Advisory Board.  Denise is also a former advisory board member of the Regional IT Cluster Council, an advisory board serving the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and trustee of The Circuit. MAX is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions (CPLS), a Cisco Learning Solutions Center sponsored by Sunset Learning Institute, an ITIL Licensed Affiliate, three time recipient of the INC 5000, winner of the Greater Cincinnati Fast 55 awards for privately held companies, and two time winner of Best New Product/Service from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. MAX is a Certified WBENC (Woman Business Enterprise National Council). Denise loves the outdoors, dogs and food!

Dr. MANISH GUPTA

Vice President at Xerox Corporation and Director of Xerox Research Centre-India

Dr. Manish Gupta is Vice President at Xerox Corporation and Director of Xerox Research Centre in India. Previously, Manish has served as Managing Director, Technology Division at Goldman Sachs India, and has held various leadership positions with IBM, including that of Director, IBM Research - India and Chief Technologist, IBM India/South Asia. From 2001 to 2006, he served as a Senior Manager at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where he led the team developing system software for the Blue Gene/L supercomputer. IBM was awarded a National Medal of Technology and Innovation for Blue Gene by US President Barack Obama in 2009. Manish holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has co-authored about 75 papers, with more than 6,000 citations in Google Scholar in the areas of high-performance computing, compilers, and virtual machine optimizations, and has been granted 19 US patents. While at IBM, Manish received an Outstanding Innovation Award, two Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards and the Lou Gerstner Team Award for Client Excellence. Manish is an ACM Fellow, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of a Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Delhi.

KETAN MEHTA

CEO of MajescoMastek Co-founder and Board member of Mastek

Ketan Mehta is CEO of MajescoMastek and Co-founder and Board member of Mastek (NASDAQ: MASTEK). Mastek is global IT solutions company operating in 8 countries with over 3600 professionals and approx. $170Million in revenues. Ketan runs the North American business focused on providing Intellectual Property (IP) led solutions to Insurance industry with 80+ companies as their customers. Prior to this role, he was focused on the mergers and acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures at MajescoMastek and Mastek. He was instrumental in building a successful joint venture between MajescoMastek and Deloitte Consulting in 2000. He also led acquisitions of STG (Systems Task Group), SEG software and Vector (insurance software companies) and played a key role in integration of these companies with MajescoMastek operations. Prior to this, Ketan has played a variety of roles within MajescoMastek, including leadership of international operations.Ketan holds a Masters degree in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

DOC PARGHI

Technology executive and venture capitalist

Doc Parghi is a sales focused technology executive and venture capitalist with experience running and scaling businesses globally. He is a dynamic and visionary leader who led his start-up through various transformations into what became the largest company of its kind before its sale to a Fortune 100 firm. Currently, Doc is a Partner with SRI Capital an early stage VC, which provides funding, advice and liquidity solutions to start-ups, early stage concepts and growth companies. Previously, Doc was the Global GM of the Mobility and Social business unit at CSC, responsible for building the Mobility business for CSC. CSC (NYSE: CSC) is a $15 Billion IT services and consulting company.

Doc was on the founding team at AppLabs, the world’s largest independent software testing company with over 2,500 QA professionals in US, UK and India. AppLabs was funded by Sequoia Capital. CSC acquired AppLabs in late 2011, providing Sequoia with a sizeable return. Doc has been involved with other early stage companies prior to AppLabs including iCoop (group purchasing dotcom).

Doc received his BS and later his MBA from Drexel University.

Doc has served on an advisory board of The Eastern Technology Council (now PACT) and The Technology Investment Advisory Committee at Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Doc also serves as a Civilian Aide to Secretary (CASA) of the Army for Pennsylvania-East, appointed by the US Secretary of the Army. CASAs provide individual advice to the Secretary of the Army, the Chief of Staff, and commanders at all levels. In addition, Doc is a commissioned Kentucky Colonel. Finally, Doc also runs The Freedom Council of Valley Forge a non-partisan, educational, public affairs organization, chartered in 1989 to promote individual liberty and human dignity

Chetan Garga

Managing Director and Country Head, Allstate – India .

Chetan Garga joined Allstate in 2012 as Managing Director of Allstate Solutions Private Limited. Chetan comes to Allstate with a blend of General Management, Technology leadership and deep Financial Services experience. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of wealth management and banking products at SunGard (India), where he managed teams across India, China and Tunis. With 25 years of experience in financial services, operations and product development, Chetan has a strong technofunctional background. He has spent more than 15 years in building technology solutions for Global organizations like Deutsche Bank and Société Générale based across London and Singapore, as well as setting up operations for them and other multinationals like Northern Trust in India. Chetan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School. He is also an alumni interviewer for the Sloan program and has completed an executive program at Kellogg’s School of Management. Outside of work, Chetan has been active with social initiatives like microfinance and supporting schools & communities for the under-privileged. Chetan is an active sportsman and plays, as well as coaches his children in, squash, soccer and table-tennis. He also enjoys travelling and sampling wine and cuisines from around the world. Chetan and his wife Sharmila have 2 boys, Vidur and Rahul. Vidur is studying at the London School of Economics and Rahul is in class 8.

Ian Smith

Manager, Projects & Business Development

Ian Smith manages economic development projects as a partner with JobsOhio for the Greater Cincinnati region. His duties include business development and coordinating the site selection process via the state of Ohio’s economic development client interfacing system, OhioOne. He also acts as the liaison for real estate property brokers around the U.S., ensuring top, available properties are marketed and their potential clients have access to state support. Ian helps manage the local and state support process across multiple industries. Additionally, Ian works with early stage companies to identify support within the region and at the state level. Ian graduated from the Ohio State University with degrees in Marketing and Strategic Communication. Ian came to REDI Cincinnati with data analytics and insights experience from the Nielsen Company

Joseph J Dehner

Adam Singer

Managing Director of Business Development & Expansion for REDI Cincinnati

Managing Director, Business Development & Expansion Adam is currently the Managing Director of Business Development & Expansion for REDI Cincinnati. In this role, Singer leads a team to increase the economic impact in the region by attracting new businesses while developing and implementing plans to accelerate the growth of existing Greater Cincinnati companies. Prior to working for the REDI Cincinnati, Singer worked in the medical device sector for 10 years including holding key positions with Abbott Spine and Stryker. Additionally, Singer is the founder and President of Redhawk Medical, a full-service medical device distribution company focusing on osteobiologics and stem cell therapies. Singer holds a B.S. degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH and a M.B.A. with a specialization in Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Adam currently lives in Liberty Township, OH with his wife and two children.

Mr Narendra Kale

Co-founder of Kale Consultants

Mr Narendra Kale is co-founder of Kale Consultants, Kale Logistics and Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and leadership. A highly respected entrepreneur with keen eye for opportunities in "niche areas" for Service segments and arrive at solutions for internationally applicable adaption.Started and built software product and services companies from scratch with minimum capital and built them into multi national multi million dollar operations. One of his company had 120+ airlines as its customers worldwide. Built innovative technological solutions with lot of "FIRSTS" in the software technology and application products arena. He and his company have won several accolades and awards for pioneering software solutions for the Airlines and travel industry. Combines professional passion with social compassion to apply modern technological alternatives to solve social issues and harness opportunities. Is actively involved in health care and educational activities for social uplift programs in India

Feroz Merchhiya

Mr. Merchhiya is an accomplished technology leader with over eighteen years' experience; He has a strong interest in business and enterprise technology. Mr. Merchhiya strives to manage technology effectively via successful IT Governance mechanism, a realizable value proposition that should demonstrate capability enhancement strategies for enterprise at a reduced cost and risk. A practitioner of integrated program and portfolio management approach that looks at infrastructure rationalization road maps aligned to application consolidations, process standardization and efficiency improvement strategies.

As a CTO-Director of Technology at California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA), the largest insurance guarantee association in the nation. Mr. Merchhiya is responsible for leading the strategic technology initiatives. Modernize and deploy technology standards to future-proof the organization's IT investments and deliver a scale-able technology ecosystem. Prior to CIGA Mr. Merchhiya successfully delivered the IPO Readiness program for LPL Financial largest independent Broker Dealer in the country. Program included both pre-and post IPO technology initiatives. Mr. Merchhiya is ISACA certified in the information risk and governance of enterprise IT. He holds an MBA from National University. Mr. Merchhiya has received numerous industry awards notably  Nucleus Research ROI award, Bronze Stevie Award , Finalist for 2013 IT Leadership Award for Technological Advancement category and most recently CIO Impact Award 2015.

Pradeep Tagre

Investment Director

Pradeep is an Investment Director at Intel Capital India, and is responsible for investments in technology-related companies in India and South Asia. Prior to Intel Capital India, he was with Intel Capital in Silicon Valley and invested in enterprise software companies. He has over a decade of operating experience at leading technology companies in Silicon Valley, including starting his own venture-backed mobile software products company. Pradeep has a MS(EE) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a BE(EE) from the University of Bombay(VJTI), and is a Fellow of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

Tarun Sareen

Tarun Sareen is an accomplished leader with a track record of delivering business results through the implementation of leading-edge information technology solutions. Tarun’s professional experience includes building from ground up and running global technology centers of excellence for EMC, Barclays, Microsoft and General Electric; developing global leaders; and developing IT solutions and services for diverse businesses in various industries: Manufacturing, Aviation, Banking, and High Tech. He has senior leadership experience in defining vision, executing strategic direction and leading change collaboratively. He is a results-driven, high energy and highly collaborative leader with executive maturity. Tarun is passionate about customers, delivering business solutions and building world-class leadership. As the Head for EMC IT – Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), he led the Global Delivery Program of EMC’s IT organization. Tarun’s core responsibilities were to deliver innovative business solutions to enable EMC’s business objectives and strategic priorities by driving and maturing end to end IT solutions and services development and delivery and infrastructure management services. He and team were focused on redefining IT to run “IT as a Business” and deliver “IT as a Service (ITaaS)”, and architecting for the future by undertaking the journey to cloud, big data and trust. He has developed key next gen organizational capabilities in Cloud Platforms and Services, Big Data, Third Platform Capabilities (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Agile, SaaS) and Security in APJ. He is passionate about innovation and has spearheaded innovation and continuous improvement with significant results (patents/disclosures, business impact). He has played a critical role in building a culture of quality and enhancing the customer experience globally for ~57,000 users in EMC. As EMC APJ Theater Leader, Tarun was also accountable for revenue influence by leading and evangelizing EMC IT’s own ongoing transformation journey with CxOs - EMC’s customers, partners and industry and helping accelerate business growth. He is active in CIO forums, working with organizations on their IT strategy and transformation. Prior to joining EMC, Tarun held various senior leadership positions, including: Head for Internet and Mobile Banking for emerging markets at Barclays (where he led the development and launch of Internet Banking and Mobile Banking for estimated 70,000 customers); Director at Microsoft IT (where he started up and ran multiple business units and COEs for delivering IT solutions world-wide); and Leadership positions at General Electric (where he set up and ran the India IT center for GE Aircraft Engines delivering to seven business units). Before GE, Tarun was a Senior Consultant at Cap Gemini Inc., USA, working in and leading various projects that delivered clear business benefits for companies and enabled a significant change impacting top and/or bottom lines. Active in customer and industry forums, Tarun also participates in the Cloud Editorial Board (CIOL) and represents EMC in NASSCOM Global In-house Centers Council. Tarun received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from Marquette University, USA, and his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from V.J.T.I, India.