CellStrat™

The Mobile Conclave

Mobile Advertising and VAS Conference
22 Jan 2010
Amity University

Speaker Profiles

Harish Gandhi
Executive Director, Canaan Partners

Harish is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global VC firm focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India.  Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..  Most recently, Harish headed the VAS Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia. Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked at Dilithium Networks and at Bain & Company in USA. Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

Amit Mehta
Head - Sales and Marketing, VAS, SDP and Mobility, TCS

Amit Mehta, is currently heading the sales and marketing of the VAS, SDP and Mobility group in TCS, where he was one of the founders members, which evolved, created business case and successfully launched the same. Prior to this role, Amit was heading the Global Sales based on RFID solutions and has been with TCS since Dec 2004. Amit started his career as one of the Founders of Bartronics India Limited, where he held a multitude of positions between 1990-2003. He was among the pioneers in introducing Bar codes, and related AIDC solutions in the Indian market. His last position with Bartronics was Vice President, Business Development. After Bartronics, Amit worked with Danlaw Technologies as Vice President (Strategy) and COO and started the Intelligent Security Solutions Group at Danlaw. Amit has a Post Graduate degree in Business Information technology systems from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management studies from University of Teesside.

Vinish Kathuria
COO, Spice Digital

Vinish Kathuria is the Chief Operating Office of Spice Digital and heads the Enterprise Business Unit and Mobile Internet initiatives. His team is focused on helping Enterprises, Government and Consumers connect better through different mobile connectivity modes of Voice, SMS and Mobile Internet. His 17+ years of professional carrier includes 15 years in US in different strategy & operational roles with Microsoft, Infospace, Deloitte Consulting and Sealy. He has a passion for new business ventures and was CEO of SolidGyan.com (a startup in the Online Education arena) and President of Mobisoc Technology (a Spice funded venture in Mobile Applications arena). A graduate of IIT Delhi, Vinish received his MBA from Duke University, USA and M.S from Case Western Reserve University, USA. He enjoys teaching and is a guest lecturer at ISB Hyderabad and MDI Gurgaon.

Milind Pathak
Vice President, Comviva

Milind Pathak is a VP at Comviva Technologies, premier Mobile VAS firm in India. Milind is a leading Mobile Executive with over 15 years of experience of managing Sales, Marketing and Strategy & Operations activities in top Mobile firms like Buongiorno and Mitsui and Co. Milind has Multiple Domain experience & expertise in Mobile VAS, Mobile Advertising and Marketing, Interactive TV, Mobile CRM and Loyalty / m-Commerce arena. Before Comviva, Milind's last assignment was with Buongiorno where he was the Co-CEO and Country Manager for India. At Buongiorno, Milind set up their India operation and penetrated the Indian Carrier and Media industry with Buongiorno's Mobile Apps and VAS offerings. Milind has a BE (Mechanical Engg) from MIT Pune and a Masters in Marketing Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai.

Narasimha Suresh
Founder and CEO, TeliBrahma

Suresh is one of the young generation entrepreneurs in the country. He is the brain behind Telibrahma, a company which started in the year 2004 with a vision to create a consumer focused product company out of India. Suresh manages the overall strategy and business development of the company. He has been instrumental in filing more than 5 patents in different aspects of ‘Mobility’ for Telibrahma. He has successfully defined and positioned several products and solutions in the mobility domain for the company. Prior Telibrahma, Suresh managed different roles at companies such as Siemens, Wipro, eCapital, eVector and Realsoft in varied roles. Suresh is an engineering graduate in Electronics & Computers from Bangalore University and MBA in Global Strategic Management , ICFAI.

Debasis Chatterji
CEO, Netxcell

Debasis Chatterji brings with him nineteen years of management experience. He is the CEO of Netxcell and has steered the company to a multi-product company with all the major telecom operators in India managing a customer base of more than 120 million. Netxcell handles more than 200 million calls per day with more than 100 servers installation across the country. Before joining Netxcell, Debasis was associated with all India operations of Rohm GmbH, Biorad Pacific etc. Under his leadership, Netxcell has launched Mobismart portal which is a mix of Hosted Voice Exchange for automated voice dialing and bulk SMS(data) for the first time in India creating new business possibilities for automated voice and data dissemination thereby creating a huge opportunity of reaching out to people in the language of their choice. Chatterji is a Doctorate in Science and holds an Advanced Management Program from IIM Bangalore with a Diploma in Patent Law from NALSAR university of Law.

Piyush Shah
Angel Investor and Director, Business Development, Nokia

Piyush Shah is an Investor with Indian Angel Network and also a Director at Nokia for Emerging Markets business. He is an entrepreneur, angel investor and manager of consumer online services. Piyush is an expert in Strategy and Marketing for Internet and Mobile products. Most recently, he was heading the Applications Innovations group at Nokia Siemens. Prior to that, he was a Director in the Consumer Online Enterprise Strategy group at Microsoft; this group worked with the large online companies like Yahoo, Ebay, Google and MySpace. Piyush is a computer science graduate from SUNY Stony Brook and has an MBA from the Wharton School.

Sanjay Bhasin
Angel Investor

Sanjay Bhasin is an Angel investor and works with the Indian Angel Network. Until recently, he was the CEO of Tubes & Laminates Business at Essel Propack Ltd, Mumbai, India. Prior to Essel Propack, Sanjay Bhasin was head of GSM and WCDMA Base Station business in Nokia Networks, Finland. In this capacity, he was responsible for P&L of this global business. Sanjay has also done a lot of work in the area of expanding reach of cellular telephony into rural areas and entrepreneurship based models around that for rural sector growth. He joined Nokia in India in 1995 at the very start of the cellular telephony revolution in India. Over the years, Sanjay has had multiple roles in Nokia based in India, UK and Finland. Prior to Nokia, Sanjay lived in Santa Clara, USA and was working for Intel Corporation as Product Marketing Manager. Sanjay is a graduate of Electronics and Commn Engg from IIT Roorkee and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, Santa Clara.

Vijay Shukla
Managing Partner, Setu Ventures and Co-Founder, ValueFirst

Vijay is a ‘parallel entrepreneur’ and has co-founded Eduvisors, India’s leading business consulting and research services company; ValueFirst, India’s largest enterprise mobile data services company and Setu Ventures, a unique firm that provides professional and financial assistance to early stage companies and entrepreneurs. Vijay earlier worked with Steel Authority of India, E&Y and Glaxo SmithKline and he specializes in the areas of strategy, business development, consulting and engineering. Vijay’s passions lie in the areas of value creation, technology, entrepreneurship and education. An engineering graduate from IT-BHU and MBA from XLRI, he has mastered the ‘art’ of evaluating business strategies and organizational processes through his career while working in the domains of public sector, entrepreneurship, information and mobile technology, FMCG and management consulting services.

Sachin Gupta
National Head - SMS and USSD (VAS), Tata DOCOMO

Sachin Gupta heads the VAS (SMS/USSD) division at Tata DOCOMO, the newest of the new Indian Mobile carriers. Sachin has been working in the Mobile VAS area since 2001 and has worked on both sides of the VAS equation, with VAS service providers as well as Mobile Operators, nationally as well as internationally. Sachin has been instrumental in launching some new concepts in the marketplace e.g., Diet SMS, Unlimited jokes at Rs 5/day and a big contest in association with TV/Print Media. Sachin is a prominent speaker and industry expert in Mobile Messaging space. Sachin has worked with a number of leading wireless operators like Virgin Mobile UK, Cellebrum Technologies, Idea Mobile, Airtel, Spice Mobile and is currently working for Tata DOCOMO. Sachin has a B.E. (Electronics & Commn Engg) from Karnatak University and an MBA from Coventry university, UK.

Ajay Vaishnavi
Director - Telecom, Times Internet Ltd (Indiatimes.com)

Ajay Vaishnavi is the Director - Telecom at Times Internet Limited (Indiatimes.com). Ajay comes with a superb understanding of Mobile Business Strategy, Product & Content Management and has 14 experience years in IT / Telecom VAS sector. In his current assignment, he is responsible for Business Management and Operations for the Telecom Business Unit at Indiatimes, that manages India's most popular short-code service 58888. Prior to Indiatimes, Ajay has worked with organizations like Bharti Airtel, ACL Wireless, and Satyam Infoway. His last assignment was with CellNext Solutions as its Chief Operating Officer. Ajay is credited with launch of key Mobile VAS initiatives like Tango Mobile Internet, Mobile Contests, Mobile Ticketing, Mobile Messenger, Mobile Business Services etc during his various assignments. Ajay has a Bachelor of Engineering from BITS, Pilani and has done his MBA from MDI, Gurgaon.

Jagdish Mitra
CEO, CanvasM

Jagdish leads CanvasM’s (a joint venture between Motorola Inc. and TechMahindra) bid to become the leading VAS enabler for the global communications industry and also heads APAC and ANZ regions at Tech Mahindra. Jagdish has over 16 years of experience in the areas of business development, IT project management and marketing in the global information services market. Prior to moving into this role, Jagdish was the head of the Global Managed Services function in Tech Mahindra where he helped build strategic relationships and business with key telecom accounts worldwide for the company. Jagdish holds a masters degree in Computer Applications from Birla Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of London. Under his thought leadership, CanvasM has been awarded the title of “Best Start-Up Company” at the Mobile Content Awards ’08 held in London from a list of over 150 entries in various categories from companies across the globe.

Sudarshan Dharmapuri
Vice President, Product Management, IMImobile

Sudarshan Dharmapuri, based in Hyderabad, is responsible for Product Management function at IMImobile. Prior to joining IMImobile, Sudarshan held key positions in both Engineering and Product Marketing at Siebel Systems and Oracle in Silicon Valley, California. During his 9+ years there, he brought several successful new products to market, led partnership initiatives with 3rd party technology vendors and championed customer adoption of key products. Sudarshan holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, a MS in Computer Science from The University of Memphis, Tennessee and a BE in Information Science & Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore University.

Chirag Jain
Vice President, Marketing, Webaroo

Chirag is an alumnus of IIT, Delhi with over two decades of experience with both US and Indian companies.  A seasoned entrepreneur and executive, Jain has a track record of building high performing teams.  He is passionate about the telecom vertical and the benefits it can bring to the world especially developing nations.  He has been with Webaroo for four years and has been instrumental in envisioning and building the SMS GupShup platform that services over 25 million registered mobile subscribers exchanging approximately 500 million SMSs a month.

Ankur Lal
CEO, Infozech Software

Ankur is the CEO of Infozech Software, a leading BSS and mobile applications products company specializing in the telecom space. The organization, with 50+ global deployments across five continents, has been recognized by global business intelligence major, Deloitte, as one of the fast growing technology companies in Asia-Pacific. Infozech also made it to the NASSCOM shortlist of 18 Innovative Indian ICT companies. A distinguished alumnus of IIT Delhi, Ankur has more than 18 years of experience in the IT and telecom solutions marketplace. His expertise in designing and implementing state-of-the-art, user-friendly software solutions for incumbent global telcos and Next-Gen telecom service providers, has empowered these players with complete Tier I capabilities at competitive prices. Infozech is also into Mobile Applications and enables mobile platforms such as Oxicash which is used for mobile based payments.
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Anagat Pareek
Global Business Head - VAS, UshaComm

Anagat Pareek has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. He has been closely involved with Value Added Services for the past several years. He played a key role in launching ring back tone service for Airtel. Since then he has been involved in various VAS products in various capacities of Project Management to Revenue Enhancement. Anagat is currently the Global Business Head -- VAS for Ushacomm. Prior to joining Ushacomm, Anagat was heading operations for One97 Commmunications. Anagat holds a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Computer Science from California. In his free time Anagat loves to explore various gizmos, reads and listens to variety of music. Anagat loves to play golf and tennis and is also deeply involved with Toastmasters, an international club that promotes communication and leadership skills.

Rohan Verma
Head - Marketing, CE Info Systems / MapMyIndia

Rohan leads MapmyIndia’s marketing efforts at CE Info Systems, focusing on building the brand by introducing innovative and disruptive products to Indian market, such as MapmyIndia.com and now, MapmyIndia Navigator. Rohan conceptualized and created MapmyIndia.com in the summer of 2004, after completing his first year of college at Stanford University, USA. At Stanford, Rohan received the President’s Award for Academic Excellence. While in the US, Rohan worked for Intel as a summer technical intern and at McKinsey as a summer business analyst. Rohan graduated from Stanford in 2007 obtaining a BS in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, Rohan decided to plunge into the Indian entrepreneurial arena, with a conviction that MapmyIndia could help people in India benefit from the power of maps and location-based services. Rohan enjoys dance a lot, and has performed widely in Delhi with the Danceworx Academy, and around USA with Stanford’s Hindi Film Dance team.

Ashish Jain
General Manager, Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund

Ashish Jain is a seasoned Finance Executive having worked in Corporate Planning and Venture Financing domain for more than 12 years. Ashish currently leads the Venture Capital and Private Equity group at Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund, a PE investment group formed by the Bharti Airtel, the largest telecom conglomerate in India. Prior to Airtel Innovation Fund, Ashish was heading the Business Development Finance Group at Bharti Airtel. Ashish has previously worked for ICRA, Bank of America and American International Group. Ashish has a BA in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi.

Varun Khurana
Co-founder and CEO, Wirkle

Varun is responsible for the overall strategy and functioning of the company. His zeal to achieve the toughest targets, strong organizational skills and dynamic leadership qualities have brought Wirkle from its modest beginnings to one of the most well known mobile software development companies in the world today. Prior to founding Wirkle, he worked for 5 years as a lead engineer at Network Appliance, California leading development of its data replication products. He is a Computer Science graduate from IIT Delhi. He has several US patents and international research publications to his credit. He is extremely passionate about long distance running and runs in the Delhi Marathon every year.

Surinder Saini
President-Sales, SatNav Technologies

Surinder Saini has recently joined SatNav Technologies as the President-Sales. In this new role, Surinder handles Channel and Distributor Sales for the complete range of SatGuide products. He also works as an evangelist promoting location based services and personal navigation products amongst various influential communities. A respected industry veteran, Surinder brings more than 15 years of experience in Profit Centre Operations, New Market Development, Brand Management, Channel Management, Distribution and Product Management in Digital/ Consumer Durables and Electronics/Mobile Phones and Concept Sales. Most recently, he served IDLDPL , Delhi as Vice President-Sales for over 4 years. Surinder has also served Nippon Audiotronix Ltd for 2 years, Godrej GE Appliances Ltd., for about 6 years, Sterling Tree Magnum (India) Ltd., for little over 2years. Surinder holds a PG Diploma in Marketing Management from Kurukshetra University.

Vishal Singhal
CMO, CellStrat

Vishal is a leader and serial entrepreneur in areas of mobile, media and hi-tech industries . He has started and run many startups like etruevalue.com, India Venture Group and most recently CellStrat. Vishal has expertise in planning, sales and marketing of mobile products, services, e-commerce and media consulting. Vishal, in his recent endeavor at CellStrat, specializes in strategy, platforms and applications related to Mobile Media, Mobile Web and Systems Integration. CellStrat is a management consulting and mobile solutions firm working in industries as diverse as mobile / telecom service provider, media/advertising, retail and manufacturing, high-tech and financial services. Vishal has published white papers on mobile media and mobile advertising in prominent magazines in India and abroad and is a speaker in leading conferences. Vishal is an organizer and convener for CellStrat Executive Forum and The Mobile Conclave. Vishal holds an MBA from University of Western Sydney in Sydney, Australia.