Mahesh Ramachandran is a successful serial and social Entrepreneur turned investor. He is the founder and chief mentor of Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd., which operates in over 30,000 locations across 27 states in India. It handles over 10,000 crores (Over US$1.3 Billion) of government to citizen benefits every year servicing over 5 million rural customers. Mahesh is Managing Partner of Pontaq India, a cross border venture capital Innovation Fund. He is an angel investor, mentor, independent director supporting innovative startups and helps build the ecosystem. Mahesh is a member of The Chennai Angels, TiE India Angels, The Mumbai Angels, Keiretsu, Native Angels, and many other angel networks. Mahesh chairs TiE FinTech Special Interest Group and is in the Governing Council of TiE Chennai.

Mahesh holds an MBA from University of Westminster, Sloan Masters in Leadership & Strategy (Distinguished Sloan Fellow of London Business School) from University of London.

Vishwadeep is the Founder Director at Brand Vectors and comes with more than 2 decades of experience in the areas of Advertising & Communication and FMCG Marketing. He is an Engineer and a PGDM from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He has worked with BBDO, Lintas and Mudra Communications in Client Servicing and Account Planning and has handled a host of clients like Pond’s, Funskool, Shaw Wallace, Henkel, Ashok Leyland besides a host of retail clients. After his stint in advertising, he had a long association with Reynolds (G M Pens) for over 12 years where he played a pivotal role in shaping the brand to become a household name in the writing instruments and stationery category. He was the CEO of Oriental Cuisines Pvt Ltd. a private equity funded , Restaurants, Bakery and Café company on expansion mode. He brings to table immense experience in all areas of marketing, with a sense of business objectives owing to his stints as CEO & President in various organizations.

With more than 25 years’ experience across Asia Pacific & the Middle East, Ali has led creative teams and worked across all disciplines from Digital, Social to Shopper Marketing, integrating them to deliver work that impacted business results. He has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world like GSK, Lego, HSBC, Nescafe, Nokia, FedEx, Unilever (Sunsilk & Knorr), Visa, P&G (Pantene & Gillette), McDonalds, Qatar Airways, Nestle (Kit Kat), Mondelez, Emirates Airlines, and KFC. He’s worked with the top agencies in the world – BBDO, JWT, GREY, RAPP and Publicis Indonesia – as Chief Creative Officer.

Ali has been recognised among the most influential Creative people in Asia, and was voted Advertising Professional of the Year in Singapore. A highly awarded creative, his work has won over 30 Cannes Lions and has been awarded at D&AD, One Show, Clios and Effies. In his free time, Ali gives talks on Creativity, runs workshops and has been a judge at all major award shows including Cannes, which he has judged three times.

Jayan Narayanan is the founder and Managing Partner of “TOSS the COIN” a new age marketing advisory and outsourcing company based in Chennai. He advises tech start-ups on go-to-market strategies, branding, product roadmaps, digital transformation etc., Since graduating from BITS Pilani in 1992, Jayan has had a broad range of experience in marketing, sales, business development and has held leadership positions in CSS CORP, Computer Sciences Corporation and California Software. He is a motivational speaker, executive coach, and a corporate trainer. He has delivered over 1000 speeches, lectures and workshops around design thinking, consulting, sales, branding, digital marketing, communication and leadership. He is also on the panel of visiting faculties at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has been on the admissions interview panel of many management schools including IIM. Integrity, patience, passion, sincerity and punctuality are five strongest traits of Jayan.

V Narasimhan, Head-Learning & Development, SUNDARAM LEARNING (a division of Sundaram Finance Holdings limited) is a passionate Facilitator, a certified Coach from the International Coach Federation. Through Coaching, he enables powerful insights and impact! Clients are coached to act at the point of maximum leverage, generate change and cascade positive behaviours in their ecology. His methodology encourages Leaders to S.I.T. - an acronym that invites them to ‘Sit, Introspect & Transform' . Narasimhan is certified by the Barrett Values Centre, UK in Cultural Transformation Models and Tools in building a Vision-Guided, Values-Driven Organization. He is an accredited administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) suite of instruments. He is a Facilitator of the Global Managers programme, the ‘Bullet Proof Manager’ from Crestcom International which is one of the largest training groups in the world. He is the current Chair of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), India Chapter.

Prasanna Rajagopalan, the second generation entrepreneur, a undergraduate from Loyola college, Chennai and postgraduate specialised in Shipping, Trade and Finance, Msc from the prestigious CASS BUSINESS SCHOOL, London UK, he has had varied experience and worked at Senior management levels in Large Commodity Trading Houses, Shipping Companies in Singapore is a thorough professional and has a very diverse and in depth knowledge of the Shipping and Logistics Industry. An out of the box thinker, extremely optimistic and loves challenges and does not give up until the job gets done. His motto is "Opportunities knock on people who understand how to solve problems". Every Problem has a solution and he makes sure the businesses address them correctly. He has held many Public Leadership Positions at the Confederations of Indian Industries (CII) currently serving as Vice-Chairman, International Linkages Southern Region.