In good company – details on Bangalore companies, speakers and mentors

This week, five technology start-ups will travel from across India to compete in SmartCamp Bangalore, the first SmartCamp entrepreneur event of 2011.

IBM has more than 2,500 business partners in India already. This entrepreneurial spirit is borne in part from a strong educational system, with Indian universities churning out 3.5 million graduates per year.

The country of India is the largest growth market for us, with more than 1 billion consumers, and a IT market that is growing exponentially. India is forecasted to be the fastest growing economy for the next 50 years and the world’s 3rd largest economy by 2032. Warren Buffet recently said that he regrets not investing in India sooner

The selected companies represent some of the brightest new ideas and technologies the world has to offer in healthcare, energy, retail, telecommunications, and transportation. The companies are:

Adiro: www.adirosys.com — Enterprise mobility including automatic identification and data collection. Solutions for Retail Supply Chain, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Transportation/ Logistics industries

Connect M: www.connectm.com — Machine to machine technology for domain specific analytics and business intelligence for Telecom, Utilities, and Transportation industries. The solution provides remote asset management for optimizing overall equipment efficiency and reducing operating costs.

Indrion: http://indrion.co.in — an intelligent automation provider based on embedded sensor and actuator network technology. Indrion provides intelligent automation solutions for enhancing quality of life through comprehesive, context-aware, customized embedded solutions.

Infobotique: www.infobotique.com — Compliance and risk management for Oil and Natural Gas industry. The solution focuses on establishing the identity of every single element – for example a gas cylinder & track it during the whole cycle, giving organisation an opportunity to ensure speedy recovery from any disasters.

Quantama: www.quantama.com — Allows you to find places of interest, promotions and events nearby. In addition, the solution helps retailers to democratically herd the wisdom of their consumers by tracking reviews, click-throughs and recommendations.

We are also delighted to have recruited the following as mentors and speakers:

SmartCamp Bangalore Keynote Speaker
Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, IDG Ventures
With over 29 years of technology industry experience that includes over 8 years of venture investing experience, Sudhir specializes in investing in young Indian technology companies including seed investments and helping them grow rapidly globally. In addition to leading IDG Ventures India, Sudhir serves on the Executive Committee of Indian Venture Capital Association, on the Board of Ascent Capital ($350 million PE fund) and the Nasscom Regional Council. He also serves on the Board of Emploi Globale, a global executive search firm.

Mentor Biographies

Mike Riegel, Vice President, Marketing,
Communications & ISV Operations, IBM

Strong executive with experience in all aspects of marketing, sales, business development, and product management across software, hardware and IT services. Mike has worked successfully in software, hardware, networking and IT services roles, and has a successful track record at starting a new division for a software company, numerous start-up units at IBM, four mergers and acquisitions, and has lead teams to create new markets, and establish market leadership in a commodity marketplaces. He currently leads IBM’s startup programs, and is a mentor and coach to start-ups.

Prof. S Sadagopan, Founder, Director,
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
He is the founder Director of the Institute from September 1999. He has taught at two premier educational institutes in India, namely, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, (IITK) during 1980 – 1995 and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, (IIMB) during 1995 -1999. He obtained his undergraduate engineering degree from Madras University and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Purdue University, USA. He is a Fellow of the IEE, UK, Computer Society of India and the Institution of Engineers (India).

Dr. Ponani S Gopalkrishan,
VP, IBM Software Labs
Dr. P Gopalakrishnan has extensive global experience in the management of technology development and innovation. He is currently the Vice President, IBM India Software Lab (ISL). In this capacity he oversees product development and technology innovation efforts of a team of several thousand engineers spread across five cities in India. Prior to this, role Dr. Gopalakrishnan was Director, Discovery Solutions in the Information Management division of the IBM’s Software Group, in which role he brought together key capabilities in text analytics and data mining in the software product portfolio.

He has over 20 patents to his credit and has published extensively in peer reviewed technical conferences and journals. Dr. Gopalakrishnan received his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Ph.D degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1986.

Darren Bibby, Program
Vice President, IDC
Darren Bibby is Program Vice President, Software Channels and Alliances Research with IDC’s Software Business Solutions Group. Darren and his team provide analysis and insight into how global software vendors go to market with their channel partners, including VARs, SIs, and ISVs. Darren has authored dozens of research reports and has spoken at partner events in North America, Europe, and online. Darren’s career includes experience from all sides of the software and services marketplace.

Ajay Hattangdi, Managing Director,
SVB India Finance Pvt. Ltd.
Ajay Hattangdi is the Managing Director of SVB India Finance Pvt. Ltd. In this role, Hattangdi is responsible for building senior debt relationships with high growth early stage companies and venture capital investors in India. In early 2005, he founded and managed Citigroup’s venture debt operation in India where he led investments in several early and growth stage venturebacked technology and life science companies. Hattangdi was integral to the growth and development of Citigroup’s venture lending programs in other Asian markets as well. During that time, Hattangdi had the added responsibility of being the head of strategy for the company’s corporate and investment bank in India.

Hattangdi has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Sydenham College, a master’s degree in banking & finance from Mumbai University, as well as a master’s degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Madhusudan Atre, President,
Applied Materials India Pvt. Ltd.

Madhusudan has over 24+ years of leadership and management experience in semiconductor and solar industries. He has started and established world class R&D centers/operations for multinational companies such as Lucent Technologies Microelectronics, Agere Systems, LSI. He has varied experience across Strategic planning, Sales, Technical, Financial, HR, Legal, Real Estate, Quality (ISO-9K), IT, Procurement, Operational functions and Corporate Communications.

He is a member of numerous industry associations and bodies, government committees and helps initiate synergies and interactions between industry, government and academia. He is an advisor to various venture funds and mentors start-up companies and colleges.

Samir Kumar, Managing Director,
Inventus Advisory Services India Pvt. Ltd

Samir is a founding partner of Inventus Capital Partners, a Venture Firm being formed to invest in entrepreneurs building global product and services companies in Silicon Valley and India. Prior to Inventus, Samir led the India investments for Acer Technology Ventures (ATV), investing in technology companies like July Systems, Hellosoft, RelQ & Indecomm Global Services, in which he has held Board Director and Observer positions.

Samir is active with TiE Bangalore, and has spearheaded the entrepreneur Mentoring initiative of this Chapter. He was also nominated to the Executive Council of the India Semiconductor Association. Samir holds a B.Tech degree from IIT, Mumbai and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore, where he received the best All-round Outgoing student award.

Venkat Raju, Country Head and
Managing Director, ACI Worldwide Inc.

Venkat Raju is the Country Head & Managing Director for ACI Worldwide Inc., a leading global payments solutions provider. He is an accomplished executive with strong business, technology and general management credentials. He has served in several roles including as an Entrepreneur, an IT Executive, Product Executive and a Management/Strategy Consultant. He is an alumnus of Boston University (Management & Business) and Indian Institute of Science (Electrical Engineering).

As a past Fortune 500 Operational Executive, a Silicon Valley Technology Entrepreneur, an active Investor in technology companies, and past Advisor to Venture Capital firms, he brings value to the table.

Jeby Cherian, Director Strategy,
IBM India South Asia

Jeby Cherian leads Strategy formulation and execution for IBM in India and South Asia. He also serves on the India Leadership Team. In his capacity as the Strategy Leader, Jeby also provides guidance to the Corporate Development team in India. Jeby also leads several cross brand initiatives such as leading and positioning the Security solutions portfolio with the Government of India, and providing executive sponsorship for growing the High End Server business in India. Before his current role, Jeby led the Global Business Solutions Center in Bangalore. Before joining IBM, Jeby was an Associate Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) focusing on Finance Transformation services for the firm’s clients

Jeby is a CPA with a Master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Rahul Chowdhri, Vice President,
Helion Advisors Pvt. Ltd

Rahul joined Helion in 2007 as part of the investment team. Prior to that, Rahul has had 9 years of experience working in strategy consulting, business planning, software product management and project execution roles in India and US.

Rahul was a Group Program Manager at Microsoft India where he led the Microsoft Dynamics product planning and Office Live program management team. Prior to this, Rahul was an Associate Director at marketRx Inc., based out of New Jersey. Before joining marketRx, Rahul was a Senior Product Manager at i2 Technologies in Dallas. Between 1998 and late 2000, Rahul was a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group in India.

Rahul holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a B. Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Priya Chetty – Rajagopal, Vice President &
Client Partner, Stanton Chase International

Priya heads the corporate practice for retained executive search at the CXO/Leadership level. Before joining Stanton Chase, she spent about 18 years as a successful profit center manager in the service industry, and credit cards business. Active in various associations and business fora, she was the Chairperson of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce ( IACC) in 2006, and subsequently elected to the IACC National Executive Council. Active in Womens Leadership, she is also the Founder-Chair of the IACC -WBC (Womens Business Council) and the Co-Convenor of the CII Womens’ Business Leaders Forum.

Ravindranath Parameswaran,
Executive Director, TiE

Ravindranath is responsible for managing TiE Bangalore Chapter activities and has 30 years of General Management experience in working in different industries and companies in India and middle east region. Prior to this, he was with HP India where he was in the Leadership team that led the growth of the company from a business of USD 16 Mn in 1993 and to a USD 2.2 Bn in 2008 over a 14.5 year period. In addition, Ravindranath has served in various national committees of Govt. of India and Industry associations (CII, NASSCOM and MAIT) in the areas of Broadband Policy, E Governance, Taxation, Environment and Labour Laws issues that impact the IT industry.

Ravindranath is a B.Tech from IIT Madras and PGDBA from IIMA

Rama Subramaniam, Chairman
and Managing Director, Bio Pure

Rama Subramaniam, Chairman & Managing Director (Indian Resident), has more than two decades of consulting experience in the Integrated space of Pharma, Biotech & Healthcare in USA, Europe, Japan and India.

Rama Subramaniam is a seasoned entrepreneur committed to the cause of entrepreneurship at global level. He has strong passion and commitment to bring up few selected entrepreneurs by roping in a host of different types of institutions with his strong connectivity across the globe. He is also the founder Director of the USA-India Foundation.

V. Ravichandar, Chairman,
Feedback Consulting

Ravichandar is currently Chairman of Feedback Consulting ( ), a leading research and consulting firm in India that has been part of over US$ 6 Bn investments in India. His work focus is on guiding the firm for sustained growth through identification of new business opportunities and increasing value to clients. Ravichandar is a prolific speaker on doing business in India and urbanization issues. He has addressed various visiting delegations (Europe, US), industry forums such as CII and universities like Berkeley, IIM Bangalore.

Ravichandar has been a very active member of the community. He was a key member of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), a public-private partnership, where he has contributed pro bono on initiatives regarding urban infrastructure, governance issues, fiscal improvements and on enhancing quality of life.

Ravichandar has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad with over 30 years industry experience.

Laura Parkin, Co-founder & Chief Executive
Officer, National Entrepreneurship Network

Laura is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four companies, and a former venture capitalist. In the early 90s, she helped established a merchant bank in Moscow. Just prior to co-founding NEN, Laura was a Vice President at Ashoka, an organization that identifies and supports social entrepreneurs across the world.

Currently, she is on the Advisory Boards of Acumen Fund’s Water Portfolio; Proto.in, a non-profit supporting product-based startupsin India; and the SIDBI Business Incubator at IIT-Kanpur. Laura holds a B.A. from Harvard University.

Mauricio Sucasas da Costa, Director, ISV
and Developer Relations, IBM Growth Markets

Mauricio, in his current role, is responsible for IBM’s relationship with ISVs. He also manages the key partnerships with the development, academic and venture capital communities. However, Mauricio’s career at IBM spans more than 23 years. Since joining IBM Brazil in 1988, he held several sales and leadership positions in General Business, Government and Industrial Sector and Hardware sales. Mauricio worked 8 years in IBM Software, led the Business Partners organization for 5 years and most recently was Business Partners Operations and Transformation leader for the Growth Market Unit.

Mauricio received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical-aeronautical engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in Brazil. He also holds a MBA in Marketing from FGV – Sao Paulo.

Ankur Gulati, Analyst, DFJ

Ankur Gulati is an Analyst at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and focuses on investments in India. Prior to joining Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ankur worked as a consultant with McKinsey and Co. in Mumbai where he worked with senior management teams of corporate clients in telecommunications, infrastructure and metals and mining sectors. He was one of the lead co-authors of a McKinsey Global Institute publication on India’s urbanization and continues to remain active in the field. He currently acts as an advisor to McKinsey’s Social Sector Practice in India and is a member of Bombay First.

Ankur holds a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, where he was awarded the SD Sharma Gold Medal. Ankur is an avid follower of FC Barcelona and loves to play soccer in his spare time.

Ashish Sinha, Founder, Pluggedin

An entrepreneur, Ashish is graduate of IIT Roorkee and IIM Bangalore and has handled various functions (focused on Product Management) at companies like Yahoo, i2 Technologies and IBM. He has worked in enterprise industry for about 7 years and then moved onto his passion, i.e. the consumer industry.

RamPrasad Moudgalya,
Telecom/Wireless Intrapreneur

RamPrasad Moudgalya (RamP!) is a Telecom/Wireless Intrapreneur with 18 years industry experience. He has worked on cuttingedge software IP and Products in the Telecom Domain and has vast expertise in the field of technology, software architecture, product management, development and deployment. A certified PMP, he is also an internal auditor, trainer and mentor. He has built an engineering and operational headquarters from scratch for a Europe-based fabless semiconductor company. He currently works for National Instruments, as a Senior Group Manager and heads their R&D activities for all the non-cellular wireless standards.

RamP! actively works to help farmers in his native realize their potential through micro-financing and adult education. He is also a founder-member of a not-for-profit society, SoL South (Society for Organizational Learning) Foundation.

Girish Venkatachaliah, Director, Information Management
& Business Analytics, IBM India Software Labs

During his nearly 15 years long career with IBM, Girish has served in a variety of roles including Technical Alliances & ISV Management, Server Release Management and Developer. He has multiple patent- pending disclosures and accepted/published works in top rated conferences like VLDB and ICDE.

Girish holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Electronics and Master’s degree in both Engineering Management and Computer Science. Further, he is an MBA from the prestigious dual degree program of University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, New York.

Mohan Kumar, Executive Director, NVP India

Mohan brings in extensive operational, technology and investment experience, having worked at leading global organizations in various senior positions and personally investing in technology start-up companies. In his current position, Mohan is focused on investments in next-generation technologies, Healthcare and Education. Prior to joining , Mohan served as Corporate Vice President of Mobile Devices Software at Motorola and worked with Texas Instruments as a technical architect.Mohan has also been an angel investor and is active in helping start-up companies in the areas of mobile solutions, content and applications, namely Allgo Systems, Azingo, Quantum, SpaceTime and Mitoken.

Mohan holds a B.Tech degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Institute of Technology, Benares, India. Later he took part in the Leadership/Management Program at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago.

Shalini Pillay, Partner & Executive
Director, KPMG Advisory Services India

In her 15-year consulting career, Shalini has been involved in delivering a full range of business and financial advisory services to clients across a wide range of industries, with a focus on business integration, financial management, process re-engineering, strategic cost management solutions and demand chain solutions.

An engineering graduate from Mumbai, Shalini qualified as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1997.

She moved to KPMG in 2003 when her team at the erstwhile Arthur Andersen was bought over by the firm. Since, she has worked her way up the corporate ladder to becoming a partner in 2008.

Prof. Sekhar Babu, Chairperson,
MBA Program, Amrita Institute

Shekar Babu is the Chairperson of MBA Program at Bengaluru Campus since 2009. He is also managing the Department of INDO-US University Initiatives at Amrita University Bengaluru Campus since January 2006. Prior to Amrita, Shekar has 16 years of work experience. He worked as Director, Hewlett-Packard Co., CA, USA for 11 years and 5 years as a Technology and Business Consultant in Price Waterhouse, CA, USA. Shekar is on management board for several start-up companies in Silicon Valley, CA, USA and India.

Vidhya Shrivatsava, Head – South India, IAN

Manage the operations of Indian Angel Network in the South, and is responsible for South India relationships.

Uma Reddy, CEO, Hitech Magnetics

Uma Reddy is a Technocrat, first generation Enterpreneur and Chief Executive, Hitech Magnetics. She is the chairperson of training and a past president of Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE). She has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Visveswaraya, College of Engineering.

Capt. V. Sivakumar, Associate
Director, Metlife India Insurance

Bio not available.

Vish Narayan, IBM Distinguished Engineer
& CTO Industry Solutions Architecture

Bio not available