An alumni of the National Dairy Research Institute (1981) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad(1984), Shri Harkesh Mittal has been instrumental in giving a new vibrancy to promoting the innovation and entrepreneurial acumen among a wide section of Indian entrepreneurs ranging from simple rural industries to high end technological enterprises.

His two decades long association with the Government has coincided with the beginning of India's economic liberalization initiatives. With his untiring efforts and personal initiative, Shri Mittal has made the innovation and entrepreneurship programme of Department of Science & Technology a much sought after programme by the individual entrepreneurs as well as by the industry and technological circles - not only in India but among the industrially advanced countries of the world.

Shri Mittal has been instrumental in involving the private sector - both national and international- in the task of innovation and entrepreneurship development in India. Companies like Intel, TCS, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, P&G, The Economic Times, etc. have now been involved in this task and quite many of them are making matching contribution and are bringing world class technology commercialization knowledge to India.

He was also the National Programme Director of the UNDP project on SKILLS which aimed to demonstrate that sustainable jobs can be created in innovative vocations through appropriate location specific, need based; competency linked training interventions using the conventional as well as on-line systems.

He has been responsible for establishing networks with international development institutions like the World Bank and EU for bringing the global incubation knowledge to the Indian business incubators. He has worked with UNIDO for Cluster Development as a National Expert. He has helped many Governments to set up incubation facilities and advises them on building up a incubation system. He was an international expert for UNDP on business incubation. He has represented India at various international forums on innovation, entrepreneurship, incubation etc.

Bhavish is the General Partner at Exponential Innovation Fund, a cross border fund that invests in HealthTech, and Enterprise Software sectors with a focus on IoT, Digital and AI/ML. Prior to this, Bhavish spent more than 10 years as a Research Director with Gartner’s (NYSE: IT). Previously he worked with Virtusa (Nasdaq: VRTU) as Chief Research Lead with its R&D centers in Colombo and Hyderabad. A regular on the speaking circuit Bhavish has spoken at various industry conferences including TIECon, Strata Hadoop World, Gartner BI summits among others.

He has been extensively quoted in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Economic Times and Hindu Business Line among and regularly appears on television as an expert on Business Intelligence, Analytics and Venture Capital funding. Bhavish attended the Executive General Management Program of IIM Bangalore and earlier received a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management from Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal and a Diploma is Software from NICT, Chandigarh

Nalin Singh leads a boutique strategy & financial consulting company, Natio Cultus; that also specializes in coaching leaders, raising funds for businesses and crafting business strategy. He is also the Co-Founder and COO of Orbit Future Academy that provides “Skills for Jobs,” based out of Indonesia. He has held several leadership positions in India, Asia, Europe and the US; in leading corporates of the world. His last corporate role was as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Subsequently he has experienced the high and lows of entrepreneurship first hand. He believes that advisors should be forthright and direct in their inputs to leaders. He frequently speaks about the need for advisors and experts to demystify difficult situations and choices for leaders and not to mystify simple ones. He has dabbled in film making and produced animation and live action movies. He has also authored four non-fiction books. He is the author of the bestselling book, Reboot to Reconquer – Navigating the Afternoon of Life. This book deals with the very real issue of mid-life crises and ways to cope with them. His bestselling book “Get Funded Now” has won the National Book Honour. It helps to guide Entrepreneurs and would be Entrepreneurs in mastering the rigors faced in the path to securing successful funding.

His company launched the India Fund Fest & Indonesia Fund Fest for startups that seek funding away from the chaotic carnival like startup events. Nalin frequently speaks & writes on issues relating to outsourcing, BPO, cultural matters, diversity, aspirations of the youth of India and a variety of other topics related to the startup ecosystem. He has also been on the Advisory Board of leading corporates, various Industry Associations & publications. With more than thirty years of diverse experience he provides life & strategy coaching to leaders and boards of Fortune 500 companies, celebrities and startup Founders. He was featured in the first edition of the startup funding web series, Horses Stable. He has co-authored two fiction novels, TripTease and Mooncircles and is on the advisory board of the global media house, Transcontinental Times

Leading Innovation charter for India's best-known ecosystem brand T-Hub. Also, Advisor, Business & Technology Leader with 20 years of experience, which includes running Incubators, Creating Global & Strategic relationship, Advising Venture Funds, Startup's, Due-diligence, Setting up Engineering Teams, Product Management, GTM and devising Strategies. Adept in Delivery Management, Project Management, Business Development, System Engineering, System Design & Development.

Worked with Telecom Giants like Nortel, Ericsson, Cisco & Polycom among others. Help global organizations leverage APAC talent and marketplace for enhancing their presence and build a bigger market-place for their global products, solutions, and services. His specialties are Startup Incubator, Startup Evangelism / Advisor, Product Strategy & Positioning, GTM, Advisory, Business Development, Strategic Planning, Global Operations, Market and Competitive Analysis, International Business Development

Don Wright is the co-founder and Head of the Launch Pad Innovation program at Western Sydney University which delivers support to Tech start-up and high growth SME businesses resulting in the creation of 150 new knowledge jobs and the addition of over $100m value added to the regional Western Sydney economy since 2016. Don is actively working to grow entrepreneurial thinking across the region through the development of a large-scale entrepreneurship training and development program at WSU with an international focus that will connect Western Sydney to innovation ecosystems in Asia, Europe and the US. With original qualifications in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in International Business, Don is passionate about technology businesses and is driving a strategy for the creation of tech specialisations in various key centres across Western Sydney including an artificial intelligence and machine learning hub in Parramatta.

Don has worked in a range of small and large engineering based firms and also operated his own consultancy working globally in Aerospace and Defence with industry and government to develop opportunities for Australian industry participation in major global programs such as the 787 Dreamliner and Joint Strike Fighter. Don is now working extensively to support WSU’s role in the Western City and Aerotroplolis strategy including planning for the Multiversity and WSU’s support for Industry 4.0 capability development in the local manufacturing sector.

Inu Rana has devoted past 20 years to managing businesses, consulting & advising businesses, supporting startups, contributing to executive training & development and research. Inu started her career joining her family business of Pharmaceuticals in Delhi, India, and continues to serve on the board till today. She served on the panel of National Productivity Council, India, for several years before moving to Australia permanently and joining Western Sydney University. Inu has spoken at seminars internationally, has addressed and trained senior and top management and has been recognized for her practical, no-fuss approach.

Her ability to connect strategy to real life business stories helps her engage her audience at a highly individual level. She has worked across the South Asian region with top MNCs and industries and startups. She has a strong interest in entrepreneurship and Innovation and is hoping to contribute further to the wider development and advancement of the manufacturing business sector in the Western Sydney region and beyond through her work and research.

Amit Dogra is the co-founder and CEO of Orion eSolutions, an IT company based out in Mohali and USA. Handpicked by McKinsey & Company after my B.Tech from Chitkara University in 2008, I learnt some valuable lessons of life and trade while working with the largest management firm in the world. To be blessed with a mind and heart for Computer Science, it has been my destiny; gaining the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship from my exposure and experience in this field is how I derived my vision for life.

Today, as the CEO & Operations Head of Orion eSolutions, I take pride in conceiving it as an organization to provide most agile and precise solutions in sync with the demands of the customers all across the world. I often spend my leisure time celebrating with my team deriving a vague sense of accomplishment noticing the evolutions and growth in each member of Orion ever since they joined us. Today, with a firm belief in what I want in life, I wish to further expand the realms of my knowledge and refine my quest for excellence.

Dr. Sandhir Sharma is a Ph.D. in Strategic Management with nearly 20 years of experience in higher education and 5 years in Telecom industry. With more than 43 research papers to his credit published in various journals and conferences at national & international level, Dr. Sharma has developed his core expertise in the area of Strategy formulation. Currently, he is serving as Dean, Chitkara Business School & visiting faculty to Binus University, Indonesia and University of Applied Sciences, Osnabruck, Germany. He has been instrumental in scaling Chitkara Business School operations from 60 students & one program to 1200 plus students & more than 12 programs with in span of 10 years.

He is an active member of various management associations and University bodies. He has guided more than 5000 students in the field of business management all across streams of Commerce and Management so far. He is serving as consultant to various SME organizations in the area of strategy formulation. He is Major Guide to nine Ph.D. Scholars from Academia and Industry. As of now, six of his students have completed their Ph.D. successfully under his guidance in the fields of Consumers|Foods|Organic Foods, Work Engagement, Brands|Brands Personality|Brand love, Television|Broadcasting|Digital Television and Green Marketing|Consumer Behaviour.

Subramanian is an Author, Entrepreneur, Visiting Professor, Specialist Offline/Online Sales Trainer , Nasscom Mentor, Tie Speaker, SAARC Chamber of Commerce Trainer/Speaker, T-Hub Mentor His mission is to transform Entrepreneurs and Sales executives to Sales Superstars He is a specialist sales trainer who can deliver training both in online and offline mode. He has trained over 7000 people across 24 different nationalities. He is a visiting professor for Sales at SP Jain school of global management His books " Anybody Can Sell" " Sales for Startups" are available in Amazon and Flipkart. Subramanian mentors many startups in the field of Sales in collaboration with well-known Accelerator and Incubators like T-Hub, Kerala startup Mission & Forge Accelerator As a sales trainer, he was part of the Boeing Accelerator, Facebook India Innovation program, HSBC Fintech Accelerator, Robert Bosch Accelerator.

He is also a speaker at many startup forums. He recently moderated a panel discussion at IIM Kozhikode and SP Jain Startup Conclave. He is a Trainer for SAARC Chamber for Commerce for their programs in Maldives and SriLanka Subramanian is an International Sales and Negotiation skills Trainer. He has trained more than 7000 plus people in various aspects of Sales. He has trained 22 different nationalities that include people from India, US, Canada, China, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan, Nepal, Tunisia, Egypt, Portugal, Oman, Malaysia, Srilanka, Maldives and Philippines.