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First generation entrepreneur and Business Evangelist with a successful track record of promoting and managing Industrial ventures in different countries. Strong expertise in manufacturing, management, business development, education and entrepreneurship with a focused commitment to social initiatives. Has three decades of experience in the manufacturing sector

Mr. S. Balakrishnan is the Founder and CEO of ANB Systems, a Texas corporation with an offshore development center in Chennai, India. Mr. Balakrishnan has forty years of experience in technical analysis and software development in the areas of energy efficiency, renewables, demand side management, load profiling, distributed generation, retail electric and gas deregulated markets, and retail energy risk management.

At ANB Systems, he led the development of energy efficiency program management software solutions for electric and gas utilities. In the past decade, he has overseen the release of the cloud-based workflow management product, eTRACK+, for a number of utilities and organizations around the USA.

He has organically grown ANB from scratch to a 140 person company today. Prior to founding ANB, Mr. Balakrishnan held positions at various companies such as Synergic Resources Corporation, Reliant Energy and ICF Consulting.

He is a resident of Houston, Texas and spends a significant amount of time at ANB’s Chennai center.

Mr. Balakrishnan has a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from University of Bombay, India, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.

Baskar Ceri is currently the Director of Apna Technologies & Solutions (ApnaTech – www.apnatech.com), the company he founded in 2004 and the Global Director of Business Development for Aerospace, Defense & Govt Business Unit of NI (www.ni.com).

Baskar started his career at NI in Austin, USA and was part of the 2-member team that started NI operations in India growing the revenue to multi million dollars and the team in India.

He later started ApnaTech, a Knowledge Engineering company, the first & still the only Indian company to build products & systems that improve Safety & Efficiency of Railway Assets (like wayside systems to determine wheel, bearing, axle faults on a running train).

Baskar has been involved in several acquisitions & divestments during his experience & currently serves on the board of several companies and has keen interest in mentoring & building world changing companies.

Baskar holds an Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from BITS-Pilani, India and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, USA.

Brief about Business/Work Experience:

NI, USA (www.ni.com), Global Director of Business Development, Aerospace, Defense & Govt Business Unit.

He started the branch of NI in India as a part of a two-member Start-up team and successfully grew it to a multi-million-dollar business & built a strong team establishing a national footprint.

Baskar currently serves a dual role in Corporate as Global Director of Business Development of ADG BU to build strategies and execute the growth of the BU across the globe with Regional Sales, and in India as Site Leader of NI-India, responsible for NI India growth and development.

Apna Technologies & Solutions, India (www.apnatech.com), Director & Founder

He founded the company and started as a specialist company in System Integration involving Electrical, Electronic, Instrumentation, Mechatronic subsystems along with Signal Processing and IT skills to provide Custom Engineering Solutions for Automotive, Manufacturing & Defense.

Later, he strategized and executed the transition of the Company from a Custom Solutions Provider to an Innovative Product Company, a one of its kind in the country and the only way-side product supplier for Indian Railways.

Baskar ensured the successful development, deployment and use of the products built and established branch offices and support centres at Delhi, Lucknow and other key Railway centres for close coordination of products developed being deployed successfully deriving maximum benefit for customers.

Bharat Garg was born in Chennai, and did his primary and senior schooling from Don Bosco Egmore, Chennai (Batch of 1990). He completed his Bachelor’s in Commerce from DG Vaishnav College (Madras University), Chennai (Batch of 1993). He also completed his Executive MBA (PGPMAX 2014) from Indian School of Business (ISB). As a part of his MBA program, he had international immersions in Whatron School of University of Pennsylvania, and Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University, Illinois.

Bharat has over 27 years experience in the steel industry. He has been involved in the manufacturing of long steel products (TMT/Reinforcement steel bars). He is currently a director at Pulkit TMT. He also has experience in manufacturing, sales & marketing of these products in the five southern states of India.

Bharat’s interests include yoga, cycling, trekking, and good food. He is also an animal and art lover. Bharat’s wife, Preeti Garg has been in the art business since 2010. She is the co-founder of Chennai’s finest art gallery named M/s Gallery Veda ( galleryveda.com ), Rutland Gate, Nungambakkam. Preeti is an alumnus of Good Shepherd, Chennai, and Ethiraj College, Egmore, Chennai.

Bharat’s son, Advait Garg has finished his education from Sishya School, Chennai, and studied Mathematics and Economics from Emory University, Atlanta, GA. He is now working in the AI industry with Mad Street Den, a Chennai based tech startup.

Dr. K.B. Chandrasekhar (Dr. Chandra�) is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Jamcracker. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of e4e Inc., a Business Services company, and Chairman svapas innovations, an incubator for startups.

He was Chairman of the Board of Aztec Software and Technology Services Limited, which merged with Mindtree, a global technology company listed on BSE.

In 1994, Dr. Chandra identified the potential of the Internet and founded Exodus Communications. Exodus went public in March of 1998 in one of the most successful IPOs of 1998.

In 1999, Dr. Chandra was honored as the Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year.

Seeing the need for research and development in the areas of information sciences and life sciences, Dr. Chandra established the Anna University ‘K.B. Chandrasekhar Research Centre’ (AU-KBC Research Center) in 1999 at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) campus of Anna University, as a collaborative venture between Anna University, Chennai (Madras), and the K.B. Chandrasekhar Family Foundation. 

Dr. Chandra started his first entrepreneurial venture in 1992 with Fouress, Inc., a network software design and development firm with clients including Sun Microsystems, Adaptec, Toshiba, and Lockheed. 

Within two years, Fouress was a highly profitable company with sales of $1 million per year.

In 1990, Dr. Chandra moved to the United States as country manager for Rolta India, Ltd., where he was responsible for business development, marketing, and software consulting services. 

Dr. Chandra began his career in 1983 at Wipro, an Indian information technology company, as a customer support engineer. During his seven years with the company, he advanced through various sales, marketing, and support functions including building highly available networks for satellite applications and managing marketing for its European clients.

Dr. Chandra was born and raised in Chennai, India, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Anna University.

Chandu has over 30 years of experience in industry, consultancy, media, and information services. A co-founder of Scope e-Knowledge Center, a pioneering knowledge process outsourcing company that scaled up to 1000+ people before his exit, his areas of focus were business development and fundraising, and his passion was enterprise building and transformation.

Chandu has direct experience in angel, VC, and strategic investor funding and has also been a part of two exits. He was also involved in the creation of other enterprises, most of which were ho-hum or failed.

A key focus for him now is entrepreneurship and helping strengthen the entrepreneur ecosystem. He advises entrepreneurs and enterprises in creating and building their business. He has also invested in some start-ups and the jury is still out on their fate. He is also on the advisory board of a Chennai based private equity firm. He is an active charter member of TiE Chennai and has been closely involved with its mentoring initiative.

A Postgraduate in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad, he has been a member of various industry panels both in India and overseas as also a visiting faculty in various business schools.

Damodaran has over 25 years of experience in IT, Financial Services and Academia spread across USA, UK and India.

For over 12 years, he co-founded and led as CEO & Managing Director of Ameex Technologies, a Global Digital IT Services company with over $20 Million revenue and 500+ team members spread across USA, Singapore and India.

After the acquisition of Ameex Technologies by Perficient Inc (Nasdaq: PRFT) in October 2022, he continued to serve as General Manager until January 2024. Between years 2007 and 2010, Damodaran served as Director, CUIC (Centre for University-Industry Collaboration) of Anna University, Trichy and conducted various Campus Placement Drives for thousands of students from the 55 Engineering Colleges affiliated to the University.

He also served as Special Officer and Dean of its Thirukuvalai Engineering College Campus. Damodaran was also nominated as Syndicate Member of Anna University Trichy by Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu. Prior to that, for over 10 years, he has served in various capacities at Motorola Inc and Moneris Solutions (JV between Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal) at their Chicago offices in USA.

He also had a short stint at WorldTel at its UK, London office working closely with Sam Pitroda.

Damodaran holds a Ph.D in Management Studies from Anna University, Chennai and MBA from Booth School of Business, University of Chicago and also MS (Software Engineering) from University of Toledo, Ohio, USA.

Dr. Ravi Ramalingam is currently the senior ENT and Head & Neck Surgeon, and Managing Director of the KKR ENT Hospital & Research Institute, and its 3 ENT Hospitals and 6 Peripheral clinics in Chennai.

The KKR ENT Hospital & Research Institute was founded in 1973 and Dr. Ravi Ramalingam has grown this enterprise to be the largest private ENT Health care Organization in the country. Dr. Ravi Ramalingam heads a team of 18 ENT Surgeons and other allied specialists.

Dr. Ravi Ramalingam completed his MBBS in Madras Medical College, completed his Masters from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, and his Diplomat National Board of Examination.

In recognition of his contribution in the field of ENT, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow.

He is a well known speaker. He lectures and demonstrates live surgeries all over India and abroad. He has travelled to over 25 countries and has lectured and demonstrated live surgery in Otology, Otoneurology, Cochlear Implant and Endoscopic Sinus Surgery.

He is the Incoming President of the Indian Society of Otology, the largest organization of Ear Specialists doctors in India.

He was the Past President of the Association of Otorhinolaryngologists in India and is currently the Honorary ENT Consultant Surgeon for the Government of Mauritius.

He was recently awarded “Best Doctor” award by the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University.

He has been trained in various specialties in the field of ENT and his current interests are Endoscopic Sinus Surgery, Micro Ear Surgery and Cochlear Implantation.

Dr. Ravi Ramalingam works closely with the Government of Tamilnadu for the implementation and successful running of the Cochlear Implantation project for deaf children. He is a well known and leading Cochlear Implant Surgeon in India and has currently performed one of the largest series of cochlear implantations in India.

He heads the Cochlear Implant team at the KKR Cochlear Implantation Centre which has a team of over 25 professionals and has performed more than 2500 Cochlear Implant Surgeries.

Dr. Ravi Ramalingam is the Managing Trustee for Chinnammal ENT Medical Education & Research Foundation. This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of ENT diseases, and has been active in conducting research and free health care work with various NGOs such as Rotary Clubs.

Dr. Sudhir Ravindran, attorney-at-law, solicitor (England & Wales), founder of Altacit Global, a leading Indian law firm. An engineer & lawyer, he has a master’s degree in both streams from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.

He had been awarded A doctorate (PhD) in intellectual property risk management From Nalsar University, India. He is currently pursuing his post-Doctoral research (LLD).

He is a regular speaker at several Universities, national and international conferences and has been recognized as one of the 100 legal luminaries of India.

Altacit Global is a boutique legal firm specializing in Intellectual Property, Corporate Law, Real Estate, and Franchising. They have a strong international flavor in their work practices addressing the needs of individual industry groups.

Their core team is professionals who come from multidisciplinary and diverse backgrounds such as science, engineering, law, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical and business administration. There are absolutely no boundaries to their operations, through their exclusive worldwide network of associates, they are able to take up work in every continent.

They are situated in important cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, and Cochin which are home to Intellectual Property & Trademark Office [Branch], Intellectual Property Appellate Board, High Court of Madras, High Court of Karnataka, High Court of Kerala, High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad and Indian Geographical Indications Registry.

Deepak Reddy is the Managing Director & CEO of Nelcast Limited. Under his leadership, the company has grown to a revenue in excess of Rs. 1250 Cr. with a highly reputed global customer base. His educational qualifications include an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and MS(Engineering Management), BS(Materials Science & Engineering) & BS(Manufacturing & Design Engineering) from Northwestern University, USA. His prior work experience also includes two Fortune 500 companies in various roles.

 Dr. Sreeram Srinivasan currently serves as the Executive Director for Syrma SGS Engineering & Technology Services. He began his tenure as CEO at Syrma Technology, an Electronics Manufacturing Services company, in 2015. After a successful turn-around, the company acquired an equi-sized company based in the Delhi NCR and went for a successful IPO and listing in 2022. 

With a career spanning over 30 years since his return from the US in the early 1990s, Dr. Sreeram Srinivasan has played pivotal roles in prominent enterprises including Saint Gobain Automotive Glass, Shanthi Gears, Rane Brake Linings and Engine Valves, and Sundaram Fasteners Limited prior to his current role. His leadership extends to significant National roles within notable industry organizations, including ACMA, Hyundai Vendor Forum, IESA, and ELCINA. 

He was part of the team that won the TPM Excellence Award at Sundram Fasteners in 1998 and the prestigious Deming Prize in 2003 at Rane Brake Linings. Dr. Sreeram Srinivasan is a B.Tech from IIT Madras (1985) and an M.S and PhD (1990) from North Carolina State University (USA). Beyond his professional endeavors, Dr. Sreeram Srinivasan is an accomplished poet and dedicated blogger. His literary collection, “Oh! So Magnifique,” presents a compendium of over 53 carefully curated poems, catering to a diverse audience.