Impact Future Project 2020

Micro Keynote Speakers at IFP India Launch

Sir Ronald Cohen

Founder, GSG

Sir Ronald Cohen

Founder

GSG

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures and a Director of Social Finance.  He was the founding partner and former chairman of Apax Partners. Sir Ronald is a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, on the Board of Dean’s Advisers at Harvard Business School, a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee.  He is also a Trustee of the British Museum. He was a founder director and past chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He was also a founder and former Vice-Chairman of EASDAQ and former director of NASDAQ Europe.  He was Chairman of the Social Investment Taskforce and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets. He has recently published “The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity” about entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was president of the Oxford Union, an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.  Sir Ronald was a recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award.

Abhishek Agrawal

Country Director, Accion International

Abhishek Agrawal

Country Director

Accion International

Abhishek Agrawal is Chief Regional Officer for Accion – Asia. He worked with FINCA International as CFO and as advisor to Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI). Abhishek is Aspire Fellow; Ph.D. in Municipal financial reforms, a Chartered Accountant from ICAI & MBA in finance.

Amit Bhatia

Founder & CEO, Aspire Impact

Amit Bhatia

Founder & CEO

Aspire Impact

Amit Bhatia ( www.amitb.in ), an award-winning social entrepreneur, is The Founder of Aspire Impact since 2007, a social enterprise in impact leadership and ecosystem development and Founder of Aspire Circle since 2013, India’s pre-eminent fellowship for social leadership. Formerly, as inaugural CEO of The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment or GSG from 2017-2020, Amit built the 32-country multilateral, catalysing impact investment and entrepreneurship, for social, climate and economic justice. Prior to GSG, Amit was Founding CEO of India’s Impact Investors Council (2014-2017) where he built “Brand India” and grew inbound annual impact investments from USD400mn to USD1.1bn.

Amit was also Founding CEO of WNS Knowledge Services (2003-2007) and Country Manager of FreeMarkets (1999-2003). Most prominently, he was Founder of McKinsey Knowledge Centre (1996-1999). An alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce (1989) and Delhi School of Economics (1991), Amit quit a successful corporate career in 2007 to serve the social sector.

Anant Maheshwari

President, Microsoft India

Anant Maheshwari

President

Microsoft India

As President of Microsoft India, Anant Maheshwari is responsible for Microsoft’s overall business and presence in India, leading engagement with policy makers, customers, business partners, and the industry ecosystem. At Microsoft, Anant works to make the company’s mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, aligned with India’s inclusive growth agenda.

Aradhana Lal

VP-Sustainability, Lemon Tree hotels

Aradhana Lal

VP-Sustainability

Lemon Tree hotels

Aradhana Lal: TedX Speaker and Vice-President, Brand/Communications/Sustainability Initiatives, Lemon Tree Hotels. The company’s strategy is to build an inclusive employee base and has been hiring Employees With Disabilities (EWD) for 14 years. Target: current 16% to ~30% FY26.

Bart Houlahan

Co-Founder, B Labs

Bart Houlahan

Co-Founder

B Labs

Bart Houlahan, along with his partners, Jay Coen Gilbert and Andrew Kassoy, co-founded B Lab in 2006. B Lab is a non-profit organization serving a global movement of people using business as a force for good, led by the growing community of Certified B Corporations. Prior to B Lab, Bart was President of AND 1, a $250 MM basketball footwear and apparel company. Bart is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute; a recipient of both the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the 2015 John P. McNulty Prize; and an advisory board member of the Duke University Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE).

Cliff Prior

CEO, GSG

Cliff Prior

CEO

GSG

Cliff Prior is the CEO of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investment – the independent global steering group catalysing impact investment and entrepreneurship to benefit all people and our planet, with a growing 33 country movement. Previously Cliff was CEO of Big Society Capital, the UK’s wholesale social impact investor and market developer, CEO of UnLtd the UK foundation for social entrepreneurs, CEO of Rethink for people affected by severe mental ill health, and in social housing and homelessness. Cliff has also worked as a government regulator and adviser, in many social issue areas, and has co-founded social enterprises.

Deepali Khanna

Managing Director, The Rockefeller Foundation

Deepali Khanna

Managing Director

The Rockefeller Foundation

Deepali Khanna is the Managing Director of the Asia Regional Office of The Rockefeller Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s initiatives to catalyze strategic collaborations in Asia. Deepali has worked in the development sector for closer to four decades with organizations such as The MasterCard Foundation, Plan International, and UNICEF around the world. She is a founding member of South Asia Women in Energy (SAWIE).

Gabriela Gandel

Executive Director, Impact Hub

Gabriela Gandel

Executive Director

Impact Hub

As an experienced leader of innovative global organisations, organisational and personal development consultant and experiential learning designer Gabriela is committed to building organisations and systems that enable people and planet to thrive and meaningful visions to get accomplished. She spent her last 10 years working as a manager or consultant with a mix of not for profit and for profit global organisations spanning over 50 countries around the world. As a manager, she worked for AIESEC International and Romania, Future Considerations and Impact Hub. As a consultant, her clients included HSBC, KPMG, BP, TATE Britain and 10 key art galleries in England, ProVita Romania, RoPot, Human Invest. Throughout her career, Gabriela had coaching engagements with over 40+ leaders. This all was fun and makes up for her more than 5 passports used up to date. Currently, she happily works for the Impact Hub network as a global director, helping build a global infrastructure for catalysing and scaling social enterprises and change making businesses that address the key issues of our time. And with this pursuing her stand of a connected humanity acting as a power for good. *Gabriela is based in Vienna, Austria.

Geeta Goel

Country Director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India

Geeta Goel

Country Director

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India

Geeta Goel  is the Country Director of Dell Foundation India. She manages the strategy and implementation in two key areas – Education and Family Economic Stability. She’s on the Boards of Ujjivan, Janalakshmi, Swadhaar, Arohan, and Micro Housing Finance Corporation.

George Serafiem

Professor, HBS

George Serafiem

Professor

HBS

George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration and the Chair of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project at Harvard Business School. He has taught courses in the MBA, executive education, and doctoral programs, and is currently teaching the elective course “Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems ” in the MBA curriculum, which received the Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute and the Grand Page Prize. He has presented his research in over 60 countries around the world, including to world leaders in government and business at events such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the Aspen Ideas Festival. He ranks among the top 10 most popular authors out of over 12,000 business authors on the Social Science Research Network. Professor Serafeim’s research focuses on measuring, driving and communicating corporate performance and social impact. His work is widely cited and has been published in the most prestigious academic and practitioner journals, such as Management Science, The Accounting Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Finance, Organization Science, Journal of Accounting Research, and Harvard Business Review. His research is regularly cited in the media, including The New York Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Economist, BBC, Le Monde, Washington Post, and NPR. He has received multiple awards and recognitions, including the Pericles Leadership Award in recognition of services to the Hellenic Republic and the Kim B. Clark Fellowship on Responsible Leadership at Oxford University, for his research on corporate sustainability and the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in investing. He has been recognized by Barron’s as “one of the most influential people in ESG investing” and according to the Financial Times, his research was a turning point for companies and investment managers in integrating ESG issues in business and investment strategies.

Halla Tomasdottir

CEO

B Team

Halla Tómasdóttir is the CEO of The B Team, a group of courageous business and civil society leaders working together to transform business for a better world. Halla started her leadership career in corporate America working for Mars and Pepsi Cola. She was on the founding team of Reykjavík University where she established the Executive Education Department, founded and led a successful women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative and was an assistant professor at the Business School. She was the first female CEO of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce and later went on to co-found an investment firm with the vision to incorporate feminine values into finance. The company successfully survived the infamous economic meltdown in Iceland. In 2016 Halla was an independent candidate for the President of Iceland. She entered a crowded field of candidates and finished as the runner-up with nearly 30 percent of the vote.

Nirav Khambhati

Partner, Kaizenvest Investment

Nirav Khambhati

Partner

Kaizenvest Investment

Nirav Khambhati -Since 2018, Nirav focuses on Kaizenvest’s education investments portfolio in India and expansion in Africa. He has spent over 20 years with the Tata Group in various roles including as the CEO of Tata ClassEdge and Tata Interactive Systems.

Nishith Desai

Founder, Nishith Desai Associates

Nishith Desai

Founder

Nishith Desai Associates

Praveer Sinha

CEO, Tata Power

Praveer Sinha

CEO

Tata Power

Mr. Praveer Sinha has over three decades of experience in the power sector and has been credited with transforming the power distribution sector and development and setting up of greenfield and brownfield power plants in India and abroad.

Mr. Sinha holds a Master’s Degree in Business Law from National Law School, Bengaluru and is also professionally trained as an Electrical Engineer. He is also a member of the Faculty Board at Faculty of Management Studies and a member of Board of Governors at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. He is a Research Scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and is also a visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA.  Before his appointment in Tata Power, Mr. Sinha was the CEO & Managing Director of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL). Tata Power-DDL is a Public Private Partnership (Joint Venture) between the Company and Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, supplying power to over seven million people in North and North-West Delhi.

Ravi Kant

Former CEO, Former Tata Motors

Ravi Kant

Former CEO

Former Tata Motors

Ravi Kant has played a significant role as CEO/Vice Chairman in making TATA MOTORS. He has chaired several Tata company boards, Advertising Standards Council of India, Audit Bureau of Circulation and the Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers.. Currently he sits on the boards of Vedanta Ltd and Kone, Helsinki, Enactus and Wonder Work. He is on the advisory board of IIT Kharagpur, IIT  Mumbai, boards of the NID, and CGIO of the Business School at National University of Singapore.

Reema Nanavaty

Executive Director, SEWA

Reema Nanavaty

Executive Director

SEWA

Reema Nanavaty is the Director of SEWA – the largest trade union of informal sector women workers with membership of over 2.1 million members. She was honored by Padma Shri in 2013. She was a member of the Advisory Council on Gender of the World Bank Group, and was a commissioner on the ILO’s High Level Global Commission on Future of Work.

Rema Subramanian

Co-Founder, Ankur Capital Fund

Rema Subramanian

Co-Founder

Ankur Capital Fund

Rema Subramanian is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ankur Capital Fund, Investing in transformative technologies for the next billion.  A sector agnostic fund, they are pioneer investors in early stage agritech and biotech in India.  They invest in tech from India for the world.

Safeena Husain

Founder, Educate Girls

Safeena Husain

Founder

Educate Girls

Safeena Husain is the Founder and Executive Director of Educate Girls (EG), an Indian non-profit that mobilises rural communities toward girls’ education. Under her leadership, EG has enrolled 950,000+ girls in schools till date, impacted over 11.5 million+ beneficiaries through a 15,000+ strong team of community volunteers.

Sairee Chahal

Founder & CEO, Sheroes

Sairee Chahal

Founder & CEO

Sheroes

Sairee Chahal is a serial entrepreneur, mom, angel investor, evangelist for #WomensInternet and a board member. She currently runs SHEROES – an online ecosystem for women, offering support, entrepreneurial and employment opportunities, content and community at www.sheroes.com and the SHEROES App, and Mahila Money – a community neobank for women.

Sean Hinton

Co-Director of Economic Justice Program at Open Society Foundations, CEO of Soros Economic Development Fund

Sean Hinton

Co-Director of Economic Justice Program at Open Society Foundations

CEO of Soros Economic Development Fund

Shashaank Awasthi

Co-Founder, V-shesh

Shashaank Awasthi

Co-Founder

V-shesh

Shashaank Awasthi is co-founder of v-shesh and India Advisor at Gray Ghost Ventures. His work in disability inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, financial inclusion, investing and teaching has been in pursuit of inclusive and accessible environments.

Tarun Chugh

MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co

Tarun Chugh

MD & CEO

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co

A seasoned BFSI specialist with over 25 years of experience. He started as an Investment Banker, and then moved to the Life Insurance industry over 15 years ago. He has led dynamic teams and Life Insurance organisations through exciting times. His leadership mantra is ‘Company first’ and believes that tech and digital will enable the industry to take giant strides towards the new future. Being updated on Technology and digital disruptions are his current passions, and enjoys discussing them with his sons, when he is not working.

Vedika Bhandarkar

Chief Global Impact Officer, Water.org

Vedika Bhandarkar

Chief Global Impact Officer

Water.org

Vedika oversees all impact efforts within Water.org and leads the team responsible for working with financial institutions, global investors, and other sector leaders to empower millions of people in need with access to safe water and sanitation. She previously served as Water.org’s Managing Director, India. Vedika has more than 25 years of experience building teams and businesses with Indian and international financial institutions. Prior to joining Water.org in January 2016, she served as Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited from 2010-2015. Previously, she served as the Managing Director & Head of Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan.

Sir Ronald Cohen

,

Sir Ronald Cohen

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