BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PRASHANTH PRAKASH
CHAIRMAN
Serial investor and successful entrepreneur, Prashanth has his finger on the pulse of the Indian technology scenario. With his keen ability to spot emerging opportunities, he began investing in Indian technology start-ups (as early as in 2004), much before they acquired global attention. Prashanth started his investing career as co-founder of Erasmic, one of India’s first early stage funds. Prior to that, he founded two enterprises in the Internet and Multimedia Publishing domains. Today, as a key member of Accel’s India team, he focuses on consumer Internet services, online marketplaces and SaaS. He has led investments in BookMyShow, HolidayIQ, PropTiger, BlueStone, QwikCilver/GiftBig, WizRocket, Healthcare Magic, Deeksha, and other early stage companies. Prashanth holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Delaware, and an Undergraduate Degree in Computer Science from the Bangalore Institute of Technology, India.

H NARAYANA SWAMY
TREASURER
Swamy, as he is popularly known, has over 33 years of experience in diverse industries, in India and abroad. In addition to being the Co-Founder of CaptiveAide, which assists multinational organizations to set up/ build/ manage their entities in India, Swamy is also a strategic corporate advisor and an independent consultant to SMEs. During his career, Swamy has donned leadership roles of VP Finance, Senior VP Finance, CFO and COO, in mid and large sized organisations like Collabera Inc., Adea International, ICICI OneSource (now FirstSource) and Planetasia. He has also worked overseas at global companies such as Xerox Corporation and KPMG. Swamy’s achievements in the recent past include raising several rounds of equity, capital restructuring, M&A deals and integrating acquired entities. He is well networked with investment bankers and funds – both Private Equity and Venture Capital. Swamy has been a featured speaker/ panelist in professional forums, and is widely respected in the financial industry for his views

SURESH NAIR
SECRETARY
Suresh has been the Head of Global Operation (US and India) and Managing Director (India) for MModal Inc., a leading provider of technology services to the healthcare market in the US, till recently. Prior to that, he was the CEO and Managing Director of Spheris India Pvt. Ltd. He has also been the COO of Max Healthscribe Ltd. Suresh started his career with Reckitt Benckiser Limited and became the Planning and Logistics Director of RBL for South Asia. Suresh is a Chemical Engineer, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and has also undergone management programs at the Leeds University Management School. His passion and commitment to give back to the society brought Suresh to United Way Bengaluru.

SABU THOMAS
MEMBER
Sabu Thomas is the Chief People Officer at Allstate India Pvt. Ltd. Prior to this, he was Director – Human Resources at Qwest. An award winning and seasoned HR professional, he is known for his leadership, creativity and passion for change. Sabu’s experience of over two decades spans human resource management, organizational development and strategic management at several global organizations. His forte lies in conceptualising and building the HR function from scratch, scaling it, and setting up systems and measurement structures. A trained facilitator, he has conducted several workshops on strategic leadership and organisation development.

K. T. CHANDY
MEMBER
As a partner with Ernst & Young’s tax and regulatory practice, KT Chandy is associated with the Technology, Communications and Entertainment Business Unit in India. A commerce graduate from the University of Mumbai and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, he has been with Ernst & Young since 2002 and is currently based out of the Bangalore office. At Ernst & Young, Chandy has advised a vast clientele of MNCs and Indian corporates operating in sectors such as technology, hospitality, defense, retail, education, financial services, real estate, etc., on Indian tax and regulatory issues. His key areas of expertise include merger and acquisition tax; inbound/ outbound investment structuring; international tax and tax litigation. His clients include Wipro Technologies, Flipkart, IBM, Manipal Group, TNT Corporation and also private equity fund players like Blackstone and Accel Partners. Prior to this, he worked with the Arthur Andersen Practice that merged with Ernst & Young in 2002. He has addressed several forums in India such as ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM, ICAI, and Chamber of Commerce, and also spoken at business schools on various tax and regulatory issues.

LALIT AHUJA
MEMBER
LALIT AHUJA is the CEO-ANSR Consulting Founder-ANSR & Kyron Global Accelerator

He has also served as:
Managing Director of Mast Global Services India (an L Brands Company)
Managing Director of Lowe’s India
Chairman and President of Target India
CEO of NDS India Limited (now a Cisco Company)
CEO of News Corporation (STAR TV) and $300M News Corporation Venture Fund
CEO of LG Electronics
CEO of Datamatics Ltd, Mumbai
Senior Executive Advisor, Distribution Sector, IBM, Japan
Member of the Global Council, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ.

Lalit started his career in the Indian Navy before retiring as a Lieutenant Commander. While in the Navy, he was the Head of the prestigious Naval Computer Applications Center in Lonavla and was Senior Engineer Officer at INS Vindhyagiri and INS Shakti. Lalit holds an MS in Computer Science from IIT, Bombay and an engineering graduate from Birla Institute of Technology

M.P. HARIHARAN
MEMBER
The Chief Thinker at Rezonant, a design and advertising firm, Hari leads strategy and design for the company’s clients across domains and helps organisations build better brands. He trained as an architect at IIT Roorkee but migrated to design and advertising when he set up the firm in 2000. Hari is passionate about entrepreneurship and keen to help build the entrepreneurial eco-system in India. A believer in philanthropy, he has nurtured the concept of design-volunteerism in his organization, where each person has to devote some time to charity-related activities. He also set up Gween, a toy company that started out as a philanthropic venture to generate more business for artisans from Channapatna, a town in Karnataka famous for its wooden toys. Gween’s toys are retailing in the US and have generated great interest among customers and reviewers

MARIASUNDARAM ANTHONY
MEMBER

SANJEEVA KUMAR JAIN
MEMBER

PASHUPATI KUMAR
MEMBER
Pashupati Kumar ‘PK’ is the practice leader for the Risk & Financial Advisory practice in Deloitte US India offices. PK, as he is fondly known, has been with the firm for over 17 years and has served in several leadership roles, and serves a top 5 US bank as his key client. PK has been previously chief financial officer.
PK passionately champions diversity, equity & inclusion, community involvement, career-life balance, and well-being at work. PK led the Junior Achievement program wherein Deloitte volunteers visited schools and colleges and helped students understand careers with a purpose and success skills for the future. PK has in the last many years, led year-round volunteering efforts at communities, including a special children home-cum-school.