Our Mentors
Learn from the best in business
Amit Chandra
Managing Director, Private Equity, Bain Capital
Amit Chandra
Managing Director, Private Equity, Bain Capital
- AlumunusBoston College, VJTI (Mumbai University)
- Summary
Amit Chandra joined Bain Capital Private Equity in 2008. He is the founder of the Mumbai office, a Managing Director and the Chairman of India for the firm. He is a member of the Financial & Business Services Vertical and a member of the Asia-Pacific leadership team.
Prior to joining Bain Capital Private Equity, Amit spent most of his professional career at DSP Merrill Lynch, a leading investment bank in India. At DSP Merrill Lynch, he had direct oversight of its Global Markets & Investment Banking business, which included the firm’s substantial principal businesses. He retired from DSP Merrill Lynch in 2007 as a Board Member & Managing Director. Consequently, for a part of 2007, Mr. Chandra was a partner of NSR Advisors. Prior to his MBA, Amit worked at India’s leading engineering & construction firm, Larsen & Toubro.
Deep Kalra
Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip
Deep Kalra
Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip
- AlumunusIIM Ahmedabad, St Stephens College
- Summary
Deep is the Founder & Group Executive Chairman of India’s leading online travel company, MakeMyTrip Limited.
Deep is the co-chair of CII’s National Committee on Tourism and Hospitality. He is a founding member of IndiaTech.Org, an industry body representing the interests of Indian digital companies. Deep is on the Board of TiE NCR Chapter and served as President from 2013 to 2016. He is also one of the founding members of Ashoka University and serves on their governing body and Board. A believer in citizens effort, he is a founding member of ‘I am Gurgaon’— an NGO focused on improving the quality of life in Gurgaon. Deep serves on the Board of GMDA, Gurgaon’s Development Authority.
Ido Aharoni
Global Distinguished Professor, New York University
Ido Aharoni
Global Distinguished Professor, New York University
- AlumunusEmerson College, Tel Aviv University
- Summary
Ambassador Ido Aharoni is a Global Distinguished Professor for International Relations at NYU, a member of International Advisory Council, APCO Worldwide, a 25-year veteran of Israel’s Foreign Service, a public diplomacy specialist, and is a co-founder and principal at Emerson Rigby, where he developed their core methodology R-SWIM. He served 25 years in the Israeli Foreign Service, ending as the longest served Israeli Consul to NY.
Ambassador Aharoni is a 25-year veteran of Israel’s Foreign service. He is a public diplomacy specialist, founder of the Brand Israel program, and a well-known nation branding practitioner.
Ambassador Aharoni has been Israel’s longest serving Consul-General in New York and the tri-state area to date. He held that position for six years, overseeing the operations of Israel’s largest diplomatic mission worldwide.
Manoj Kohli
Country Head, Softbank
Manoj Kohli
Country Head, Softbank
- AlumunusFaculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi
- Summary
Manoj Kohli is the Managing Director of SoftBank India. Before this, Manoj was Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises and responsible for the growth and operations of Bharti group of companies Manoj’s key contribution has been building Airtel as no 3 telco in the world. He was Managing Director and CEO (International), Bharti Airtel, and was responsible for leading the Africa operations, which was acquired in 2010. Manoj joined Bharti Airtel in 2002 and led Bharti Airtel’s India operations for 8 years during which the customer base grew from 2 to 150 million.
Manoj holds degrees in Commerce, Law and MBA from Delhi University. Manoj also attended the “Executive Business Program” at the Michigan Business School and the “Advanced Management Program” at the Wharton Business School.
Pramod Bhasin
Founder, Genpact, Asha Impact & Clix Capital
Pramod Bhasin
Founder, Genpact, Asha Impact & Clix Capital
- AlumunusShri Ram College of Commerce, ICAI (CA)
- Summary
Pramod’s career spans a professional and entrepreneurial journey in Financial Services and Business Process Management across the globe.He built Genpact, a global leader in Business Process Management from the start in 1997 and was its President & CEO till 2011. The company was listed on NYSE in 2007 and is the leader in its industry with over 75,000 employees, operating in 17 countries. Pramod is considered the pioneer of the BPM Industry in India. Genpact, under his leadership also pioneered this industry in China, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Prior to Genpact, his career with GE spanned 25 years across the US, UK and Asia. He was earlier the CEO of GE Capital in India & Asia and prior to that worked with GE Capital in Stamford, CT in the Leveraged Buy Out group.In September 2016, Pramod along with partners acquired the businesses of GE Capital – India, now known as Clix Capital. He is the Chairman of Clix Capital, which is a broad based NBFC, focused on providing digital platforms and financial services to commercial companies and consumers across India.
Pramod is the co-founder of Asha Impact, Virtual Fund focused on Social Impact Investments and Advocacy. He is an active investor in different companies, from start-ups to ongoing businesses.
Rajan Anandan
Managing Director, Sequoia Capital
Rajan Anandan
Managing Director, Sequoia Capital
- AlumunusStanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- SummaryRajan Anandan, one of India’s most prolific angel investors, has invested in more than 80 companies over the last decade, including on-demand task management app Dunzo and bike taxi app Rapido. Several of his investments have raised follow-on rounds from Sequoia India, including online learning platform Unacademy, digital retail solutions provider Capillary Technologies, and cloud data management firm Druva, among others. He has served as Vice President India & SEA at Google, Managing Director at Microsoft India and Vice President at Dell India before joining Sequoia Capital as its Managing Director. He is also the mentor to Sequoia’s Surge Program, an accelerator for founders. Surge aims to engineer rapid early progress for startups, by enabling disproportionate access to capital, talent, network, and decades of company-building knowledge.