INDIA’S HOTTEST

Ritu Marya is the Editor- in- Chief for Entrepreneur India-Asia-Pacific and Franchise India Media, a group company of Franchise India Holdings Limited. She is the Group Editor and leads the editorial desk which comprises business magazines including Entrepreneur, The Franchising World and Retailer together with the Digital media arm of Entrepreneur.com, Franchiseindia.com, wellnessindia.com, indianretailer.com and restaurantindia.in.

In her tryst with Business Journalism over the last 16 years, Ritu is regarded as an authority on Startups, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Consumer Businesses, Retail, Luxury to Education, Restaurant, Funding and more. In her role as the Group Editor she meets and interacts with Leading Indian and Global Entrepreneurs and thought-leaders while tracking Startup and Entrepreneurial and consumer business landscape in India and Asia-Pacific.

Ritu is a consistent speaker at India’s leading Business & Leadership Summits organized by Central and State Governments, Business forums like Confederation of Indian Industry -CII, FICCI, Phd Chambers, ASSOCHAM and NASSCOM to name a few. She is an established mentor for the leading B-schools, e-cells of the IIT’s across the country to name a few. She is also a regular invited speaker at Global Summits like Money 20/20 Asia 2019, Techsauce Global Summit 2019, Web Summit-Lisbon 2018, RISE Technology Summit 2018 Hong Kong, RISE 2017 & 2016, Techne Summit Alexandria 2018 to name a few.
Ritu also directs leading consumer and business forums across education, beauty & wellness, e-retail, home, food & beverages, among others. She has led more than 300 such conferences across metros, tier1 and tier 2 cities at Franchise India Events. She was the Jury for Franchise India Show, India’s biggest business reality show, where brands from all over India competed to be crowned as ‘Ultimate Franchisor’. The weekly episode series which had 12 episodes was aired on Times Now channel over a period of 3 months from 30th June till 15th September 2018. She also pulled off ELive 2019 at Singapore in April which became Entrepreneur Media’s first APAC summit.

Academically she is masters in Business economics from Punjab University; she started her career as Faculty for Post –Graduation Economics under the same university. In 2003 she moved to Delhi and started working with Franchise India Holdings Limited where she has successfully spearheaded and grown the editorial and content at Franchise India

Ruchi Deepak is the Co-Founder of Acko. Armed with the global experience of working both in India and the UK, Ruchi in her career spanning 11 years, has advised on some of the most sophisticated financing, exits, IPO and strategic matters across sectors ranging from healthcare, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, tech and mobile. She is also the founder and CEO of Airlooms that has a flagship brand-Jolene.

Rupessh is a reputed thought leader and advocate for the power of startups to transform industries and communities. He is the Managing Director with Silicon Valley Bank India. He leads their Credit Administration practice. He is recognized for his invaluable contributions to the startup ecosystem. As a dedicated expert, mentor, and advisor, he has guided numerous emerging entrepreneurs through the challenges of early-stage development. Beyond individual mentorship, Rupessh plays an active role in the startup community by helping connect both the founders and the investors. As a regular speaker at industry events, Rupessh shares insights on the startup ecosystem, innovation, and investment. Before joining SVB, Rupessh held the position of Senior Vice President of Credit Services at HSBC, where he led the Corporate and Commercial Credit Services function supporting 28 countries. Managing a team of over 1100 employees across India, China, Poland, and Egypt, he was responsible for strategy planning, budgeting, service delivery, operations, technical innovations, process improvements, cost optimization, stakeholder management, and team leadership. Additionally, he spearheaded various activities related to financial spreading, credit analysis, covenant monitoring, facility & collateral documentation, collateral management, and post-approval credit administration. Before his tenure at HSBC, Rupessh gained valuable experience working with Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ICICI, and HDFC. Rupessh holds an MBA degree and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt professional. He also completed the ‘Global Business Leader’ Program at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Manoj Agarwal, Co-founder & Managing Partner, SeaFund has more than 25 years of experience in setting up and managing businesses, Projects, Mergers & Acquisition, Fund Raising, Business Strategy.
He has Co-Founded Sea Fund, An Early Stage Venture Fund and at present raising capital for 3rd Fund. Manoj Agarwal is also an advisor & Investor in Latize – A Singapore based Data Management Company using Linked Data technology, It Product Ulysses was accredited by the Singapore Government owned IDA, Part of a process to help build Technology Companies with disruptive technologies. Till 2013, Manoj was CEO of Karuturi Global Limited, one of the World’s top 25 Agro Transnational’s with business interests across Agriculture, Floriculture, Food Processing & Internet Services. His Responsibilities included Corporate Affairs, Overseeing and managing the India businesses of the company, which cover Floriculture, Food Processing, Internet Services and Floriculture retail (both Physical and Online). He has also headed the Global Strategy & Business Transformation function which included developing the overall Business strategy, IT, Fund Raising, M&A, Investor Relations, Marketing and Communications. Manoj is a Computer Science Graduate from Bangalore University with wide experience in Management. Has completed an intensive One Year Executive Management Program from INSEAD.