AKKA World Kannada Conference 2006


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Plenary Session Speakers
Dr Abdul Quader Shaikh Senior International economist, U.S. Department of Commerce. Topic: Trade and Investment opportunities in India - Aprivate sector Persepctive
	Dr. Abdul Quader Shaikh is a senior international economist and Regional Coordinator for Africa and South Asia at Trade Information Center (TIC), U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Commerce. He coordinates business counseling to promote the trade, investment and commercial opportunities for U.S. companies, including joint ventures and counsels American business engaged in exports to Africa, Middle East and South Asian countries. Recently he returned from India where the State Department sponsored speaking events for him in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, and New Delhi. In these cities, he addressed many audiences, including the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) - the largest chamber of commerce in India and Indian American Chambers of Commerce (IACC), Indian importers and other organizations. Prior to this he worked as industry economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Affairs, Assistant Secretary for Productivity, Technology and Innovation, Office of Competitive Assessment. Prior to this he was a senior policy advisor with the Economic Development Administration and designed economic and business development programs. He was Deputy Associate Director for Policy and Market Development, Minority Business Development Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce. . Dr. Shaikh taught at the University of Massachusetts and served as Professor and Chairman of the thirty-member Business Administration Department within the Massachusetts University system at North Adams. He has taught in MBA and Executive MBA programs at Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland, George Mason and Virginia Tech. He has received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts and holds two masters and a law degree. .
Mahesh Kanamury Venture Capitalist and Management consultant
	Mahesh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Arivali Partners, an investing advisory services firm focused on growth oriented companies in India and US. He brings his extensive operational, financial, and management consulting experience to build substantial equity value in the companies that he works with. He was most recently a General Partner with Gabriel Venture Partners, an early stage VC fund based out the Silicon Valley. Prior to that he was with McKinsey where he had leadership roles in the Software & Services and Technology Strategy practices. Early in his career he worked at Schumberger Research and Technologies. Some of his board affiliations include: SimplyHired, NetScaler, Phulaxis, VarStreet, Arula Systems, AccessLine, ZResearch and IPWireless. Mahesh has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from Purdue, and a BTech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is a Charter Member of TiE and is on the advisory board of Silicon Valley Indian Professional Association
Ms.Pratima Ram Country Head - USA : State bank of India
	Ms.Pratima Ram is part of the top management team of State Bank of India, (SBI) India's largest bank. She is currently, Country Head (U.S.A. Operations) of State Bank of India at New York, heading the Bank's operations in the United States, which is the flagship outfit of SBI's International business. Prior to this assignment she was in charge of the Bank's operations in South Africa at Johannesburg. Ms. Ram spearheaded the Bank's expansion in Africa in countries such as Botswana, and Angola, apart from expansion in South Africa itself. Her international exposure in both emerging markets and in the highly evolved financial markets of US is very unique.
Dr.KRS Murthy CEO CT Cubed
	Dr. KRS Murthy is a seasoned and veteran serial corporate executive and serial entrepreneur. He is an expert on corporate governance and mergers & acquisitions. He has a rare blend of few decades of C Level experience and accomplishments in all aspects of telecom, IT, software, video / multimedia, defense, aerospace and other high technology industries to include: corporate governance, strategy, investor relations, mergers and acquisition, R & D, engineering, operations, business development, marketing and total quality management. His stellar career includes roles of R & D executive managing and nurturing the world's best brains in Bell Labs, GE, and NASA, corporate executive in AT & T, GE, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Management in California State Universities (CSU) and BOD of IEEE.
Attorney Sheela Murthy Esq
	Attorney Sheela Murthy is the Founder, President and Managing Attorney of the prominent and prestigious Murthy Law Firm located in Baltimore County, Maryland. Her law firm has a staff of over 50 professionals concentrating exclusively in the area of U.S. immigration law. Ms. Murthy completed her LL.M from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA. She was recognized as a "40 Under 40 Emerging Business Leader" in July 2001and as one of Baltimore’s Top 25 Lawyers (among all areas of law) in 1999. She is on the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), a not-for-profit organization that seeks to educate, lobby and litigate on issues dealing with U.S. immigration law. Ms. Murthy is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has been the Chair on various Committees nationally for AILA. She has been the Chair of the U.S. Dept. of Labor Committee for AILA's Washington D.C. Chapter. She is a frequent speaker on U.S. immigration law issues around the world. The firm's website www.murthy.com is an award winning site containing the latest information on U.S. immigration law in an easy to understand format. In August 2005, her law firm website Murthy.com has been hailed as the world's most popular website with more than ten times the unique visitors of the top-ten law firms in the world combined, by Enquirio, an online research agency! Even as far back as 1997, murthy.com, her law firm's website was listed as the “World’s Best Lawyer Website” by Lawyers Weekly USA.
Srinivas Srirangam President and CEO. Jay Technologies,
	Srinivasa Srirangam , founded Jay Technologies, in 2002 with the vision of helping businesses make more intelligent decisions by using information resources. Today he serves Jay Technologies as President and CEO. He also works in a customer advisory role, and Strategic Planner. Under his leadership, Jay Technologies has increased the Market Share serving such clients as Pro-Bel Enterprises, Hi Lite systems, Ved Software services, Scaffolding Today, to name a few. Before founding Jay Technologies, Srinivas Srirangam was an engineer working with well known RCM Technologies based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has successfully integrated CRM systems, Project Management EPM Solution and Collaborative Document management systems. Srinivas Srirangam holds an undergraduate degree in Science, an undergraduate degree in Civil engineering from University of Mysore, Mysore, India, and a Post graduate Diploma in E-Business from Canada.
Shekar Narasimhan Managing Partner, Beekman Advisors and CEO, Beekman Helix India Partners
	Shekar Narasimhan Prior to founding Beekman Advisors, Shekar Narasimhan was Managing Director at Prudential where he headed Prudential Real Estate Fixed Income Investors (PREFII), the commercial mortgage funds management group for institutional investors and oversaw the agency business consisting of Fannie Mae multifamily lending and the FHA lending business. Immediately prior to Shekar’s time at Prudential, he was Chairman & CEO of the WMF Group, a publicly traded, commercial mortgage financial services company. WMF was one of the largest such firms in the country before being acquired by Prudential in 2000. Shekar built the company from $338 million to $14 billion in assets under administration.Shekar is currently on the Board of and was Founding Chair of the Campaign for Affordable Housing, is on the Executive Committee of the National Housing Conference and National Multihousing Council and on the boards of the Community Preservation Development Corp and Low Income Investment Fund. He is also a Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Shekar has received numerous awards and recognition in the real estate industry including the MBA’s highest honor in 1999 and the Fannie Mae Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Shekar holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. He also holds an MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Ms. Poornima Jairaj Director with Global Technology Ventures
	Ms.Poornima Jairaj is currently a Director with Global Technology Ventures; Founder Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs, Bangalore; Chairperson, Basava Residential School for Girls, Bangalore; Mentoring resource, NSRaghavan Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, IIM, Bangalore. Actively involved in the sourcing of entrepreneurial talent and the creation, strategy and growth of many software companies, including Kshema Technologies and Mindtree Consulting, during the period with Global Technology Ventures and Sivan Securities.
Harsha V. agadi President and Chief Executive Officer
	Harsha Agadi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Church's Chicken, International in Atlanta, Georgia , and is Chairman of GHS Holdings, a consulting company in Detroit, Michigan. He is also associated with a number of private equity firms. Mr. Agadi has over 20 years experience across several companies, including Little Caesar Enterprises Inc., Domino's Pizza, American Express, Pepsico and General Foods. He has managed a $2.0 billion restaurant chain with 4,500 locations across 22 countries. He was highly successful in introducing global brands to the international market through direct investment and master franchising. He was also responsible for opening over 2,000 stores for two competing brands in the last 10 years, in over 50 countries.