WBS India Alumni Network: Innovation & Entrepreneurship Events

Summary

Join us for our first formal, in-person WBS India Alumni Network events since the Covid-19 pandemic! On 31 January and 2 February 2024, Professor James Hayton, Pro-Dean External Affairs, will be hosting events on the topic of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Open to all WBS Alumni living or working in India, these events will be held in Mumbai and New Delhi, and will bring together experts, enthusiasts, and curious minds to for some fascinating discussions regarding Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

As a fantastic chance to reconnect with classmates, expand your network, and gain valuable insights from fellow alumni in the region, join us on 31 January in Mumbai or 2 February in New Delhi and don't miss out on this opportunity!

Event Details

Mumbai: Wednesday 31 January 2024, 19:00 - 22:00 IST

To register for the event in Mumbai, click here.

New Delhi: Friday 2 February 2024, 19:00 – 22:00 IST

To register for the event in New Delhi, click here.

Agenda

Registration: 19:00

Welcome and Introductions: 19:30

Panel Session including Q&A: 20:00

Networking and Canapes: 21:00

Event Ends: 22:00

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With

Our Speakers

James Hayton

James Hayton, PhD (Georgia State University) is Pro-Dean and Professor of Innovation and HRM at WBS. He holds a J. Robert Beyster Fellowship for the study of employee equity compensation and profit sharing at Rutgers University (US) and is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Future of Work. His areas of expertise are the management of people and organizations to build capacity for innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic renewal. Author of over 100 articles, reports, and several books in both innovation and human resource management, his work has been recognized with several awards and is rated as one of the world's top 2% of researchers by citations. James is currently investigating the adoption of AI into companies, as well as its implications.

New Delhi

Saachi Dhillon

Saachi Dhillon is a Marketing & PR Lead for one of the leading media networks in the country. Having graduated from WBS with an MSc in Management in 2008, she is an expert in brand building and marketing communications, and has led multiple award-winning marketing campaigns including the One For Change initiative. She is a TEDx speaker and has won multiple awards including Indian Television’s Top 50 PR & Communications Aces Award 2021, We Are the City’s Rising Stars Global Award for Achievement in 2023 and the Wonder Women Trail Blazer Award in 2023. Her debut book, ‘Dreaming of Everest’, about her experiences trekking to Everest Base Camp, was published in 2022.

Sumedha Sharaff

Sumedha Sharaff is the Co-Founder of O&O Beauty, a clean, conscious, direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand created in 2022. The company offers a range of thoughtfully crafted cosmetics made in India, and with the aim of empowering women of all ages to embrace their authentic beauty. Sumedha has also been a Director of Pranav Vikas, a globally renowned Thermal Management Products company, since 2006, and completed a BSc in Management Sciences at WBS in 2003.

Ishani Chanana Talwar

Ishani Chanana Talwar currently works as Partner-Investments at Sarcha Advisors, where she is responsible for managing family office investments and capital allocation across equity, debt, and alternative investment opportunities, including start-ups. Start-ups have been an important part of the capital allocation strategy at the Sarcha family office, which has now invested in over 50+ start-ups such as Blu-Smart, Josh Talks, STAGE, Prescinto, The New Shop etc. and participated in 20+ follow on rounds. Ishani is also an angel investor in her personal capacity and has invested in start-ups such as JumpingMinds, BatX Energies, Yatrikart, Newmi etc. She was recently featured in FICCI Flo’s coffee table book, Women Investing and Building India, and has also been featured in Inc42 media's list of 41 women investors shaping the Indian start-up investor landscape. Prior to her current role, Ishani spent nearly four years at a hedge fund at Edelweiss Financial Services where she was engaged in buy-side research, worked extensively on analysing companies listed in the Indian Stock Markets across various sectors and helped the fund with investment decisions. Ishani holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Warwick Business School and has always been passionate about investment management.

Sahil Vachani

Mr. Sahil Vachani has recently been appointed as Regional Chair of Warwick Alumni for India, having graduated in 2003 – BSc Management Science. He is the driving force behind and has overseen expansion of Max Group into the real-estate business through Max Estates Ltd. and aims to revolutionize the Indian real estate landscape by bringing in Max Group’s values of Sevabhav, Excellence and Credibility to the sector. He is also part of YPO - Delhi Chapter. Sahil is also on the Board of the Max Group’s life insurance business - Max Life - India’s largest non-bank owned private life insurer. As Managing Director of Max Estates, Sahil has closely monitored the economic and commercial reforms initiated by the Indian government and devised a strategy that not only advances Max Group’s future vision, but mirrors India’s rapid ascension to economic prosperity.

Mumbai

Nisant Mohta

Nisant Mohta is the Founder & CEO of Finlatics, one of India's leading work experience platforms. The company is bootstrapped and profitably growing at a CAGR of over 60% over the past 6 years while proudly averaging a learner completion rate at 6x of industry benchmarks. At an acceptance rate of 3.6%, Finlatics was part of the July 2019 cohort of the Incubation Program at the prestigious Atal Incubation Centre – NMIMS, supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & Government of India. Nisant holds an MSc in International Business from Warwick Business School, graduating in 2017.

Akshita Gupta

After her graduation from Warwick University, Akshita began her career in advertising, after which she went on to work in her family business. Having pursued a masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, she retuned to India to build The Channel 46 - a content & community platform catering to Indian woman around women’s health.

Aparna Krishnan

Aparna Krishnan has been a sales leader and advisor for early stage organizations for the past 7 years. She has an overall experience of about 17 years in business growth, people management and start-up operations and during that time has worked with organizations like the Mahindra Group, Vodafone, SHRM among others. She is passionate about planning and implementing new sales and business models and more importantly learning from these implementations to continuously improve. She believes learning is the most important element to focus on for an entrepreneur or professional rather than success and failure. Aparna has worked as a B2B business growth advisor to companies like Skooc, OrganicBPS, Kosha and OneJam.io among others. She is currently Chief Revenue Officer at INK, a global platform for the exchange of cutting-edge ideas across a spectrum of topics, from technology to sports, education, healthcare, culture among others. Known for the annual INK Conference, INK Salons and programs such as INK Fellows; INK is a community that accelerates the journeys of game changers. Aparna was born and raised in Mumbai but lives in Bangalore currently. She is an Electronics Engineer and an MBA from Warwick Business School, UK.