Vipin Agarwal is the Founder of Global-Launch Partners. Previously, he co-founded and built 2 other startups – OnlineTyari (acquired by Reliance – Embibe) and EnMarkit. Vipin has been a Venture Capital investor with extensive experience working across Southeast Asia, Europe and US. He has served on the boards of several companies, including DRS Logistics, National Stock Exchange of India, Intas Biopharmaceuticals, Mylo, Kredily, Rubicon Research and BVG. Vipin was an Advisor to the Government of India to create, launch and raise funds for its Digital Literacy Mission (now renamed as PM Grameen Disha). More than 60 million Indians have been trained and certified through this program so far. He was part of the early teams that set up business incubators at IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Kanpur.

Vipin received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with specialization in Bioinformatics and Bioengineering from IITKanpur. He also holds an MBA degree from IIM Ahmedabad.

Ratan Bajpai has over 20 years of experience working in the technology industry in large fortune 500 companies, research labs, as well as multiple startups. He has led several large scale technology projects in the area of Distributed Systems, IOT, Machine Learning / AI, Mobile, Web and Cloud Technologies. Ratan has co-founded a technology startup and has been a founding member in others with successful exit. He is a published author with publications in international conferences and multiple issued patents.

Ratan has been involved with the IITK US East Coast Chapter for over 20 years. He is the current President of the chapter and has led several organizational initiatives for social, technical and professional events. Ratan has helped create a framework for the IITK alumni in the US East Coast to network, come together and help each other.

Vinod is currently the Head of Emerging Technology at Citi Ventures Studio where he develops new products and services that drive economic vitality for people and communities. Prior to Citi Ventures Vinod was at KPMG, where he led the emerging technology scouting function to create new growth options, direct investments, and accelerate innovation. Previously, Dr. Vinod was at PwC providing strategy consulting and M&A advice and leading thought leadership. Dr. Vinod started his career as a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Dr. Vinod has been active with the IITK alumni community in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade, most frequently as the designer and builder of props for the annual Diwali Dhamaka competition with other IITs.

Dr.Vinod has a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, where he also serves as an industry coach for a graduate level project-based learning class (ME310).

Mr. Anil Bansal holds the position of President at First National Realty Management, which owns and manages commercial properties across the United States, and serves as Chairman of vSplash and Buzzboard and CEO of First National Corporation, a real estate investment and management firm — reflecting his transition from corporate executive to serial entrepreneur.

He founded and chaired Indus American Bank from 2005 to 2016, and later served as President of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA-NYNJTC) from 2020 to 2022, leading its effort to ship medical and life-saving cargo worth $55 million to India during the pandemic, work recognised with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2021.

He completed his B.Tech in Materials Science from IIT Kanpur in 1977, an MS from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA from Syracuse University. IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2023.

Abhishek Bhowmick is a technologist and entrepreneur with contributions spanning technology, mathematics, and theoretical computer science. As Co-Founder of Samooha, he built a secure data collaboration platform that was acquired by Snowflake. Samooha was named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 and featured on CNBC.

Before Samooha, Dr. Bhowmick spent more than five years at Apple leading privacy and security efforts at the scale of billions of iPhones, translating research into deployed systems. Earlier, at Goldman Sachs, he identified more than one billion dollars in capital savings through novel machine-learning-based risk frameworks.

Beyond his technological achievements, he resolved a long-standing open problem in information theory dating to 1977, with implications for theoretical computer science, and was twice invited to speak at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, hosted by Turing Award winner Avi Wigderson. Committed to philanthropy and community, he collaborates with leaders in computer science and industry to support exceptional talent and advance fundamental research. In 2024, IIT Kanpur conferred its Young Alumnus Award on Dr. Bhowmick for contributions to technological innovation, computer science, and entrepreneurship.

Mr. Manish Chandra is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Poshmark, the largest social marketplace for fashion, where millions of people come together to buy, sell, and share their personal style. Under his leadership, Poshmark completed a successful IPO on Nasdaq in 2021 and was acquired by Naver Corporation, South Korea’s leading internet company, in 2023.

A serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in building and scaling technology companies, Mr. Chandra earlier founded Kaboodle, the first social shopping company, which was acquired by Hearst Communications in 2007, and held executive positions at Sybase, Versata, and Versant. He is also an active angel investor, mentor, and advisor to several technology companies.

Mr. Chandra completed his B.Tech from IIT Kanpur, an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. In recognition of his contributions to Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Technology and E-Commerce, IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2025.

Mr. Prasad Chintamaneni is a technology and financial services executive with a career spanning investment banking, IT services, and private capital. He began his career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch in India before joining Cognizant in 1999, where over two decades he rose to become Executive Vice President and President of Global Industries & Consulting. Under his leadership, Cognizant’s Banking and Financial Services practice grew into one of the industry’s largest, ranking fourth in the 2018 IDC FinTech Rankings.

Since leaving Cognizant in 2019, Mr. Chintamaneni has become Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Recursion Partners, an investment firm focused on AI-enabled services platforms, and serves as a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital. He has completed his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Dr. Prabhakar “Prabhu” Goel is a pioneering technologist and entrepreneur who has shaped the global electronic design automation industry. Early in his career at IBM, he developed the PODEM algorithm for automated test pattern generation in VLSI chips. In 1982, he founded Gateway Design Automation, whose Verilog hardware description language became the global industry standard for chip design and verification; the company was acquired by Cadence Design Systems in 1989. For this contribution, Dr. Goel received the IEEE Industrial Pioneer Award in 2003.

He subsequently became an active technology investor and mentor to startups, and currently serves as Managing Partner at Green Span Ventures. Dr. Goel earned his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1970, graduating as President’s Gold Medalist, and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1974. IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1998.

Mr. Saurav Jindal is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Tower Research Capital, a leading quantitative trading and technology firm headquartered in New York, known for building some of the fastest electronic trading systems in the world. He joined the firm in February 2002, within a year of graduating, and has spent his entire two-decade career there, employing quantitative trading strategies across a broad range of asset classes, with expertise spanning high-frequency trading, derivatives, and financial modelling.

He has also been closely associated with the firm’s India operations, formerly serving as a director of Tower Research Capital India Private Limited, and holds partner roles in Indian investment entities including Purvi Capital India Partners LLP. He completed his schooling at St. Peter’s Academy, Patiala, and earned his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2001.

Dr. Dev Joneja is a distinguished financial expert who serves as Chairman of Risk at ExodusPoint Capital Management, which he joined at its launch. He was previously Global Head of Risk and Analytics at Millennium Management LLC, and before that spent 13 years at Lehman Brothers, holding leadership roles including Head of European Fixed Income Research and Global Head of Lehman Indices and Point.

His deep expertise in risk management and financial analytics has established him as a thought leader in the industry, and he has also contributed to academia as a faculty member of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Dr. Joneja earned his Doctorate in Operations Research from Cornell University and completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1984. IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2021.

Ms. Anjali Joshi is a veteran technology executive who spent over a decade at Google, where she served as Vice President of Product Management, leading global product teams for Search, Maps, Translate, News, and Global Infrastructure. Prior to Google, she was Executive Vice President of Engineering at Covad Communications.

Since leaving Google in 2019, she has built a diverse portfolio career as a board director and advisor. She currently serves on the boards of Persistent Systems, Xero and LocoNav, and has previously served on the boards of Alteryx, Lattice Semiconductor, Iteris, MobileIron, and McClatchy. She also holds advisory roles with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education at SUNY Buffalo.

She completed her B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1981. IIT Kanpur conferred upon her the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017.

Mr. Sudhakar Kesavan is the former Executive Chairman of ICF, a global consulting and technology services firm, having earlier served as its Chief Executive Officer for over 20 years and led its 2006 listing on NASDAQ. He has been recognised as a ‘Tech Titan’ and ‘Industry Leader’ by Washingtonian Magazine, was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2014, and was named ‘Executive of the Year’ by the U.S. Professional Services Council in 2009.

He now serves as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of ABM Industries, and holds board roles at The Cadmus Group, Dexis Consulting Group, the Inova Health System, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Mr. Kesavan holds an MSc from MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, a Postgraduate Diploma from IIM Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, completed in 1976. IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2010.

Mr. Amit Narayan is a serial entrepreneur and technologist working at the intersection of energy, climate, and artificial intelligence. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of GridCARE, a company spun out of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability that pioneered the concept of ‘Power Acceleration’ to help utilities and AI infrastructure providers unlock underutilised grid capacity. The company was named a 2026 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and raised a $64 million Series A round led by Sutter Hill Ventures and John Doerr.

He earlier founded AutoGrid, whose virtual power plant platform was deployed across twenty countries before its acquisition by Schneider Electric, besides leading smart grid research at Stanford University. Mr. Narayan holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as an Agenda Contributor to the World Economic Forum.

Mr. Muktesh “Micky” Pant is a globally recognised consumer business leader with an extensive career spanning the food, beverage, and retail industries. He served as the founding Chief Executive Officer of Yum China, the largest restaurant company in China, and led its successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2016. Earlier in his career, he was Global CEO of KFC and held senior leadership roles at Yum! Brands, PepsiCo, and Reebok, where he served as CEO of Reebok India.

Mr. Pant currently serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Las Vegas Sands Corp., and has previously served on the boards of Beyond Meat, Pinnacle Foods, and Primavera Capital Acquisition. He completed his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1976. In recognition of his professional accomplishments, IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2010.

Jai Rawat is currently the Founder and CEO of Zinrelo, a SaaS-based loyalty rewards platform. Jai is a successful serial entrepreneur and has founded multiple companies including Obongo (acquired by AOL) and Mojo Networks (acquired by Arista). Jai has been actively involved with IITK, Pan IIT and TiE Silicon Valley for over 20 years. He is a past president of IIT Kanpur Silicon Valley Chapter, founding member of Pan IIT and was on the board of TiE Silicon Valley and also the TiEcon conference convener several times.

Jai actively mentors young entrepreneurs and also serves on many advisory boards. Jai earned his BTech degree in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur and MS in Computer Science from Iowa State University. He has been awarded 19 technology patents.

Mr. Manoj Singh built a 36-year career at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world’s Big Four professional services firms, rising to become its Global Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director. In this role, he led global strategy, finance, technology, and branding, and guided the firm’s leadership across high-growth markets including China, India, Africa, and Southeast Asia, having earlier headed Deloitte’s Asia-Pacific region and its consulting practice in the Americas.

Since retiring from Deloitte in 2015, he has served on several corporate boards, including ReNew Energy Global Plc, The Putnam Funds, and Abt Global, and is a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University.

He completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1974 and holds an MBA from the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2009.

Taranbir Singh is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Tower Research Capital, a global quantitative trading and technology firm headquartered in New York. He leads a team developing and managing automated quantitative trading strategies across major asset classes and global markets.

He joined Tower in 2006 as an Algorithmic Trader immediately after graduating and has spent two decades at the firm working across quantitative research, systematic trading, and technology. He earned a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 2006.

Divya Yerraguntla brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to Sales and Marketing with a distinguished 25-year tenure in the Pharma industry. She is currently the Senior Vice President, Demand Generation and Sales Enablement at Syneos Health. Divya is a seasoned public speaker and chairperson on various pharma forums and conferences, where she shares her deep domain knowledge and expertise in strategic management, planning, and execution. She is also a triathlete, marathon runner, and classical Indian vocalist passionate about mentoring the next generation.

Divya grew up in IITK campus and has been involved in various alumni activities at the east and the west coast. She considers IITK as part of her identity and is excited to be a part of IITKanpur’s next transformative chapter.

Deepak Bhagat is one of the most respectable alumni of the Institute who has played a pivotal role in forging strong ties between the Institute and its alumni. He is one of the founding members of the IITK Foundation that raises funds for the Institute in the USA. He is also the founder of the west-coast chapter of the IITK Alumni Association in Silicon Valley and takes an active interest in mentoring and helping young alumni.

Deepak Bhagat received his B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1973 from IIT Kanpur and further went on to complete his Masters in Science with specialization in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland in 1977.

Mr. Bhagat is a high technology leader with over 45 years of diverse experience of working in Silicon Valley. Throughout his career, he has worked with some of the biggest technologies and products that have set industry directions and generated billions of dollars in revenues. In 2001, IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of his outstanding managerial skills and his contributions towards building institute-alumni relationships of a high order.

Mr. Abhay Bhushan obtained his B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1965 following which he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue Masters in EE and a Masters in Management as well. It is there that he got involved with some path-breaking work. While serving as a member of the research staff for M.I.T.’s Project MAC from 1967 to 1974, he worked on building the first network which almost 10-15 years later branched and flowered into the internet.

Ram B. Misra is Professor of Management and Information Systems in the School of Business at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA. Prior to joining Montclair State University, Dr. Misra was an Executive Director at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bell Communications Research). He has over 20 years of telecom industry experience that spans Bell Labs, and Bell Communications Research.

He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Before joining Bell Labs, he taught as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University and the University of Houston. Also, he earned an Executive MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) from Columbia School of Business, Columbia University, New York. Dr. Misra has published in IEEE Transactions, the International Journal of Management Research, the International Journal of Production Research, the Naval Logistics Review and the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, the Journal of IT Cases and Applications, the Journal of Information Technology and Applications, the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, the i-Manger?s Journal of Management, the Information Technology Journal, and The Journal of Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.

Sameer works as a Systems Engineer at Meta for Infrastructure Strategy: Data Centers. He holds an MS (ME) from UCLA and a BA (Music, Tabla) from Khairagarh Music School. He is the recipient of ‘Energy Innovator of the Year (2016)’ from Association of Energy Engineers. He represented India (Tabla) at the South Asian Music Festival (2024). He was the President (2018-20) and Director, Cultural Affairs (2015-18) for IITKSV Chapter. He is a member of the Core Team since 2020. Sameer is a percussionist (various instruments), plays tennis, and chants the Vedas.

She is an Executive Product and Business Strategy expert, Growth Advisor, Interim CXO, and Board Member with a background in Design Thinking Prog UCR, she also serve as an Advisor, Mentor, and Angel Investor, while holding additional roles as a Board Member at TiE SoCal and Co-Chair at TiE Women Global.

He has delivered various high performance, low power x86/ARM CPU processor designs across multiple technology nodes.

Jitesh is currently software architect at Roku working on backend and frontend infrastructure of RokuOS. He has previously worked on developing high performance software at Synopsys and Intel.

Adesh is a seasoned, hands-on leader with over 30 years of progressive experience in leading an information technology services business for the federal government. Adesh enjoys reading business books, running, badminton and volunteering in various organizations including IDRF, Capital IIT and Girls Scouts. He lives in Herndon, VA with his wife and two kids.

Senior executive with experience in managing projects to improve business processes and build & integrate software systems for Public Sector and Commercial clients.

An Experienced Business Operations and Customer Success professional with a demonstrated history of working in the Energy Industry.

As a skilled Aerospace Engineer and Technical Lead, she has served as the Co-President of the IITK Silicon Valley Chapter. Additionally, she holds positions as a Council Member and Honors & Awards Director in the AIAA San Francisco Section. Furthermore, she has been entrusted with the role of Technical Director in Aerospace and Defense at Ansys Inc, she had the privilege of being the Lead Engineer & Project Manager at GE Global Research.

He has over two decades of experience working for major banks and consulting companies in US, UK, Japan and India. He is also an angel investor and a passionate student of Indic knowledge systems.