Dr. Sumit D. Chowdhury, Founder & CEO, GAIA Smart Cities

Dr. Sumit D Chowdhury is an entrepreneur, business leader and an international thought-leader on telecom, electronics and information systems and solutions for Smart Cities. Currently, Dr. Chowdhury serves as the CEO and founder of the Gaia Smart Cities, an M2M/IOT company focused on telecom and ICT solutions for smart cities. He is working with several cities in India to define their Smart Cities solutions and building unique propositions to solve urban problems in the cities. The company has partnered with several Global Sustainable Development organizations and Universities to bring cutting edge ideas to market. He was the President of the Enterprise Business and CIO of Reliance Jio. Prior to that he was a Vice President with IBM as Head of Consulting for Telecom, Utilities and Entertainment industries. He was the CIO of Reliance Communications, Partner of KPMG and Managing Director and CEO of BearingPoint in Australia. These roles have given him the opportunity to be recognized as one of the Top CIOs of the world.

Mr. Dilip Verma, Regional VP, Qognify India

Dilip Verma has over 16 years of experience in consultancy based selling for technologies related to Homeland Security, Physical Security & Infrastructure management systems, and has worked closely with key Government and Private enterprises for the same.

Since joining QOGNIFY in 2008, formerly known as NICE, he has established QOGNIFY in INDIA from a green field player to a market leading software solutions player in the security of Critical Infrastructure & SMART City projects.

Currently, he heads the QOGNIFY Business in India.

Mr. Verma proudly attributes his earlier learnings and experience to Zicom & Honeywell with global exposure in consulting, designing and implementing mission critical solutions for Command and Control Systems, Integrated Building Management Systems, Energy Management Systems, Industrial Control systems and Public Safety Solutions.

Mr. Ravi Shankar Rai, Managing Director, Savitri Telecom Services

Electronics and Communication engineer started SAVITRI TELECOM SERVICES in 1999 which became SAVITRI group having following organization under its umbrella:

Savitri Telecom Services.

Savitri Telecom Pvt. Ltd.

Savitri Holding Pvt. Ltd.

Savitri Techno Industries Ltd.

Savitri Group of Companies are involved into multiple business line starting from T&M/ Technology Solutions, Manufacturing, Service, Repair & Calibration, Project/EPC, Operation & Maintenance, Infrastructure & Leasing of Telecom equipments.

Mr. Ravi Shankar Rai, after completing his studies started his career in 1994. While working in various organization till 1999, he had seen difficulty faced by youth in getting a suitable job specially those who are coming from rural India. While working in few organization he visualized the problem faced by youth and somewhere in his mind a vision was taking shape as he felt he would not be able to serve the society doing such job. He had seen unemployed youths striving for their living and wanted to do something for them. Ultimately he decided to be an entrepreneur himself. Lack of capital did not deter him from achieving his goal. A self-motivated business enthusiast with a mission to generate employment for under privileged youth from villages and lower strata of society, he set up his start up from a hutment in Delhi. Through the years he has been able to put his business on sound footing since he started about 18 years back and has been able to serve the society through his determined effort.

Mr. Sharad Arora, Founder & Managing Director, Sensorise Digital Services Pvt. Ltd

Sharad is a recent entrant to the entrepreneur’s club, having founded Sensorise Digital Services Private Limited with the purpose of bringing Lifecycle Management solutions for the embedded SIM and Devices in the M2M / IoT space.

Until recently, Sharad was the Chief Officer for New Products and Solutions at Tata Teleservices. Within Tata Teleservices, Sharad was the chief architect of the innovation and incubation over the last five years. He provided vision, direction and execution to the development, launch and incubation of products and solutions that enabled the emerging 3G, M-commerce, M-education, M-health, Social Networking, and M2M businesses for Tata Teleservices.

Sharad has had substantial input to the Telco TRAI, DoT and the Telecom Engineering Centre for the M2M policy framework and Study Reports. He has been nominated by TEC as a member of the select National Working Group 20, a unit that corresponds to ITU’s Study Group 20. He is the Chairman of the Smart environment group of the Telecom Engineering Centre.

Mr. Sanjiv Shah, CEO, Height8 Technologies

Sanjiv’s Experience in Software spans for more than 30 years across various countries including Oracle Corporation USA at a senior position. Over the years I have gained expertise in Six-Sigma methodologies and OSS/BSS Innovative Solutions which gets reflected in the products and solutions being developed and implemented by Height8 Technologies. Currently, my passion is research and development in OSS/BSS domain with a focus on Wi-Fi and 5G technologies.

Ms. Yael Shatzky, Head of Marketing, Amdocs Optima

Yael, Head of Product & Solutions Marketing for Amdocs Optima joined Amdocs in 2012, serving as Marketing Manager for Amdocs’ Network Solutions group and Internal Communications Manager for the Amdocs Customer Business Group. She is now responsible for Amdocs Optima’s marketing initiatives, strategy and go-to-market activities. Prior to joining Amdocs, Yael served as AVP, Global Internal Communications at Comverse, and led the marketing and communications team at the Microsoft R&D center in Israel. Previously, she held various marketing leadership positions in the Israeli telecom industry.

Mr. Sandeep Bohidar, Senior Solutions Consultant, CSG

Sandeep Bohidar is CSGs Senior Solution Consultant for Smart Cities. He specializes in guiding customers as they identify the operating requirements in key market growth areas across communications, cable, OTT and Smart Cities and associated smart services. Based in India, Sandeep has over 15 years’ experience in business systems to support strategic functions including billing, wholesale, roaming & digital partner management.

Mr. Rajender Singh Bhandari, Director - Systems Engineering, NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd.

Rajender Singh Bhandari is the Director of Systems Engineering for NetApp India. He and his team are responsible for architectural and technology relationships as well as NetApp platform evangelism across theecosystem in the region.

Rajender has been associated with NetApp for the past 3 years and is an industry veteran with close to 30 years of rich experience in Information Technology, Service Technology Consulting, DC Technologies, Service Delivery, Project Management and Managed services.

Rajender joined NetApp after stints at Tata Unisys, Digital Equipment, Sun Microsystems and SmartTrust Infosystems.

Mr. Chetan Hebbalae, Senior Director of Product Management, Cambium Networks

Chetan Hebbalae is the Senior Director of Product Management, responsible for product definition, strategy, and business development for Cambium Networks’ cloud-managed smart edge Wi-Fi.

With over 20 years of experience across Engineering, Product Management, and Business development, Chetan loves nurturing new products and the challenges of building new lines of businesses that bring value to the world. His experience spans delivering products to Mobile Carriers, Enterprises, ISPs and Governments. His prior background includes Ruckus Wireless Inc. and Motorola Inc.

Chetan has a BS from The University of Madras (India), an MS from Iowa State University (USA) and an MBA from The Kellogg school of Management (USA).

Mr. Virang Mankad, Chief Strategy Officer, Amnex InfoTechnologies Pvt Ltd

Virang is an industry veteran with sixteen years of professional experience working with IT and Telecom companies such as Wipro, IBM & Cisco and has held various positions in Sales, Business Development, Strategic Alliances and Operations with P&L responsibility.

In his last stint at Cisco Systems, Virang was the Sales Leader for Public Sector business and has successfully led key business portfolios like Smart City and Digital India for Cisco Systems.

Virang is a Science Graduate from St Xavier's College Ahmedabad. He has done his MBA in Marketing from GLS - IBM Gujarat University in 2002. He holds PG Diploma in IT. He also holds various positions in industry forums like CII, GTU and Smart City Council of India.