Sudhakar Damodaraswamy

Faculty - Interaction Design, D. J. Academy of Design

A self-confessed technophobe, Sudhakar, took up Interaction Design believing in the maxim, ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer’. With two decades of experience behind him, he says that he has developed a vary fascination for the subject and all that is now possible because of it.

He now spends his time teaching at the D. J. Academy of Design, Coimbatore, expounding on the little “that he knows, he-knows”, and experimenting with ecologically responsible farming, “a whole new mind altering experience”.

His favourite pastime is reading and reads just about anything without bias towards subject on genre. His favourite activity is to take imaginative conceptual leaps into the unknown.

Nakul Shenoy

Mind Reader | Ex - Principal Designer {SAP}

NAKUL SHENOY is The Mind Reader — a leading corporate speaker and entertainer based in Bangalore, India. This acclaimed mentalist is the author of 'Smart Course in Magic' and a multi-faceted personality: a communication scientist, a design consultant with patents, a user experience researcher and a critical thinker.

In addition to being a globe-trotting magician, Nakul has been crafting usable, user-friendly and accessible experiences for top enterprise & consumer solutions since 2000. With hands-on expertise in managing multi-city user research projects, he has multiple full-design cycles to his belt and most enjoys designing solutions for the SCM & Logistics domain.

Acknowledged by his peers as a natural and discerning user researcher, Nakul is a compulsive reader of books and a self-proclaimed teaholic who haunts Twitter as @NakulShenoy.

Monika Bielskyte

Creative Strategist & Co-Founder, ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING

A futurist with an artist's eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte prototypes culturally diverse, socially and environmentally engaged future world prototypes for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and cities. A large part of her time is devoted to research and strategy in the immersive media technology space (Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality). Monika's work consists in connecting bleeding edge technological innovation with some of the world's most original creative visions.

Her clients include Hollywood productions (Ridley Scott Associates, Universal, Alex McDowell, Sam Esmail, Guy Laliberte), technology giants (CERN, Intel, Telefonica), design companies (Rick Owens, Aston Martin) and governments (UAE).

Himanshu Khanna

Founder & CEO, Sparklin

Himanshu Khanna is a UX Designer with over 15 years of experience, having worked with the best minds internationally. He is also a renowned speaker, guest lecturer with design colleges, current lover of gamification and also a closet writer.

He is a creative thinker who has a strong passion for building systems that empower people’s lives. Himanshu currently heads design and overall operations at his digital transformation co - Sparklin.

Kshitiz Anand

Co-Founder & CEO, Happy Horizons Trust

Kshitiz is the co-founder and CEO at Happy Horizons Trust, that uses the power of Design, Technology, Creativity and enhanced Pedagogical Methods to improve the quality of education in India, with interventions like digital literacy, story telling, game based learning, learning through films and videos. He is a firm believer of the fact that one has to develop programs that drive systemic change for holistic learning in the schools.

Kshitiz is a passionate designer, educator and public speaker. His approach is firmly grounded in applying the principles of Design Thinking to Problem Solving, Product Management, Design Consulting, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. In the past he helped in setting up a Design college in India and was also instrumental in leading the Social Innovations program for a French Design School in India, to produce award winning designers.

His interest in Education systems, Design for Social Change and Social Entrepreneurship, has led him to share his thoughts on innovation in education across different platforms. He is a regular speaker at conferences, TEDx events. He has also been invited to deliver lectures and take workshops at various Corporates.

Jay Dutta

Head of Design, MakeMyTrip

Jay, abbreviated to JD, is a Design nomad. He has journeyed across multiple specializations within Design—lived and worked in multiple geographies. JD is amongst the early Designers in Asia to be part of a VC firm.

For over half a decade, he led and grew the UX practice at Adobe India and briefly at Flipkart, India’s eCommerce giant. Formerly he ran his own design consultancy in the UK, started the first digital practice in the tiny island nation of Mauritius and dabbled on numerous new product ideas in US’ WestCoast!

In his current role at the VC firm SAIF Partners, Jay works closely with Founders, CEOs and product teams to define delightful digital experiences and create a user-centric culture across SAIF’s portfolio companies: from some of India’s most recognised post-IPO brands to young startups with 3 founders and a dog.

JD is fluent in four languages, excluding HTML5, French and Swift. A typographer by training, he tweets as @JDallcaps

Sukumar Rajagopal

Founder & CEO, Tiny Magiq, Ex - SVP/CIO & Head of Innovation, Cognizant Technology Solutions

Sukumar Rajagopal has 29 years of experience in the IT services industry. He left Cognizant in April 2014, after nearly 19 years where he served as Senior Vice President, Global Chief Information Officer & Global Head of Innovation. He runs a startup called Tiny Magiq since Feb 2015, with his co-founders. Tiny Magiq is building an operating system for behavior change that can be used by organizations to introduce new behaviors in a sustainable way. He is also an independent director on the Board of Aster DM Healthcare Limited, a leading healthcare organization.

Sukumar is a mentor, a storyteller, an avid blogger/twitterer, a fitness enthusiast, and a travel bug. He researches the Indus Valley Civilization in his spare time. He holds Competent Toastmaster (CTM) and Competent Leader (CL) certification from Toastmasters International. He is an Alumnus of BITS (B.E.Hons. EEE), Pilani & Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Adyar, Chennai. He has completed an Executive Development Program from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Sukumar received lifetime recognition for his work in IT through the 2014 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders program. Sukumar is rated by Huffington Post as one of the Top 100 Social CIOs in 2014 & 2013.

Sunil Malhotra

Disruptive thinker, Author, [#DesignFiction + Social Innovation] Provocateur, Ideafarms

Sunil runs Ideafarms, a Design + Innovation company that pioneered using concepts and approaches of Industrial Design in the software industry. Belief in individual talent and the power of interdisciplinary teams provided the impetus for his founding Ideafarms – a business model based on the simple tenet that 'everything produced by human beings is meant for use by other human beings’. Ideafarms’ user-orientation drives its technology vision and not the other way around, in many ways making the company strikingly different from the norm.

Sunil’s entrepreneurial experience spans Design, Consulting, Manufacturing, Information Technology and Social Media. He is hands-on and widely travelled; business has taken him to most parts of Europe and across the US giving him insights that help him to continually refine the user-oriented design process at Ideafarms. Sunil has been an advisor and design consultant for Blue Star, Voltas, Polar Industries, Pacfab Inc, Kelvinator & Electronics Ltd.

Sunil writes passionately about design, education, social impact, technology and entrepreneurship at Disrupt Innovation - Going Analog in a Digital World [http://sunilmalhotra.wordpress.com], T.I.D.E.S [http://blog.ideafarms.com] and other digital platforms.

Deepika Dutta Kapoor

Design Evangelist

Deepika is a design evangelist with 18 years of experience in innovative conceptual design for digital world covering web applications, multi-mobile platforms, emerging devices and wearable products.She is an alumna of Delhi College of Arts and has worked with international teams to identify and improve the User Experience & Design of products and applications.

In her off-time she is a street artist for awareness and patron for Delhi Design Dribbble Meetups with a strong passion to enable the design community in Delhi-NCR region.

Soaib Grewal

Venture Partner TLabs

Soaib Grewal is a Venture Partner at TLabs, the early stage investment arm of Times Internet. At TLabs he looks after investments and working closely with the portfolio on product and growth.

As a designer, entrepreneur and technology investor he has worked closely with a diverse set of technology companies across Asia and the US.

Prior to Times, Soaib was a Venture Partner at 500 Startups a global venture capital fund; the founder of BOLD Ventures- India’s first design led investment firm and WaterWalla an award winning social impact startup. He is an alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design(RISD), where he studied Industrial Design.

Lisa Rath

Co-founder ICD

A visual communication specialist who plans, designs and builds web experiences for storytelling, news presentation and enterprise productivity. She brings an insider’s insight into the interface between senders and receivers of communication, especially on the web.

As a principal at ICD, Lisa and her team have successfully worked on large ERP products for B2B clients and have helped clients redefine the user experience and user interface to make their products more usable, inviting and making them indispensable products of assistance and productivity.

Apart from this she has loves working for artists, studios and helps make their work come alive on the web space. She has been the creative head for irachaudhuri.com and has produced an experience for Arundhati Roy’s latest novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness on theministryofutmosthappiness.com.

She earned a master’s degree in graphic design from NID, Ahmedabad and has been practising communication design for over 20 years.

Sidharth Taneja

Software Engineer MakeMyTrip / Motivational Speaker

Sidharth Taneja, has a day job as a Software engineer at Makemytrip.com. He is also a public speaker and is known for his attitude towards life. He is a patient of Cerebral Palsy and does cycling, tracking and other adventure tasks without any hesitation. He is a part of several NGO’s like Ability Foundation to help specially-abled people of the society.

DHRUV MATHUR

Co-Founder of LBB

Dhruv is the co-founder of LBB, a platform that helps 2M consumers share & discover amazing places and experiences in their city. He leads product & growth at LBB today.

Dhruv graduated from Carnegie Mellon and spent the initial part of his career with Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco, working on product strategy for eCommerce companies like Guitar Center, Macys & Kohls. He returned to India in 2012, and has led product teams for consumer & SaaS companies, as well as founded + failed at a payments startup.

He's a firm believer in a multi-disciplinary approach to building products that solve problems and give a great experience to their users.

Mohit Gupta

COO, MakeMyTrip

Mohit Gupta is the Chief Operating Officer - Hotels & Holidays. He is responsible for the P&L of Hotels and Holidays of MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo. A member of the Company’s strategic think-tank, Mohit joined MakeMyTrip in 2008. He joined MakeMyTrip as CMO, responsible for driving marketing initiatives for all segments of MakeMyTrip’s hybrid business model. Prior to the merger with Ibibo Group, Mohit was the Chief Operating Officer, Online.

Presently he is in charge of developing and growing the Holidays, Hotel & Mobile offerings – which are key business focus areas for MakeMyTrip. His strategic focus is on expanding the Company’s foot-print through traditional channels such as retail and affiliate, as well as configuring new products through alliances and innovation to enhance access to popular destinations and open new destinations for Indian travellers.

With over 17 years of experience in the field, Mohit has handled sales, field marketing, brand marketing and channel leadership assignments across many levels and geographies. Prior to MakeMyTrip, he served as VP - Marketing at PepsiCo International for India Beverages where he was responsible for developing the 7UP brand franchise and the Lime Lemon category for Pepsico's South Asia Business Unit. Mohit started his career with Voltas Ltd. as a Management Trainee in the Air Conditioning Business Division.

Mohit holds a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat and an MBA (PGDM) degree from IIM, Calcutta. He is an active member of the International Advertising Association. He is a keen photographer and practices yoga to relax.

Dr. Mainak Ghosh, PhD

Academician & Consultant, Ex-Faculty IIT Kharagpur

Ever thought of trying out different flavours of design profession and modalities, Mainak, has been through them most. But one thing that remains common to whatever he pursued - users, perception and creativity.

With a blend of Architecture and Design studies, he has been influential as UX innovator in Wipro, consulting various clients across the globe, interfacing software and hardware products. Well travelled; experiencing the cross-section of different cultures has inspired him more than anything else. Drawing the essence from people and their behaviour, he is PhD in perception of urbanism, in terms of man-made objects be it space, environment or products. Along with professional adherence, he is an ardent academician, professing perception studies, visual cognition across media, cutting across the tangible and the intangible. He has various journal papers, books and publications to his credit, as he steered across, professionally through, corporate practice, proprietorship consulting, government ventures and teaching. Human interaction with man-made object fascinates him as his research subject. He has conducted various workshops pertaining to his research expertise, including the one in UXIndia, international conference. He has represented India as invited speaker in Smart Cities Congress in Paris and as an artist in Berlin.

Anshuman Bapna

Chief Product Officer MakeMyTrip

Anshuman is a passionate serial entrepreneur with deep knowledge of the internet domain on both product and business side. He has built talented, high performing teams, raised capital and successfully exited in both US and India.He has also worked on everything from kickstarting an entrepreneurial culture in his college to running an election to selling solar lights in villages and scaling up child immunization. He is currently engaged with MakeMyTrip (I) Pvt Ltd as Chief Product Officer. He is also the CEO and Co Founder of Mygola an award-winning startup that’s attempting to solve travel planning. He has also worked with giants like Google and Deloitte prior to this engagements. He has patent to his name “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC TRAVEL PLAN MANAGEMENT in his name.

His friend’s and colleagues say he is very structured and discipline when it comes to work but fun at the same time.