Participants of the Growth Retreat 3.0

Shishir Goel is a Founding Partner of GoGroup, an independent venture studio with a focus on creating diverse companies across various industries. GoGroup has not only launched successful companies like GoParts, Trustspace, Eduneon, Evolut, and Wandel but has also forged strategic partnerships with prestigious organizations such as HHLA, ZF, Maxsolar, Terazo, GoPuls, and Warehousing1.

These collaborations are aimed at enhancing the digital capabilities of their ventures, marking significant progress in the European market. Since 2019, Shishir has been dedicated to three primary objectives: nurturing long-term collaborations, ensuring profitability from the very beginning, and embarking on multiple ‘zero to one’ product development journeys.

Before the inception of GoGroup, Shishir built and scaled several tech-product companies and engineering teams across various international organizations. Active in the Indo-German sector for over a decade, he firmly believes that exporting goods and services from India and importing innovation and technology into India is crucial for the nation’s advancement.

Saurabh Nigam is the Vice President of Human Capital at Omidyar Network, which is one of the world’s ing impact investing organizations. Saurabh supports ON’s portfolio of entrepreneurs in India, with a focus on organization design, change management, talent management and executive coaching. Saurabh has been recognized as one of the Top 25 future HR ers of the country by People Matters & DDI International. He is also the recipient of HR 40 Under 40 award by Jombay for the year 2018. A Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) in Electronics and Telecommunications Saurabh holds Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (PM&IR) and SPHR, GPHR and HRMP certifications from SHRM, USA – being the only Indian and one among the first 10 professionals globally to hold these three certifications simultaneously.

Dr Ravindra Singh Shekhawat is a neurologist practicing at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Singapore. He has a special interest in stroke and post stroke neuro-recovery. Dr Ravi has completed his medical training from Madras Medical College, Chennai, India, and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. He later became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London (MRCP, UK), before moving on to pursue his senior residency training in Neurology at Singapore General Hospital. This was followed by fellowships at the Academy of Medicine, Singapore (FAMS) and the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP, Edinburgh). He was working as a Neurology consultant under the National Neuroscience institute and has been providing neurology services at Singapore General Hospital and Changi General Hospital.

Pooja Surana is a sports enthusiast and holds a 2nd Dan Black Belt in Karate. Professionally, she is a CA, CS, and CFA, currently serving as an Associate Partner at RADS & Co. Chartered Accountants. In this role, she oversees financial consultancy and leads a team specializing in trading and investment across equities, derivatives, and commodities. Additionally, she serves as an Advisor to the issue for SME IPOs

Kaushal is the Founder/CEO of Teabox, the world’s first vertically integrated premium tea brand that is disrupting a $50 billion industry with its innovations in technology/supply chain. It has been widely chronicled as a disruptive idea in a 200-year old industry and has raised funds from global marquee investors such as Accel Partners & Mr. Ratan Tata among others.

Started in 2013, Teabox has shipped over 5bn+ cups of tea to customers in 150+ countries. Kaushal has also been recognised as Reuter’s Change Maker, Fortune 40 Under 40, Entrepreneur Magazine’s 35 Under 35, Fortune Magazine’s Top 5 Creative People (2016), CNBC’s Young Turk (2016), an INK Fellow (2015) and AACSB Influential Leader (2015). Kaushal has also been featured in publications such as New York Times, CNN International, Forbes, Discovery and The Economic Times.

Kaushal graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s of Business Management from the Singapore Management University (SMU).

Manish is a driven professional, started working from the tender age of 11, teaching tuitions, working on daily wages to sitting in the PCOs and working in the factories during school breaks. After completing 12th in 2007, he started working in a call centre and McDonald’s in Pune, shuffling two jobs for a period of nine-months before entering an international call centre that paid a need-based sizeable income.

He moved to digital marketing after four years in the call centre industry, and started doing pre-sales, appointment settings, and social media marketing. Manish kept working on all opportunities, moved up to managerial roles and then to leadership over the years.

Now he works with content creators across the Nation helping them with content strategy, working with early-stage startups, helping them set up their teams, branding and marketing units and much more. He also works with many entrepreneurs helping them elevate their personal brands using video content and social media platforms.

Manish has worked with several digital and social media agencies, projects like TEDxGateway, and Wikipedia, and is a part of the leadership team of India’s best social impact organization – Josh Talks. Over the years he has now built a profile as a Generalist.

Recently, he co-authored a book ‘Booming Digital Stars’ – covering the aspects of the creator economy and stories of 11 most inspiring content creators of India. The book has gone to become a best-seller within a month of its launch.

Priti Rathi Gupta, Founder of LXME, has led and inspired over 200,000 women towards building their financial acumen and financialization of their small savings.

An Alumni of Harvard Business School, she had held leadership positions as M. D. of Anand Rathi, one of India’s largest Financial Services Conglomerate, at YPO, and Founder of Ishka films. She is a reputed expert awarded for setting up the Commodities desk, Currency, and Forex Advisory business with two decades of experience in the BFSI industry & is now focused on bridging the gap between women & wealth.

Amongst many recognitions, Priti & LXME were featured in Her Majesty the Queen: The Official Platinum Jubilee Pageant Commemorative Album. This album features a range of outstanding individuals and organizations selected for their transformational contribution around the world.

LXME was awarded The “Annual Impact Creator Awards 2021” (ICA2021) as the “Warrior of Change” under the Fintech Innovation category, an initiative by Billennium Divas. Being LXME Facebook Community was one amongst 130 communities globally, to be part of Facebook’s Community Accelerator Program that helps leaders harness the power of their community to turn impactful ideas into action.

LXME is one of the 20 women-founded or co-founded startups selected by the Google for Startups Accelerator Program out of nearly 400 applications.

Rakesh Sheth is a multi-faceted management professional with over 20 years of experience leading businesses across multiple domains and managing cross-functional teams and operations. A passionate entrepreneur at heart, he has a strong finance background, and built successful ventures from the ground up and grown them to leadership stages in their domain. He also has significant experience in helping family-owned businesses aiding in asset restructuring and family wealth & estate management with a focus on reducing risk to family wealth exposure to business uncertainties.

Sivakumar’s Twitter profile (@S_Sivakumar) reads: Urban Farmer (#HomeGarden #GreenHouse), Science Simplified (#SundayScience), Business Model Innovation (#Mentor #Angel), Creative Photography (actually, creative captions for routine photographs).

He heads the Agri and IT Businesses of ITC Limited, a three billion dollar portfolio out of the group’s ten.

Sivakumar also oversees ITC’s Social Investments Programme and Corporate Sustainability Initiatives, which helped ITC achieve the distinction of being water positive, carbon positive and solid waste recycling positive for nearly two decades in a row – the only enterprise in the world to do so.

ITC’s trailblazing ‘e-Choupal’ initiative was developed and executed under his leadership. Operating in 21 crop value chains across 220 districts, the initiative reaches over four million farmers with customised agri extension services, while securing identity-preserved agri produce for ITC’s Branded Foods business and other customers around the world.

Sivakumar serves on the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Rural Development, the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of SEBI, and on the Management Committee of National Agricultural Higher Education Project of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. He chairs the National Agricultural Council of the CII.

Sivakumar has also been on the boards of NABARD and IRMA (Institute of Rural Management – also his alma mater, where he topped the Class of 1983). He has been the Vice Chairman of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and UN Global Compact’s Core Advisory Group to develop Sustainable Agriculture Business Principles.

Sivakumar blogs at shivsthirdeye.in.

Shubho Sengupta: a veteran ad guru, Subho Sengupta has worked in traditional/brand advertising working with brands like O&M, Leo Burnett, JWT and Contract Advertising. Senguptahas experience across a spectrum of brands, from multinational to start-ups, including Amex, NIIT, GSK, Gillette, Pepsi, Coke, Motorola, Star-ESPN,DeBeers, etc.Since 2007 he has been involved indigital/integrated advertising and marketing and joined Interactive Avenues in 2007, a digital advertising agency, as National CreativeDirector. Over the years he has worked with brands like NIIT, ICICI, ESPN, Colgate, Travelocity, Rediffusion Y&R Delhi, Airtel, LG, and Xerox.2011-2011. Eventually he moved to Coca-Cola as a digital consultant. From 2013 onwards he has been working as a creative consultant with India’s biggest brands like ABP Group,Tata Tea, Airtel, Nokia, Lava Mobiles, Times Group, and Outlook. Currently he is a consult with IT Ministry (Government of India) functioning as a Director, MyGov.

Vipul Gupta is the Executive Director of Earth Focus, which has a vision to shape a landscape where people and nature thrive together.

Prior to Earth Focus, Vipul spent three decades building teams and organisations in the corporate sector, in the realm of manufacturing and distribution. His last venture, Excel Controlinkage, has over 800 employees and exports to 70 countries. He is as comfortable working with tribal communities as he is in board rooms.

In parallel, Vipul’s philanthropic journey spans over three decades on girl child education across the country. Bringing his business expertise to a new life in the non-profit sector, Vipul works to solve development challenges through a community-driven approach that creates resilient, long-lasting solutions. Through extensive engagement with local communities, civil society organisations, government agencies, and businesses, he realised the need to connect the gaps between funding, data and research, and local practitioners – which led to the birth of Earth Focus Foundation’s bottom-up, in-depth approach.Outside of Earth Focus, he also mentors small businesses and individuals on management and strategy.

He is also leading a mission to bring millets into the mainstream collaborating with researchers, agriculture machines, farmers and CSO’s and retailers. He plays a strategic advisor role at Nature in Focus, a portal on nature, wildlife and conservation.

A passionate and awarded nature photographer, Vipul also dabbles in spatial design and process design.Vipul has a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal University.

A simple, laidback, not very ambitious 3rd generation entrepreneur from Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Jagannath has been kind to have blessed me with a beautiful life.
I am sure I shall manage an A if not A+ both as a father and son and a decent B / B+ as a husband.

About Two third of life has gone by..Have now taken responsibility of my health. Have become little Mindful ..of what I eat…of my physical training..and yes Quit Smoking too!!
All thanks to a wonderful human whom I discovered on Twitter.

I am a Dreamer..i dream of great careers ahead for my kids.

I am a seeker..I seek Love.

I am a Human..I believe in Humanity.

Brijesh is an entrepreneur in the financial services industry . A CA post a decade long corporate experience transformed into an enterprenuer over 15 years ago .

Along with Ashish , leads BellWether Associates ( a wealth management arm) & Auxano Capital ( Sebi registered AIF ) .

Loves to play and watch cricket & sports ( in general ), food ( anything from south of india & mumbai street food), movies ( especially Malayalam ones ) .

Kiran Puranik is Mobile Apps and startup specialist who spent 20 years building mobile centric solutions for startups. He has played a major role in building tech at MangoaApps (where he spent 12 years) and currently heading Tessellation Software’s India development Center.

When he’s not working, Kiran likes to explore western ghats of Maharashtra, learning organic farming and off-roading on hills. He is currently discovering Deep Health and wants to spread it to people around him.

Born in Mumbai and schooled in Panchgani, he was always highly academically inclined. During his school days, he was a state-level basketball player.
After completing his Textile Engineering from DKTE, Ichalkaranji in the year 1998, he took up a job in project consultancy based in Mumbai.
He joined the family business in 2000. Later, in the year 2009, He took over the reins of the business after the demise of his Father.

He heads a manufacturing business in textiles with over 1200 employees & exports fabrics and apparel to over 20 countries and works with reputed Indian brands like Arrow, Van Heusen amongst others.

He has been awarded numerous times by Texprocil for the export of fabrics.
He is a voracious reader and draws inspiration from leaders like Shivaji Maharaj, Dhirubhai Ambani, Honorable PM Shri Narendra Modi, Elon Musk amongst many others. He is also a guest lecturer at DKTE’s Textile & Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji & is actively involved in voluntarily mentoring second-generation entrepreneurs from the textile industry. Presently he is also the Chairman of the Fabric sub-committee at TEXPROCIL.
He is an avid cyclist and an adventure sports enthusiast. His adventurous spirit has bagged him a place in the most prestigious “Guinness World Records” in a group event held at Koh Tao, Thailand in 2016 for “The Longest Underwater Human Chain”.
He is happily married to Rachana, who is an educationist and runs a successful state-level franchisee in kids’ vocational education. They are blessed with 2 kids- an elder daughter, Anvita, 12 years old, who is creatively inclined and writes well & a younger son, Shaurya, 8 years old, who is a national-level chess player. They stay with their Mother in Ichalkaranji, in western Maharashtra.

I am Nikhil Shewakramani, I nap for 60 minutes in afternoon every day and I love it .

Father of a 9-year-old boy (Neev) and married to my childhood best friend (Parul) for 16 years and counting. Born and brought up in Delhi – worked in 10+ cities and now in Hyderabad for almost a decade. I aspire to become a “Event Organizer” when I grow up. For the time being to make the ends meet, I run a software services company and a “startup”. Part time investor – full time “Panchayati” – Loves travelling and meeting people. I play Box cricket on weekends, walk 8-10 Kms a day (Thanks to Sandeep sir) – and watch Instagram reels. Working on establishing a software/technical training school for the school dropouts and economically weaker section.

Rakesh Sheth is a multi-faceted management professional with over 20 years of experience leading businesses across multiple domains and managing cross-functional teams and operations. A passionate entrepreneur at heart, he has a strong finance background, and built successful ventures from the ground up and grown them to leadership stages in their domain. He also has significant experience in helping family-owned businesses aiding in asset restructuring and family wealth & estate management with a focus on reducing risk to family wealth exposure to business uncertainties.

Ruchit G Garg is Founder & CEO of Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN), where his mission is to help 120 million farmers make more profitable.

Ruchit has worked for global giants like Microsoft, helping build XBOX, Operating system, sold a technology company in USA, and then later moved to India to work with small-holder farmers of India. Ruchit was also instrumental in creating the world’s first commercial text-to-speech system in Hindi. Over the years Ruchit has been invited to many national/international conferences and his work has been covered on likes of New York Times, DW, NPR, DW, CNN, CNBC, Mint and lot more across the world.

He can be found on twitter as @ruchitgarg

In practice since 2012 with expertise in taxation, indirect taxes and direct taxes. Also involved in statutory audits of government banks, internal audits of co-operative banks. Having experience in accounting system implementation and banking industry.

Since last 6 years I am involved in Algo trading and guiding the people regarding it. Another on area is Back testing I am exploring since last 5 years in which I have my own research papers and work material. As the Indian share market is getting high day by day I also have thought to get into Index future and options trading not just a thought but I have started worked on it since last 7 years and after all the study and research I am in the trading in Futures and options since last 6+ years.

Sivakumar’s Twitter profile (@S_Sivakumar) reads: Urban Farmer (#HomeGarden #GreenHouse), Science Simplified (#SundayScience), Business Model Innovation (#Mentor #Angel), Creative Photography (actually, creative captions for routine photographs).

He heads the Agri and IT Businesses of ITC Limited, a three billion dollar portfolio out of the group’s ten.

Sivakumar also oversees ITC’s Social Investments Programme and Corporate Sustainability Initiatives, which helped ITC achieve the distinction of being water positive, carbon positive and solid waste recycling positive for nearly two decades in a row – the only enterprise in the world to do so.

ITC’s trailblazing ‘e-Choupal’ initiative was developed and executed under his leadership. Operating in 21 crop value chains across 220 districts, the initiative reaches over four million farmers with customised agri extension services, while securing identity-preserved agri produce for ITC’s Branded Foods business and other customers around the world.

Sivakumar serves on the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Rural Development, the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of SEBI, and on the Management Committee of National Agricultural Higher Education Project of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. He chairs the National Agricultural Council of the CII.

Sivakumar has also been on the boards of NABARD and IRMA (Institute of Rural Management – also his alma mater, where he topped the Class of 1983). He has been the Vice Chairman of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and UN Global Compact’s Core Advisory Group to develop Sustainable Agriculture Business Principles.

Sivakumar blogs at shivsthirdeye.in.

I am currently Director Sales Asia Pacific for a company called Janes. I lead the sales team for the region and my customer base is mainly national security customers (armed forces, intelligence organisations etc) and defence industries in Asia Pacific region. We support these organisations by providing data and analysis pertaining to the domain of aerospace defence and security.

Prior to this role, I was leading various research and analysis teams within the same company in the areas of geopolitical, technical and market research in the same domain. I was the first person to be hired in India for the organisation and then went on to head the India office for the company. Before Janes, I worked briefly for Amazon when it was launching its ecommerce operations in India in 2012-13.

This was after I had retired as a Squadron Leader from the Indian Airforce after serving 10 years as an engineering officer in the domain of radars, military communication, and electronic warfare. I have enjoyed working in both the domains with a sort of even split of 10 years in armed forces and 11 years in corporate domain.

I am married, my wife is working in financial sector, and we are settled in Bangalore. I have a son who is in his first year of engineering from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus.

I like to cycle, run and do strength training to keep myself fit and healthy.

Krish Ashok is the author of Masala Lab: The Science of Indian cooking, published by Penguin RandomHouse, and an Amazon best-seller that explores the science of Indian cooking with the aim of making the reader a better cook and turning the kitchen into a joyful, creative playground for culinary experimentation. The book uses simple, first-principles, middle-school level science explanations and hand-drawn illustrations to break down what happens in the Indian kitchen and recommends algorithms and metamodels for common dish types and regional Indian sub-cuisines.

In his day job, Ashok is the Global Head – Advisory & Consulting, AI.Cloud for Tata Consultancy Services (one of the world’s largest technology companies) and helps Fortune 1000 companies implement and adopt AI, a role that is at the intersection of technology, design and culture.

He also makes simple explainer videos debunking popular misconceptions about food and diet on Instagram and YouTube, and is a regular columnist on food, science, and culture for publications such as Mint, The Hindu, Conde Nast Traveler and Scroll.

He is a trained Indian classical violinist who also plays the Cello and electric guitar and composes and produces music that you can listen to on all major streaming platforms. A particularly popular playlist is Sanskrit Rock, where he translates and adapts popular heavy metal and classic rock songs into Sanskrit. His music was featured on NPR – https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-03/classical-indian-musician-transforming-hit-songs-pop-parodies.

He is on
@krishashok on Twitter
@_masalalab on Instagram
@krishashok on YouTube

Recent media appearances

1.A Scientist in the Kitchen – The Seen and the Unseen podcast with Amit Varma https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2020/12/20/episode-204-a-scientist-in-the-kitchen/

2.The 2.7 Billion Year Story of Chicken Curry (Google Talk) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAKuKJ0AAQ

3.The Science of Indian Cooking – Keynote talk at Manthan https://scroll.in/magazine/981286/how-all-indians-including-teetotallers-end-up-consuming-a-lot-of-alcohol-without-knowing-it

Music

1.Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2tNJmxQOh8PxU1OUdqwS9E
2.Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/in/artist/krish-ashok/1570432658
3.Jio Saavn: https://www.jiosaavn.com/artist/krish-ashok-/o-xRVYsPzZ0_
4.Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/artists/B00R1ABMVS/krish-ashok
5.YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mZvACFLKhrQC4Jh6dSp-O7g0N5-w5sGlU
6.Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/krishashok

Blog
https://krishashok.me

Mudar Patherya is a garbage picker, heritage building photographer, Urdu lover, butterfly-chaser, bylane walker, stock picker, social activist and writer. He also happens to find time to work behind a desk and make a living.

Mudar runs Trisys, India’s oldest (and among the largest) agency dedicated to producing annual reports. He started this segment within India and over the last 30 years, 11 agencies have emerged out of Trisys to become his competitors!

Mudar is an activist in Kolkata (urban, environmental and social). He has been responsible for cleaning urban water bodies including the famed Santragacchi Jheel twice over and the turnaround of Rabindra Sarobar. With much of Kolkata getting cleaned in the last decade, he is temporarily out of work.

He inspired the creation of a philanthropic NGO called Kolkata Gives that mobilized nearly Rs 100 mn during the pandemic.

He initiated the painting of electricity boxes around eminent Kolkata personalities. Co-conceived the popular Live in Lakes musical event inside Rabindra Sarobar. Initiated the clean-up of Vivekananda Park, Lily Pool, Avenue Sammilani lighting, water sprinklers inside Rabindra Sarobar and the open-air gallery inside Rabindra Sarobar. Helped replant 149 fallen trees in Rabindra/Subhas Sarobar in 2020.

He keeps threatening his family that he will close down his office and create an NGO dedicated to teaching children the ability to speak and write good English.

Rohit quit his corporate job to follow his passion for wildlife. His photographs are published in many national and international media. He decided to keep his photographs under creative commons so that these images can be used by a larger community for awareness purposes. He is also a filmmaker, and has recently co-produced “Project Tiger” a feature length documentary on the greatest conservation success story. Other films in Which he has played a critical role are “The Real Jungle Book”, “Destination Wild India”, “The Last Frontier”, “Forgotten People” to name a few.

He co-founded Nature inFocus, a visual storytelling platform for all things wild. Nature inFocus has successfully brought the larger wildlife community onto a single platform through its portal, calendar festival and annual photography and film awards. The Nature inFocus Festival is arguably the largest event of its kind in the world.

He also founded narrative – branding and communication firm to take his passion forward of design and strategy. Narrative today has created a niche in the design industry with its approach of storytelling that transforms businesses. Narrative work was showcased in the World Economic Forum for the campaign “ Innovation Now, Growth forever” for Govt of Karnataka also they handled communication for Karnataka’s Global Investors Meet in 2022. It has also created campaigns for AMD, Vestas, Wildcraft, Toyota Financial Services, Dell and many more.

Rohit is a fitness enthusiast. He took fitness training seriously 2 years ago and made sure It becomes his priority.

I am currently Director Sales Asia Pacific for a company called Janes. I lead the sales team for the region and my customer base is mainly national security customers (armed forces, intelligence organisations etc) and defence industries in Asia Pacific region. We support these organisations by providing data and analysis pertaining to the domain of aerospace defence and security.

Prior to this role, I was leading various research and analysis teams within the same company in the areas of geopolitical, technical and market research in the same domain. I was the first person to be hired in India for the organisation and then went on to head the India office for the company. Before Janes, I worked briefly for Amazon when it was launching its ecommerce operations in India in 2012-13.

This was after I had retired as a Squadron Leader from the Indian Airforce after serving 10 years as an engineering officer in the domain of radars, military communication, and electronic warfare. I have enjoyed working in both the domains with a sort of even split of 10 years in armed forces and 11 years in corporate domain.

I am married, my wife is working in financial sector, and we are settled in Bangalore. I have a son who is in his first year of engineering from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus.

I like to cycle, run and do strength training to keep myself fit and healthy.