A Science graduate from St. Xavier's College, Bombay, Harish contemplated becoming a writer or at least a teacher and went on to attempt completing MA in English Literature before abandoning it to pursue a career in Direct Sales.

Before founding Andromeda Marketing Pvt. ltd., Harish worked in Eureka Forbes Ltd. in various positions in Sales and Marketing. He began his career in 1984 as a door-to-door salesman selling high value durables. In fact, it was in his role as a member of Eureka Forbes' pioneer door to door sales batch, Harish sold the first Aquaguard in India. He went on to become Head of Location, Divisional Sales Manager and finally Business Development Manager.

Along with his partners Swaminathan and Elizabeth Jacob he has founded and grown Andromeda from a 8 man operation to an 8000 man organization with 2 divisions - DSD (Direct Sales & Distribution) and Call Center divisions. Both divisions are acknowledged leaders in their categories - viz. in the Financial Services Distribution business and in the Domestic Call Center Industry.

Harish has successfully guided Andromeda through multiple rounds of Private Equity funding and after one year of the second round of PE investments Harish is playing a more strategic rather than an executive role at Andromeda. He is pursuing other interests in fields unrelated to what he's done earlier.

Harish has interests in Golf and is a long distance runner having run more than a dozen half-marathons across India and elsewhere. He plays golf to an 18 handicap and has a sub 2 hour half marathon timing.

Mahesh Singhi, a Mechanical Engineer from MNIT, Jaipur, is the founder promoter & managing director of Singhi Advisors Private Limited (www.singhi.com), a midmarket focused one stop Boutique Investment Bank, that has grown rapidly over recent years to become one of the leading, independently owned, Corporate Finance and M&A Advisory firms in India and having overseas offices in Australia & Mauritius.

Mr Singhi is credited with building up Singhi Advisors from ground zero level and building it up, year after year to the current level in the last two decades of its existence. With a team of 40-odd highly qualified, experienced and result oriented professionals, Singhi Advisors caters to its 250+ and growing clientele across all sectors & industries, enjoying over 60% repeat business having completed 800+ assignments. Being exclusive member firm from India with Mergers Alliance (www.mergers-alliance.com), a network of 20 leading independent Investment Banks from across the globe, operating out of 50 odd offices and 450+professionals, Singhi Advisors is uniquely positioned to offer its clients a global platform, seamless services and enhanced access to global opportunities. Mr Singhi also sits on the global board of Merger Alliance and is responsible for the overall growth of the network in Asia.

In a highly competitive field, which is predominantly monopolized by the global outfits, Singhi has carved out a niche for itself and has served almost every sector and industry leaders and is credited with many complex and challenging assignments in Mergers & Acquisitions.

Last but not the least, under the leadership of Mr Singhi, Singhi Advisors got the prestigious “Investment Bank of the year award -India, 2009” from ACQ Global

Anand Kurian

Anand Kurian is a writer and marketing communications professional based in Mumbai. He has written a best-selling political novel The Peddler of Soaps and has conceived and developed the twin marketing management concepts of Reality Plus and Neo People, as well as the Universal Integrators marketing model.

He has fought a decade long campaign, with some success, against religious fundamentalism in India.

Education

Anand Kurian was educated at Bombay Scottish School, St. Xavier’s College and Government Law College, Mumbai. He stood first in his division at the University of Cambridge Indian School Certificate examination; he outranked students who got admission to IIT, IIM, IIT-IIM and G.S.Medical College. At law, he topped Moot courts in the city, the state as well as in the country.

Advertising career

He trained at Griner, Cuesta & Schrom, an advertising film company in New York. He set up Emphasis on his return to Mumbai; his company has produced, and he has directed, commercials for multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle and Unilever and for products such as Lays, Ariel, Tata Tea, Sony and Coca Cola.

Articles, keynote addresses & lectures

Anand Kurian lectures at the Indian Institutes of Management (the IIMs), the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and the National Institute of Design (NID). His message against communalism is encapsulated in the dictum ‘A world without borders... people without labels.’

‘The Indian way’, a convocation address at the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian way of life.

In ‘Racing on the fast track’, Anand Kurian, an Adi Sankara Namboodiri Brahmin by lineage, takes a critical look at the caste system in India.

He founded India's first campus channel at a business school; the Chairman of Cadbury's described it as ‘an example of the power of an innovative idea’.

The management concepts

Anand Kurian has conceived and developed key marketing management concepts such as ‘Reality Plus’ , ‘Neo People’, ‘Simulated Obsolescence’ and ‘The Afghanistan Syndrome’.

He has developed ‘The Universal Integrators model’, a marketing management enabler that helps overcome barriers as products and services cross boundaries.

‘The Transference Response’, a paper published in the Journal of the All India Management Association, applies a concept from psychoanalysis to marketing communications, and demonstrates how it can be used effectively.

He has lectured on these concepts at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). These lectures have subsequently been published in the Hindustan Times, the Business Standard, the Times of India, in professional advertising and marketing forums, as well the Journal of the All India Management Association.

Along with two former Deans of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he has conceived and developed a new subject ‘The Culture of Business’, for management students.

The struggle against communalism

The rise of communalism in India occurred at this time; Anand Kurian wrote The Peddler of Soaps, a political novel set against this period. The book seemed prescient; it was written before the problem erupted.

The book found support among intellectuals, celebrities, newspaper editors and national award winning actresses; among them were Vir Sanghvi, Shabana Azmi, Shobhaa De and Tabu.

Sanghvi described The Peddler of Soaps as ‘Deceptively simple, a contemporary, modern-day fable’; Azmi called it ‘The right book for these wrong times’.

In its review, India Today said, "It explores the tantalisingly complex issue of why multicultural societies lapse into violence and communal rioting." The Hindu described it as "Beguilingly simple..."

The book was on the India Today best-seller list and it climbed to the top of the best-seller charts of The Times of India, The Financial Express and The Indian Express. At the book launches in various cities, feelings and opinions on the rise of religious fundamentalism were shared.

The book was to be made into a film by Mansoor Khan.

Today

Anand Kurian continues his work in advertising; he is working on his second book, a work of non-fiction and his first feature film.

His strength, says erstwhile Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad, Dr. Parikh, "is his multi-disciplinary approach; he draws from cultural anthropology as well as from McKinsey and Kishore Biyani. He straddles both left and right brain territory to create a new, more dynamic picture..."

Says Dr. Shingi, erstwhile Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad, "He is a Renaissance man; he helps us see, beyond narrow specializations, the complete picture..."

Bhavin is Directi's founding CEO, and is responsible for the exponential growth of Directi from a startup in 1998 to a global web products company with over 6 businesses, 20+ products, 500+ employees and millions of global customers. Under his leadership, ResellerClub and LogicBoxes have become industry leaders in their respective verticals, and Directi has consistently featured amongst the fastest growing tech companies in Asia by Deloitte and Touche. He continues to manage the Vision, Strategy, Engineering and Operations of ResellerClub, LogicBoxes, .pw, Answerable.com and WebHosting.Info.

Bhavin is the chief architect of the .pw social communication platform, OrderBox, and various other products and services provided through ResellerClub and LogicBoxes. He has authored several technology patents. He concieved and launched CodeChef - a leading coding competition platform. He is also responsible for Directi's community evangelism efforts such as TechCamp.

In 1998, at the age of 18, while in college, he founded Directi, with a focus to develop volume based Web Products and Services for a global audience. Having spent his school and college years in developing software, building web applications, and consulting companies, he brings to Directi, a deep understanding of the Web Services Industry, a strong technical background, a keen business sense, and most importantly, an unquenchable ambition for growth.

Bhavin is a respected entity in the Web 2.0 landscape, and a frequent speaker at various seminars, tech conferences and colleges. He also serves as a technical advisor to the local CyberCrime Investigation Cell. He has won several awards, including the Entrepreneur of the year award in 2005. Bhavin was former chairman for the Global ICANN Accredited Registrars Constituency for two consecutive terms.

Suresh comes with a rich experience of over 10+ years in Business Process Analysis & Sales in the areas of HR automation and ERP. He was one of the architects of India’s first Government ERP product, which won awards from Dataquest. He has experience in working on enterprise software requirements for Corporates line Tessera, Lockheed Martin, Nokia, Infosys & Government establishments like Ministry of External affairs, BSNL, LRDE, National Aerospace Laboratories, to name a few. He has presented papers on Business Process Automation in domestic and International conferences and has written articles in the areas of ERP and HR automation which have been published in various journals.

Suresh is currently the General Manager of Business Process Consulting at HireCraft Software where he handles the process consulting and the technical sales activities.

Sudarshan leads EMA Partners in India, with offices in Gurgaon and Chennai apart from Mumbai, where he is based. He also leads the Board / CEO practice for the firm in India.With over 14 years of experience in Executive search, he has personally led successful domestic and cross border search engagements for large Indian and Multinational corporations across multiple industry sectors and functional disciplines.

Client and candidate relationships built over the years coupled with a deep understanding of the Indian corporate landscape and talent marketplace makes Sudarshan an effective and incisive consultant with a strong track record of delivering successfully on difficult and complex searches. Often clients have entrusted mission-critical engagements to Sudarshan, with some of the senior executives who have been identified by him for his clients making a large impact on the success of the organization. Credibility, passion and commitment have been the key ingredients for his success and senior executives use him as a sounding board when it comes to some of their crucial career decisions. He has been quoted in the mainstream business media on a variety of issues and has also written on several leadership issues in the print and electronic media.

With EMA Partners since 2003, Sudarshan is also part of the organisation's executive management team handling global responsibility for marketing and communications.

In the past he has served in the engineering and infrastructure sector and is an alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra.

Amit has over 11 years experience (+9 years in the Interactive) with a success record in strategic planning, project management and aggressive business development in startup and high growth environments, coupled with identification of key growth areas and setting up a professional team, with the right skill set and attitude for the business.

Core skills in mission development, strategic partnering and networking, long and short term business planning.

Progressive thinker with ability to provide leadership, minimizing risks, and consistently achieving results.

Possess a strong creative and technical background that helps analyze situations and problems from the business perspective and thus provides capabilities to further the cause of the business and relations with clients.

Specialities

Branding & Corporate Identity, Internet Design and Programming, Media Planning, Search Marketing and Optimisation, 2D / 3D Animation, Rich Media Content Development, Multimedia Presentations, Gaming, Business Development.

Current postions

Founder & Director at Insite Digital
Director at Intentias
Managing Director at id8 Labs
Past postions
MD & CEO at WebPercept
Insite Digital

Insite Digital is a next generation media company that seeks to create internet media platforms catering to diverse audiences. Insite Digital intends to take a leadership position through developing relevant content for each targeted audience, using a combination of mainline, alternate and social media channels.

Insite Digital has launched its first online portal, www.indiavoting.com - Indias most comprehensive site on Indian politics, with current focus on General Elections 2009. For the first time in India, an internet media platform will try to use an edutainment route to capture the Kumbh Mela of Indian politics.

Intentias Search Marketing

Intentias Search Marketing delivers
more brand impressions,
more brand interactions,
more brand sign-ups and
more brand sales.

They do it through:
innovation in strategy, media and creative.

Resulting in:
Lower Cost per Response
Higher Return on Marketing Investment.

Post acquiring the 51% stake of Percept in WebPercept, the company has been re-christened id8 Labs.

id8 Labs

id8 Labs will be Indias first fully integrated Online & Digital Media agency. The acquisition is key to our strategic plans to emerge as the leading player in Indian and global markets in the fast growing Digital space.

id8 Labs plans to invest USD 5 Mln in the next 12-18 months to expand its franchise in Indian & global markets through offices in Dubai & Singapore.

id8 Labs offers Online Creative and Content Solutions, SEM, Media Solutions along with Behavioral Targeting & eCRM.

With currently 100 employees on board, id8 plans to double its workforce to more than 200 professionals in the current financial.

id8 Labs currently has clients across all major verticals with clients like UTI MF, Maruti Zen, HSBC, HDFC, Colgate, Crompton Greaves, RPG Group, Essar, DuPont, Aditya Birla Group, Philips, Crompton Greaves, BPCL, Siemens, Asian Paints, Bayer, CEAT & more.

WebPercept

WebPercept was a Joint Venture company between Amit and Percept Holdings.

In March 2007, Amit acquired this company and it has been merged with other ventures and the newly merged entity is called IMACS Pvt. Ltd.

Veerendra P Mathur or Veeren, one of the founders of Future Focus Infotech Pvt. Ltd., has played an instrumental role in the growth of Focus Infotech. After his post-graduation in Pharmacy, he started his career in Pharmaceutical Selling. He switched to IT Services within a year, in 1992. At Focus, Veeren has shouldered various Management responsiblities, prior to his induction as the Managing Director. He was responsible for HR and the Marketing departments. He played a pivotal role in the construction of the IT Technical Consulting services business of the company, viz. TechSource - Focus's flagship IT Technical services offering. He was the Hon. Treasurer of ERA and is currently the Vice-Chairman of ERA.