Tickets are complimentary for Asia Society Members, and Students. Please reach out to Rahul Devaskar, Director of Partnerships & Memberships, at Rdevaskar@asiasociety.org for access codes. Click here to become a Member.

On Thursday, June 23, 2022 Asia Society Northern California will host a half-day conference in Silicon Valley as part of its Naren Gupta Two-Year Legacy Program Series on the topic Examining U.S.-India Relations.

Our conference agenda will include sessions on the role of the tech industry and the relationship between Silicon Valley and India, as well as the impact of the business community on U.S.-India relations.

Speakers include members of Indiaspora and TiE Silicon Valley, two local organizations Naren Gupta was an active participant of.

CONFERENCE AGENDA

12:30 - 1:00 p.m. - Registration & Networking

1:00 - 1:50 p.m. - Session 1 - Keynote on U.S.-India Relations

• Tanvi Madan, Director of The India Project Brookings Institution

1:50 - 2:00 p.m. - Naren Gupta Tribute

• Barry Taylor, Partner Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | Advisory Board Member Asia Society

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. - Session 2 - TiE Panel on Cross-Border Investments

Introduction by Anita Manwani, Founder and CEO, Carobar Business Solutions | President-Elect, TiE Silicon Valley

Panel Discussion:

• Priya Rajan (Moderator), Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank
• Satya Bajpai, Managing Director Technology M&A JMP Securities
• Kumar Ganapathy, CEO, Akridata
• Venktesh Shukla, Founder & Managing Partner Monta Vista Capital

3:00 - 3:30 p.m. - Afternoon Tea Break & Networking

3:30 - 4:30 p.m. - Session 3 - Indiaspora Panel on the Future of U.S.-Silicon Valley Ties

• MR Rangaswami (Moderator), Indiaspora Founder and Chairman of the Board | Co-Founder, Sand Hill Group
• Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners
• Sumir Chadha, Co-Founder and Managing Director, WestBridge Capital
• Priya Rajan, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank

4:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Session 4 - The Evolution of Digital Business and Policy in India

• Nikhil Pahwa, Founder and Editor of MediaNama

This program is part of our Naren Gupta Two-Year Legacy Program Series. Launched in April 2022, this series pays tribute to the legacy of our long-time and beloved Advisory Board Member, Naren Gupta (1948-2021) and will address the topics closest to his heart: business, entrepreneurship, and cultivating the next generation of innovative leaders, especially those hailing from India.

Series sponsors are invited to join a VIP dinner hosted by Asia Society in Silicon Valley immediately following the conference. We also have a few additional tickets available for members and non-members on a first come first serve basis.

For more information on this series, including sponsorship opportunities, contact Rahul Devaskar, Director of Partnerships & Memberships, at Rdevaskar@asiasociety.org

AGENDA

Date: Thursday, June 23, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Pacific

CONFERENCE

• 12:30 - 1:00 p.m. - Registration & Networking
• 1:00 - 1:50 p.m. - Session 1 - Keynote on U.S.-India Relations
• 1:50 - 2:00 p.m. - Naren Gupta Tribute
• 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. - Session 2 - TiE Panel on Cross-Border Investments
• 3:00 - 3:30 p.m. - Afternoon Tea Break & Networking
• 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. - Session 3 - Indiaspora Panel on the Future of U.S.-Silicon Valley Ties
• 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Session 4 - The Evolution of Digital Business and Policy in India

DINNER

• 5:45 - 8:00 p.m.: VIP Dinner (location will be disclosed to registered participants)

All guests must show ID and proof of vaccination before entry. Masks are encouraged.

SPEAKER BIOS

Satya Bajpai is Managing Director, Technology Investment Banking at Citizens Bank, a $20 billion market cap bank with ~$200 billion of assets. Satya focuses on Technology M&A and has completed 40+ M&A and capital raise transaction with cumulative announced transaction value over $100Bn. He has broad Technology experience both domestically and cross-border and significant experience working on transactions for companies in Asia and Europe. He is an Adjunct Professor at Rice University Jones School of Business (MBA) and a Charter member at TiE Silicon Valley - Global Entrepreneurship Organization.

Jishnu Bhattacharjee is Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, a leading U.S.-India venture capital firm, that has been a pioneer of investing in innovative companies building global technology products leveraging India and technology-led businesses for India. Jishnu has invested in technology infrastructure, data, AI, SaaS and developer operations and is interested in a wide variety of start-ups.

Sumir Chadha, a co-founder and Managing Director of WestBridge Capital, is based out of Silicon Valley.  Sumir has been investing in India for over two decades across private and public companies. He serves on many boards including Star Health, Aptus and Innovaccer.  Sumir serves on the Boards of Princeton University, the Harvard Business School Alumni Association, Crystal Springs Uplands School, the American India Foundation, and Asia Society Northern California.

Kumar Ganapathy is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and founder of Enterprise Labs, a startup "foundry" focused on the Enterprise Cloud infrastructure in Silicon Valley. As part of Enterprise Labs, he is currently the CEO of Akridata (Edge Data platform), and on the boards of PrimaryIO, Ampool, and Deepvision. Kumar is an active angel investor especially for impact startups working to drive societal change through entrepreneurship.

Tanvi Madan is a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program, and director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Madan’s work explores India’s role in the world and its foreign policy, focusing in particular on India's relations with China and the United States. She also researches the U.S. and India’s approaches in the Indo-Pacific, as well as the development of interest-based coalitions, especially the Australia-India-Japan-U.S. Quad.

Anita Manwani is a highly regarded industry expert with over 20 years of experience in successfully managing various aspects of software businesses and setting up offshore operations in India. Prior to founding Carobar Business Solutions, Anita was Vice President and General Manager, Global Sourcing for Agilent Technologies, where she was responsible for global procurement and Agilent’s operations in India.

Priya Rajan is Market Lead for India and MENA in SVB’s international market development team, Global Gateway. She provides market entry advice and insights on cross-border engagement focused on constituents in the innovation ecosystem – founders and investors. Priya co-created the Diaspora Community initiative at SVB and is a charter member of TiE, a nonprofit focused on nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs with Indian ties.

Nikhil Pahwa is an entrepreneur, journalist and activist. He is the Founder and Editor of MediaNama, a leading publication chronicling the evolution of digital policy in India. Nikhil is a TED Fellow, an Asia21 Fellow and was named one of India Today Magazine’s “Indians of Tomorrow”. He has been profiled in Forbes, Wired and GQ. He is on the advisory board of the CyberBRICS project. MediaNama was awarded as an Ecosystem Builder by Fortune Magazine in 2016.

MR Rangaswami is an entrepreneur, investor, corporate eco-strategy expert, community builder and philanthropist. In 1997, he co-founded Sand Hill Group, one of the earliest “angel” investment firms, and was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He was named to the Forbes “Midas” list of investors and also recognized by CRN as one of the Top 25 Technology Executives. He also hosts the Enterprise Retreat for the top 100 leaders in technology.

Venktesh Shukla has an impressive track record as a seed stage investor first as the Founding Chair of TiE Angels and, since 2014, as the Founder and General Partner of Monta Vista Capital. Prior to his career as a seed stage investor, Venk had a proven track record of leading companies through rapid growth in his roles in sales, marketing and general management. He has worked with over 50 startups as an executive, investor, or a board member. He is the former President of TiE Silicon Valley and ex Chair of TiE Global.

Barry Taylor is an Advisory Board Member of Asia Society Northern California, and a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with 35 years of experience as a corporate and securities attorney and investment professional. From 2000 to 2010, Barry was a managing director in the technology, media, and telecom group of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm. He served as the head of the firm's Silicon Valley office from 2000 to 2008. While at Warburg, Barry worked on investments in the United States, India, and China, and represented the firm on the boards of six portfolio companies. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Barry was a senior corporate and securities partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for more than 16 years. During this time, he worked on numerous public financings as both issuers' and underwriters' counsel, and served as public securities counsel on disclosure, reporting, and proxy matters.

Margaret Conley, a Bay Area native, is the Executive Director of Asia Society Northern California. Her non-profit experience includes the Berggruen Institute, where she launched a Philosophy + Culture Institute with a focus on the US and China. Margaret was based in Asia for several years as a television news correspondent with ABC News in Jakarta and Tokyo, and with Bloomberg Television in Shanghai. She was part of the global ABC team that won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for presidential inauguration coverage. Her interviews include Howard Schultz, Richard Branson, Ban Ki-Moon, LeBron James and Beyoncé. She has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Hong Kong, which specializes in coverage of Asia. Margaret was selected as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2019. She is a member of the International Women's Forum.

SPONSORS

Thank you to our event sponsors: Westbridge Capital, Sumir Chadha, Nexus Venture Partners, Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Sandeep Singhal, Melissa Ma, Jack Wadsworth, Asia Alternatives, Rob Cox, SVB, Bill Draper.