Prof. Ajay Pandey - Professor of Finance at IIM-A and Chairperson of the Post Graduate Program in Management. He is also the Chief Advisor to Leverage 2009.

Prof. Jayanth R. Varma - Professor, IIM-A. Director on board of Infosys BPO, Axis Bank Limited, Onmobile Global Ltd. He has also chaired several expert groups set-up by SEBI and the Ministry of Finance.

Prof. Anil K. Gupta - Executive Vice Chair of National Innovation Foundation set-up by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. He also established the Society for Research & Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies & Institutions (SRISTI) in 1993 and Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) in 1997, two NGOs to support the Honey Bee Network and to scale up and convert grassroots innovations into viable products respectively. He has also been profiled by India Today as one of the top-50 Change Entrepreneurs in the country and has received the Padma Shri National Award in 2004 for his work in the field of management education.

Mr. Sandeep Singhal, Nexus India Capital - Apart from Nexus, Sandeep is also the co-Founder & Managing Director of eVentures, a leading Venture Capital Firm focused on early stage investments in India since 1999. Sandeep has held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems. Sandeep has an MBA (with Distinction) from The Wharton School, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is actively involved with TiE, Young Entrepreneurs Organization, and the Wharton and Stanford India Alumni Associations. He is also a member of the steering committee for New Ventures India.

A highlight of Leverage 2009 will be the B-Plan Showcase which is being organized in association with Epiphany Ventures. Epiphany Ventures is a Sector Agnostic Fund, with a size of $ 25 Million. The Fund will focus on early stage investments, but is also looking at investing in later stages if the opportunity is suitable. Mr. Gaurav Saraf is the Director of the Fund and Mr. Rishi Khosla is the Advisor for the Fund. The B-Plan Showcase will be an opportunity like no other for budding entrepreneurs committed to making their dreams a reality or those who have already taken the plunge and want to make it big in the world of business. A parallel objective is to create active deal-flow for venture capital investors to work on. Entries will go through a rigorous evaluation process after which the top 10 teams will be invited to present their plans to industry experts, academicians and investors. The event is different from other business plan competitions as there is no cash prize or winner of the showcase. Instead, budding entrepreneurs will get a chance to attract actual funding from venture capitalists in order to expand and grow their business ideas.

For more details, all interested can write to: -
E-mail: mediacell@iimahd.ernet.in

Concluded.