Vasudeva Varma
CEO
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Professor and the Dean (Research and Development) at IIIT Hyderabad, India. He obtained his Ph.D from the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad in 1996.
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His research interests are in the broad areas of Information Retrieval, Extraction and Access. More specifically, social media analysis, cross-language information access, summarization and semantic search. He also works in the areas of Cloud Computing and Reuse in software engineering.
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He is also the CEO of IIITH Hyderabad Foundation, which runs one of the largest technology incubators in India. The Foundation manages IIIT-H’s and technology transfers.
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He co-founded SETU software systems Pvt. Ltd. SETU’s product, Veooz is a Social signal based content discovery platform with social media search and analysis capabilities.
Ramesh Loganathan
COO
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Ramesh Loganathan is currently the Professor of Co-Innovation at IIIT-Hyderabad where he Heads the Research/Innovation outreach. He is also the Chief Operating Officer of Centre For Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT.
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Ramesh was also the Chief Innovation Officer of State Innovation Cell of Government of Telangana
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Ramesh brings with him almost 25+ years of vast executive leadership experience with a successful track record in running multi-million dollar companies. Prior to IIIT, Ramesh was the Managing Director of Progress Software, India and was responsible for leading product development at the India Development Center He provided strategic guidance to the teams with a focus on cross-product consideration for SOA & Data Integration.
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Ramesh has also held the position of Vice President at Paramati Technologies. As the VP he was responsible for managing the Product Engineering which included managing the product lines, product releases, product architecture, systems, and processes.
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He is also the Co-Founder of HeadStart Network, a volunteer organization that helped to build an early-stage startup eco-system in Hyderabad and pan India. Until recently he was the part of the core team and drives the Hyderabad end of the events including monthly Startup Saturdays and the annual HeadStart startups’ showcase.
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Until recently he was the President of HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Industry Association) and Regional Council Member at Nasscom.
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After a 2 decade-long stint as an accomplished Technologist in the product R&D space, on Dec 2015, Ramesh moved full-time into academics.
Lakshmi Misra
Mentor
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Lakshmi missed out from being one of the best rifle shooters in the country (silver medal in the national level NCC camps!!), to pursue an engineering education.
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A lover of nature and all things related to nature, she hopes that India, the world, will soon be on electric mobility and be zero-emission. Be warned when speaking to her about women rights and equality – a topic she speaks with passion.
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She loves those female lead role movies; particularly those that feature Vidya Balan or, Sandra Bullock. Lakshmi believes in enjoying every moment and likes to see the brighter side of things.
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Raising two kids, Lakshmi knows best to juggle multiple tasks, negotiate with demanding stakeholders, and show due care and empathy where it matters. Reading Karl Marx and Durkheim in Sociology, Lakshmi felt that the best place these are at work are with startups, and chose to work at the intersection of science and society at IIIT Hyderabad.
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She comes with nearly six years of experience in research and innovation domain and is still figuring out a ‘role’ for herself at CIE. Nevertheless, she can be contacted for all things related to CIE (and, for matters about dealing with ‘cancerian’ husbands and raising two kids).
Anubhav Tiwari
Head, Community & Outreach
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Anubhav Tiwari is currently working with Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at International Institute Information Technology (https://www.iiit.ac.in/), Hyderabad, India. Prior to IIIT, he was heading Association of MSME in IT which is a Think Tank of BJP that supports the Government of India in designing Public Policies. His role there was to develop, lead and manage strategic insights to promote and represent Indian ICT MSMEs. AIM-IT helped the MSMEs through policy advocacy on issues & challenges of Indian ICT MSMEs.
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Anubhav was the Chief Operating Officer of TEZ, from 2015 to 2017, which is a Startup Accelerator, Entrepreneurship Training and Incubation Centre located in Hyderabad, India It runs a 6 month Startup Accelerator Program jointly with Central University of Hyderabad. Anubhav represented TEZ as the registered Hand Holding & Help Centre under Government of India’s Start-Up & Stand Up India Policy.
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He is the Advisory Board Member of Indywood International Film Festival. He is one of the key speaker/mentor at the festival and every year mentors over 25+ film and media related startups at the event. He guides the team on program layouts, panel discussion, choosing the right categories for awards and helps in reference to getting key delegates to the event.
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He is also the Founder of Virtual Slaps, a company that is into Mass Media, Communications and Advertising. Virtual Slaps is also a production house, which promotes short films, and theatre plays.
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In addition to his experience and professional acumen, he has a sound educational foundation and a passion for writing on startups. He has presented papers on ‘Neuromarketing’ & “Role of Micro Finance in Developing SHGs into Micro Enterprises: A study of Guntur District in AP” in International Conferences. He is currently working on a paper titled: “Does Female Founding Members Impact Performance Of Start-ups?”
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He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, Banking, Insurance, Finance and Financial Services from Institute of Public Enterprise, India. His areas of interest are Emotional Intelligence, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Strategy, Venture Capital, Startups, Video Gaming and Mass Media. Anubhav has been a speaker at several conferences and seminars and business schools on topics ranging from Emotional Intelligence, Business Strategy, Leadership, Innovation, Branding, Advertising Communications, and Entrepreneurship.
Varsha Patyal
Manager, Community
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Varsha Patyal is currently working with Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT Hyderabad, and looks after the Medtech Accelerator Programme as a community manager at CIE.
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Prior to this Varsha has worked as a Deputy Manager at ICICI Bank Ltd. handling sales of mortgage department through outbound channels, handling finance agencies and building business for the bank, Varsha worked at Edu-Mentor Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. handling B2C sales, Business development and counseling for the center.
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Varsha is an engineer from Punjab technical university and holds an MBA from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad in India.
