New Product and Service Awards Judging Committee

Chair:

H.E. Baron Alec Stern, Entrepreneur|Speaker|Mentor|Investor 
Alec Speaks, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

H.E. Baron Alec Stern is an entrepreneur, speaker, mentor, and investor.  He has become known as "America's Startup Success Expert" for performing hundreds of keynote speeches worldwide and for his popular sessions at top conferences. He has been a co-founder or founding team member of 8 startups with 5 exits - 2 IPOs and 3 acquisitions.  As a primary member of Constant Contact's founding team, Alec was one of the original 3 who started the company in an attic. Alec was with the company for 18 years from start-up, to IPO, to a $1.1 Billion-dollar acquisition.  Alec has also been a Co-Founder or founding team member of several other successful startups.

Recently, Alec received the distinct honor of being Knighted and Ennobled as Baron of Boston of Cappadocia by the Royal Order of Constantine the Great and Saint Helen, of the Royal and Sovereign House of Cappadocia and San Bartolomeo.  His Knight of Merit is for his exceptional accomplishments in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Philanthropy.   Alec also advanced to Grand Cross Commander and became the Grand Prior General of the United States. One of the Northeast's most accomplished entrepreneurs, he is a limited partner in Boston-based G20 Ventures, which provides early traction capital for East Coast enterprise tech startups. Alec is also an angel investor and mentor in a number of rising startups in various industries.  Today Alec is innovating in a variety of industries including SaaS, Technology, Web 3.0, Metaverse, Medical Devices and Cannabis.

Alec is passionate about small business, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Working within the inner cities, or as he calls it, “urban innovation” is near and dear to his heart. Once Alec settled in Boston after college, he became very involved in the city’s nonprofit ecosystem, co-chairing and chairing many galas and fundraisers.  He created programs and events that led to raising millions of dollars for several causes and was an advisor and board member for several nonprofit organizations.  He helped develop the Young Professional Organizations for several nonprofits including the Boston Public Library Foundation, the first public library in the Country.  The BPL Young Professional Organization became the steppingstone for many future donors, event chairs and board members. Alec went on to co-found two nonprofits and the highest rated sailing regatta in Boston Harbor, the Flip Flop Regatta, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach sailing to inner city kids. 

Committee:

Jeff Bell, Operating Partner
MidOcean Partners, Kirkland, Washington, United States
Best known as past LegalShield CEO, creating the Jeep Rubicon & 4-door Wrangler, launching the Chrysler 300, Halo 3, Gears of War, growing Xbox Live with Netflix & Rock Band, and exiting multiple start-ups.

Tushar Chopra, Data Science Advisor
CVS Health, New York City, New York, United States
Tushar is a practicing AI Expert in the consumer retail vertical. His areas of specialization encompass three domains: Behavioral Economics, Revenue Growth Management, and Healthcare Marketing. With a decade of experience in AI practice across CPG giants, direct-to-Consumer Retailers, and Healthcare organizations, his executions have changed the status quo of actionable AI.

Saurabh Deochake, Staff Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
SentinelOne, Boulder, Colorado, United States
As a Staff Cloud Infrastructure Engineer, Saurabh works on building software solutions that scale SentinelOne’s complex and highly scalable multi-cloud infrastructure for the AI-powered cybersecurity platform. His areas of expertise and interests include cloud computing, big data, and intelligent systems. He is actively focused on solving problems in multi-agent systems.

Parth Desai, Founding Engineer
Litmus Automation LLC, Santa Clara, California, United States
Parth Desai, founding engineer at Litmus Automation since June 2016, brings over a decade of expertise in product management and software development. Leading industrial driver development for Litmus Edge, he has significantly contributed to advancing industries' IIOT adoption through numerous solutions.

Kranthi Kiran Erusu, Group Vice President, Engineering
Newrelic Inc, San Francisco, California, United States
Kranthi Kiran Erusu is the Group Vice President, Engineering, of NewRelic. Over a 17-year span, he has been at the helm of conceptualizing and launching products and services that have reached millions at Microsoft and Newrelic. His expertise spans hyper-scale data and API platforms in the security and observability domains.

Srinivasa Rao Gunturu, Solution Architect  
LTIMindtree, Houston, Texas, United States
Srinivasa Rao possesses over 14+ years of expertise in SAP FICO, encompassing proficiency across all phases of SAP Implementation. Additionally, he has extensive experience in production support endeavors for global clientele and rollouts. He has a proven track record of leading multiple teams, consistently delivering value to clients.

Ashish Gupta, Senior Director
Capital One Services LLC, Richmond, Virginia, United States
Ashish Gupta is a Senior Director of Software Engineering at Capital One. He has more than 20 years of experience crafting secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performance software platforms in banking, finance, telecom, and technology domains. He has built engineering platforms that secure data and APIs at scale in the public cloud.

Harihara Varma Indukuri, Chief Technology Officer 
Datanchor Inc, New Albany, Ohio, United States
Harihara Varma Indukuri is the Co-Founder and CTO of Datanchor Inc. He has more than 8 years’ experience in cybersecurity and software development. He graduated from Ohio State University with a Masters in ECE and has four patents in the fields of Cybersecurity and Wireless communication.

Roopak Ingole, Director - Advanced Electronic Systems & Strategy
Cummins Inc., Columbus, Indiana, United States
With over two decades of dynamic leadership in automotive and telecommunication, Roopak is a seasoned Engineering Director at Cummins Inc. leading Electronic Systems in R&D, to drive new product excellence. His strategic foresight reduced warranty costs and improved software efficiency. He is a Computer Engineer with an MBA.

Julekha Khatun, Director
Nike, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Julekha is an experienced Technical Product Management professional who is deeply passionate about innovative marketing data solutions and technologies that advance the industry, particularly in the Consumer and Retail sectors. She has a proven track record of working with C-level executives, SVPs, and VPs to define the vision for organizations.

Gaurav Kohli, Managing Director
EY, New York City, New York, United States
Gaurav Kohli is a Managing Director at Ernst & Young (EY). He has over 15 years of experience in consulting focused on the financial services industry. He has a Bachelor of Economics from University of Delhi and a Master of Business Administration from the College of William and Mary.

Kishore Kothandaraman, Co-founder
Goldcast, Los Gatos, California, United States
Kishore is the Co-founder & COO of Goldcast, a digital events platform for B2B marketers. Over the last 4 years, the company has raised $40M in venture capital and worked with 300+ enterprises such as Adobe, Workday, Intuit, LG & more.  Kishore oversees sales and marketing.

Andrew Chaoya Li, CEO
Userly Labs, Santa Clara, California, United States
Andrew is the co-founder and Director of Design of Userly Labs, a successful software company that built a user-experience product that served more than 100k users. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in Emerging Media and exploring the intersection of design and technology. An award-winning designer, Andrew has a wealth of experience.

Sai Bhargav Mettu, Principal Specialist       
KBI Biopharma Inc, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, United States
Sai Bhargav Mettu, an ISM 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Star is an accomplished supply chain professional recognized for his leadership and contributions to transformative initiatives. With a background in engineering and strategic thinking, Sai has driven efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and excellence in operations across diverse industries.

Raktim Mitra, Chief Lending Officer  
Varo Bank, San Francisco, California, United States
Raktim is the Chief Lending Officer at Varo Bank. He has over 15 years of experience in launching and scaling multiple businesses across consumer and small business lending, with leadership roles at Discover, Lending Club, Goldman Sachs, and Carvanan. He holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering from Virgina Tech.

Sumit Mittal, Senior Director of Product Management - Commerce
BlueYonder Inc., Frisco, Texas, United States
Sumit Mittal, a seasoned leader with over 21 years at Blue Yonder Inc., excels in E-Commerce, Supply Chain Execution, Data Science, and building cognitive solutions. As a product management leader, he has successfully introduced new products and services, transforming traditional supply chain systems.

Anuja More, Product Lead    
Meta Platforms Inc., San Francisco, California, United States
Anuja More is a product leader with over a decade of experience in Cloud Computing, AI, Machine Learning, Networking and Social technology within esteemed companies like Meta, Juniper Networks, and Fujitsu. She leads Product Marketing for WhatsApp's business platform, where she oversees building trusted experiences connecting billions of users globally.

Joseph Mundia, Risk Analytics and Reporting
Metlife, New York City, New York, United States
Joseph is a Risk Management analyst working for Metlife Investments Management. He previously worked for PwC as an Actuarial Analyst. He holds a master’s in financial risk management from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor's in actuarial science.

Rajendran Nair, VP Product Marketing
Medallia, Fremont, California, United States

Subramanian Narayanaswamy, Risk Officer
Wells Fargo, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States
Subramanian Narayanaswamy (Subbu) is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in the financial services analytics space, spanning big banks and FinTech companies. He specializes in designing and building scalable credit and fraud risk solutions and is passionate about bringing in new innovations in the financial sector.

Vijaysai Patnaik, Head of Product    
Applied Intuition, San Francisco, California, United States
Vijaysai Patnaik is Head of Product at Applied Intuition, a high-growth enterprise software startup backed by a16z and others. He has 15+ years of experience working in tech across Silicon Valley and India. He led product development at Google and Waymo, and he was also a VC at Accel Partners.

Pavan Kumar Reddy Poli, Senior Manager, Healthcare Program Management
CVS Health, Celina, Texas, United States
Pavan is a leader in the fields of Information Technology and Healthcare, with a career spanning over 15 years. He has a degree in Engineering, an MBA, and an MS in Information Technology Management. Pavan currently serves as a Senior Manager in Healthcare Program Management at CVS, a renowned Fortune 6 company.

Krishna Chaitanya Raja Hajarath, Senior Supply Planner
Cepheid, Lodi, California, United States
Krishna is a specialist in strategic supply chain and resilience planning. Well-known for his ability to solve complex problems and drive customer success, Krishna has made a significant impact in his field. He holds a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering and is currently pursuing an MBA from the Booth School of Business.

Prashanth Seetharaman, AVP
Intellect Design Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Prashanth is an accomplished senior leader with over 18 years of exceptional expertise in Financial services consulting, Digital product management, strategy and business transformation consulting in North America, Europe and APAC, working with various globally renowned multinational banks, fintech and Fortune 500 clients.

Dushyant Sengar, Director - Data Science and Innovation
BDO USA LLP, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Dushyant Sengar is a Director in the Chicago office of the Valuation and Capital Market Analytics practice of BDO and the author of the book “Modern Data Mining with Python”. Dushyant, with 17+ years of experience, specializes in AI/ML and other data science techniques related to product and model development. 

Pratik Shingru, Clinical Trial Research Manager
Prenuvo Inc, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Results-Driven Medical Doctor Specializing in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 5+ Years Of Experience With Direct Patient Care. Passionate about improving Healthcare through clinical research by generating data-based insights and scientific storytelling.

Mohnish Kumar Singh, Associate Director
ValueLabs Inc., San Diego, California, United States
An accomplished product management leader with over 16 years of global experience in insurance technology, employee benefits, and financial services. Recognized for driving value innovation and customer satisfaction through strategic initiatives, particularly in AI and analytics-focused products, shaping industry evolution.

Rahul Subramany, CTO
Monaire Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Haritash J. Tamvada, Founding Partner
Giga Growth Ventures, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Haritash is a serial entrepreneur with 16+ years of global leadership experience in technology-driven ventures spanning the Americas, Europe, and India. He is passionate about growth, innovation, storytelling, marketing, and startup investments. His strength lies in transforming market opportunities into multi-million dollar successes, driving revenue growth, forging partnerships, and fostering innovation. 

Gulcin Aytemizel Telatar, General Manager
Starpay, Istanbul, Turkey
Gulcin has 19+ years of experience and deep expertise in product management, business development, marketing, sales, and customer experience at Turkiye’s most innovative financial institutions and technology companies. She’s currently working as General Manager at Starpay Payment and Electronic Money company. Her current role is to serve as part of a leadership team.

Hemanth Kumar Yerraguntala Venkata, Associate Vice President -Digital Innovation Retail
InfoVision Inc, Richardson, Texas, United States
Hemanth Kumar is an accomplished innovation leader and Associate Vice President at InfoVision, a global IT services and solutions company. With over 16 years of experience, Hemanth is recognized for his thought leadership in the retail industry, driving innovation and digital transformation on a global scale.