Leadership
Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises (NICEorg) is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to harness the economic potential of our millennia-old cultural heritage.
We are believers in the economic potential of cultural and creative entrepreneurs to drive Brand India.
We adhere to the highest standards of integrity and ethics, by conducting ourselves to our code of conduct.
WE ARE NICE PEOPLE
Entire family
Abhishek Mukherjee
Abhishek has 15+ years of experience straddling FMCG, E-commerce working at Unilever, Britannia, Myntra and Ola. He has also been an entrepreneur setting up a platform to discover experiential travel and food tourism experiences. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and building digital-first consumer brands. He holds an Economics Degree from St.Stephens College, Delhi and MBA from S.P Jain Mumbai.
Anchal Jain
Anchal Jain is the founding partner of Val-More Action Advisory that works with lifestyle and FMCG brands. He is Co-Chair, Creative and Cultural Businesses Programme at IIM-Ahmedabad and a member at Skills Development Committee, FICCI. He was the founder and CEO of Primetex Sarl based in Paris and has successfully built lifestyle brands across the globe. He is today a leading expert in helping companies develop their value creation strategy and has advised top business groups in India and Europe. Anchal is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad.
Aniketh MJ
Aniketh has 10+ years of experience, contributing in the growth of 3 growth stage startups, a family office, a global investment bank and through 4 short stints in Venture Capital firms in India, Singapore, the UK and the US.
He is passionate about India’s rich, cultural history and embarked on a 75 day trip across the country to promote all of its UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
He has also been playing Ultimate Frisbee competitively for the last 8+ years, having represented the country too.
Aniketh has an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Aravind Govindan
Aravind has over 9 years of experience working with GE, Frost & Sullivan, ANSR Consulting and Techstars in the corporate strategy and innovation space.
Aravind with management consulting experience is passionate about the entrepreneurial ecosystem, corporate innovation and strategy. He also helps startups in their fundraise.
Arunima Gupta
Arunima is Principal at the Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises. Her commentaries on India's soft power and foreign policy have been published on various domestic and international media platforms. She holds a Master's in International Relations from Leiden University, the Netherlands and a Bachelor's in History from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. Prior to joining NICE, Arunima headed the Centre for Strategic and Foreign Relations at Vision India Foundation.
She tweets at @ArunimaGupta03
Bala Girisballa
Bala has over two and half decades of global experience in technology & business. An entrepreneur and an author himself, he has founded three startups and is an advisor to many startups and venture funds for over 10 years. He is the Managing Director of APAC at Vista Equity Partners. Prior to this, Bala was the President of Techstars India - the world’s leading platform for startups & innovation. He has also served as Managing Director at Microsoft Accelerator India, Microsoft’s flagship startup program, and held leadership roles at Yahoo, Oracle, and a global management consulting & research firm.
Bala keynotes at events on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, business disruption, innovation, and building startups. He has contributed chapters in the books “Wiley’s Black Book Enterprise 4.0” and “Do More Faster” India edition. Bala also talks about Indian History & Culture in his YouTube channel. He has a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech from Osmania University. Bala lives in Bangalore with his family. In his leisure time, he loves coding, reading, writing and traveling.
C. Srinivasa Raju
Srinivasa "Srini" Raju is the Chairman of iLabs Group. He is an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He is a Founding and Governing Body Member of IIIT-Hyderabad, IIIT Sri City, Indian School of Business, KREA University and T-Hub.
Chitra Aiyer
Chitra is interested in all things Indian and enjoys reading and writing. She has been a technical writer, a freelance writer, blogger, professional photographer, content creator, and an architect. She has worked in startups and has also been part of various citizen led initiatives, both in the online and offline world.
She trained in architecture and professional writing. She is an alumna of Mysore University and San Jose State University.
Hari Kiran Vadlamani
Hari Kiran Vadlamani ( Hari) is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a serial entrepreneur, having been involved in four ventures in Technology and Energy sectors.
He is deeply passionate about Art, Philosophy and Indian Cultural Heritage and is a Dharmic- Indic Liberal.
In 2015 he transformed himself into a Social Entrepreneur pursuing the preservation, protection and promotion of Indian Heritage. He founded INDICA ( www.indica.in) and NICE (www.niceorg.in) , both not for profits in the area of Cultural Education and Entrepreneurship.
Hari brings in an entrepreneurial mindset to his work of delivering indigenous knowledge as a service, product or an experience by incubating a portfolio of ideas, rapid prototyping, absorbing failures, applying a three horizon framework, thinking of scale etc.
Having the mindset of a venture investor, Hari is focussed on backing passionate individuals. He encourages, enables and empowers them to discover, nurture and express their creative potential. He believes in transforming the narrator and not the narrative.
A strong advocate of pluralism, Hari envisions a vibrant ecosystem of diverse set of players and ideas and seeks to build the enabling infrastructure.
Hari believes that Indian thought and the indigenous way of life from various global traditions have solutions to some of the key challenges we face today, especially sustainability, happiness, well-being and peace. He is working on developing the requisite institutional mechanisms that can transform a billion global consumers into conscious thinkers, entrepreneurs, leaders and most importantly seekers.
He has developed a unique six dimensional integral strategy for pursuing this vision.
Jaithirth Rao
Jaithirth "Jerry" Rao is an ex-banker, entrepreneur, businessman, and author. He is a distinguished alumnus of Loyola College, IIM-Ahmedabad and University of Chicago.
Preeti Saran
Amb. Preeti Saran is a member of the UN's Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. She was the former Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs. She had also served in Indian missions at Moscow, Dhaka, Geneva and was the Consul General of India at Toronto and the Indian Ambassador to Vietnam.
Rashmi Shukla
Rashmi Shukla is an accomplished professional, passionate about building purposeful business and nurturing winning teams. She has managed multiple roles within the Aditya Birla Fashion and Lifestyle (ABFRL) spanning over close to two decades. She is a creative thinker, and an entrepreneurial and consumer champion . Her experience spans critical functional areas - General Management, Strategic Planning, Consumer Insights & Brand Management, Digital & E-commerce, Product and Merchandise specialist and Sourcing and Supply Chain . Currently Rashmi is spearheading Jaypore, an ABG initiative bringing India’s most beautiful artisanal finds to the consumer .
Ravi Narayan
Ravi is the Chief Executive Officer at T-Hub, India’s largest tech incubator, which enables and empowers an ecosystem hungry for innovation.
In a career spanning over two decades, Ravi has been a product engineer, entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and leader. He has co-founded three companies that he led from their inception to their successful acquisitions. As the global director of Microsoft for Startups, Ravi has helped establish Accelerators and Co-sell Programs across the world. He also worked with the portfolio of Temasek funds in Singapore to help them with digital transformation by collaborating with global startups. Mentor Partners, a venture capital fund that he co- founded, invests in product startups from India building for the global market. With a marked focus on creating world class products out of India, Ravi has been actively involved in India's startup ecosystem. By helping create startup density in the product space of Bangalore, Ravi is a key player in its evolution beyond being a hub for services. Besides advising the government of Karnataka, Ravi has also advised other national governments such as Singapore and Malaysia. During his time in Bangalore, he chaired TiE Entrepreneurial Summit (TES), NASSCOM Product Conclave and PAN IIT Conclave.
An engineer from IIT Madras, Ravi also holds an MS, and an MBA from the University of Southern California. Having seen every facet of an entrepreneurial journey, Ravi now spends his spare time amalgamating age-old wisdom from the scriptures and classics with his experiences so one can lead a balanced, and fulfilling entrepreneur's life.
Rishikesha T Krishnan
Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan is the Director and Professor of Strategy, IIM-Bangalore. He serves on several committees, boards, industry associations and is the author of two acclaimed books on India's innovation journey.
Sanjay Anandaram
Sanjay Anandaram is a co-founder of NICE (Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises), a non-profit company, that seeks to create Indian soft power through entrepreneurial ventures based on indigenous Indian practices and knowhow. He has over 3 decades of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, corporate executive, teacher, board member and mentor. He is also part of several startups and investment funds.
A passionate advocate of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial thinking and technology as the means for societal transformation, Sanjay works with several organizations such as TiE, iSpirt, CWE, NEN, IIMB-NSRCEL, and Quinnergy in furthering this transformation. For example, at iSpirt, he was responsible for leading the digital diplomacy initiative that propagated and disseminated the ideas powering India’s pioneering digital platforms to countries around the world. He has written extensively, lectures and teaches on his favourite topic. In 2016, he authored “Startup Mantras” a collection of 100 distilled insights for entrepreneurs and managers.
Sanjeev Kapoor
Sanjeev Kapoor is an Indian celebrity chef, entrepreneur and television personality. He has been honoured with the Padma Shri Award and the National award for the “Best Chef of India'' among other national and international accolades. Sanjeev has represented India as a Food Ambassador in many countries including Spain, Denmark, UK and USA. At the World Association of Chefs Societies in South Korea, he introduced the ancient ways of Ayurvedic cooking to the world of chefs. Kapoor hosted the very popular cooking show on TV, Khana Khazana, a name that continues in the food industry through food products and restaurants.
Saugata Gupta
Saugata Gupta is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Marico Limited. Under his leadership, Marico today is amongst India’s 5 Best Workplaces in FMCG as per Great Place to Work® Institute (India). Saugata was ranked #4 in FMCG and #47 pan-India in the Top 100 CEOs list by Business Today-PWC in 2017 and was ranked ‘India’s Most Valuable CEOs by BW BusinessWorld in 2016 and 2018. He was also awarded the Best CEO (Private Sector) at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2019.
Saugata started his career with Cadbury (now Mondelez) following which he joined ICICI Prudential as Chief of Marketing and Group Sales He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
MD and CEO at Marico Limited, one of India's leading consumer products companies. He also serves on the boards of Broadcast Audience Research Council, Marico Innovation Foundation, Chairman Indian Society of Advertisers, Ashok Leyland, and Beaute Cosmetique Societe Par Actions. Saugata is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore and IIT-Kharagpur.
Siva Devireddy
Siva Devireddy is the Founder of GoCoop.com, India’s first global marketplace for weavers and artisans. He strongly believes technology can drive social change and is passionate about innovations that promote social and economic development for the bottom of the pyramid.
Over 20 years of global technology & leadership experience starting his career in the Bay Area. In his previous experience, he was the Director of the Innovation Center for SAP with Accenture in India and played key management and technology leadership roles for multiple global clients. Fellow of Corporate Leaders program at Arizona State University with Master’s in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering.
As founder of GoCoop received Govt of India’s first National Award for Handlooms Marketing (eCommerce) 2016. Was part of the World Economic Forum round table at Textiles India and United Nations ESCAP round table on eCommerce for sustainable development in Bangkok. Siva was recognized as a Champion of Change by Hon’ble PM of India and Niti Aayog in 2017. Siva is a member of the UN ESCAP Digital Economy task force.
Snigdha Kundu
Snigdha is passionate about helping build organizations that support learning, entrepreneurship, innovation and social impact. Previously, she was enabling education, mentoring, networking and funding for startups at TiE Bangalore. She is also a theatre artist and a trained dancer.
Sulesh Kumar
Sulesh is a FinTech consultant at MEDICI. He has been a financial services person throughout with stints at Goldman Sachs and Canara Bank. Off-late, he has been exploring the world of financial technology heading research teams at Tracxn and working on the advisory side at MEDICI.
He has a strong passion for travel and exploring the culinary treats of each region and has completed a trip to visit and promote all the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India.
Suresh Chukkapalli
Suresh Chukkapalli, as the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Korea, Telangana, enables trade cooperation, facilitates economic relationships and commercial transactions between the state of Telangana and the Republic of Korea. Suresh is also the Chairman Emeritus of Phoenix Group, one of the leading infrastructure and property developers, co-Chairman of TERI School of Advanced Studies, HBCC, Governing Council member Rtambhara Wellness, Hon Chairman of the Institute of Directors, Hyderabad, Managing Trustee of the Phoenix Foundation and Trustee of Chukkapalli Shankar Rao Charitable Trust among others. Under his leadership and guidance, a wide range of philanthropic efforts as well as community initiatives are undertaken through the Phoenix Foundation.
He is a Mechanical Engineer from Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur.
TCA Rangachari
Amb. TCA Rangachari served as Ambassador to Algeria, Germany and France and in other capacities in China, Pakistan and at the UN. He has been a Visiting Professor and Director, Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi. He is also associated with institutions and NGOs for combating malnutrition among children in India.
Tejas Dalvi
Tejas Dalvi, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer at Cause First Ventures Pte Ltd, a family office based in Singapore. Tejas has 13 years' experience in financial services on both Buy and Sell-side environments. Tejas has extensively invested in public markets as well as Private Equity (PE). Tejas is a member of CFA Institute USA, MBA and qualified CA from India.
V Anantha Nageswaran
Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran is the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance. and former Dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business. He is an author, columnist, visiting professor, investor, and board member of several companies.
He served as NICEorg's Board of Advisors from 2020 - January 2022.
Vidhyashankar Sathyamurthi
Vidhyashankar is Head of NICE (Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises), powering a growing ecosystem of Cultural Economy. Vidhya has about two decades of experience in starting up, launching new business initiatives, investment banking for early stage technology business, media, brand building, marketing, business development and public policy advocacy. He had earlier successful stints with the Times of India group, NASSCOM, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP, and Ninestars Global.
Vidhyashankar is a dual Master's degree holder from BITS, Pilani and an MBA graduate from Cranfield School of Management, UK. He also holds additional advanced certification from Harvard Business School, Yale University and The Takshashila Institute for Public Policy.