Ashwin Kak
Advisor
Ashwin is a seasoned corporate responsibility professional with a total experience of 14 years, including nine years in various corporate responsibility domains – heading the CSR, Sustainability & Agriculture verticals at Pidilite and AB InBev, respectively, and the Procurement & Sustainability function for AB InBev India & South-East Asia. The first five years of his career were spent honing his commercial skills while selling, marketing, and strategizing for Fevicol’s growth across India.
As a CSR and sustainability professional, Ashwin has been instrumental in creating and implementing partnership eco-systems and on-ground initiatives for climate action, supply-chain sustainability, water stewardship, renewable electricity, health & sanitation, micro-entrepreneurship, women’s empowerment, education & skilling, sustainable agriculture et al.
While heading the Procurement & Sustainability function as part of the Man-Com (Management Committee) at AB InBev, Ashwin has created & launched multiple seasons of the Sustainability 100+ platform with CNBC TV-18 and has worked extensively in deciphering and solving supply-chain circularity challenges, creating de-carbonization roadmaps for supply-chain partners, and embedding sustainability into sourcing and supply chain processes — with a mix of successes and failures and many relevant learnings!
In addition to currently being an Advisor – Strategy and Development at Amplo Global, Ashwin is a start-up mentor and advisor for multiple start-ups across the world. He is a strong thought leader in the space of Sustainability, which is evidenced by his diverse involvement across industry conferences like UN Climate Change for Innovation and at The Economist Circularity forum, featured on digital platforms like India CSR Portal, Mint and ICRISAT, and has taken master-classes and judged sustainability events at educational institutions such as Indian School of Business, SIIB and Goa Institute of Management.
His commitment to continuous learning is unwavering. He has immersed himself in two on-campus Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Leadership Programs at Stanford University. Recently, he completed his PG in Public Policy from Takshashila Institution, during which he has carried out deep research & written multiple papers on the CSR law in India, the challenges & opportunities of the EV sector as well as the various facets of urban development.
His written analyses on corporate sustainability, agriculture, and climate action can be viewed in the LinkedIn newsletter titled Our Sustainability Manifesto. His LinkedIn profile can be accessed here.
Bata Senapati
Advisor
Bata is an experienced Supply Chain Technology professional with a 30-year track record of effective leadership in Developing & Executing Technology strategy; digital supply chain transformation; setting up and driving modern technology innovation center of competency using IoT/AI/ML; delivering technology solutions including Portfolio and Program management, Application architecture, development, and production operation; management consulting, business relationship management, vendor relationship management, and people leadership.
Bata currently is the Vice President, Supply Chain Technology at HAVI, a leading logistics, distribution, and supply chain company where his focus has been targeted supply chain technology transformation in the areas of Finance, Procurement, Order Management, Warehouse & Transportation Management, Supply Chain Planning, and Customer Relationship Management. In the past, while working for KPMG and Tata Consultancy Services, Bata has led several business process and technology transformation initiatives at several global brands from a diverse group of industry domains.
Bata is Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) by Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) formerly known as APICS.
Industry Specialization:
Logistics and Distribution, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR), Electronics and Telecommunication, Manufacturing, Energy, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Media & Entertainment, Airlines, Medical Service, and Retail Banking
Functional Expertise:
Supply Chain Management, Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, Plan to Make, WMS, TMS, and CRM, Data Management, Data Management, and data architecture, BI/KPI etc.
Cyra Richardson
Advisor
With rich experience of more than 20 years in the IT industry, Cyra Richardson has played multiple roles as a technical entrepreneurial leader (General Manager, Engineering Director etc.) in start ups and in large organizations. She has expertise in the consumer designing and executive coaching.
She had helped Microsoft to achieve top level business improvement (worth 13.5 point NSAT) and also empowered some well known e-commerce organizations to generate $312 Million revenue growth. She is an effective leader and delivered impactful solutions to the market for the large organizations & for the start ups as well.
Industry Specialization: E-commerce, IT, AI, Robotics & SaaS
Functional Expertise: Industry 4.0 Technologies, IoT, ML, AI, Simulation, Autonomous Systems, Robotics, Cloud, HW, Edge, Program Management, Business Development and Technical Leadership
Greg Plum
Advisor
Greg has been recognized as an industry expert in the collaboration and unified communications space, having co-authored the book Getting Started with Skype for Business Online, and channel development having built partner programs from scratch for multiple SaaS providers.
He has lobbied on Capitol Hill in support of the IT industry and is a 3x TEDx speaker. Greg also currently serves as the chair of CompTIA’s Emerging Technology Community, chair of Technology Forum of Delaware, and mentor for the University of Delaware’s Executive Mentor Program.
Industry Specialization: Technology, Software and Solutions
Functional Expertise: Strategizing GTM plans for SaaS founders and CROs. Partnerships, strategic alliances, and marketplaces.
Scott Ryan
Advisory Sales
Scott is a strategic go-to-market leader with experience across high tech, financial services and management consulting. He has focused on growth, profit and impact in all of his professional roles. Some highlights include growing market share as the Sales COO for Bank of America, leading institutional banking penetration at Salesforce and integrating ESG & KYC sales plays at Moody’s Analytics.
Following a successful career pushing the envelope at large corporations, Scott has turned towards entrepreneurial and advisory roles in climate tech and fin tech. He is enjoying the chance to leverage his engineering roots from Johns Hopkins and MBA studies from New York University. Scott is also a member of the leadership council of NRDC and was previously a board member of WhyHunger.
Suneet Bhatt
Advisory – GTM
Executive Coach and Adjunct Professor of Purpose
Suneet is the Founder of My Authentic Story, where he helps professionals, students, and anyone who’s curious “Unearth, frame, share and live their purpose”. He’s adapted his framework and approach to a course titled “Find and Evolve your Purpose” he now teaches at Rutgers University. Before My Authentic Story, he spent 25 years working across sectors and business models while participating in various company transformations and transactions, from raising over $40mm, to operating as Board Chair and President for the world’s largest B-Corp Certified BPO, to the purchase/sale of companies totaling over $100mm. Honestly, Suneet has also had some extraordinary misses.
What he’s learned, above all, is that people are the most sustainable, adaptable, valuable, and important drivers of everything you do. So take care of them.
He’s trying to match the bar of excellence set by his children (thankfully, they’re generous and kind). Outside of professional pursuits, Suneet currently serves on the Board of Education for Metuchen, NJ, and writes socially impactful children’s books (Dream Village).
William Haines
Advisor
Bill has spent 35 years designing, building, deploying, and managing technology for a variety of industries, including process manufacturing, office machine sales and distribution, retail, discrete manufacturing, and more. For the last 10 years, Bill was the Supply Chain CIO for a vertically integrated global retail brand. Bill has a particular passion for Industry 4.0 technologies and its benefits for global manufacturers.
Industry Specialization: Discrete Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution, Marketing
Functional Expertise: Industry 4.0 Technologies: Process Automation, Additive Manufacturing, Data & Analytics, IoT, IT/OT Integration; MRP, Integrated Planning, and Diamond Cutting & Polishing