Board of Directors

Vish Akella, Chairman, is a Silicon Valley based pioneering entrepreneur in the networking and communications field. Mr. Akella has been instrumental in launching a series of companies and products including, LSI Logics Networking Division, Kalpana, (later acquired by Cisco) and Acclaim Communications, sold to Level One Communications and subsequently to Intel Corporation. He has held senior management positions at other start-up companies such as Trillium and S3, all in the USA. He was recently, Chairman and CEO of Ample communications.

His new focus areas are human resources development, consumer products and channels. His forte is his strong managerial skills that have helped him identify and nurture high-growth companies. Mr. Akella was selected as one of the Top Ten Entrepreneurs in 1998 by Red Herring, USA. He has an enviable track record of starting several successful companies over the past two decades in San Francisco Bay area.

Vish Akella is very much encouraged by the explosive use of technology, investments in infrastructure and the growth of consumerism in India, in recent years. Concurrently, he has identified and invested in several companies that are involved in strong biotechnology & pharma-care research and are looking for a large global consumer base. As a compliment to this new area of growth, he sees a compelling potential in the use of Direct Sales and Person-to-Person marketing as a channel of distribution in India.

R Dhirendra, Chief Executive Officer, has over 25 years of multi-functional experience in various managerial capacities. In his role as CEO, Eduquity, he lends his efforts towards ingraining the organization's vision and strategy in its people and making strategic decisions towards the achievement of the same. On completing the Master's programme in Business Administration, Mr Dhirendra founded Renaissance Advertising. Here, he applied to good effect his forte in strategic planning and business development to transform the organization into a leading accredited advertising agency in Bangalore.

Mr Dhirendra's experience in the software industry spans over a decade. He co-founded Ampersand Software, the first software company to be started under the Software Technology Park scheme. At Ampersand, Mr Dhirendra also managed the operations and business development for the company. In this capacity, he explored international markets and successfully created business opportunities for the company in Europe and Asia. He represented Ampersand in various government committees and agencies as well as trade delegations to the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Mr Dhirendra was also part of the Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council's Working Committee for six years.

He has served as National President of the Round Table, India. In this capacity, Mr Dhirendra has championed several social causes in the field of education. Among others, this includes a national level initiative to build schools for the underprivileged and the commitment to harness resources to educate a million students within the next five years.

His purpose as CEO, Eduquity, is to help organizations realise their true potential by assessing and optimizing their talent pool. He believes, "It is only through rigorous assessment that quality manpower can be developed. Eduquity endeavours to offer a single continuum that will help organizations achieve this goal."

Bala Bhagavat, Director, has over 25 years of senior management experience in the international financial services in Canada and the US. Bala brings international operations and marketing perspective to Eduquity.

Until recently, he was a Director in the head office of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Toronto responsible for implementation of Basel II International Risk Management Framework. Prior to this role, Bala held a number of senior positions in the bank in the areas of large-scale technology implementations, back-office operations, business planning, and finance and business rightsizing.

Bala commenced his international career with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the financial services industry management consulting practice in Toronto. He serves as an advisor to companies in a variety of industries including consumer marketing, consulting, and technology.

Bala is a Chartered Accountant and an MBA from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Currently, Bala is the CEO and co-founder of Clearock Enterprises Private Limited, Bangalore, India.

Vipul Parekh, Director, is a successful enterpreneur having been involved in setting up two successful businesses: One in retail (sold for USD 100 Mn+) and the other in online commerce. He has expertise is in building strong teams that deliver results, strategic planning, management and design of distribution channels, marketing and product management, merchandising & brand promotion programs. He is an active visiting faculty at Xaviers Institute of Management, Bangalore and IIM Bangalore. Mr. Parekh holds a Postgraduate degree in management from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

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