Steve Ballmer
CEO, Microsoft Corporation

Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer’s leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.

During the past 20 years, Ballmer has headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. In July 1998, he was promoted to President, a role that gave him day-to-day responsibility for running Microsoft. He was named CEO in January 2000, assuming full management responsibility for the company, which includes delivering on the company’s mission of enabling people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

Together with Gates and the company’s other business and technical leaders, Ballmer is focused on continuing Microsoft’s innovation and leadership across the company’s seven businesses. Microsoft’s goal is to provide an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience across a wide range of computing and non-PC devices and services.
Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.

Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Anil Kumble
Indian Cricketer & Director, StumpVision (P) Ltd.

No bowler in India's history has won more Test matches than Anil Kumble, and there probably hasn't been a harder trier either. Unorthodox, he trades the legspinner's proverbial yo-yo for a spear, as the ball hacks through the air rather than hanging in it, then comes off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink.

Everyone remembers his perfect 10 in Delhi, but also memorable is his 6 for 71 on a flat pitch at Multan that helped India win a Test in Pakistan for the first time, and his hauls of 24 wickets in Australia in 2003-04, and the recent 23 wickets against West Indies in four Tests, including a match haul of 7 for 110 in the last Test in Jamaica which helped India achieve their first series win there in 35 years.

Anupam Mittal
Chairman & Managing Director, People Group/Shaadi.com

An MBA in Operations and Strategic Management from the Boston College - USA, Anupam Mittal is the Chairman and Managing Director of People Group - A New Media & Entertainment group, which includes business such as People Interactive (Shaadi.com, Fropper.com, Shaaditimes.com, Astrolife.com and Shaadi Point), People Infocom (MAUJ Telecom & 7007), Pep Management, People Pictures, and Purple Media.

Anupam is an entrepreneur and business strategist with cross-functional expertise in business & market analysis, marketing and new business development. His sharp business acumen and an eye for detail have seen the group register a 200% growth y-o-y since its inception in 2001.

Anupam has pioneered the launch of some really unique businesses and led them to success. Anupam started Shaadi.com, an online Matrimonial Services and Matchmaking business, which is today the most recognizable matrimonial brand on the Internet, and the first business of its kind anywhere in the world. Similarly Fropper.com, a friendship and social networking site and MAUJ, a wireless content, applications and services Company have been initiated by Anupam and have quickly grown to become leading names in their segment.

The group currently employs over 400 people and is headquartered in Mumbai. In addition to 7 regional offices in India, People Group has offices and operations in UAE, UK and USA.

Prior to founding People Group, Anupam, was associated with Microstrategy Inc., a NASDAQ listed company and global vendor of intelligent e-business software and incubator of revolutionary Internet businesses. During his tenure with Microstrategy, he initiated, developed and managed corporate level partnerships in wireless, content, consulting and financial industries. He is a recognized name in Silicon Valley and New York due to his accomplishments at MicroStrategy Inc. Other organizations that he has been associated with include Lotus Corp - IBM Cambridge (USA), Keane Inc., Boston (USA) and Gopal Fabric Mills, Mumbai (India).

Anupam Mittal was voted as one of the 25 people to watch out for in 2005 by ‘The Week’ Magazine. He has also been voted as one of the 100 most influential NRIs in the USA. A frequent speaker at conferences and seminars Anupam is a prominent thought leader in India for the entertainment, media and IT industries. Anupam has recently been appointed as the Chairman of The Governing Council of Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

People Group recently secured a total investment of $18mn through leading venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital, which will be utilised for further business expansion and acquisitions. Some recent accomplishments of People Interactive are – Being awarded the CNBC –TV 18’s Emerging India Award for being the most promising SME in the ICE (Information Technology, Communication & Entertainment) and ITeS (IT enabled Services) category. People Interactive has also been awarded with Deloitte Fast 50 India Award and the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia-Pacific Award. The company has also bagged the Franchisor of the Year Award (Consumer services Segment) for its business unit Shaadi Point.

Bob Muglia
Senior Vice President, Microsoft Corporation

Bob Muglia is Senior Vice President of the Server and Tools Business (STB), a part of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. STB is chartered to deliver Microsoft’s unique vision for information technology professionals and developers: ""Empower People across the IT Lifecycle through Integrated Software Innovation."" As STB business leader, Muglia is responsible for developing and marketing Microsoft’s infrastructure and developer software. This integrated set of products provides the foundation for IT operations, security, application development and integration. This portfolio includes Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center management products and the Forefront line of business security products.

Muglia is a member of Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team (which includes Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer) that is responsible for shaping the company’s business and technology strategy.

Since joining Microsoft in January 1988, Muglia has served in a variety of positions, including managing the development of the MSN network of Internet services and Microsoft Office family of business productivity applications, Windows Server applications, and productivity appliances such as Pocket PCs, eBooks and Tablet PCs. In addition, Muglia helped to bring together the Visual Studio family of developer tools and drive the Win32 API, customer requirements and product specification for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.

Before joining Microsoft, Muglia was a development manager at ROLM Co. Muglia holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan.

Dax Pandhi
CEO, Nukeation Studios

Dax Pandhi is the Founder and CEO of Nukeation Studios, a technology/design studio. He has over a decade of experience with graphics and software technologies.

Dax has been awarded multiple awards for excellence in web design by the International Association of Web Masters and Developers. As a UX specialist, he is currently dedicated to leveraging the new Windows Vista™ wave of technologies - especially Windows Presentation Foundation - to help clients create the next generation of applications. He also maintains a blog at http://www.naesthetic.com.

Deepak Gulati
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

Deepak works as a developer evangelist at Microsoft and believes firmly in brevity being the soul of wit. He is extremely excited about the Microsoft technologies due for release over next 12 months specifically Windows Presentation Foundation.

In his (exceedingly rare) free time he likes to travel with his camera and occasionally posts the results on his photoblog.

Gurpreet S Pall
Director, Microsoft Corporation

Gurpreet S. Pall is currently a Director of Windows Live Platform and Services at Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad. Prior to his current role he has held leadership positions at Microsoft Corp. USA as Sr. Director of Architecture Strategy with Developer and Platform Evangelism, and Product Unit Manager in the Windows Engineering group responsible for incubating Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) and related infrastructure solutions & programs. Over the 16+ year career at Microsoft he has delivered several key products and solutions to the Microsoft’s customers, partners and internal operations. He has played key roles in the planning and delivery of products such as Microsoft Excel, Office and solutions in the areas sales force automation and empowerment, knowledge management and IT services. He holds a B-Com (Honors) Degree from St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, and a Masters of Management degree from Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.

Janakiram MSV
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

Janakiram MSV is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft India. He started his career with FoxPro development and subsequently moved to Visual Basic and the .NET platforms. He has been a trainer, project leader and consultant. He joined Microsoft India as a Technical Specialist where he worked with the corporate and enterprise customers. In his current capacity, he works closely with the developer communities in India, evangelizing and sharing the vision on next generation technologies from Microsoft. He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) Charter Member on the .NET platform. Janakiram is passionate about XML Web Services and Mobile Computing. In his free time, he enjoys making wide range of technologies interoperate with each other.

Jaspreet Bindra
Country Manager, MSN India

Jaspreet Bindra is currently the Country Manager of MSN India & Windows Live. Jaspreet is focused on driving consumer use of MSN & Windows Live services, bringing new advertisers online and exploring business opportunities in the booming mobile market focuses. He also oversees the business development & sales and marketing in India.

Prior to joining MSN India, Jaspreet Bindra was with the Tata Group. Jaspreet was a part of the Tata Administrative Services (TAS), and he held senior sales, marketing and general business management positions in the telecom, internet and consumer companies within the group. Over the last year, Jaspreet has been contractually associated as a Principal with Pittiglio, Robin, Todd and McGrath (PRTM), the global management consulting firm. Jaspreet also formerly held the position of Chief Operating Officer with Bazee.com – now known as eBay India.

Jaspreet is known for being a whiz at quizzing and is extremely passionate about it. He has the distinct honor of winning the Brand Equity Quiz thrice, in 1995, 1997 and 2004. Jaspreet particularly enjoys business quizzes and also describes himself as a heavy reader.

Leon Brown
Designer Marketing Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Leon Brown, Designer Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific, India and Greater China, has over 16 years experience working with creative professionals, and brings a wealth of experience and a passion for helping people create and communicate better.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Leon worked at Adobe Systems, Inc. As Senior Product Manager he delivered five versions of the industry leading Adobe Illustrator, as well as Adobe Creative Suite 2, both critical tools for many professionals world-wide. Leon's fluency in Japanese and work developing features for and building markets in Japan and Asia enabled Adobe to maintain its market lead in the critical Japanese market and grow positive relations with its designer communities abroad. Leon also lived eight years in Japan working as audio and video engineer. While in Japan, Leon worked with numerous artists producing CDs, commercial video, mixing for live concerts and planning installations for live houses and performance spaces.

Check out the new Expression Tools Suite below !! Even the packaging is cool !!
http://www.microsoft.com/products /expression/en/default.mspx

Neeraj Roy
Managing Director & CEO, Hungama

Managing Director & CEO , Hungama,owners of the two biggest entertainment portals in South Asia, Hungama.com and IndiaFM.com, The # 1 Bollywood portal in the world. Hungama’s Promotions & Entertainment marketing business has engaged over 300 brands and created 1000+ interactive and several award winning promotions. Hungama has won over 52 awards in Digital Marketing, including 4 ABBY Golds, PMAA-Singapore and the Globes in Miami. Hungama Mobile, a division of Hungama is the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of BOLLYWOOD content in the world. They hold the worldwide exclusive license to over 35,000 music titles, 3,000+ videos and have worked on over 500 movie games etc. Hungama Mobile has now launched a Bollywood channel with 47 operators in 15 countries including services such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, AOL Music etc. Neeraj was recently voted amongst the ‘50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment’ globally.

Pandurang Nayak
Developer Evangelist Microsoft Corporation

Pandurang works as a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft focusing on next generation web technologies. He is very excited about the Microsoft technologies around Windows Live, ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint Portal Server and other web technologies that herald the beginning of a new era on the Internet. He has over 8 years of industry experience creating complex web applications and working on several Microsoft technologies.

Apart from technology, his interests include reading, writing, travel and photography. His blog can be found at www.thinkingMS.com/pandurang

Raj Nayak
CEO, NDTV Media

Raj Nayak, a well-known name in the Advertising and Marketing circles in India, is the Chief Executive of NDTV Media Ltd. He is recognized for his vision and foresight. He has over 20 years of experience having started his career with Tata Economic Consultancy services and has worked in various capacities both in the print and electronic medium. Raj now leads NDTV Media, India’s best-known and most respected full service Media Marketing and Consulting Company. It has offices spread across 9 cities.

Prior to joining NDTV Media, Raj was the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for the STAR TV Group where he was responsible for strategizing, packaging and marketing of all STAR TV channels and for the advertising revenue of the entire group. He was a key member of the STAR TV India Management Committee and was also on the Board of Vijay TV and Indya.com. During his tenure at Star TV, he was handling over 8 channels in different genres, with more than 175 people reporting to him, helping generate revenues to the tune of USD 175 million annually. He can be credited with changing the way sports television was marketed in India. He set new benchmarks with the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1999 and also played a key role in turning around the fortunes of ESPN Star Sports in India.

Raj brings with him a proven track record of revenue generation and an exceptional understanding of the media industry. He is an astute and savvy sales person and his greatest strength lies in his ability to create long-lasting relationships with agencies, clients and the talent fraternity. His ability to mingle with ease across levels and across industries and be accepted by them is what makes him unique! Raj was recently elected as Vice President for International Advertising Association (IAA) – India Chapter.

Rajnikant Patel
Managing Director & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange

Rajnikant Patel is the Managing Director and CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange - the oldest Stock Exchange in Asia. In March 2001 when banker Rajnikant Patel accepted the offer to head the Bombay Stock Exchange’s surveillance division, his friends discouraged him. The BSE, Asia’s oldest stock exchange, was trying to recover from the ‘second scam’ and the surveillance division itself was under watch. Friends warned him of an indelible blot in an otherwise impressive career. A die-hard biker, Patel responded that since he had switched track, there was no turning back.

Four years and a few months later, when he is being redesignated as the managing director and CEO of BSE in a new, corporate avatar, Patel says nothing has changed; he is revving up to go faster.

Tarun Gulati
GM-DPE, Microsoft Corporation

Tarun Gulati is the General Manager for Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) at Microsoft India and a part of the India Leadership Team. In this role, Tarun is responsible for spearheading Microsoft India’s efforts to foster the Indian software ecosystem through deep strategic engagements with developers, IT professionals, students, academia and software and services organizations. His strategic goal is to drive increased developer & IT Professional satisfaction, accelerate broad market adoption of Microsoft technologies and win the enterprise development platform.

Prior to this role, Tarun was based in Microsoft US where he was General Manager - National Platform Evangelism and Technical Sales. In this role, he led a community of 1400 technical and specialist people supporting a $10 billion revenue stream and drove the company’s DPE, Specialist Team Unit (STU), Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) and security initiative s. During his tenure in Microsoft’s largest subsidiary, Tarun has done commendable work to improve the overall efficiencies within the developer, IT Pro and partner communities - leveraging synergies in leadership development, training, readiness, systems, and processes.

Before joining Microsoft in 2001, Tarun worked with Aditi Technologies as Vice President – Services and helped bootstrap the company into a key global System Integrator (SI). During his tenure with Aditi Technologies, he was responsible for running the sales, marketing and technical delivery operations in Asia, Europe and USA and managed a team of over 350 people. Tarun was instrumental in helping the company grow its operations and had full responsibility for the $30 million global division offering high-end consulting services.

Tarun has over 10 years of experience in the industry. Prior to Aditi Technologies, he was with Sheraton Hotels for over eight years. While with Sheraton Hotels, he was adjudged ‘Front Office Manager of the Year 1994’, one of the hotel industry’s most coveted awards.

Tarun completed his Master and Bachelor of Arts from University of Bombay, Honors in Systems Management from NIIT and followed by an Executive MBA from University of Washington, USA. Tarun & his wife Ashmita currently reside in Mumbai with their two daughters Nikita and Esha. During his free time, Tarun enjoys sports and likes running, swimming and playing squash.

Yash Chopra
Producer, Director, Writer – Indian Film Industry

Born on 27th September 1932, in Jalandhar (Punjab), Yash Chopra is undoubtedly one of the most successful film-makers in India. With a career spanning over five decades, he has been associated with 35 films, most of which have created box-office history. He started out as an assistant to his brother and went on to direct 5 very successful films for his brother’s banner - B.R.Films – in addition to 4 films for other film companies. But his greatest repertoire of work has been around 30 films made under the auspices of his own company, YASH RAJ FILMS. Out of these, he has directed 12 films himself, while the others have been directed by younger directors – under his supervision and administrative acumen of one of India’s greatest producers.

He can be called India’s most successful confluence of creativity and administrative genius - as he dons his two hats - as a director and a producer. As a director his specialty has been romance. Yash Chopra was one of the first directors to shoot his films out of India – the fact that a lake in Switzerland has been unofficially named ‘The Chopra Lake’ is testament to the same. His films have always had a message and have never failed to bring either a smile to the lips or a tear in the eye of the viewers. He has groomed various young talents through his films - as a director, his son Aditya Chopra, has been his most significant contribution. He has brought in new composers through his films, new singers, and new acting talent.

Yash Chopra is currently on the Advisory Board of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry of the Government of India. A multiple National and Filmfare Award winner, he was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2001 for his contributions to the Indian film industry over a prolific and distinguished career. Yash Chopra is the only film-maker to have won the National Award six times, and the only living director to have won the Filmfare Awards nine times. Yash Chopra also received the coveted Padma Bhusan Award – one of the country’s highest civilian honors – in 2005 from the Honorable President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.