Esther brings a unique set of talents and experiences to her role as moderator of this series. With a BA in economics at Harvard and five years’ experience on Wall Street, she is trained to recognize the power and the flaws in any business model.

With 23 years of experience writing the high-tech newsletter Release 1.0 and two years as chairman of ICANN, the agency that sets policy for the Internet’s domain name system, she is completely at home with the new economy (and has investments in many start-ups including Google to prove it).

Finally, as moderator of the PC Forum conference for 23 years, she is comfortable engaging titans of industry with thought-provoking questions that generate new insights both for the audience and for the titans themselves.

Through strong organic growth and implementation of an aggressive acquisition strategy, Francois has driven increased EBITDA for BT International in excess of 35% over the last two years, and is on track to further that over the next year. This has been driven on the fundamentals of creating organic growth in excess of 3 times the market rate, and good stewardship of resource allocation to emerging opportunities.

In the last two years, Francois has also helped BT acquire around 2000 new large customer names outside the UK, and signed key transformational deals with corporates such as In Bev, Fiat, Philips, Pepsico, Credit Suisse, Anglo America, Ciba Speciality Chemicals and others. François was also responsible for the identification of new investment opportunities, and for the management of BT’s international acquisitions. In the last the 3 years outside the UK, BT acquired 13 companies and established 2 joint ventures. François was also in charge of the marketing activities of BT Global Services in the UK and across the world.

François Barrault joined BT in May 2004 from Lucent Technologies Inc. where he was President of Lucent Mobility International. He had previously been President and CEO of Lucent Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and, prior to that, senior vice president, international, of their InterNetworking Systems group. In Lucent, he successfully led the integration of 38 Lucent acquisitions and was responsible for a global organisation of 17,000 people and €5 billion revenue.

Before Lucent, François spent 5 years with as a head of Stratus Computer, which was acquired by Ascend Communications, itself subsequently acquired by Lucent. François has also held senior roles at Computervision and IBM. Adding to his background of entrepreneurial experience, François was in the mid-Nineties the Chairman and co-founder of Astria, a leading European supplier of e-services. He is a current board member of eServGlobal, NETASQ and Quester Ventures, as well as an active member of the Europe+ Foundation, Member of the British American Business and has lectured at the London Business School, Harvard University and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA).

François, 46, is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, with a DEA in robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced technology. A keen jazz pianist, wine collector and golf player, François is a French national. He is married with three children and lives in Brussels.

Ajit serves on the Executive Committe of Nasscom and co-chairs the CII Task Force on eCommerce and serves on the Government committee reviewing the Indian Information Technology Act

He also funds a football training school for teenagers in his hometown in Kerala State, alumni of which have played for the Indian National Team.

Ajit is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management.

His blog is at ajitb.rediffiland.com.

Prior to co-founding OnMobile, he was Managing Director of technology investments at Gilbert Global Equity Partners, New York. Before Gilbert Global, he was a Principal with the Chatterjee Group, an affiliate of Soros Fund Management. During these years, Arvind led private equity, venture capital and strategic public investments in wireless telecommunications, internet, satellites, application software and IT services worldwide.

Earlier, while at McKinsey & Co, Arvind specialized in the electronics sector, and provided strategic counsel to high-tech clients on business entry and development strategies, acquisitions, alliances, product marketing and distribution strategies.

He has done his MBA Finance (from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), an MS (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and B.Tech (from IIT, Bombay).

In January 2006, Nandan became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He is listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006.

Nandan co-founded India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) as well as the Bangalore Chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE).

Nandan is the Vice-Chairman of The Conference Board, Inc., an international research and business membership organization. He is also a member of ASPEN Institute’s Business and Society Advisory Board. He serves as the Co-chairman of the Advisory Board of the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund. Nandan also serves on the London Business School’s Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Board.

Nandan is a member of the National Knowledge Commission and also part of the National Advisory Group on e-Governance. He is also a member of the review committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Nandan has been involved in various initiatives of the central and state governments. He was the Chairman of the Government of India’s IT Task Force for the power. Nandan has also served as a member of the subcommittee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India that dealt with issues related to Insider Trading, and as a member of the Reserve Bank of India’s Advisory Group on corporate governance.

Nandan is the recipient of several awards including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay’s ‘Distinguished Alumnus’ award in 1999. In addition, Nandan, along with Infosys Chairman Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy, received the Fortune magazine’s ‘Asia’s Businessmen of the Year 2003’ award. He was named among the ‘World’s most respected business leaders’ in 2002 and 2003, according to a global survey by Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nandan was also awarded the Corporate Citizen of the Year Award, at the Asia Business Leader Awards (2004) organized by CNBC. In 2005, Nandan was awarded the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in field of economy, economic sciences and politics.

In 2006, Nandan was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India.

Nandan received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, India in 1978.

Shumone has been with Levi Strauss & Co. since February 2001 and was Marketing Director for the Levi’s and Dockers brands till September 2004. 

Prior to joining Levi Strauss & Co., he was working with Unilever for six years. He has had a three year international stint with Textiles and Apparel Multinational, Polysindo based out of Indonesia.

Shumone graduated in Economics from Presidency College in Kolkata, and also holds a Post Graduate degree in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.