+ ANIL KAKANI

Anil Kakani, Vice President and India Country Head at the Algorand Foundaiton, is founder of Vikasa Holdings. Prior to setting up Vikasa, he spent three years in Mumbai, India, where he was Executive Director on the investment banking team of a mid-market financial services firm. Kakani works in a strategic role with Indian and US companies looking to acquire technology, market access, and brands, and to access capital to grow their global business and market penetration.

Kakani earlier held various senior level roles in the US Government – most recently as Senior Advisor for India to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, where he established the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) with India's Finance Ministry. Kakani earlier worked as legislative counsel for economic policy issues to then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and as senior advisor in the Clinton White House to Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew. Kakani traveled to India with Presidents Clinton and Obama on their maiden visits to the world’s largest democracy.

Prior to his post at the U.S. Treasury, Kakani was Director for Commercial Development and Innovation at Corning Incorporated, a global innovation and manufacturing leader in keystone components that enable high-technology systems. At Corning, Anil developed commercial strategies for India and other emerging markets, and spearheaded an initiative for cross-border innovation partnerships with select Indian corporate houses and research institutions.

Kakani holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Arizona, College of Law; he is admitted to the California State Bar. He also serves on the Boards of numerous organizations, including Skate Basti Foundation, Just Jobs Network, World Sustainable Development Forum, and Mann Deshi Foundation. He serves on the Board of Advisors of Smart Axiom, a blockchain security technology company.

+ ARVIND DHEER

Arvind Dheer, Head of Vikasa's India operations based in Delhi, brings over two decades of commercial and technical experience across various sectors to the Vikasa platform. Most recently, Dheer served as President of Lloyd Electric and Engineering Ltd, a leader in HVAC and refrigeration systems and heat transfer technologies. He also has extensive international experience, having worked with technology partners and customers across diverse sectors (including railways, defense, energy) across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and China. Dheer is a tech savvy engineer with a track record of identifying technology and structuring joint ventures and MOUs.

Dheer graduated with a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, India, and a post-graduate Diploma in Business Management.

+ NIKHIL VARMA, PhD

Nikhil Varma is an academician and industry advisor, and at Vikasa, our Web 3.0 cannonball. He has over 15 years of industry experience working as a developer, architect, product and program manager, and management consultant. He is a trained software engineer with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, and Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from Concordia University, Montréal. He has an MBA and PhD from HEC Montreal, Canada. His PhD was focused on service design strategies using machine learning. Nikhil is currently an Associate Professor of Management at Ramapo College in New Jersey, where he teaches operations, data visualization, business analytics and sustainability. Nikhil also teaches courses on blockchain to business professionals and computer engineers at several universities worldwide.

+ JULIE HUDMAN, PhD

Julie Hudman, managing partner at Vikasa Health, is a health care executive with three decades of local, state, international, non-profit and academic experience. She is an expert in health care finance, a strategic and creative problem-solver, a team builder and an accessible communicator. Her unique blend of experience stems from being a health care provider, an administrator of the Medicaid health coverage program and many years of research and university level instruction in health care policy, public health and health economics.

As its Chief Executive Officer, Hudman recently led the Saban Community Clinic, a federally qualified health center with a $25 million budget that provides comprehensive primary and preventive health and social services to thousands of low-income patients in Los Angeles, CA. Hudman earlier served in the Cabinet of Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty as Executive Director of the District’s Department of Health Care Finance, where she was responsible for administration of the District's $2 billion Medicaid Program. She began her health policy career at the state level, during which she served in senior advisory roles in Oklahoma, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Hudman has also been Associate Director of The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and a researcher with George Washington University’s Center for Health Policy Research.

Hudman has recently worked with technology companies, service providers and non-profits to improve health and social policy outcomes in the US and India. In India, she worked with various organizations, including the Reliance Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and IndiaSpend. While living in Mumbai, she was appointed Visiting Professor and Member of the Board of Studies at St. Xavier’s College. Hudman also co-authored academic papers on universal health coverage in India.

Hudman is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, has a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health. She serves on the Board of Directors of Generation Citizen, a national non-profit that works to empower and educate young people to be active citizens in their communities.

Hudman can be reached at jhudman@vikasaholdings.com.

+ VIKRAM MEHTA, CFA

Vikram Mehta has served in senior roles where he has advised on matters pertaining to investing in India, including in infrastructure, health-care and technology verticals. He spent several years in India with a growth capital oriented multi-billion dollar private equity fund.

Before moving to India, Mehta served as Senior Counsel in the US Treasury Department’s International Affairs division, where he worked on bilateral and multi-lateral cross-border investments, financial policy and capital market development. Earlier in his career he was Executive Director on the Morgan Stanley Principal Investments Team, where he originated and executed several large leveraged buyouts, mezzanine financing, venture capital investments, and other structured cross-border private equity investments.

Mehta also worked as a senior corporate attorney at Cleary, Gottlieb, where he focused on international investing, including in project finance/infrastructure and large M&A transactions. Vikram started his career working at a quantitative corporate finance firm that specialized in valuation metrics for large public corporations.

Mehta, based in New York, holds a Master’s Degree in international economics from the University of Chicago, where he also completed his B.A. In addition, Vikram is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, and a member of the New York State Bar.

+ NAWAZ JADAVJI

Nawaz Jadavji has over 15 years of healthcare experience spanning life science research, provider/hospital revenue cycle consulting, managed care equity research, and healthcare technology. He is a hands-on leader with expertise in healthcare finance, operations, and analytics. He is passionate about working across disciplines to identify opportunities where analytics can deliver powerful insights to solve complex business problems. Data analysis and translating information into actionable insights has been core throughout his career

As its Chief Analytics Officer, Jadavji recently led the Business Intelligence and Analytics division at AMC Health, an early stage telehealth company focused on caring for patients with chronic conditions in their home. In this position, he created and established the strategic vision for the division consisting of SQL developers, data scientists, and data engineers. Jadavji held several roles during his six years with AMC Health, including SVP of Implementations where he led all strategic customer implementations. He was also extensively involved with defining workflows and requirements for the clinical information system used to manage patients.

Prior to joining AMC Health, Jadavji was an equities analyst covering managed care organizations at Deutsche Bank, where he interpreted the impact of daily news flow, earnings reports, health reform legislation’s effect on stock movement with investors and the Sales & Trading team.

Jadavji developed his expertise in the healthcare industry through consulting roles at Ernst & Young, Accenture, and boutique firms, where his primary focus was advising hospital systems on their revenue cycle operations including front-end intake workflows, coding and billing practices, and managing accounts receivable and denial of payments.

Jadavji holds a BA in Biology with a minor in Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and an MS in Industrial Engineering, Health Systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds an MBA from Columbia University Business School.

+ JITENDRA BALAKRISHNAN, PhD

Jitendra Balakrishnan has worked in academic and industrial R&D for over two decades in the U.S. and in India. He has set up R&D operations in India for Corning Incorporated, a Fortune 500 company, and is currently responsible for its growth in different areas of research. He also initiated an effort to regionalize product development in emerging markets for Corning by combining technology, manufacturing, commercial and strategic perspectives.

Balakrishnan has worked both as an active scientist and a technology manager in a number of fields of research, including: optical telecommunications; catalysis and emission control for automobiles; fundamental properties of glass and its application to the electronics industry; advanced life-sciences; and solar photovoltaics. Exposure to these wide-ranging fields has given Balakrishnan the opportunity to contextualize and direct activity in different areas of technology. He is also actively involved in research consortiums and collaborations with various universities in India and Singapore.

Balakrishnan holds a bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

+ SAM DAVIS

Sam Davis is chief social media strategist at Teneo where he works exclusively with and advises CEOs, CMOs and CCOs of Fortune 500 companies on their approach to digital, social and mobile media. His client list includes Coca Cola, UBS, Caesars, BT, Nissan, Equinox, SoulCycle, IBM, BHP, PetSmart, and WSL.

Prior to Teneo, Davis built and ran the top social media agency in professional tennis. He represented and managed the overall strategy and execution of social media accounts for various athletes, including Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, and Kei Nishikori. Davis grew and managed 30+ million cumulative social media fans. In this capacity he developed and launched social media campaigns for American Express, Porsche A.G., TAG Heuer, Nike, Peugeot and Citizen Watch around their sponsored athletes.

Davis earlier worked for four years as a policy analyst to Hillary Clinton, and as a senior researcher to President Obama during the 2008 White House transition.

Sam graduated from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.