SANJAY PURI

Sanjay is the Founder and President of the Alliance for US India Business Alliance (AUSIB). He is the Founder and CEO of Optimos Incorporated, an information technology company located in Reston, Virginia. As an entrepreneur himself, Sanjay keenly promotes the development of nascent business ideas in India and believes in the potential of small and medium business enterprises in both the countries. He is a recognized authority on US-India relations. He is the Chairman of the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), which is an independent, bipartisan political action committee representing over 2.7 million Indian-Americans. He is a frequent public speaker on US-India relations and the political impact of the Indian-American community.

HIRAK BISWAS

Hirak is current CEO of Tzar Investment Group, LLC. – a US-based international investment-banking firm, which structures cross border joint-venture private sector projects between India and the U.S. He is also Principal at the US-India Investment Fund – a New York based hybrid PE fund focused on capital investments in selected Tzar initiated U.S.-India JV projects. Prior to Tzar, he founded and successfully sold two companies: Advanced Tactical Systems USA, LLC (ATS) and Aptus Technology Corp (ATC). Hirak has extensive investment banking experience as AVP at Merrill Lynch & Co. Hirak has also worked with The Private Client Group and Blinder, Robinson & Co. He is actively involved in advising start-up companies. Hirak was the Regional Vice President for Indo American Friendship Council.

SUNIL MEHTA

Sunil is current Vice President of Product Marketing at Cornet Technology. He has 30 years of executive, technical, marketing and business development leadership experience. At Cornet, he is responsible for driving C4ISR voice/video/data tactical communications products business for the US and the global defense and homeland defense markets. Between1994 and 2002, Sunil was Founder and CEO of Optim Systems, Inc., which was acquired by Cornet. Prior to founding Optim Systems, Sunil held technical management positions in GTE Spacenet, Dynatech Communications and Convex Corporations. While at GTE Spacenet, Sunil led the launch of a revolutionary VSAT based satellite data networking system which won his GTE Spacenet team the Leslie Warner Award for Technical Achievement in 1992.

RAMA SHANKAR

Rama Shankar is a Managing Partner at Delta Management Associates. She focuses on training, developing and refining quality systems, and has over 28 years of experience in quality assurance, quality management system, quality auditing, coaching management staff, mentoring projects, six sigma and lean manufacturing. She has a worked in a variety of industries, including aerospace and defense. She is an adjunct professor at Illinois Institute of Technology and Great Lakes Institute of Management, where she teaches Quality Management, Quality Control and Statistical Quality Control. She is also a Certified ISO 9000 Lead Auditor, RAB accredited auditor, Certified Lean Trainer and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt trainer (CSSBB), and a Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) trainer. Rama is a two term Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Examiner.

COMMANDER T.S. SHANKAR (U.S. NAVY RESERVES)

Shankar is an Indian American business executive, who is also an active member of the United States Navy Reserves with the rank of a Commander. He is an Iraq war veteran and served a year on the ground in Baghdad as an Action Officer with Multi-National Forces – Iraq (Jan 2007 ~ Dec 2007).  As an Engineering Duty Officer, he currently drills with NAVSEA Northwest unit in support of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. In his 27+ years of services, he has received numerous military decorations, and letter of appreciation for over 1,000 military funeral honors he has officiated since 9/11 to honor America’s veterans.  In his civilian job, Shankar is the Regional Director – Business Development for a global end-to-end Information Technology (IT) service, and product engineering company (A TATA Company). He has over 35 years of hands on experience working for major American corporations in various capacities as manager of industrial, manufacturing, process and quality engineering.