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Shailesh is the Founder of Budhyati Ventures, which partners with exceptional founders and enables them to scale up to build innovative best-in-class companies. Shailesh is a seasoned advisor to boards, CEOs, and CXOs, with extensive global experience. He has a track record of shaping board and management agenda at established industry leaders and younger growth organizations.
Prior to founding Budhyati Ventures, Shailesh was a Partner at McKinsey & Company in India and a leader of the firm’s global Sourcing and Analytics practices for over 17 years.
Shailesh serves on the Board of Eclerx and Protean eGov Technologies Ltd. (Formerly NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Ltd.). He also served as an advisor to several global enterprises in India, USA, UK, and Germany and specialized in business strategy and operations for IT / BPM and the R&D industry.
Shailesh holds a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the IIT, Kanpur.
Krishnakumar has about 32 years of corporate experience in manufacturing and investment management, across organizations like Lucas TVS, Anush, and Sundaram Mutual Fund. Krishnakumar – KK, as he is known in the Indian AMC industry, has been recognized for his skills in identifying good long-term investment opportunities in the mid, small, and microcap space, which is underresearched in India. He has been voted amongst the Top 10 Best Fund Managers by ET Wealth (August ’16) and Outlook Business (March ‘17). KK has over 25 years of experience in the Indian equity markets.
He joined Sundaram Asset Management Company in 2003 as Head of Research and was elevated to the post of Chief Investment Officer, Equities in April 2015. He assumed management of the flagship fund Sundaram Mid Cap Fund in 2012 and also individually managed Sundaram Small Cap, Sundaram Large and Mid Cap Fund, Sundaram Multi Cap Series and Select Small Cap Series and also jointly managed Sundaram Services fund, Sundaram Infrastructure Advantage Fund, Rural India Equity Fund, Equity Savings, Balanced Advantage Fund with his deputies. He also launched and managed the Sundaram Select Micro Cap Series, Sundaram Long Term Micro Cap Tax Advantage Fund Series, and Sundaram Emerging Small Cap Series. He was also instrumental in launching the Sundaram Alternates Business and Offshore products.
KK is an Engineering graduate from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with a specialization in Portfolio Management from Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai. He also has an automotive industry experience of 6 years with Pricol and Lucas TVS.
KK moved on from Sundaram MF in 2021 and has set up his own investment management firm Lion Hill Capital to leverage his vast experience.
Krishnakumar Natarajan (KK) co-founded Mindtree in 1999 and in 2007 took the company public. As CEO and Managing Director (April 2008-March 2016) and subsequently as the Executive Chairman of Mindtree till July 2019, Krishnakumar was responsible for making Mindtree a global IT player. Under his leadership, the market capitalization of Mindtree rose to USD 2.5 billion and Mindtree was judged as the most promising company for the year 2013 by CNBC. Businessworld & Forbes ranked him among India’s most valuable CEOs in 2016. He won Bloomberg UTV’s award as the CEO of the Year in 2010, and Business Today’s CEO of the year award in 2014, and was recognized by Chief Executive Magazine as one of the twelve global leaders of tomorrow. EY honored him with Entrepreneur of the year 2015 in Services.
A 39-year IT industry veteran, KK held several key positions at Wipro before cofounding Mindtree. KK has been engaged in the start-up ecosystem In India for over 20 years. As a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM, he started the EMERGE forum which identified promising start-ups and recognized them through the EMERGE 50 awards. In 2013, Krishnakumar served as Chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). He is an Independent Director of Tata Communications and Kotak Asset Management Limited.
He is an active partner of Social Venture Partners- an organization involved in impactful philanthropy. Along with his wife, he runs their personal foundation focused on helping high-potential rural girls to attain professional qualifications and helping senior citizens age gracefully.
Krishnakumar is an active member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is also a regular speaker at international IT industry conferences and a faculty member at management schools around the world. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Chennai, India, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Xavier Institute, Jamshedpur, India.
