Our leadership combines decades of experience from media, agency and tech. We worked for startups and upstarts. We are old enough with the experience to pull it off, but not too old to believe those who tell us it’s impossible. Stanford grads to IIT dropouts. Comic buffs to code warriors.
Maddy began his career, 23 years ago, with Cyber Media, India’s largest technology publisher at 19 – straight out of high-school. In 1999, he was the Founding Editor of ZDNet’s Indian operations, acquired by CNET in 2000 and later by CBS in 2008. His work profile includes Associate Editor at Silicon India; Technology Editor at ITP and Managing Editor for IDG Middle East – the world’s largest IT publisher.He also set-up the EMEA operations for Ramky Group, and served as their ‘GM-at-Large’ for seven years, which was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) a P/E firm for over $510 million in 2018. He also won ‘Best new Entrepreneur’ by VISA in 2008 and won several global awards in the US, UK, UAE and India from thousands of entrants.
An avid traveller, having visited over 40 countries, he hopes to visit the other 160 some day. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Osmania University and an MBA from Cardiff, UK.
Chris has over 19 years of experience in B2B content. Prior to joining Content HQ, he worked with leading publications such as PC Magazine, Arabian Reseller, Your Business, PC Quest, and CIOL. Over (almost) the past two decades, he has written hundreds of features, white papers, reviews, and business content for clients such Adobe, Cisco, Unilever, Dubai Government, 3M, Deutsche Messe and Sonic Wall.
His past career roles include Head of Content at Universal McCann handling Microsoft; Editor at Altus Publishing, Dabbagh Group, UTV, Cyber Media and ITP.
Shishir is responsible for French content creation, localization and editing of web content, blogs, social media, whitepapers, infographics, and scripts. Perfectly bilingual, he started studying French in school and graduated with a mixed major in French Literature and Economics. He was the first Indian admitted to the world’s oldest business school – ESCP Business School, Paris – where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Marketing and Communications. With over 20 years’ experience, Shishir began his career for a large business group in French West Africa and moved to L’Oréal. With a passion for brand communications, he joined FCB-Ulka Advertising and worked on iconic French brands such as Garnier, Kérastase, Vichy, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank.
He helped set up two independent, full-service agencies in Dubai and managed the creative & media for the French energy giant Total, Western Union, Etisalat, and Abu Dhabi Tourism, among others.
He is an active member of the ESCP Alumni and heads the UAE selection jury for admissions to France’s top five business schools and engages extensively with the French Education Ministry, Cultural Centres, and the French Consulate to promote cultural and educational cooperation.
Outside work, Shishir is an Oenophile with a Diploma in wine appreciation from WSET (UK) and writes on French wines while enjoying a tipple or two.
With over 32 years of experience in creating content for the print, TV and online media, Prakash is an award-winning writer/designer with international experience in marketing and advertising. With an eclectic background and education in science, engineering, literature, typography; copywriting, and creating print, logo, web, and advertising design.
His creative work have won accounts, garnered awards, helped clients raise their bottom lines.
After dropping out from IIT, he found his creative calling and pursued an MA in English and Linguistics from the University of Bombay; studied Typographic Design at the London College of Communications, and UCLA. He has worked with ad agencies, across various roles from Artist/Designer to Creative Group Head.
He is endlessly curious exploring history, sociology to maths and hopes to write a book. Someday.
Advisory Board:
Ned is a seasoned executive with a 30 years’ experience in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has held senior startup/turnaround roles with successful tech ventures (e.g. Zawya), Fortune 500 multinationals (Intel, CA), family firms, and government. He joined Expo 2020 Dubai after launching and leading 1776 Dubai, the Middle East’s first international tech incubator, in partnership with Dubai Future Foundation.
Previously, he was at the UAE Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) where he helped setup the Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation. Ned’s community involvement includes mentoring high-impact entrepreneurs, and he is a board member of Young Arab Leaders (YAL), a steering committee member of In5 Tech innovation Center, and founding President of the Stanford UAE Alumni Club.
He holds an MS from Stanford, a B. from North Eastern, and a management certificate from INSEAD.
Based in Silicon Valley, Seshu comes with 22 years of experience in the IT industry. Over his career, he has worked for ECIL, HCL Systems, Verizon, SRS Pharmacy Systems, Dell and implemented enterprise projects for Intel, Qualcomm, Realtek, Teradyne, Wyse, Canonical (Ubuntu Linux) amongst others and helped them go to market for handheld systems for pharmacy chains across America, digital signage in South Korea to creating software to manage thousands of ‘thin clients’ over the cloud.
Prior this, he worked at Samsung R&D as a Technical Lead at Dell in the valley for 12 years, where he works with Product Managers, Marketing, Sales & Support Engineers and CTO team to capture use cases, implement proof-of-concepts, developing and scaling solutions.
He specializes in IoT, embedded technology and open-source platforms.
He holds a Double Masters Degree in Software Engineering & Management from the Santa Clara University and BITS, Pilani with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.
Girish Mallapragada is currently Assistant Professor of Marketing at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Prior to this, he worked for four years at Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Mallapragada’s research on new product development & pricing in the context of open innovation, social networks and marketing strategy, which is published in the prestigious journal Management Science.
He received his PhD in Marketing from The Pennsylvania State University, and MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University. Before joining the academic fraternity, he worked in enterprise sales for Pramati Technologies, an IT infrastructure software vendor where he helped expand operations and sign up strategic partners.
With over 20-years experience in IT consulting, infrastructure development and the realty sector, Naren has worked across a spectrum of verticals. Starting off his career with Motorola, the past 15 years he has helped successfully set-up, guide and mentor several early stage ventures to multi-million dollar firms and serves on their Board of Directors as their investor & promoter. His expertise lies in negotiating and successfully implementing enterprise level and quasi-government projects in emerging markets. Naren holds a Post Graduate Degree in Management and Business.
