CHARLIZE THERON, ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS AND PRODUCER
South African born and Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron is one of the most celebrated actresses of our time, captivating audiences with her ability to embody a range of characters.
Under her Denver & Delilah banner, Theron, alongside partners Beth Kono and AJ Dix, has built a prolific production company with a diverse film and television slate. Over the years, Theron has appeared in numerous films produced under the banner including Lionsgate’s Bombshell directed by Jay Roach, which earned Theron nominations for a Golden Globe, a SAG Award and an Academy Award for her remarkable performance as Megyn Kelly; the critically acclaimed feature film, Monster directed by Patty Jenkins, for which Theron earned an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Independent Spirit Award; the Jason Reitman-directed films Young Adult and Tully, both of which garnered Theron a Golden Globe nomination; Long Shot directed by Jonathan Levine and starred Theron opposite Seth Rogen; and Universal and Focus Features’ Atomic Blonde, directed by David Leitch and starred Theron opposite James McAvoy. In 2020, Theron produced and starred in the feature film The Old Guard for Netflix, based on Greg Rucka’s comic book of the same name. The film drew 78M Netflix households worldwide in its first 28 days on the platform. Also under the Denver & Delilah banner, Theron was a producer on the Golden Globe nominated drama A Private War starring Rosamund Pike; the Netflix competition series Hyperdrive; and Netflix comedy Murder Mystery, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
Additional film credits for Theron include The Devil’s Advocate; The Cider House Rules; North Country, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics Choice Award; Hancock; HBO’s The Life and Death of Peter Sellers for which she received a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and Emmy nominations; Snow White and the Huntsman; A Million Ways to Die in the West; Mad Max: Fury Road; Dark Places; Kubo and the Two Strings. Theron first joined the “The Fast Saga” in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious and reprised the role in 2021’s F9. She has also been the voice of Morticia Addams in the animated revival of The Addams Family and the sequel The Addams Family 2.
Most recently, Theron has once again reprised her role as “Cipher” in FAST X, the 10th installment of the “The Fast Saga,” which released in theaters this month. In October 2022, Theron starred alongside Kerry Washington in Paul Feig’s The School for Good and Evil for Netflix. Up next under her production company banner, Theron will star in and produce in the Netflix sequel The Old Guard: Force Multiplied. Theron will also produce The Final Girl Support Group based on the horror novel by New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix for HBO MAX and is partnering with multi-Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón to produce Jane for Amazon Studios along with Isa Hackett, who developed the work based on the lives of her father Philip K. Dick and his twin sister.
In addition to Theron’s acting success and principal involvement with her production company Denver & Delilah, Charlize serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace and founder of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP). CTAOP’s mission is to advance and invest in the health, education and safety of youth living in Southern Africa. CTAOP supports transformative, locally-led change by partnering with and supporting community-based organizations that support young people, their sexual and reproductive health and rights (including staying safe from HIV), and the prevention of gender-based violence.
With the help of CARE and Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), Charlize and CTAOP launched ‘Together for Her’: a campaign to help fight gender-based violence during COVID-19. In 2021, CTAOP partnered with the Ford Foundation around a global vaccine equity campaign. Learn more about CTAOP at www.charlizeafricaoutreach.org.
ALIA BHATT, ACTOR AND ENTREPRENEUR
Alia Bhatt made her Hindi Cinema debut with Student of the Year in the year 2012, in quick succession she delivered an array of great performances with Highway, Raazi, Udta Punjab, Darlings which got her critical and commercial success.
Recently she was honoured with the coveted National Award for Best Actress for her pathbreaking portrayal of Gangubai Kathiawadi.
Alia Bhatt, daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt & actor Soni Razdan, has cemented her position as one of the most loved and bankable actors of the Indian Cinema’s current generation.
On screen, she has given us some of her most memorable performances, metamorphosing into complex characters like second skin. Off camera, Alia has launched her own production house Eternal Sunshine Productions, is first Indian celebrity to be appointed by the House of Gucci as their Global Brand Ambassador, made a stunning debut at the ’23 Met Gala and turned entrepreneur with India’s first truly sustainable kids wear brand Ed-a-mamma. Alia made her international/Hollywood Debut with Netflix's Heart of Stone alongside Gal Gadot which was recently released.
At only 30 years of age, she dons many a hats as a successful actor, producer, entrepreneur and is one of the most loved & valued female superstars the country has seen.
KARAN JOHAR, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER
Karan Johar, (born : 25 May 1972), often informally referred to as KJo, is an Indian filmmaker and television personality, who primarily works in Hindi cinema.
He has launched the careers of several successful actors under his own Dharma Productions. The recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and six Filmfare Awards. He has been honored with Padma Shri, the country’s fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India in 2020.
Son of producer Yash Johar, Karan Johar made his directorial debut with the romantic comedy-drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), which earned him the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, the Filmfare Award for Best Director and for Best Screenplay. His next films, the ensemble family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) and the ensemble musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), were both major critical and commercial successes in both domestic and overseas markets. His social drama My Name is Khan (2010) earned him his second Filmfare Award for Best Director.
Karan Johar produced the spy thriller Raazi (2018) and the biopic Shershaah (2021), both of which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Film. These, along with other films he has produced under the Dharma Productions banner, have established him as one of the leading director-producers in Hindi cinema.
Karan Johar has also ventured into other avenues of the entertainment industry. He hosts the television talk show Koffee with Karan, the dating show What the Love!, and the radio show Calling Karan, and has appeared as a judge on competition reality shows such as Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and India's Got Talent.
SUSHMITA SEN, ACTOR
Sushmita Sen, the enigmatic Bollywood icon and former Miss Universe, embarked on a remarkable journey in the world of OTT entertainment, marking her triumphant comeback with the web series Aarya. Her foray into the digital realm has revitalised her illustrious career and cemented her status as a versatile and enduring talent.
After making her mark in the Indian film industry with a string of memorable films, Sushmita took a sabbatical from acting to focus on her personal life. However, her return in 2020 with Aarya on a digital platform was nothing short of impressive. The series garnered widespread acclaim for her powerful portrayal of a woman who takes control of her family's business to protect her children after her husband's death. Sushmita's performance reaffirmed her acting prowess, with the show bagging a nomination at the 2021 International Emmy Awards.
Her remarkable journey, marked by her versatility and charisma, continues to create waves, with her last outing as a transgender in Taali winning audience as well as critics. Her triumphant return to the screen serves as a testament to her enduring talent and her unwavering ability to captivate audiences, making her an icon who comes with an inspirational tale of resilience, reinvention, and redefining one's career.
ALAN MAMEDI, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, TRUECALLER
Alan Mamedi is the CEO and Co-Founder of Truecaller - an app that enables safe and relevant conversations between people and makes it efficient for businesses to connect with consumers. Truecaller is an essential part of everyday communication for over 356 million active users, with over a billion downloads since launch.
As CEO, Alan focuses on product development and innovation and leading growth opportunities globally.
Alan co-founded two other startups in Sweden alongside his business partner Nami Zarringhalam: Möbeljakt, which became the largest search engine for home interiors and Jobbigt.se, the largest network for employee reviews.
He also founded Bidding.se, an auction site that combined strategic gameplay with the traditional online auction formula, which was acquired in 2009. Prior to Truecaller, Alan was the Chief Architect for the Device Management Server at Birdstep Technology, a company specializing in embedded data systems that is currently listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (BIRD).
Alan lives in Stockholm with his wife, daughter and son, and is an alumnus of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden where he holds a degree in Computer Science.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ANNU PRAKASH, INDIAN NAVY
Prakash is currently serving onboard the navy’s frontline destroyer INS Kochi. She is a naval air operations officer (observer). The navy deployed women officers on warships in early 2021 after a hiatus of almost 25 years.
COLONEL NEHA SINGH, INDIAN ARMY
She is among the first women officers in the army to be appointed to a command role. Commissioned in 2004, Singh is the commanding officer of an Air Defence unit in the western sector.
GROUP CAPTAIN SHALIZA DHAMI, INDIAN AIR FORCE
A helicopter pilot, Dhami was the first woman to assume command of a frontline Indian Air Force combat unit in March. She heads a missile squadron in the western sector. Commissioned into the IAF in 2003, Dhami is a qualified flying instructor and has logged more than 2,800 hours of flying.
KEITH FLAHERTY, DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL RESEARCH, MGH CANCER CENTER PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Flaherty was the first or senior author. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research. Flaherty co-founded Loxo Oncology in 2013 and served on the board of directors through the acquisition by Eli Lilly in 2019. He co-founded X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) and privately held Strata Oncology (2015), Apricity Oncology (2017), C-Reveal (2020), and most recently, Scorpion Therapeutics (2020). He serves on the board of director for Kinnate BioPharma, along with Strata Oncology and Scorpion Therapeutics.
VIVEK WADHWA, AUTHOR, ACADEMIC, SPEAKER, ENTREPRENEUR
Vivek Wadhwa is an academic, entrepreneur, and author of five best-selling books: From Incremental to Exponential; Your Happiness Was Hacked; The Driver in the Driverless Car; Innovating Women; and The Immigrant Exodus.
He has been a globally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and has held appointments as Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program, Carnegie Mellon University, and Emory University; adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon and Duke University; fellow at Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley; and head of faculty at Singularity University.
Vivek is based in Silicon Valley and researches, speaks, and writes about advancing technologies that are transforming our world. These advances – in fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials – are making it possible for small teams to do what was once possible only for governments and large corporations to do: solve the grand challenges in education, water, food, shelter, health, and security.
In 2012, the U.S. Government awarded Wadhwa distinguished recognition as an “Outstanding American by Choice” for his “commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans”.
He was also named one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine in that year; in June 2013, he was on TIME magazine’s list of “Tech 40”, one of forty of the most influential minds in tech; and in September 2015, he was second on a list of “ten men worth emulating” in The Financial Times. In 2018, he was awarded Silicon Valley Forum’s Visionary Award, a list of luminaries “who have made Silicon Valley synonymous with creativity and life-changing advancements in technology”.
Earlier in his academic career, Wadhwa studied remedies for the effect of globalization on U.S. competitiveness. His team’s report on engineers’ education, in 2005, dispelled myths that India’s and China’s graduation rates were ten times U.S. ones. Though both India and China graduate many more “engineers” than the U.S. does, their definitions of those terms include everyone from mechanics to trade-school graduates. Elite institutions in both countries do turn out world-class engineers, but their numbers are small. Wadhwa’s subsequent research revealed why companies were going off shore and highlighted new trends in the globalization of R&D and innovation. To explain how India was achieving success despite its weak education system, Wadhwa published a seminal research report that analyzed its surrogate education system and workforce-development practices. Indian companies, in particular, have become global centers of excellence in high-skill areas, including software development, chip design, pharmaceutical research, and advanced engineering tasks such as aircraft-engine design. Wadhwa found that the best Indian companies more than compensated for the inadequacy of the country’s education system by developing their own, highly innovative, training programs.
Wadhwa’s teams’ research on American competitive advantages focused on entrepreneurship, skilled immigration, and university-research commercialization. It revealed key insights into the ages, education backgrounds, and motivations of tech entrepreneurs, and documented that more than one in four U.S. technology startups from 1995 to 2005 was founded by an immigrant. These immigrants tended to be highly educated, with strong backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Wadhwa found that a flawed immigration system had created a backlog of more than a million skilled workers who were waiting for permanent-resident visas and that this backlog had the potential to cause a sizable brain drain of talent from the U.S. to other countries and a weakening of U.S. competitiveness. His research then tracked returnees to India and China and determined that they were having greater success back home.
Wadhwa has also researched Silicon Valley’s diversity, or the lack of it. He documented that women entrepreneurs have the same backgrounds and motivations as men do, but are rare in the ranks of technology CEOs and CTOs.
Wadhwa has collaborated with highly regarded academics from Stanford, Harvard, Duke, NYU, UC-Berkeley, and other universities. His research, which has been supported by several grants from the Kauffman Foundation and by the Sloan Foundation, has been cited in thousands of national and international media outlets since 2007, and has gained the attention of policy makers. Wadhwa has delivered keynote speeches at hundreds of conferences, including those of the National Governors Association and the National Academy of Sciences.
Before becoming an academic, Wadhwa was a technology executive known for pioneering change and innovation. He started his career as a software developer and gained a deep understanding of the challenges in building computer systems. His quest to help solve some of I.T.’s most daunting problems began at New York–based investment banking powerhouse CS First Boston (CSFB), where he was Vice President of Information Services. There he spearheaded the development of technology for creating computer-aided software-writing systems that was so successful that CSFB decided to spin off that business unit into its own company, Seer Technologies. As its Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Wadhwa helped grow the nascent startup into a $118 million publicly traded company.
With the explosive growth of the Internet, Wadhwa saw an even greater opportunity to help businesses adapt to new and fast-changing technologies, and founded Relativity Technologies. As a result of his vision, Forbes.com named Wadhwa a “Leader of Tomorrow”, and Fortune magazine declared Relativity one of the 25 coolest companies in the world.
Wadhwa holds a B.A. in Computing Studies from the University of Canberra, in Australia, and an MBA from New York University. He is founding president of the Carolinas chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TIE), a non-profit global network intended to foster entrepreneurship. He has been featured in thousands of articles in publications world wide, including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and Science Magazine, and has made many appearances on U.S. and international TV stations, including CBS 60 Minutes, PBS, CNN, ABC, NBC, CNBC, and the BBC.
SATWIKSAIRAJ RANKIREDDY, WORLD NO.1 MEN'S DOUBLES BADMINTON PAIR, ASIAN GAMES & CWG GOLD MEDALLISTS
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are India's premier men's doubles badminton pair. They are the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF World Tour 1000 title, the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships, and the first Indian men's doubles pair to be ranked world No. 1. Rankireddy and Shetty are known for their aggressive and attacking style of play. They are also known for their strong camaraderie and teamwork.
They started the year 2022 by winning the India Open and were also part of India's Thomas Cup winning team. They then won the men's doubles gold at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the BWF World Championships. They also won the French Open, making it their first Super 750 title in their career. n 2023, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had a remarkable season, winning four major titles: the Swiss Open, the Asian Championships, the Indonesia Open, and the Korea Open. They also became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF World Super 1000 title. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty earned India's first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games.
This is a significant achievement for Indian badminton, and it is a testament to Rankireddy and Shetty's hard work and dedication. Rankireddy and Shetty are an inspiration to millions of Indians, and they are role models for young badminton players all over the world. The nation honoured them with Arjuna Awards in 2020.
Satwik achieved a new Guinness World Record for the fastest hit in badminton by a male player, with his smash reaching a speed of 565 km/h.
CHIRAG SHETTY, World No. 1 Men's Doubles Badminton, Asian Games & CWG Gold Medallist
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are India's premier men's doubles badminton pair. They are the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF World Tour 1000 title, the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships, and the first Indian men's doubles pair to be ranked world No. 1. Rankireddy and Shetty are known for their aggressive and attacking style of play. They are also known for their strong camaraderie and teamwork.
They started the year 2022 by winning the India Open and were also part of India's Thomas Cup winning team. They then won the men's doubles gold at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the BWF World Championships. They also won the French Open, making it their first Super 750 title in their career. n 2023, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had a remarkable season, winning four major titles: the Swiss Open, the Asian Championships, the Indonesia Open, and the Korea Open. They also became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF World Super 1000 title. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty earned India's first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games.
This is a significant achievement for Indian badminton, and it is a testament to Rankireddy and Shetty's hard work and dedication. Rankireddy and Shetty are an inspiration to millions of Indians, and they are role models for young badminton players all over the world. The nation honoured them with Arjuna Awards in 2020.
Satwik achieved a new Guinness World Record for the fastest hit in badminton by a male player, with his smash reaching a speed of 565 km/h.
LISA CURTIS, DIRECTOR, INDO-PACIFIC SECURITY, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY
Lisa Curtis is Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific and South Asia. From 2017 to 2021, Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the NSC. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy, contributed to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework, and coordinated policies designed to strengthen the U.S.-India partnership, resulting in a widely recognized elevation of the relationship. Curtis received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in December 2020 in recognition of her work at the NSC.
From 2006–2017, Curtis was Senior Fellow on South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, where she appeared regularly in the media and provided frequent Congressional testimony. She also served as Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2003-2006), Senior Advisor in the South Asia Bureau at the State Department (2001-2003), senior analyst on South Asia at the CIA (1996-2001), and as a diplomat at the U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India (1994 to 1997).
Curtis has published commentary in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, NPR.org, and other media outlets and has made multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, BBC, PBS, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty and on the Leadership Council of Women in National Security (LCWINS) and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
MINXIN PEI, PROFESSOR
Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ‘72 Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2019 he was the Library of Congress Chair on U.S.-China Relations. Prior to joining Claremont McKenna College in 2009, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as its director of the China Program from 2003 to 2008. He is the author of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union; China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy; China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay, and The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China (forthcoming).
ABHYUDAY JINDAL, Managing Director, Jindal Stainless
A Boston University graduate in Economics and Business Management, Mr Abhyuday Jindal has wide ranging experience in the areas of project management, supply chain systems, and strategic & general management. Currently, he is the Managing Director of Jindal Stainless. He is also the Co-Chair for FICCI’s Steel Committee, Vice President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, and the Co-Chair, Advisory Council of the Corrosion Management Division of CII, endeavoring to forge stronger and wider public-private partnerships.
Mr Jindal started his career with the JSW Group. There, he played a prominent role in the stake acquisition of Ispat Industries and the post acquisition integration of JSW and Ispat. He then moved on to the Boston Consulting Group, where he managed project consultancy for diverse industries, including cement, steel, wind turbines, and auto components. Having gained a deep understanding of the industrial manufacturing arena, Mr Jindal entered the USD 4.30 billion in FY23 Jindal Stainless consortia.
Driven by the ambition to go beyond the ordinary, Mr Jindal took multiple strides in improving supply chain and operational efficiencies. Today, he is shaping Jindal Stainless into a far more dynamic, responsive, predictive, and solution-based organization. As a leader in the stainless steel landscape of the country, Mr Jindal has explored and unlocked new avenues for providing stainless solutions to stakeholders with the vision to improve lives. Helmed by him, the organization has built uncontested market leadership, and made foray into new fields. It was under his stewardship that the Company bolstered its unique competitive advantage in the manufacturing of special stainless steel grades for nuclear and defence sectors.
Strongly rooted in the Indian soil, Mr Jindal’s community-centric transformational approach has led to the development and sustenance of several empowerment initiatives in and around its production facilities. He personifies open and participative management, a consistent culture of dialogue and feedback, and a relentless march towards continuous improvement.
CHRIS MILLER, Author of Chip Wars
Chris Miller is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip. He also serves as Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs, and Russia. He also serves as Jean Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Director at Greenmantle, an macroeconomic and geopolitical consultancy. He previously wrote three other books on Russia, including Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia.
SHAILENDRA SINGH, MANAGING PARTNER, PEAK XV PARTNERS
Shailendra is a Managing Director at Peak XV which has partnered with over 400 companies in the technology, consumer, and financial space over the last 17 years.
He joined the firm in 2006 and spearheads all activities in India and the ASEAN region.
Shailendra has advised on several successful investments including Carousell, CRED, Druva, Gojek, Pine Labs, Tokopedia and Unacademy.
He was included on the Forbes Midas List of top global VCs in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He has received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay.