Professor Rajesh Vasa is an information technology expert with nearly two decades of experience. He specializes in complex software solutions, and analysis of large data sets. He has deep knowledge and experience in technology strategy, machine learning, mobile app based businesses, and building/managing software engineering teams. He has worked in a range of roles including Software Engineer and Data Scientist, besides running an engineering team as an IT Director at Thomson-Reuters (HR technology). He is a trusted adviser for technology companies in Australia, Japan and India.

Professor Vasa is based at Deakin University (Australia), where he is the Deputy Director of the Innovation Lab. He leads a team solving problems with high societal value/impact – modeling congestion, helping warn people on impending heart attack/epileptic seizure, detecting cyber attacks early, building smart homes for elderly using IoT technology, as well as general purpose tools that improve productivity.

Gian Kolbjørnsen’s focus on managing continuous change and growth through strategy, leadership and innovation comes from his decade long experience and knowledge in the military and the United Nations. For more than 20 years, he has built agile, focused and effective teams in the IT industry in Norway, and elsewhere. Kolbjørnsen has served in a variety of roles in the IT industry – developer, business analyst, R&D Manager, Senior Adviser, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Innovation Officer. In several of these roles, he has handled the challenges of establishing and operationalizing globally distributed teams. He has the ability to lead such teams in a targeted and efficient manner, without compromising on quality or security.

Aside from extending his experience as an adviser to many companies, Kolbjørnsen is currently working as the Chief Technology Officer at Bolder AS, and as Chief Executive Officer at Bolder Technology AS. The Bolder companies are into developing a new technological platform for social arenas that will help users of the Bolder platform to achieve a more active and conscious lifestyle. The platform will enable the creation and exchange of activities, knowledge and experience, both in the physical and virtual world.

Kolbjørnsen lives in Sandnes, Norway, with his family.

Ramesh M Shah is President and CEO of DC Limited, an international business development and management consulting company. His specialty is in providing guidance to startup companies in restructuring and in developing offshore research & development, international trade, joint ventures, partnerships and technology transfer, within the United States and overseas.

The founder of DataChem, Inc. Dr. Shah has decades of experience in multiple industries like life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology and IT. He is a Member on the Advisory Board of Nesch, LLC; Biosynergetics, Inc; Encompass Media, LLC; Safis Solutions, LLC and Medical Animatics, LLC. He has also acted as a Technical Advisor for India to several Indiana based companies for offshore research and development and marketing.

He has published over 20 scientific papers and owns nine patents. Shah was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and Licentiate of the Royal Institute of Chemists, U.K. In 1988, Dr. Shah was awarded the Finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Arthur Young and Venture Magazine. In 1991, he won the Indiana Small Business Exporter award by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

An electrical engineer by profession, Wolfgang Hoeltgen is the founder and Managing Director of CTH Consulting Team Hoeltgen GmbH (1998), an IT Consulting Company based in Germany. To Hoeltgen’s credit is a long career in multiple international projects in Information Technology and Enterprise Solutions areas such as SAP. He was the Director and the management adviser to Gadhia-Solar, an Indian solar company, and collaborated with BITS Pilani and a few German institutes and universities. He has also occupied senior management positions at IBM.

Hoeltgen organizes regular science and technology shows for the youth. He believes there is tremendous scope for improvement in Indo-German business relationships. Towards this, he founded the German Indian Business Center (GIBC) atHannover in 2007 with the support and encouragement of the local government. GIBC offers Indian companies collaboration and settlement opportunities in Germany. In the last couple of years, Hoeltgen has started about 30 Indian companies with their German GmbH entity in Hannover.

In 2012, Wolfgang Hoeltgen, along with two graduates from BITS Pilani, co-founded and mentored GreyOrange, a robotics company. GreyOrange specializes in warehouse automation, and has grown from just four engineers in 2012 to around 600 in 2016.