Workshops & Panelists

Laxmi Mukund is a senior technical Leader at Cisco with about 18 years of experience and a master's degree in computer science and networking. She works on various routing and switching enterprise and data center platforms leading and developing features in the areas of core routing, switching, Netflow, LISP, Vxlan, Datacenter interconnects, and Programmability. Her key focus area for the last few years has been on Fog computing and SDA.

Sandhya Kerehalli is a senior test engineer at Cisco with about 17 years of experience. She works on routing and switching enterprise platforms, qualifying various features in the areas of core routing, switching, virtualization, multicast and Programmability. She is currently working on platforms enabling Cisco’s intent based networking.

30+ years industry experience in establishing and leading R&D Labs; developing product road-maps, sales and marketing strategies; system architecture, hardware and software design for Data Center, Networking and Telecom Products.Revenue impact upto $2.5 Billion.

Established organizational frameworks & culture for execution excellence, innovation & global technical eminence. Pioneered various cross-organisational and cross-industry consortia in new technology areas (Cloud Computing, RFID, Medical Electronics ).

Sruthi runs the Cisco LaunchPad startup accelerator where she works with start-ups for co-creating end-to-end digital solutions focused on technology areas like IOT, Collaboration, Security, Network and Infra, Analytics, etc. Through LaunchPad, she supports start-ups in their entrepreneurial journey by providing access to a wide gamut of resources including Mentorship, Grants, Technology Support, Investor Connects, and Customer Access.

Over the last 3+ years, she has worked closely with over 100 CXOs of deep tech start-ups as well as mentors across various organizations. Prior to Cisco LaunchPad, she spearheaded Customer Success for Tier-1 Telecom Providers deploying mobility solutions around the world.

Here is the video on Cisco LaunchPad -
https://newsroom.cisco.com/video-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2007715

Vibhavari is Global technology lead for Equity Derivatives regulatory agenda and India Lead for Markets application development teams within the Corporate and Investment Bank. As the India team lead she has oversight of 1200+ technologists across various applications in the CIB technology team.Vibha joined JPMorgan in 2000 in New York and has held various positions within the firm over the last 19 years.

Vibha is passionate about building talent and workplace Diversity & Inclusion and she is driving various learning and development initiatives within the firm. She has a Bachelor of Engineering from Pune university in India. She is currently based in India and lives in Bengaluru with her Husband and 2 children

Poonam is a self-driven, highly motivated senior executive with a proven track record in building businesses, driving results and developing wealth for investors. She is an accomplished recruiter with nearly 20 years of experience in the Executive Search and Selection space. Has held leadership roles with P&L responsibility for over 15 years across various organizations.

After graduating in English Honors from the University of Delhi, she started her career with Nicholson International, a UK based Search & Selection firm. In 1998, Poonam joined Corporate Catalysts as an Associate Director- a boutique contingent firm operating at mid-senior levels across FMCG,Consumer, Media and ITeS sectors. In 2004, she joined ABC Consultants as National Head-Outsourcing & Offshoring Practice. At ABC,Poonam grew a regional practice of INR 2.5 million to a national practice managing a turnover of close to INR 47.5million. Additionally she was also responsible for business development and service delivery for theMiddle Eastern operations.

In 2010,Poonam joined Talisman Advisors as a Chief Executive Officer and member on the Board. Significantly, she has led the growth of the organization from 5 to 25 members along with operations in Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore servicing pan-India clients.Talisman's turnover has grown 985%. She has built credibility and formidable reputation in the client space. Had acquired a preferred partner status with most of her clients ensuring repeat business.
Poonam has a naturally participative & a collaborative style, is able to motivate, mentor and inspire teams to higher levels of performance. Proactive, Positive & do what it takes you to reach the goal.

Prasanthi is a Senior Engineering Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise , having two decades of industry experience in Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI), Software Defined Storage, Systems Management and Virtualization.

She is currently responsible for the core R&D group working on design and development of HPE’s HCI offering, Simplivity. She has a track record of leading development teams to delivering enterprise software products in a distributed scaled agile environment. She is a Certified Agile Leader(CAL) with extensive experience in managing SaFe and scaled agile projects.

She completed her Bachelors in Engineering, Applied Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from NIT, Rourkela. She is Grade 3 certified in Piano from Trinity College London and enjoys spending her spare time reading wide variety of books.

Deepika BR manages enterprise access switching SMB product portfolio with regional business-driven goals for Japan and Korea, at Cisco Systems. She has been in the industry for about 15 years. Her expertise is in the areas of computer networking, routing, switching, and security. She has also contributed immensely to core test automation initiatives and won several recognitions and awards. She has been through several career transitions and has a wide range of experience in the networking industry from documentation, testing, automation, to product management. She has worked in the past with Alcatel-Lucent and Infosys.

She co-leads the Cisco Connected Women network and drives strategic initiatives for women at Cisco. Has mentored several young university students, and conducts career- oriented activities for youth at Cisco. She has been a speaker on wide-variety of topics including CyberSecurity, Emerginig Technologies, and has provided workshops on Emotional Intelligence, and Career Transformation.

A trained singer in Carnatic classical music, she enjoys spending her spare time reading wide variety of books.

Dr. Latha Christie is a Senior Scientist with more than 31 years of experience and presently the Associate Director in Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defense, Bangalore. After graduating in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Government College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu with Honors, she completed her Master’s and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her research interests are in the field of microwaves and computational electromagnetism. She completed her International Executive Diploma in Project Management from I2P2M in collaboration with George Washington University School of Business, Washington DC, USA

She received the prestigious Prof. Satish Dhawan Award for Engineers, instituted by the Government of Karnataka, for outstanding achievements in the field of engineering sciences for the year 2014, awarded by the Chief Minister. Other awards include the AGNI Award for Excellence in Self-Reliance, DRDO Technology award, and the Best Technical Paper award for papers submitted at various conferences. Rashtreeya Vidyalaya Engineering College, Bangalore, conferred on her a Citation of Honor for her distinguished achievements and contribution to the field of Microwave Engineering and Technology in India on “World Telecommunication & Information Society Day”. She also received the President Scout Award during her school days and has guided many graduating students. She has filed a patent, and has around 65 publications in International Journals and Conferences.

Land is a Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Defense with more than 30 years of industry experience in the application of software engineering methodologies and the management of information systems, as well as leadership of software and systems product development teams. Kathy is an IEEE Fellow and longtime volunteer for the IEEE.

She is a member of the IEEE Entrepreneurship Committee. She is currently the 2019 Past Vice President for IEEE Technical Activities and is a Past President of the IEEE Computer Society. Ms. Land is the author or co-author of a number of texts, papers, podcasts, webinars all supporting sound software engineering principles and practical application of software process methodologies.

Sarada Vempati is an India lead for application development teams in Corporate Technology. Over the last 10 years, Sarada held various positions in JPMC within Corporate Technology and Global Technology Infrastructure. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Chase, Sarada was a Technology Manager with Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. She has more than 20 years of industry experience in the technology infrastructure and application development space.

Sarada is passionate about workplace Diversity & Inclusion and leads the Global Technology Corporate Center Diversity Forum and is an active member of Women on the Move India Sarada holds an MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering and BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. She likes to volunteer at the local government schools to teach English and Computer Science and also mentor girls in STEM fields from underprivileged families.

Sarada currently resides in Bangalore with her two children aged 19 and 16 and her husband, Shyam.

I graduated from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, and specialized in Kansei (Affective) Engineering in 2004. Before assuming my current position, I worked in an information integration company as a Web Usability Engineer and have accumulated several years' experience in web consulting using the Human-Centered Design process.

From 2009, I have worked for Ricoh IT Solutions Co., Ltd. Currently, I’m focusing on improving communication between people in the workplace through effective leadership and organizational development in the HR department.

Pallavi Srinivasaa is an industry veteran with over 18 years at Cisco in various leadership roles in areas of product management, technical marketing and sales. During the course of her career at Cisco, Pallavi has led product management and technical marketing teams in the areas of enterprise networking and analytics applications. Pallavi has also spent a significant amount of time focused on driving business growth in India in the enterprise and data centre portfolio.

Most recently, Pallavi has been leading Enterprise Switching Portfolio. Outside of Cisco responsibilities, Pallavi is also very active in mentoring STEM programs, driving diversity of leadership in technology companies.