Finance II: Speaker Biographies

Welcome back TYE Students! We hope you all had relaxing breaks and a chance to catch up on some sleep... you are going to need energy for the Business Plan Competition that is roughly 5 months away. We would like to introduce you to this week's highly inspirational speakers and teachers for our Finance II class. The latest agenda has been posted to our social network.

• Speaker: Raj Melville, Principal, Ambient Engines

Raj Melville has over 25 years of product management, marketing and consulting experience at four start-ups, and several larger organizations. He currently provides marketing and strategy consulting services to emerging social entrepreneurs focused on building bottom of pyramid solutions. Some of his previous responsibilities included managing the overall product strategy and features for nTAG Interactive, a spin off from the MIT Media Lab; marketing and product management direction at mobile software vendor Vaultus; directing product management at Be Free Inc. (now Valueclick), a market leading affiliate marketing e-commerce solution; and managing the launch of two highend Internet server products at Electronic Book Technologies (later acquired by Inso). His early career included stints at Microsoft Corp., Digital Equipment Corporation, and Booz Allen Hamilton. Raj has an undergraduate engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, a M.S. and D.Sc. in Engineering from MIT, and a M.S. in Management from the Sloan School at MIT.

• Speaker: Lotika Shaunik Paintal, Founder & Executive Director, Water Centric

Lotika Shaunik Paintal is the founder and executive Director of Water Centric (WC), a social entrepreneurial nonprofit, based in Lexington, MA. WC was recently launched, in February 2008, with the aim of bringing water, sanitation and hygiene education to needy schools in the developing world. Water Centric has started work in 10 urbanslum schools in Delhi, India, which serve about 10,000 children. It has an ambitious vision to reach over 15,000 needy schools and 3 million children in the next ten years. Lotika’s interest in the near crisis situation of clean water and sanitation heightened while part of an exploratory 5–person team at the William J. Clinton Foundation that researched these issues in detail, visited eight countries, and was charged with proposing how the foundation could make a strategic contribution in the field. Lotika has worked in international development for over 12 years. She served as Deputy Director of the Regional Program Department for Oxfam America and as a senior program officer for World Education’s Asia Division. She has also worked for Education Development Center and Conflict Management Group in the Boston area. Lotika has an M Ed. with a focus on International Development from Harvard University, a MA in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University, and a graduate degree in Molecular Biology from the Sorbonne-France. Lotika lives in Lexington, MA with her husband and two teenage children Outside of work, she loves sailing and scuba diving (in warm waters), exploring new places and ideas, reading and long bicycle rides.
Link to latest "Water Centric" update: http://www.watercentric.org/mailer/index.html
Link to a description with photos of a typical water centric school: http://www.watercentric.org/delhistatus.html

• Teacher: Vivek Sharma, Director, THL Partners

Vivek Sharma is a Director with THL Partners a Boston based private equity firm. In his current role Vivek is responsible for working with THL’s Portfolio companies to identify value creation opportunities and assist the leadership of these companies in executing these opportunities. Vivek’s focus has been to identify large restructuring and /or cost optimization opportunities and ensuring successful execution of these opportunities by working closely with the Board and management of these companies. Prior to THL Vivek was Vice President Finance and Business Processes for Alstom Power in Baden, Switzerland. At Alstom, Vivek was responsible for Global Standardization and Integration of Business Processes and Systems. Prior to Alstom, Vivek worked with Advanced Micro Devices as Group Controller, Finance and Global Internal Controls. At AMD, he was responsible for Global Internal Controls including Sarbanes Oxley, Financial Services, Operations Finance and Process improvements. Vivek also worked for Motorola Semiconductors and held various positions in Finance Systems, Global Treasury and Financial Services organizations. Vivek has over 15 years of Global Management experience and is a Chartered Accountant from India, Certified Public Accountant and also has a Masters Degree in International Business from Thunderbird. Vivek has been featured in several finance magazines and has been listed as ‘100 Most Influential People in Finance’ by Treasury and Risk Management Magazine.