Komal Ahmad is innovatively solving the world’s dumbest problem.  As a young UC Berkeley student, Komal realised that “Hunger isn’t a scarcity problem; it’s a logistics problem.” This led to her founding Copia, a Y-Combinator-backed for-profit food redistribution and waste reduction technology company. Today, Copia has successfully diverted over 6M pounds of food from landfills and will feed over 7M people this year. Komal has been named to the coveted Forbes 30 Under 30 twice, been featured as one of the Most Powerful Women in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine, highlighted as one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and awarded the prestigious Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award.  

Zaved Akhtar is the CEO and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh Limited and joined Unilever in 2000 after 3.5 years in British American Tobacco. He has worked in multiple business units across Bangladesh, India, Philippines, and Southeast Asia and demonstrated the ability to thrive across different cultures. He has rich international experience in brands, innovation, communication development and business management. Zaved is also a Director of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Bangladesh.

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Umer Akhlaq Malik is the Policy Analyst at the United Nations Development Programme.  Prior to this, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre, a public policy think-tank. He has over 15 years of experience in development policy with areas of interest including policy research, advocacy, and developing and modelling complementary pilot interventions to promote sustainable development.

As part of the leadership team at Peak XV Partners, Rajan is focusing on developing Surge into the world's top scale-up program for startups by acting as an investment advisor and mentor to the programme's founders. Surge aims to engineer rapid early progress for startups, by enabling disproportionate access to capital, talent, network and decades of company-building knowledge. Prior to Peak XV, as Head of Google India and Southeast Asia, Rajan played a key role in expanding the regions internet ecosystem while accelerating Google's innovation and growth units. He is also a prolific angel investor who has backed a large number of successful startups at very early stages. Rajan also led Microsoft and Dell in India and was earlier a Partner at McKinsey & Company in Chicago.

Hassan is the Director for Public Affairs, Communications and Legal at foodpanda for Pakistan and also concurrently the interim Head of Public Affairs for APAC. He has been with foodpanda for close to three years and has been involved  with various regulatory and policy initiatives shaping the e-commerce and food industry within and beyond Pakistan. Prior to joining foodpanda/Delivery Hero, he was part of the MENA Government relations team at Uber and has spent over a decade in London and Dubai doing strategy consulting for various organizations including Oxford Economics, PwC and EY.

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Mr. Yasir Azman has been the CEO of Grameenphone since 2020. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Mr. Azman is an experienced professional with vast international experience in multiple countries and cultures. In his previous tenure in Grameenphone, Mr. Azman played a leading role to set up Grameenphone sales and distribution organization and to transform Grameenphone distribution structure. As a CMO in Grameenphone, Mr. Azman has transformed Grameenphone towards a high performing and a digital-centric organization. Throughout his career, Mr. Azman has a proven track record as a leader in transformation, change management and business development.

Shabana currently leads the performance product solutions growth for South East Asia at Google, managing a team across 7 markets to help brands and e-commerce retailers achieve business success across the customer journey including customer acquisition, retention and loyalty. Before joining Google, she oversaw business development and key account growth across different industries in India like Ingram Micro, ICICI and Oracle. With over two decades of experience in digital and tech industries, Shabana carries expertise across multiple sales and marketing leadership functions including people management, digital strategy, product specialism and sales operations.

Sonia Bashir Kabir is a distinguished professional with a Silicon Valley background. She has held key positions at major tech companies like Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Microsoft. Currently, she serves on several boards, including the United Nations Technology Bank and is the founder of SBK Tech Ventures and SBK Foundation. Sonia has received international recognition, including the ICT Business Person of the Year Award and the United Nations Global Compact's Sustainable Development Goals Pioneer status. Her career spans technology, business, and philanthropy, making her a notable figure in the global tech and development sectors. 

Apoorva holds the position of Regional Head of Traffic Operations at Daraz Group, the prominent e-commerce marketplace in South Asia. Her responsibilities encompass overseeing the user experience for the Daraz App, catering to a vast user base of 24 million individuals. Her primary focus lies in crafting a smooth and engaging user journey, enriched with top-notch content. With a vision of transforming Daraz into an integral part of people's daily lifestyle, Apoorva remains steadfast in her mission to drive e-commerce growth and expedite digitalisation throughout the South Asian region.

Avanthi Colombage is the Country Manager for Visa in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Avanthi has over 2 decades of experience in the Banking and Finance Industry and has worked extensively in all key areas of the Digital Payments ecosystem in both Consumer and Commercial Banking. In her current role she is responsible for driving both internal and external alignment between Visa’s business strategy and the ecosystem players in the rapidly evolving Sri Lanka and Maldives markets. Prior to Visa, Avanthi spent 17 years of her career at HSBC where she covered a cross section of verticals in the Consumer and Commercial digital payments.

Fiza Farhan is an expert in inclusive economic growth, climate change, sustainable development, financial inclusion, women empowerment, and energy access. She advises governments, private sector entities, and development agencies, particularly the United Nations. Fiza has been recognized as a Forbes "30 Under 30" Social Entrepreneur twice (2015 and 2016) and is the youngest member of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment.

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Kiran Faruqi is the Chief Financial Officer of Daraz Group. Being one of the first employees at Daraz, she has seen the organization through it’s various stages of evolution and credits much of her professional development to this exciting journey. Kiran is a strategic CFO with a grounded understanding of finance and its strong influence towards business success. Her organisational philosophy centres around balancing scalable growth with financial sustainability. Her clear and forward-thinking combined with her commitment to sustainable growth, provides a practical yet innovative perspective on modern financial leadership.

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Rakhil Fernando is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Daraz Group and the Founder of KOKO, one of Sri Lanka’s first-ever buy now pay later applications. Prior to joining Daraz, Rakhil held various leadership roles in the technology, banking and finance space. In particular, he co-founded Kashmi in Singapore, a social mobile neo-banking product designed to fit seamlessly into the lifestyle of Southeast Asia's millennials.

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Vaishali Gupta, is the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of mCaffeine, India’s first caffeinated personal care brand for the past 7 years. Under her guidance, mCaffeine has experienced exceptional growth, expanding by 60x in the last 4 years. Vaishali's achievements in growing the brand have earned her recognition as a member of the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2021 and Adgully - Women entrepreneur of the year (FMCG) award.

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Pauline, a driven entrepreneur, started her first business at 25. In 2017, her passion for social and environmental causes led her to establish UNISOAP—a non-profit organization dedicated to recycling hotel soaps for hygiene access to the underprivileged. She pioneered this concept in France, aligning it with her personal values. Expanding her impact, Pauline launched a UAE branch of UNISOAP, aiming to collect and recycle soaps locally. Her ultimate ambition is to bring the UNISOAP concept to countries worldwide, creating positive change globally.

Sandun Hapugoda has over 20 years of experience in Banking and Payments Industry and currently operates as the Country Manager in Sri Lanka and Maldives for Mastercard. Previously, Sandun served as the Director of Account Management and Head of Digital Payments for Mastercard in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Prior to joining Mastercard, Sandun held managerial roles at Hatton National Bank, Amana Bank, ICICI Bank Sri Lanka and Sampath Bank. Sandun currently serves as a member of the board of directors at American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka. He also served in several committees appointed by Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Technology, National Science Foundation, and other institutions to share his expertise in Payments, Digital Banking, Fintechs, Blockchain Technologies and Open Banking to uplift the digital economy.

Shomi Kaiser is the Vice-President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and also the President of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB). As the President of e-CAB for the past six years, Shomi Kaiser has provided steady and visionary leadership. She is also the Managing Director of Dhansiri Communications Ltd. Shomi Kaiser is dedicated to ushering in a new era of urban mobility that is efficient, environmentally friendly, and customer-centric. She is also a Bangladeshi actress who gained fame for her work in numerous television drama plays during the 1990s and early 2000s

Neha Kant is the Founder and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Clovia, a premier fashion, lingerie, and personal care brand for the urban millennial woman. After a decade-long career in corporate India, working with FCB Ulka and India Today Group, Neha identified a gap in the lingerie market in India and decided to address it by launching a solution-oriented brand. Neha has been recognized as the Best Woman Entrepreneur by RBL Bank and D2C Icon of India 2022 by the Images Group.

Richa Kar is the Founder of Zivame, India's largest intimate wear platform, a pioneer in making intimate wear shopping respectful and comforting for all Indian women. Zivame was started in 2011 and is one of the few early startups that has seen the entire cycle of fund raising and exit to a large corporation. Richa has more than a decade of experience in Retail Marketing, Branding, and Operations having worked with companies like Spencer’s Retail, Oracle and SAP.  She was chosen as the 'Top Women Entrepreneur of 2014’ as per a survey conducted by The Economic Times and was named to Fortune India's, annual 40 under 40 ranking from 2014 to 2017. 

Hon Minister Kanaka Herath is a distinguished political leader with a diverse career and presently serves as the State Minister of Technology in Sri Lanka. He has previously served in various capacities, including as the Cabinet Minister for Highways, State Minister of Plantation, and State Minister of Port Development. With a strong educational background in engineering and aviation, he leads the "Digiecon SL" initiative, aiming to accelerate Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy from $3.7B into $15B by 2030.