Prof. Ashwini Kumar Nangia, School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad took over as the eleventh Director of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune. He obtained M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur in 1983. He worked under Frederick E Ziegler at Yale University for his Ph.D. on the total synthesis of sesquiterpene natural products via a stereoselective Claisen rearrangement route.

Mr HK Mittal currently heads the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) Cell of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Shri Mittal has over two decades of experience in technology based entrepreneurship development; skill development; trainers training and faculty development; establishment of entrepreneurship development institutions like institutes of entrepreneurship development at the state level, Technology Business Incubators, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Parks, Entrepreneurship Development Cells in the educational institutions; development of micro-enterprises; working for income generation activities for underprivileged sections like: women, scheduled castes/tribes, physically challenged etc.
Mr Mittal is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad. He has previously worked with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India - Ahmedabad and also served with UNIDO.

Mr Anand Kusre has over 30 year's experience in commercial and development banking. He has been responsible for formulation and implementation of national and international programmes aimed at development and commercialisation of new technologies. He has been associated with more than 250 companies and technology institutions engaged in development of innovative products and processes including large number of first generation entrepreneurs. Currently, Mr Kusre is Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In addition, Mr Kusre is Chairman, MITCON Consultancy Company Limited. Mr Kusre is actively engaged in the fields of Innovation and Entrepreneurship being Member, Governing Board, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India and Member, High-Powered Committee, New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative.

Dr. Krishna N Ganesh did his Ph.D (1976) in Chemistry at Delhi University (Guide: Prof GBV Subramanian). He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to pursue higher studies University of Cambridge, UK which resulted in a second Ph.D degree to him in 1980 (Guide: Prof JKM Sanders). In 1987, he moved to National Chemical Laboratory, Pune to establish a Bioorganic Chemistry research group. He became the Head of Organic Chemistry (Synthesis) Division in 1994. During his tenure at NCL till 2006, he was involved in policy development, resource generation and design, execution and evaluation of institutional research programmes in Organic Chemistry. Currently he is the Director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati. He was previously the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

Dr Dash is Ex - Director Impact Lab at PATH India with the mandate to propel innovations in public health emerging from India to the next level. Formerly as Head Strategy Partnerships & Entrepreneurship Development at BIRAC (the nodal Indian biotech innovation agency) & as the 'Co-ordinator' of Make in India Cell in BIRAC- his portfolio included overall strategy formulation & implementation for BIRAC, early stage funding, biotech incubators, and business development & communication. He is also a Consultant (pro-bono) to KBITS, GoK advising on Biotech Policy 3.0. Previously he was a Senior Consultant at IIM Bangalore & COO of nodal biotech industry association- ABLE.

While at BIRAC, he designed and implemented more than half a dozen national programs such as Biotech Ignition Grant-BIG (India's largest early stage biotech startup funding program), SPARSH (social innovation program), BioNEST (incubator program), University Innovation Cluster (UIC),SoCH, SEED Equity & AcE equity funding. He led the establishment of BIRAC Regional Innovation Centre (BRIC) at IKP Hyderabad & BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre (BREC) at C-CAMP. In 2017, he was part of the GoI's Industrial Policy (Technology & Innovation vertical) deliberations.

He holds triple masters from University of Leicester (UK), Cambridge (UK) and Sambalpur (India) and a PhD from University of East Anglia, UK. His interests are in S&T policy design, implementation and outcomes, business of science, early stage funding, entrepreneurship, and catalysing for positive serendipity across innovation communities.

Srikant Sastri is an experienced entrepreneur (who has built startups and exited from them successfully), an angel investor (a member of IAN), a champion for innovation and entrepreneurship in India (as a Charter member of TiE-NCR, creator of YouTube channel Chalo Startup, active mentor and board committee member for IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, FIRST at IIT Kanpur, Venture Center, Pune and committees for BIRAC and NSTEDB) and a startup mentor (mentoring several startups in India and serving on Boards). He is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta. He is also a Certified Independent Director. He is currently Co-Founder, Crayon data.

Dr. V. Premnath holds a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He has also been a Chevening Technology Enterprise Fellow with the Centre for Scientific Enterprises, London Business School and Cambridge University, UK. He brings with him considerable experience in technology development and commercialization (two successfully commercialized families of products), working with start-up companies (in Cambridge-UK and India) and engaging with large corporations on research and consulting projects as project leader.