Technology

As Accenture’s Group Chief Executive for Strategy & Consulting, Annette Rippert is responsible for leading a team of more than 40,000 strategists and consultants, industry and function experts, data scientists, and human performance professionals. Accenture has expertise in more than 40 industries, with offices and operations in 50 countries. Rippert works with C-suite executives and boards of the world’s leading organizations, helping them accelerate digital transformations, grow profitability, and deliver sustainable value. Rippert is passionate about the opportunities she sees at the intersection of industry, technology, and human ingenuity, and her leadership has not gone unnoticed: Accenture was recently named a leader in digital business transformation services by Forrester and Rippert was named by Business Insider as one of the most influential people transforming consulting. She’s also been recognized by the American Business Awards with a Gold Stevie Award for Achievement in Management in Business & Professional Services. Rippert advises the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology and serves on the Board of Trustees for Northwestern University, where she earned both her Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science and her Master of Management degree.

As the Senior Vice President and Global Head of the Technology Business at Tech Mahindra, Harshul Asnani is part of the company’s executive leadership team responsible for the growth of the Hitech business globally. Prior to this role, he led the Communications business for the company across North America and LATAM. Before joining Tech Mahindra in 2014, Asnani worked with technology products and consulting majors like Wipro, HCL, Prodapt, Patni (now Capgemini), and Compaq (now HP) in various leadership roles including P&L ownership, strategic alliances, and ecosystem development at a global level. Asnani specializes in business turnaround, building new markets in IT, engineering/R&D, and BPO. He is passionate about mentoring startups, creating high-performance teams, and helping customers with their digital transformation agendas. A long time resident of San Francisco Bay Area, he serves on the board of the Bay Area Council and on the advisory board of the University of Washington Bothell School of Business, is a patron of Indiaspora, and is a TiE Silicon Valley Charter Member. Asnani holds an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies MSU, a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from LD College of Engineering, and has completed the Executive Management Development Program at Harvard Business School.

Jeanette Calandra, 30-year PwC veteran, currently leads the firm’s Global Advisory Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) practice. She is responsible for strategy execution, growth, and innovation across a network of international firm territories. Calandra spent 15 years in Silicon Valley, where she served as the Managing Partner of PwC’s San Jose office. Through her delivery of cross-functional solutions, she has extensive experience leading the firm’s work with global Fortune 500 clients, as well as some of the most fast-paced disrupters and technology start-ups. She provides strategic and hands-on advice at the board and C-suite level, and across functional areas to transform, innovate, and scale their businesses. Calandra combines her passion for technology and the community through serving in non-profit board and leadership roles, including with Project Glimmer, the Liberty Science Center, and previously the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. She is a frequent speaker at industry events around the world, moderating panels and speaking at conferences including Cannes Lions, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the Consumer Electronics Show. Calandra received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant in New York and California.

Lan Guan, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, leads the Global Industry Applied Intelligence Network within Accenture’s Strategy Consulting domain. In this role she is responsible for working with clients to develop and implement data and AI strategies for their organizations. She has spent her last eighteen years at Accenture working with cross-industry Fortune 100 clients in North America and specializes in data integration, data mining, and statistical modeling. Guan is often asked to speak at analytics events on subjects such as managing advanced analytic applications, growing analytic resources, delivering more informed information, and making analytics a part of the corporate operation. She has published a number of industry white papers about the growing impact of analytics on corporate transformation, and in 2013 she co-authored a management handbook: Selling Through Someone Else: How to Use Agile Sales Networks and Partners to Sell More. Guan has led an array of analytics projects featuring customer segmentation and profiling, target marketing, predictive modeling, and business forecasting to enhance clients’ marketing efforts and provide business/strategic decision support to improve the bottom line. Prior to joining Accenture, Guan was an Analytics Manager at Quantum, a start-up custom analytic company specializing in the areas of predictive modeling, sales force optimization, automotive primary research, and database management. She received her MBA in Applied Statistical Engineering from the University of Michigan and her PhD (ABD) in Quantitative Economics from Wayne State University.

Manish Khandelwal is a Partner and the Global Lead of the Technology Transformation business for PA Consulting Group. He is a member of PA’s Management Team and is one of the key leaders driving PA's impressive growth. Based out of London, Khandelwal leads a global team that works with organizations to drive technology enabled business transformation. Khandelwal has deep expertise in technology strategy, sourcing, business models, organization design, operating models, and workforce transformation. He has worked with clients across sectors to help them build and run effective, efficient, ingenious technology organizations that result in the bottom-line and top-line growth of businesses. His clients vouch for his authentic, insightful, practical, and collaborative approach towards driving business outcomes. Born in India, Khandelwal has held a number of leadership positions in Asia and Europe and has built and led large teams and businesses. He is a recognized thought leader in the industry and has published a number of writings on the IT industry and the global talent supply chain, and he has driven commercial results for his clients by combining strategy, insights, and his in-depth knowledge of the industry. Khandelwal started his career in the products division of Tata Infotech in Mumbai. He was one of the youngest Regional Managers for Tata Infotech and led the set up and growth of business in Switzerland and Germany before moving to London. He holds a Masters in management as well as a degree in electronics engineering.

Mario Desiderio serves as Managing Director and Digital Capability Leader for Huron Consulting Group and has more than 25 years of experience working with business leaders across industries to navigate digital business transformation. He has led a wide range of client engagements, helping organizations modernize and transform their front and back office functions via cloud technologies in the areas of CRM, financial, HCM, and risk to reduce their total cost of ownership and increase revenue, improve productivity, and unlock real-time insights to inform decision making. Prior to Huron, Desiderio served as President of ADI Strategies, which was acquired by Huron in 2016. Additionally, he was the founder of Infinis, Inc., which was acquired by WhittmanHart and subsequently by Rolta International. Mario is a recipient of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Paul Ricci is a Partner and National Leader of CohnReznick’s Technology+ group. Over the last 17 years, Ricci has advised some of the largest companies in the U.S. and abroad on business strategy, major business transformation, process optimization, analytics enablement, system’s implementations, integrations, and conversions. He focuses on organizational entity and chart of accounts design, CRM, budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting, business intelligence, analytics, system selection, program and project management, change management, ERP implementations and upgrades, JD Edwards, IT strategy, data conversions, and integrations. Prior to CohnReznick, Ricci was an audit professional at Deloitte serving U.S. and international clients. His work supported acquisitions and mergers, business process redesigns, and major data and chart of accounts conversions. Leading large project teams and significant customization efforts, he consistently achieved on-time, on-budget delivery. Ricci earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting and information systems from the Boston College Carroll School of Management, graduating summa cum laude and ranked 14th in his class.

Raghavan Sundararajan (Raghav) is a Senior Vice President leading the Digital and Engineering Business for Tech Industries/Hitech Vertical at HCLTech. With about 2 decades of experience across multiple disciplines, Sundararajan has been a pioneer in the manufacturing, HiTech, Digital, and Engineering practices at HCLTech. A technology enthusiast keen on the future of technology and trends, he brings a special focus on opportunities at the intersection of new technologies and various business models. A leader with global exposure, Sundararajan has successfully led teams across multiple geographies. His business and technical expertise and innovative leadership qualities have placed him at the forefront of important business events. He is a strategist, innovator, and thought leader leveraging his technical and leadership capabilities in driving HCLTech's vision and strategy to help customers achieve their digital journey and operating model transformation by delivering compelling value propositions built on innovative and modern solutions. Sundararajan earned his Engineering (computer science) and MBA (operations management) degrees in India. He has also completed an Executive Master’s in management from the University of Virginia, and an Exec Education program at Paul Verge School of Business, UC Irvine. He is an advisory council member of Harvard Business Review. He also recently completed the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Sundararajan is based in the California bay area, and his philanthropic outreach includes education for children.

Ranjit Bawa is a Principal at Deloitte and currently leads the Cloud & Modern Engineering business. His teams provide enterprises with deep domain knowledge and cloud native engineering expertise to reimagine, build, and modernize business and technology capabilities. A growth-oriented leader, Bawa has helped build and scale several technology-centric practices for Deloitte, most recently around cloud technologies. Since he joined Deloitte in 2001, Bawa has spent over two decades serving clients across a variety of industries, specifically capital markets, banking, high-tech, and insurance. His work spans business and technology strategy, large-scale technology transformations, new capability/product development, and operating model transformations — all focused on addressing urgent client business issues. Prior to Deloitte, Bawa spent his early career in aircraft engineering operations which stressed the importance of each decision in a complex, mission-critical system, and as a co-founder in an early-stage wireless startup. Bawa holds an MBA in strategy and finance and a bachelor of engineering in electrical and electronics engineering.

Sean McDevitt is a Partner at Arthur D. Little based in Boston, and he is responsible for ADL’s business development initiatives in the U.S., steering top-tier telecom, broadband, and cable companies to stronger market positions and game-changing advances in their offerings and go-to-market approaches. McDevitt has extensive expertise in investment due diligence and M&A across both buy- and sell-side transactions. McDevitt has over 25 years of experience in consulting and operating roles. At ADL, he has been pivotal in driving the firm’s growth and re-emergence as one of the premier management consulting firms in the U.S. Since re-entering the market in 2017, ADL now counts five of the top 10 U.S. telecom operators as clients. McDevitt also leads the firm’s recruiting efforts and has had an instrumental role in building the ADL USA team and company culture. Prior to joining ADL, McDevitt was a vice president at Cartesian, where he led the North American Strategy and Management Consulting businesses. Previously, he held several executive positions in Europe, serving as Président-Directeur Général of Le Numéro France (118218) and COO of 118118//Media in the U.K. McDevitt remains active in ice hockey as a sled/paralympic, collegiate, high-school, and youth on-ice official. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in classics and business economics from Brown University and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Sophie Ross is the Global Chief Executive Officer of FTI Consulting’s Technology segment, a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk, and resolve disputes. She also leads the Technology Steering Committee and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Ross has more than 20 years of experience in company management and operations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, specializing in helping clients manage their overall e-discovery and review through predictable pricing models and by simplifying the multiple layers of discovery management. She additionally serves on the Global Steering Committee of FTI Consulting’s Women’s Initiative, a company-wide program meant to attract, retain, develop, and promote highly talented female professionals. Prior to her current position, Ross led the Western Region for FTI Consulting as well as the Managed Document Review business globally. She initially joined FTI Consulting through its 2008 acquisition of Strategic Discovery, a leader in the litigation discovery industry, where she served as COO and was responsible for all operations including data processing, IT, client support, human resources and administration, finance, and accounting. Prior to Strategic Discovery, Ross was executive VP of Global Delivery & Operations at Freeborders, an application outsourcing and software firm. She has also held strategic and operational leadership roles at Revlon (MacAndrews & Forbes) and The Boston Consulting Group. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Tara Duke is a transformation leader who thrives on creating innovative solutions, marrying corporate strategy with cutting edge technology and accelerating competitive organizations in this digital age. Duke joined the Slalom Chicago leadership team to expand their expertise in strategy and transformation, in a market that has consistently performed exceptionally. Slalom is a global consultancy that is scaling rapidly and continues to win Best Place to Work awards. Previously, Duke led transformation programs at Verizon, and her team won the CFO Award for achieving $2.9 billion on a $2.1 billion growth and cost reduction target, with projects spanning process redesign, AI incorporation, backend consolidation, and more. Duke was also part of the Dell Technology (DT) evolution, transforming how the company developed multi-product solutions for some of its largest global clients across 5+ DT companies including EMC, VMware, and Dell. This effort led to Duke and Dell Technologies winning client and industry awards. She received her MBA and an MS in information systems from Boston University. Duke is also a board member of the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center, focused on healing abused children.

Soumendra Mohanty is the Chief Strategy Officer at Tredence. He has led key growth portfolios (IIOT, Data, Analytics, AI, Intelligent RPA, Digital Integration, Digital Experience, Platforms), bringing in world-class capabilities, innovative solutions, and transformation-led, outcomes-led value propositions to the firm’s clients. Under his leadership, Tredence has established a wide range of digital and data analytics capabilities and an enviable client-centric innovation culture to solve problems at the convergence of physical and digital. With a career spanning over 25 years, Mohanty has held various leadership roles at Accenture (Global Data Analytics Lead), Mindtree (SVP & Digital Lead), and L&T Infotech (EVP & CDAO), leading multi-faceted P&L functions, including M&A advisory for technology growth strategies and startup ecosystems. Mohanty is an accomplished thought leader and has published several books. He is tenacious in his quest for knowledge and modest in sharing experiences. As an effective communicator, he regularly speaks at various global forums, CDAO advisory gatherings, and educational institutions. He is an advisor to the Harvard Business Review (Analytics Stream) and holds a master’s degree in computer applications from the College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India.