Our Speakers

Benu Aggarwal, founder and president of Milestone Inc., is a highly recognized expert in digital marketing solutions, voice search, SEO, and local. Benu oversees product development, client services, technology, and strategic vision for the company. Under her leadership, the company has prospered as it launched a suite of SEO-first software products and thousands of websites of which dozens won design and technology awards. With her technical marketing experience, entrepreneurial spirit, and motivating attitude, Benu has the ability to translate technical ideas into tangible practice that drive results for customers.

Kirthiga brings over two decades of experience leading technology-driven transformations to her role at Virtualness. She is driven by the mantra, “When businesses succeed, livelihoods flourish.” Prior to Virtualness, she was the first female Investment Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, manager of the $130B+ SoftBank Vision Fund. She focused on frontier, enterprise, and health tech investments, where she led approximately $1B in new investments across fast-evolving sectors such as web3, metaverse, gaming, quantum computing etc. She managed an overall portfolio of over $5B. Kirthiga has held the role of Managing Director for Facebook India and South Asia, starting as their first employee in India. At Facebook, she started one of four global operations offices that now serve 3B+ people; built APAC SMB business; grew India business to several $100Ms annual revenue and got investment buy-in for path to $1B.

Divya brings a mix of operational and investment experience in enterprise technology to NGP Capital. Prior to NGP Capital, Divya was a Senior Product Manager at SugarCRM, where she led development of their platform products and drove product adoption in the developer community. She was also a software engineer at Citrix, where she built and launched features for their enterprise mobility product line. Divya brings a strong technical acumen to venture investing. Before and during business school, she gained investing experience at several different VC funds, including Costanoa ventures and Samsung NEXT ventures. At NGP Capital, Divya is on the US investment team with a thematic focus on Intelligent Enterprise and Mobile Technologies. Divya received an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Florida, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from SJCE in India.

Preethy Padmanabhan is the Senior Director, Platform & AI Marketing at Freshworks. Prior to joining Freshworks, Preethy was the VP of Marketing at Panzura. She is also an angel investment partner with SV2, Portfolia and a Board Member for Nextstem.ai. She started her career as a Software engineer at Hughes, India. She moved to the US to take up technical and business responsibilities in large companies such as Cisco and Dell. Later she moved to hi-tech startups such as Nutanix, Panzura and grew her career across product management, marketing and sales. Preethy has 20+ years high tech and leadership experience across marketing, sales & engineering. She is a strategic problem solver and connector who brings teams together to create exponential value for companies. Preethy has strong leadership, management and people skills. She has effective interpersonal and communication skills with customers, partners. She has delivered multiple customer EBC, demos, sales & partner training, trade show presentations, webcasts etc.

Due Quach is the author of Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to Rewire Your Brain for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy, one of Fast Company's Best Business Books of 2018. She is also a social entrepreneur who grew up in inner-city Philadelphia, graduated from Harvard College and the Wharton School of Business, and built an international career in management consulting and private equity investments. Having started life in poverty as a refugee from Vietnam who suffered severe trauma, she created Calm Clarity to share the powerful neuroscience-based techniques she developed to heal PTSD, navigate discrimination and overcome barriers, realize her potential, and now build social ventures (Calm Clarity and the Collective Success Network) that inspire and support people to collaborate to co-create a world where every one of us can thrive and flourish.

Mythili’s 25+ years of experience spans from R&D and product management in technology companies and tech entrepreneurship to nonprofit management. Previously, Mythili was the Senior Director, WesternRegion for the U.S. India Business Council where she led the Council’s west coast practice and membership. Prior to USIBC, Mythili was the CEO of Koollage, a telecom/web startup. Early in her career,Mythili spent several years as a Research Staff Member at IBM Research Labs as well as AT&T Bell Labsand in product management roles at Lucent Technologies, eVoice and Palmsource. Mythili currently works as an independent advisor and consulting CXO to early stage startups and advises them on operations, product ideation, fundraising, and business development. Additionally, Mythili is an active angel investor and is a member of several women-led investor networks that support women entrepreneurs.

Lovell brings more than 25 years of hospitality expertise and increasing responsibility to her current role. Today, she is responsible for leading and executing commercial sales and marketing strategies for the management company’s diverse and growing portfolio of hotels. Prior to joining PM Hotel Group, Lovell founded and was president of FLC Business Consulting, supporting hospitality and nonprofit clients. During her career, she has also held senior roles with Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Merritt Hospitality and Crescent Hotels & Resorts. Today, Lovell sits on the Owners Advisory Council for DoubleTree Hotels and serves on the Marriott Sales & Marketing Advisory Board.

Brenda Arndt, CDMP, a seasoned marketing executive with extensive experience in digital marketing strategies, is the Chief Marketing Officer at SouthEast Bank. With a proven track record at the 5th largest U.S. bank, Brenda leads a team in developing data-driven, search optimized digital experiences. With 15 years in internet marketing, she excels in SEO, website development, content marketing, PPC advertising, and more, driving lead generation and sales. Previously, Brenda held roles including VP Organic Performance Marketing and VP Content and Search at U.S. Bank, where she spearheaded global SEO strategies, led digital marketing initiatives, and managed a multi-million-dollar budget.

Renu is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in growing companies and transforming business models. She is on the Board of Luther Burbank Corporation (NASDAQ:LBC) and a member of their audit and risk committee. Having run P&L and been a COO in multiple industries, she brings insight on what it takes to create strategy, execution plans, and leadership teams in order to drive growth. Renu has strong finance acumen combined with direct risk and regulatory experience. She has a breadth of global experience across small and large companies - from a $10 million VC-backed company to a $800 million private company to a large global financial institution. With broad banking experience, she brings a deep understanding of regulated businesses both domestic and international.

Senior technology executive driving business growth through digital transformation. Proven track record of building great products, delivering business value, and creating strong customer ecosystems. Passionate about the application of technology to solve customer pain points and achieve business outcomes. Shivani is at the frontier of digital transformation. As Chief Product Officer at CCC Information Services, Shivani is responsible for delivering innovative solutions that harness advanced technology such as AI, IoT, mobile, analytics, customer experience and network management to power the multi-trillion-dollar P&C insurance economy.

President TiE Silicon Valley; Founder reLIMS laboratory automation software company; former executive at HP/Agilent, NASA; committed to healthcare, education and access; founding trustee Ashoka University; serves on several boards and has been recognized as top 80 women nationally as “Technology All Star”; YWCA TWIN award for executive leadership and impact; Top 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley; She is an avid golfer, open terrain hiker and enjoys cooking.