Nikesh Arora – Keynote Speaker

Nikesh Arora is the Representative Director, President & COO at SoftBank Corp. He oversees its international investments. Since he joined the company, SoftBank has made nine investments in companies such as Banjo, GrabTaxi, Snapdeal, and Housing.com.

Arora left Google in July 2014 resigning from the post of Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. He oversaw all revenue and customer operations, as well as marketing and partnerships, and held several senior positions within the company. He also headed Google’s global direct sales operations and also developed and managed the company’s operations in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets. In these regions, he was responsible for creating and expanding strategic partnerships for the benefit of Google’s growing number of users and advertisers.

With a background as an analyst, Arora’s main areas of focus have been consulting, IT, marketing and finance. Prior to joining Google, he was chief marketing officer and a member of the management board at T-Mobile. While there he spearheaded all product development, terminals, brand and marketing activities of T-Mobile Europe. In 1999, he started working with Deutsche Telekom and founded T-Motion PLC, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, he held management positions at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Nikesh Arora holds a master’s degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were awarded with distinction. He also holds the CFA designation. In 1989, he graduated from the Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.