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Ambassador Neelam Deo will focus on how Prime Minister Modi’s energetic foreign policy, combined with bold economic reforms, is creating a paradigm shift in the prospects for growth and development in India.

Dr. Vinay Nair will distill the policy, legislative and regulatory changes currently occurring in India, into an analysis of the attendant investment opportunities for foreign investors.

Speaker Bios:

Ambassador Neelam Deo | Ambassador Deo is currently a Director of “Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations”, established to engage India’s leading corporations and individuals in debate and scholarship on India’s foreign policy and the nation’s role in global affairs.  A distinguished diplomat, Mrs. Deo has been India’s Ambassador to Denmark and Ivory Coast with concurrent accreditation to several West African countries. She has also served in Indian embassies in Rome, Bangkok and Washington D.C., and as Consul General in New York from 2005 to 2008.  Within India’s Ministry of External Affairs, she has held positions of increasing responsibility leading up to Joint Secretary, covering countries in South East Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa.

She has a Master’s degree from the Delhi School of Economics and is currently on the board of Breakthrough (a human rights organization), Oxfam India and Mahindra CIE Automotive Limited. Besides articles and commentaries written for Gateway House, Mrs. Deo writes for several major publications, and is an occasional commentator for mainstream television news.

Dr. Vinay Nair | Dr. Nair is a Visiting Professor at The Wharton School and the founding principal of Ada Investments, an investment management firm that invests in global equity markets using proprietary fundamental and behavioral investment themes. Prior to founding Ada, he was an Assistant Professor of Finance at The Wharton School.  Dr. Nair has published in leading finance journals, and is sought frequently as an expert on Investment Management, Emerging Markets, and Sustainability and Corporate Finance. He authored 'Investing for Change' (Oxford University Press, 2008), a book on the use of social variables in investment management. He has also served as a visiting professor at The Indian School of Business and The Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.  Dr. Nair completed his PhD in Financial Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University with an award for the best thesis. His undergraduate studies were at the Indian Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Governor's Gold Medal for curricular and extra-curricular excellence.