An economist and consultant by profession, Mr. Ashutosh Mani Dixit is a graduate of The Australian National University. He graduated from Kathmandu University School of Management- MBA in 2008. He has served The National Planning Commission as a consultant where he worked in preparing the SDGs need assessment, costing and financial strategy for SDGs implementation in Nepal. He has worked as a Consultant for Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development-UNESCAP where he researched into financing strategies for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. He has also worked as a Consultant for NPC (Government of Nepal) and the World Bank-IFC. He was one of the Regional Finalists of the 2015 Hult Prize in Shanghai and represented The Australian National University.

Mr. Rupesh Krishna Shrestha is the co-founder of Idea Studio, a national level entrepreneurship and innovation development platform in Nepal. He has broad progressive professional experiences in design, implementation and supervision of education, training, and research projects in the field of marketing, entrepreneurship and organizational development. His specific areas of expertise include New Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Consumer Behavior, and Product & Brand Management. He did his MPhil in management and eMBA from Kathmandu University School of Management

Mr. Amun Thapa is the founder and CEO of Sasto Deal, a game-changing online retail store in Nepal’s e-commerce sector. He is also the co founder of Sasto Book, Sasto Travel and Anthropose, and proprietor of Irish Pub and Chhahari Production. He studied marketing and consumer psychology at University of Central Oklahoma. Mr. Thapa made his career in online business in a period when most people believed online businesses were doomed to fail. He has not only been able to bring an economic shift but also a cultural shift among customers in Nepal.

Mr. Amit Agrawal is the CEO of Janaki Technology Pvt. Ltd, one of the leading telecom Value Added Service (VAS) Provider. He is working on the business development of 3 innovative tech companies: Sparrow SMS, Picovico and Khalti. Mr Agrawal is also the manager of Google Business Groups (GBG) Kathmandu and is working to spread awareness among offline businesses about the benefit of internet, online products and services that can help them to add values to their businesses. He is an expert and specialist in the field of marketing, business planning, project management, public relations, SMS services and solutions.

The Executive director of Hotel Annapurna, Mrs Shreejana Rana has set an example for many women looking to break glass ceilings in Business Sector. She is the first Vice President of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and the President of Zonta International Club Nepal, a global organization of executives and professionals with 68 chapters worldwide. Mrs Rana has successfully been promoting women entrepreneurship, working in areas of women empowerment in Nepal and advocates for improving economic growth, education, health and issues related to youth and violence against women.

Mr Mahabir Pun is well known in Nepal for his extensive work in rural villages in fields of health, education and awareness programmes by connecting those remote areas through internet using wireless technologies. Mr. Pun founded the Nepal Wireless Networking Project in 2002 to build a local communication network using wireless technology to connect people in the Himalayan communities, places where proper roads and vehicles haven’t reached yet and require 7 hours to climb to. In 2007, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines, which is also called ‘the Nobel Prize of Asia’.

Mr. Umes Shrestha is the cofounder of Empowerment Academy. Empowerment Academy primarily focuses to empower teachers and students through trainings, workshops, collaboration and mentorship. He has been working on developing ‘delivering effective presentation’ workshops and courses for students.

Mr. Prashanta Manandhar is the founder of Storytellers Nepal, a platform for celebrating stories of people from different fields of life. He is a mentor, and aims to inspire people to bring out the stories of different people from different walks of life, cocooned within themselves and that can simply have an impact.

Victoria is the Program Director of Rockstart Impact, an accelerator program that makes 10 high potential and ambitious Nepali companies investment-ready in 100 days offering a high quality pressure-cooker program based on proven and tested methodologies. She is originally from Netherlands, and has been working in Nepal to groom startups

Ms. Shanti Karanjit is the climate change programme analyst in UNDP Nepal. She has more than 12 years of experience of working in the area of environmental management, 8 years of which has been on climate change adaptation and mitigation and disaster risk management related areas. She completed her masters in Environmental management from Yale University.

Mr. Deepak Mani Dhital is the acting General Manager of Nepal Television, which is Nepal’s first and largest National Television. He did his degree in Engineering and manages media broadcasting, telecommunication policies and engineering department.

Mr. Vishwa B. Amatya is the Senior Energy Access, Sustainability and Organization Development Expert. He has worked as the head of Programme of Energy Unit in Practical Action. He has been a part of the international energy programme team and built and managed the in-country Energy Team ensuring integration with Practical Action’s other programme areas.