Sidharth Balakrishna holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta & an Economics degree from the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University. He has 18+ years of experience in the oil & gas, energy, media & entertainment, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and education sectors. He has been an Executive (whole time) Board Director and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer with the Essel (Zee) Group, India’s largest media entity, and has led several strategic initiatives in the energy sector, sustainability, digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence etc. He has led many large projects - in the fields of oil & gas, renewable energy, education, water etc. Mr Sidharth has also been a Strategy Consultant with Accenture and KPMG. Projects that he has led have been awarded nationally and internationally. He is a mentor with MIT, Boston, USA, Faster Capital-Dubai, TigerHall, Singapore and mentors startups with MassChallenge Boston & Tel Aviv. He has worked on Artificial intelligence and Augmented Reality across various industries- media & entertainment, finance, education, print etc; he conceived and implemented the Zee Aptitude Test (ZAT)- an all-India test to recruit journalists from across the country. He has also implemented new advertising solutions using technology, some for the first time in India. Mr Balakrishna has also considerable academic experience; and has written six books published by Pearson, the world’s largest publishing house, SAGE and Tata McGraw Hill. He is an Adjunct Faculty at a number of management institutes in India including IIM Indore, FMS, SRCC and Great Lakes. He has presented at a number of international fora in the past including at London, Amsterdam, Muscat, Dubai, Myanmar, Mozambique, Kuwait, etc. He is a columnist with the London School of Economics, Economic Times etc; and has been interviewed often by the media, including featuring on the cover of the ‘Corporate Citizen’ magazine in 2018.