Authbridge

Ajay Trehan is a pioneer in modern background screening process outsourcing. He founded AuthBridge in 2005 and has built the company into a leading authority on background check management in India. Today, AuthBridge is a quality-driven, best practice company, delivering proven business impact risk advisory solutions to top draw clients, including Fortune 500 organizations.

Ajay’s perspective on the importance of risk assessment and mitigation drives AuthBridge’s culture of innovation and commitment to excellence. His passion for best standards in service and customer engagement has seen the company measure up to global quality benchmark, including ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications.
A visionary leader, Ajay has been critical to AuthBridge’s success and growth. While he is actively involved in formulating strategy and execution across the entire screening process lifecycle, Ajay also participates in guiding AuthBridge’s clients on Total Security Management – a risk advisory initiative of AuthBridge. Under his leadership, AuthBridgeis steadily growing into a leading risk advisory organization in India.

Before turning an entrepreneur, Ajay had a distinguished career with ICI India where he held leadership positions in operations and sales. His ability to recognize new business opportunities when markets and technologies are in transition also prompted him to co author CORE BPO, a business process outsourcing company that specialized in providing Business Process Outsourcing to the UK Real Estate Industry.

Beyond the confines of AuthBridge, Ajay is actively involved in advocating the need for responsible hiring practices in today’s high-stake business environment. As an authoritative voice, he addresses various thought leadership forums to make sure the importance of risk management over damage control is clearly understood. Ajay holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He is also a certified ISO 9000 auditor.

Naresh Kumra is currently President - Asia Pacific and Executive Vice President at Belden. Belden is a 108-year “young” supplier of cables and networking solutions to infrastructure and OEM markets. Belden had sales of $2 billion in 2008.

Naresh joined Belden in March 2006 as Vice President – Business Development, and relocated to New Delhi in September 2006 to assume his current role. Naresh has since been focused on transforming the $50 million sales operation (2005) to a $373 million business (2008), with strong capability in engineering and manufacturing.

Before joining Belden, Naresh was based in New York area as Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. During 6 years, Naresh assisted companies in a wide variety of industries on strategic and operation issues. Naresh also worked with reputed private equity funds on their investments.

Naresh started his career in June 1991 with Schlumberger, a multi-billion dollar global company [NYSE: SLB], in their electronics business in France. During 6 years, Naresh held positions in engineering, marketing, and manufacturing in India/France. Naresh also setup/ran Schlumberger’s first electronics plant in Asia, outside Delhi.

Naresh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi; and qualified as a National Talent Scholar (NTSE) in India. Naresh has an MBA from the Darden Business School at University of Virginia where he was a William Shermet scholar, and where he received the Faculty award for academic excellence.

Naresh is a Charter Member of TiE, a global nonprofit dedicated to entrepreneurship, a member of Indian Angel Network, and a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). In 2009, Naresh was awarded “Outstanding Entrepreneur Award” by Enterprise Asia, a Malaysia-based non-profit, for “outstanding performance and tenacity in developing successful businesses within the region”.

Naresh has lived and worked on three continents, and speaks 5 languages, including, English, French, Hindi and Punjabi. He is currently taking Mandarin classes in Shanghai. Naresh now lives in New Delhi, India with his wife and 3 young children.

Rajesh Sachdeva founded FTIM and manages the firm’s portfolios. From 2005 to 2008 he was a co-founder and partner at Sansar Capital, an Asian equity markets hedge fund advicer based in New York. Rajesh played an integral role in growing the firm to a more than 35 person team which managed in excess of $3 billion and the president of Sansar Capital, Singapore. For the first 11 years of his career, he focussed on Asian Investments both on the buy side (as an investment analyst with Kingdon Capital and Alliance capital) and on the sell side (including as a Director, Asian equity sales, Citi Group Global Markets in New York). Rajesh received an MBA from XLRI Institute of Management in 1993 and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1991.

Squadron Leader Ashok Ahooja has decades of experience in streamlining and working through the mire of Criminal & Police Verifications. He has expansive knowledge on verification processes, and adds value to AuthBridge by bringing on board expertise in dealing with environments where data availability is limited or data credibility is a suspect.

In terms of absolute experience, Squadron Leader Ahooja spent 14 years with Indian Air Force, before migrating to Iran and subsequently to the US for pursuing his business interests. During his tenure with the Indian Air Force, Squadron Leader Ahooja was responsible for Administration and logistic support. Post 1962 Indo-Sino war, he was made the unit in charge of military equipment installations in the Eastern Sector. Squadron Leader Ahooja also trained fresh recruits at Air force Training Institute, Belgaum, India.