Mr. Priyaranjan Kumar is Director of Clients Solutions, International Operations at real estate solutions firm Cushman & Wakefield, and is based out of San Jose, CA. Part of the eminent client servicing and business development platform offered by C&W globally, Mr. Kumar works very closely with his counterparts and field operations to help clients plan, execute, and enhance value to their real estate portfolios and decision making processes.

Employed with Cushman & Wakefield since February, 2000, Mr. Kumar headed up the commercial brokerage operations for North India before moving to the Capital Markets Group. As Head of Investment Sales, C&W India, Mr. Kumar was responsible for all the firm’s initiatives in the investment sales segment, working closely with colleagues throughout India to secure prime opportunities for clients. From 2003 – 2005, Mr. Kumar advised institutional investors and lenders for transactions totaling over $135 million in the Indian market, both on the debt and equity platforms. Prior to his career at C&W, Mr. Kumar was the Head of Commercial Agency, New Delhi at Colliers Jardine India from 1997 until February 2000, Mr. Kumar’s career has exposed him to all facets of key occupier/investor considerations in such markets – leasing strategy, dispositions, investment sales, and structured debt finance, amongst others.

Mr. Kumar is a graduate in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce (S.R.C.C.), Delhi University and a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) with a major in Finance from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad.

Mr. Douglas Smith is the Principal in charge of international projects for the Chicago office of the global architectural firm, HOK.  In this role, Mr. Smith is responsible for directing and formulating design concepts as well as managing a wide range of project sizes from architectural to urban mixed-use development planning

Many of his projects have won numerous regional and national design awards from the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, American Planning Association, and Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU).  Mr. Smith also serves HOK in a variety of management and operations roles in addition to serving as the Project Director and Project Office Manager for HOK’s project office in Doha, Qatar for the National Physical Development Plan.  Mr. Smith is currently working on real estate projects for office complexes in Southern India.  Mr. Smith’s primary experience includes office, hotel, retail, transportation facilities, urban design and strategic redevelopment planning with an expertise in complex mixed-use urban design.

Mr. Smith received his Bachelors of Science in Architecture, a Bachelors of Arts in Urban Geography, a Masters in Architecture, and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  

Bhargav Sri Prakash is Founder & CEO of CADcorporation, a technology company specializing in virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

CADcorporation was founded to commercialize his graduate research from The University of Michigan, which evolved into the patent pending Vmerse - Virtual Immersion - framework. CADcorporation works with universities to deliver networked virtual reality to assist in transmitting the campus experience via real-time 3D graphics, to prospective students, alumni and donors. The company is engaged in its most extensive implementation of Vmerse for the University of Michigan. CADcorporation recently entered the Indian marketplace to deploy Vmerse for marketing high-end real estate.

Mr. Sri Prakash continues to be actively involved with acquisition of land along growth corridors in India, with a vision to promote integrated townships by the Shilpa Group - the family-held parent company of an Architecture & Planning firm in Chennai.

He holds two patents for innovations in engineering design, virtually immersive technologies, and artificial intelligence algorithms. He has a B.E. in Mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering - Guindy, India where he graduated with a distinction. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Michigan, where he received a graduate research fellowship.

Mr. Kunal Banerji, Vice President - Marketing, Ansal API is responsible for looking after the overall international marketing and communications operation of the company, in India and Abroad and identifying new business opportunities.

A graduate in International Consumer & Industrial Advertising & Marketing from the CAM Foundation, UK and, Advertising & Marketing from Watford, UK, Mr. Kunal Banerji has a rich 25 years of experience in the field of marketing and corporate communications in Indian and Global Corporate world. He has also attended the O&M Management Programme in Hong Kong and the Advanced Management Programme in Australia (Melbourne). He is the visiting faculty at the International Business School, Amity (New Delhi), The Times School of Marketing (New Delhi) and National Real Estate Counsel (India) where he teaches Real Estate Marketing to post - graduate students.

Before joining Ansal-API, Banerji was the Vice-President (Marketing) UNITECH. As a core team member, he was responsible for building the firm's brand equity. He has also worked with, Omaxe, Fujifilm and JK Industries in top marketing and communications posts. His experience spans across the Middle East, the UK and South-East Asia with Ogilvy group as their Director.

Mr. Banerji has worked on the launch of various globally acclaimed Brands - Rolex, Seagrams, Nestlé's, Vicks, Johnson & Johnson, L'oreal, Wella, Faberge, Guy Larouche, Ted Lapidus, Mercedes Benz, Samsung, Beechams, Pepsico, Du Pont, Piaget and Henkel. He has also been associated with Ogilvy & Mather - in London, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and India centres. Last stint overseas was with Young & Rubicam in the Middle - East.

Prof. Kathleen Hagerty is the First Chicago Distinguished Professor of Finance and the co-director of the Financial Institutions and Markets Research Center.

Professor Hagerty has published widely in finance and economics journals. Her work has studied the micro-structure of securities markets, disclosure regulation, insider trading regulation and the effectiveness of self-regulatory organizations. She received a Bradley Foundation Research Fellowship and received the D.P. Jacobs Prize for the Most Significant Paper in the Journal of Financial Intermediation.

She has been a member of the editorial board of the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Market. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University.