Indic Leadership Forum Inc.

About the Forum

A think tank, built to last.

Indic Leadership Forum Inc. brings industry leaders, academic researchers, entrepreneurs, and government leaders onto one platform — built on published research and real conversation.
Our Story

How ILF started

A mentor and a founder saw the same gap: Indian-origin leaders were shaping technology at the highest levels yet no dedicated national platform existed for them to convene and lead together.

In 2026, Indic Leadership Forum was founded  with a clear mandate to bridge industry, entrepreneurship, and academia across the technology domains that matter most.

We are early and intentional. Every founding member shapes what ILF becomes.
Our Mission

One platform, four communities that rarely meet

Industry leaders, academic researchers, entrepreneurs, and government leaders working on the same deep-tech frontier rarely have a reason to sit at the same table. ILF's mission is to be that table — through conversations, research, and contributions in the form of essays, podcast episodes, and curated events.

We're based in the Research Triangle — home to NC State, Duke, and UNC, and one of the country's deepest concentrations of engineering, life-science, and deep-tech talent. That density of Indian-origin scientists, founders, operators, and policy voices working at the actual frontier of these fields is what makes a forum like this possible here.

Our approach is deliberate: publish real essays and conversations across five focus areas first, and let the full community and events follow the substance — not the other way around.

What We Do

→ Publish anchor essays across five deep-tech pillars

→ Host ILF Conversations, a podcast with practitioners and researchers

→ Convene a curated, invitation-only founding event once the work is ready
The People

Core team & advisors

Core Team Built by practitioners

ILF is founded and run by a small team of Indian-origin technology and business leaders based in and around the Research Triangle, each contributing directly — from articles, research and outreach to hosting ILF Conversations.

Sachin Joshi

Chief Infrastructure Architect · New York Life Insurance

Sachin brings 20+ years of enterprise architecture and technology leadership across EY, Vimeo, Oracle, and IQVIA. He created the BizTecOps framework — connecting Business strategy, Technology decisions, and Operations execution. At NYL, he leads Critical Business Services recovery architecture and enterprise infrastructure governance. He is a former President of Hum Sub, an Indian-American cultural organization and volunteer in other local non profit organizations.

LinkedIn Profile

Anurag Pandey

Director, Strategic Initiatives · Cisco

Anurag is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience driving digital transformation, product engineering, and strategic innovation across startups and Fortune 50 enterprises. Leveraging a dual foundation in finance and technology, he specializes in bridging the gap between complex technical execution and scalable business growth. Throughout his career, Anurag has led global teams through high-stakes transitions, notably driving tax optimization at EY, managing acquisition integrations at Linksys, and spearheading Cisco’s pivot to SaaS and subscription models while building its Cloud GTM practice from the ground up. Blending deep business acumen with strategic thinking, Anurag is dedicated to fostering collaborative leadership within the BizTech community. Lately he has been an enthusiastic learner & practitioner of AI (his openAI account dates from 2021, much before LLMs became a common term). He looks forward to bringing his cross-functional expertise to ILF board to shape forward-thinking initiatives and mentor the next generation of industry innovators.

LinkedIn Profile

Srinivas Katti

Senior Technology Leader · Zensar Technologies

Srinivas brings deep expertise in enterprise architecture, cloud solutions delivery, and large-scale digital transformation programs across global markets. At Zensar — part of the RPG Group with 10,500+ professionals across 30+ locations — he has led complex technology engagements for clients across North America, Europe, and South Africa. His cross-sector experience spans manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare.

LinkedIn Profile

Strategic Advisor

Himanshu H. Shah

Founder · Shah Capital & Multiple Ventures · Raleigh, NC

A respected business leader and philanthropist in the Indian-origin community across North Carolina and beyond.

Steve Rao

Steve served as a Senior Business Development Executive at Alphanumeric Systems, a global tech company headquartered in Raleigh from January 2011 to May 2020. He now serves as Of Counsel and Adviser to State Federal Strategies, where he advises Technology Companies on State and Local Government Business Development Strategy.