Opening Remarks

A J Jawad is CEO and Registrar of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC), Hyderabad, and a practising advocate with 35 years of experience in the legal field. He is a distinguished Senior Mediator and Trainer with over 18 years of expertise across civil, commercial, international and matrimonial mediations, and has delivered training programmes for the Supreme Court of India's Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee and judicial academies across India. He is empanelled as a mediator with the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and as an arbitrator with the Madras High Court.

Daniel Cai is a Director in the Dispute Resolution practice at Drew & Napier, Singapore, where he handles civil litigation and international arbitration across construction, banking and finance, infrastructure and corporate disputes. He has represented multinational corporations, governments and financial institutions at all levels of the Singapore courts and in international arbitrations, and has advised clients in regulatory investigations. Daniel is a co-author of Singapore Civil Procedure (Sweet & Maxwell) and was appointed by the Chief Justice to the Inquiry Panel under the Legal Profession Act. He was recently admitted as an equity director at the firm.

Jayne Kuriakose is Head of Disputes and Litigation for Asia at DXC Technology, where she leads commercial disputes, litigation strategy and corporate investigations across the region. Dual-qualified in India and the UK, she brings over 15 years of experience spanning dispute resolution, technology transactions and enterprise risk. Before moving into disputes, Jayne led technology transactions at Hewlett Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise across the APAC region. She is known for embedding data and AI tools into legal operations to improve dispute outcomes and drive more commercially attuned, efficient resolutions for her stakeholders.

Montek Mayal is a Partner and Practice Head for Asia and the Middle East at Osborne Partners, based in Dubai and New Delhi. He focuses on the assessment of damages and valuation of businesses in disputes spanning M&A, shareholder and joint venture conflicts, private equity investments, and investment treaty claims. Montek has been appointed as an expert in over 100 domestic and international arbitration and competition matters, testifying before tribunals 60 times since 2017 on claims ranging from USD 5 million to over USD 2 billion. He holds a CFA and CVA charter.

Purnima Kambalay is a Senior Partner at Fox Mandal & Associates, based in Hyderabad, with over 23 years of experience across corporate, commercial and real estate law. She has built a reputation for practical, client-focused counsel and was recognised as one of India's Top 100 Lawyers by Forbes in 2022. Purnima has a strong focus on workplace equity, having led multiple training sessions on sexual harassment prevention with CII, and serves on the Internal Complaints Committees of several multinational companies. She previously chaired the CII Indian Women Network chapter in Telangana.

Raj Panchmatia is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution practice at Khaitan & Co, based in Mumbai, where he jointly heads the office's disputes team. He has over two decades of experience in domestic and international arbitration and commercial litigation, advising on claims under Indian arbitration law as well as SIAC, LCIA, ICC, UNCITRAL and HKIAC rules. Raj has represented private equity investors, multinational corporations and the Government of India in disputes across infrastructure, real estate, automobile and shipbuilding sectors. He is a member of the SIAC India Users Council and the ICC India Arbitration Group.

Shujath Bin Ali is the Chief Legal Officer at Fourth Partner Energy, India's leading renewable energy platform, where he leads legal, compliance, governance and risk functions across project execution, M&A and regulatory matters. He brings over 24 years of cross-sector experience, having previously served as Global General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Re Sustainability, a KKR-backed company, and held senior legal roles at Parexel, International Paper and Deloitte. Shujath has been recognised among India's Top 100 General Counsels by The Legal 500 and Forbes India, and as a Distinguished Legal Mind by Legal Era.

Sidharth Sethi is an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of India and a Disputes Partner at JSA, one of India's leading full-service law firms. Based in New Delhi, his practice spans corporate and commercial litigation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution. He has represented private and state-owned entities in international arbitrations involving joint venture, shareholder and share purchase disputes, alongside insolvency, product liability, constitutional and white-collar crime matters. Sidharth is a member of the Singapore International Mediation Centre Specialist Mediator Panel, and teaches Company Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution as guest faculty at a leading Indian law school.