OUR TEAMS
Meet the Crayon Crew
The people who build up the Box
Suresh Shankar
Founder and CEO
Suresh is a second-time entrepreneur, and an evangelist of big data, analytics, and digital personalization. His first venture, RedPill Analytics, was acquired by IBM. With a background in sales, marketing, advertising, media, analytics and Big Data, Suresh has been in the industry for 35 years. Long enough to see the transformation of marketing from right-brain to a left-brain pursuit.

Aarti Ramakrishnan
Co-Founder
Aarti has 20+ years of experience in marketing, analytics and operations, especially in the BFSI domain.  She enjoys bridging the gap between traditional business and new-age technology, for her clients. She dons many hats – operations, marketing, and client management – while also making sure that Crayon is an eclectic and diverse workplace.

Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi
Co-Founder and CTO
Vijaya Kumar (known as IVK) is a leading expert in innovation management and advanced technologies incubation in India. He consults in business strategy and transformation through new age technologies, covering areas like embedded systems, cloud services, big data analytics and mobility.

Srikant Sastri
Co-Founder and Advisor
Srikant is a successful entrepreneur, advisor and mentor in digital transformation, M&A-based growth strategy, intrapreneurship & CSR. He successfully built, scaled, and sold two large service He successfully built, scaled, and sold two large service

Lakshmi Narasimhan
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Lakshmi Narasimhan is a business leader with 25+ years of leadership experience in building, launching, and scaling products and businesses in digital, marketing, advertising, and media. He was CEO of Network 18 Digital, part of a multi-platform media conglomerate in India. He also co-founded Flooid, a start-up that works with enterprises across sectors to design, develop and deliver digital products. Throughout his career, he has helped organizations build impactful digital products.

Karunakaran Neelakandan
VP, Engineering
Karunakaran comes with 26+ years of experience in architecture and leadership across AI, Bigdata Analytics, GPU, ML and DWBI. He has held multiple leadership positions across the Engineering / Analytics department at Walmart Global Tech India, Wells Fargo and more. He has worked across banking, retail insurance, healthcare, telecom, life science and manufacturing verticals. He has managed and led a team of 300+ across geographies. Outside of work, he is also an active member/mentor in WiT-ACE, NASSCOM and GHCI

Vinayak Ganapuram
VP, Engineering
Vinayak is a seasoned, hands-on tech leader, with a proven track record in building software products from 0 to 1 & scaling from x to 10x multiple times across finance, e-commerce, and travel. He loves working on products/companies with a steep learning curve and looks to push the boundaries.

Sandeep Guruvindapalli
VP, Product Management
Sandeep has 15+ years of experience in data science and analytics in the BFSI and fintech sectors. He was integral in launching one of the most successful fintechs in SEA. And played key roles in analytics and data science divisions across companies. At Crayon, he excels in driving growth by uncovering the value of data for organizations.

Priyanshu Mishra
VP, Customer Success
With 10+ years of experience, Priyanshu cut his teeth in strategy consulting and has been delivering AI-led analytics for banks over the past 8 years.

Karanveer Singh Bakshi
VP, Pre Sales
18+ Years of experience in AI and Big Data solutions to financial & travel sectors across MENA and APAC.

Shankar Ganesh
Director, Program Management
Shankar has 12+ years of experience in building complex data solutions and products. With his tech expertise, he has shown proven results to achieve 10x conversion for large clients. Currently, he leads the platform team at Crayon Data.

Ragunath Venkatraman
Director, Engineering
14+ years of experienced Architect & Mastery in Solution Engineering with a demonstrated history of working in IT with Service Industries, Product firms and Prime Distributors/Resellers. Offering an array of skills in software engineering and data engineering platforms, data security & governance, defining data requirements for analytics, platforms for AI/ML data modelling, Product evaluation, delivery. Recognised as a thought leader with expert ability to successfully implement end-to-end solutions for B2B/B2C with micro-service applications involving big data/data lake platforms on cloud to enforce business intelligences and advanced analytics.

Anbu Sampath
Director, Engineering
An accomplished IT Architect with 15+ years of experience, Anbu is passionate about driving digital transformation across diverse industries(retail, banking, education, and telecom) to craft elegant and reliable IT solutions, with a proven track record. He thrives on tackling complex challenges and leading teams to deliver impactful projects.

Borus RJ
Director, DevOps
Borus has 15+ years of experience in security and operations.  He has donned multiple hats in the past – chief security officer and head of IT operations. With an insatiable craving for architecting consistent and reliable infrastructure, he currently leads the DevSecOps team. Expert in designing, implementing, and managing secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure and Architecting enterprise-level cloud environments with a strong emphasis on cloud security, data protection, compliance, and cost optimization.

Satheesh Hari
Director, IT
Satheesh brings 15 years of expertise in IT operations, specializing in IT strategy, cloud solutions, infrastructure management, security, and compliance. As Head of IT Operations, he has successfully led ISO and SOC 2 audits, ensuring global standard compliance while driving innovation and cost-efficiency in cloud and on-premises solutions.

Sethu Ramalingam
Director, Customer Success
With over 9 years of multi-faceted experience across sales, business analytics, consulting and operations, Sethu’s expertise lies in streamlining business processes using business intelligence. He strongly advocates that a process driven organization delivers value and efficiency.

Sujee Shalini
Senior Manager, HR
Sujee has 13+ years of experience in IT recruitment and operations. She is a specialist in talent acquisition across all levels in the tech industry vertical.

Suresh Shankar
Founder and CEO
Suresh is a second-time entrepreneur, and an evangelist of big data, analytics, and digital personalization. His first venture, RedPill Analytics, was acquired by IBM. With a background in sales, marketing, advertising, media, analytics and Big Data, Suresh has been in the industry for 35 years. Long enough to see the transformation of marketing from right-brain to a left-brain pursuit.

Aarti Ramakrishnan
Co-Founder
Aarti has 20+ years of experience in marketing, analytics and operations, especially in the BFSI domain.  She enjoys bridging the gap between traditional business and new-age technology, for her clients. She dons many hats – operations, marketing, and client management – while also making sure that Crayon is an eclectic and diverse workplace.

Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi
Co-Founder and CTO
Vijaya Kumar (known as IVK) is a leading expert in innovation management and advanced technologies incubation in India. He consults in business strategy and transformation through new age technologies, covering areas like embedded systems, cloud services, big data analytics and mobility.

Srikant Sastri
Co-Founder and Advisor
Srikant is a successful entrepreneur, advisor and mentor in digital transformation, M&A-based growth strategy, intrapreneurship & CSR. He successfully built, scaled, and sold two large service He successfully built, scaled, and sold two large service

Lakshmi Narasimhan
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Lakshmi Narasimhan is a business leader with 25+ years of leadership experience in building, launching, and scaling products and businesses in digital, marketing, advertising, and media. He was CEO of Network 18 Digital, part of a multi-platform media conglomerate in India. He also co-founded Flooid, a start-up that works with enterprises across sectors to design, develop and deliver digital products. Throughout his career, he has helped organizations build impactful digital products.

Karunakaran Neelakandan
VP, Engineering
Karunakaran comes with 26+ years of experience in architecture and leadership across AI, Bigdata Analytics, GPU, ML and DWBI. He has held multiple leadership positions across the Engineering / Analytics department at Walmart Global Tech India, Wells Fargo and more. He has worked across banking, retail insurance, healthcare, telecom, life science and manufacturing verticals. He has managed and led a team of 300+ across geographies. Outside of work, he is also an active member/mentor in WiT-ACE, NASSCOM and GHCI

Vinayak Ganapuram
VP, Engineering
Vinayak is a seasoned, hands-on tech leader, with a proven track record in building software products from 0 to 1 & scaling from x to 10x multiple times across finance, e-commerce, and travel. He loves working on products/companies with a steep learning curve and looks to push the boundaries.

Sandeep Guruvindapalli
VP, Product Management
Sandeep has 15+ years of experience in data science and analytics in the BFSI and fintech sectors. He was integral in launching one of the most successful fintechs in SEA. And played key roles in analytics and data science divisions across companies. At Crayon, he excels in driving growth by uncovering the value of data for organizations.

Priyanshu Mishra
VP, Customer Success
With 10+ years of experience, Priyanshu cut his teeth in strategy consulting and has been delivering AI-led analytics for banks over the past 8 years.

Karanveer Singh Bakshi
VP, Pre Sales
18+ Years of experience in AI and Big Data solutions to financial & travel sectors across MENA and APAC.

Shankar Ganesh
Director, Program Management
Shankar has 12+ years of experience in building complex data solutions and products. With his tech expertise, he has shown proven results to achieve 10x conversion for large clients. Currently, he leads the platform team at Crayon Data.

Ragunath Venkatraman
Director, Engineering
14+ years of experienced Architect & Mastery in Solution Engineering with a demonstrated history of working in IT with Service Industries, Product firms and Prime Distributors/Resellers. Offering an array of skills in software engineering and data engineering platforms, data security & governance, defining data requirements for analytics, platforms for AI/ML data modelling, Product evaluation, delivery. Recognised as a thought leader with expert ability to successfully implement end-to-end solutions for B2B/B2C with micro-service applications involving big data/data lake platforms on cloud to enforce business intelligences and advanced analytics.

Anbu Sampath
Director, Engineering
An accomplished IT Architect with 15+ years of experience, Anbu is passionate about driving digital transformation across diverse industries(retail, banking, education, and telecom) to craft elegant and reliable IT solutions, with a proven track record. He thrives on tackling complex challenges and leading teams to deliver impactful projects.

Sethu Ramalingam
Director, Customer Success
With over 9 years of multi-faceted experience across sales, business analytics, consulting and operations, Sethu’s expertise lies in streamlining business processes using business intelligence. He strongly advocates that a process driven organization delivers value and efficiency.

Borus RJ
Director, DevOps
Borus has 15+ years of experience in security and operations.  He has donned multiple hats in the past – chief security officer and head of IT operations. With an insatiable craving for architecting consistent and reliable infrastructure, he currently leads the DevSecOps team. Expert in designing, implementing, and managing secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure and Architecting enterprise-level cloud environments with a strong emphasis on cloud security, data protection, compliance, and cost optimization.

Satheesh Hari
Director, IT
Satheesh brings 15 years of expertise in IT operations, specializing in IT strategy, cloud solutions, infrastructure management, security, and compliance. As Head of IT Operations, he has successfully led ISO and SOC 2 audits, ensuring global standard compliance while driving innovation and cost-efficiency in cloud and on-premises solutions.

Sujee Shalini
Senior Manager, HR
Sujee has 13+ years of experience in IT recruitment and operations. She is a specialist in talent acquisition across all levels in the tech industry vertical.

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