The CS Team

Maddy began his career with technology reporting for Cyber Media India, India's largest technology publishing firm at 19 - straight out of high-school. In 1999, he was the founding editor of ZDNet's Indian operations, which was acquired by CNET in 2000 and subsequently by CBS Corporation in 2008.

His work profile includes having been an Associate Editor at Silicon India; News Editor at Lyceum Media; Technology Editor at ITP, the Middle East's largest publishing firm and Managing Editor for IDG Middle East - the world's largest IT publishing firm. He also helped set-up the EMEA operations for Ramky Group - a US$450 million environmental infrastructure services firm, also the company's first foray into international markets.

Over the past 12 years, he has worked for leading media groups in Bangalore, Mumbai, London and Dubai. Maddy holds a Bachelors degree in Commerce from Osmania University, India and an MBA from Cardiff, UK. His hobbies include trivia, traveling, comics, technology and reading.

Emile has over 15 years of experience in technology, government and venture capital space. Emile also serves as a Director of IV Holdings, Jeeran, Conservus, ShooFeeTV, Media Scope, Talasim, Arab Media Holding and NetCorps.

He previously served as Vice President, at Accelerator Technology Holdings. Prior to ATH, he served as the Director of ICT Promotion and Advisor to the Ministry of ITC, Jordan and was Programme Director of the Jordanian Education Initiative.

Emile holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Southern California and was selected as a member of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2006.

As the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Venkat oversees the development of Content Syndicate’s online platform strategy. Prior to this, 'Venky' as he's better known, was based in Silicon Valley, US for 15 years. His last stint was as Technical Director for Motorola in Sunnyvale, California where he managed an engineering team and created a new mobile application platform. The technology has been adopted by 400+ developers and currently ships on more than 5 million handsets annually.

Venkat previously headed the engineering team at iPlanet - a Netscape and Sun Microsystems alliance. During his five-year tenure there, he helped create an enterprise application integration middleware system, managed a team of 30 engineers and deployed the system at several Fortune 500 firms. Prior to this he worked at Sun Microsystems, where he was a core member of the J2EE team. He started his career with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and was based out of Zurich, Switzerland for two years, before moving to sunny Cupertino, California.

Venkat holds several patents in content architecture and has presented technical papers in US, Europe and Latin America. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and a MBA in Finance from Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, California.

Sriram is a business technology sales professional with more than 18 years of experience. Ram has built and managed several major multi-million dollar accounts, during his extensive tenure with blue-chip software majors such as Oracle, Microsoft, Computer Associates and Open Text Corporation.

Prior to getting off the 'MNC treadmill', he worked for Oracle as Director - Business Development handling the Japan-Asia Pacific region; as Director at Microsoft with the Developer and Platform group; Regional Sales and Marketing Director at Open Text and Territory Sales Manager with Computer Associates handling their enterprise sales.

At Content Syndicate, as the CSO, Ram oversees sales, business development and strategic alliances. Besides being a quintessential sales professional and seasoned traveler, Ram is also a polyglot - he speaks 8 languages fluently and is currently brushing up on a few more.

Ram holds a Bachelors Degree in Science and an MBA in Marketing.

Anagha is a Commerce Graduate from Mumbai University, India and has extensive work experience in professional Audit firms across India, with solid grounding in various aspects of accounting, audit and taxation.

She has extensive experience in handling all the aspects of accounting - payables management , receivable management in the Dubai market scenario, project costing and cost control, independent finalization of Books of accounts, implementing Custom built ERP and implementing accounting systems, procedures and internal controls. Anagha worked with Sahara and Cimac as an Accountant, before joining Content Syndicate.

Esperança was born in Dubai and has spent over three decades living in the Emirates.

At Content Syndicate, Espy, as she's better known, oversees all content projects. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce and has worked in an array of industries spanning jewelery, event management and training. She was largely involved, in different capacities, in the organization and production of various entertainment events in Dubai.

Esperança succumbs to nicotine, aggressive retail therapy or escapes to the nearest book-store in order to alleviate.

Advisory Board:

Ned is a seasoned business executive with 20+ years of experience across multiple sectors and geographies.

Following ten years in the US with award-winning technology start-ups, he moved to the UAE where he successfully built the business of Intel and Computer Associates holding key regional management positions, reaching EMEA Marketing Vice President at CA. More recently, he drove the market launch of five new companies for a leading Abu Dhabi-based group, National Holding as their Chief Marketing Officer. He is currently a Director with Nextera Global and also serves as senior advisor for neXgen Group and Treble Sports LLC.

Ned holds a Masters Degree from Stanford University and has attended executive education at INSEAD on Intel's sponsorship. He is the President/Founder of the Stanford Alumni Middle East Club. As an original member of the UN ICT Arab Task Force and the Young Arab Leaders organization, he has also been involved in many pioneering CSR initiatives in the Arab world.

He is a frequently requested speaker and media authority, having hosted his own ‘Internet Education’ radio show in Dubai for two years. In what’s left of his spare time, he has a passion for animation and mountain biking.

Girish Mallapragada is currently Assistant Professor of Marketing at Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Mallapragada's research is on new product development and pricing specifically in the context of open innovation and social networks and marketing strategy.

His research has been published in the prestigious journal Management Science. He received his PhD in Marketing from The Pennsylvania State University, his MBA in marketing and information systems from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and his Bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Osmania University.

Prior to joining the academic fraternity, Dr. Mallapragada worked in enterprise sales for Pramati Technologies, an infrastructure software vendor where he helped expand operations and sign up several strategic partners.

After graduating from Concordia University's John Molson School of Business, Issa started his career in 2004 with HSBC Jordan. In 2006, Issa joined Cairo Amman Bank's investment arm - Awraq Investments as an equity analyst. He currently works as an Associate Investment Analyst with IV Holdings (IVH), the Middle East's leading early-stage investment firm and a strategic investor in Content Syndicate. IVH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accelerator Technology Holdings.

Issa specialises in investment analysis and faciliating growth for high growth technology start-ups, both in an advisory and operational capacity.

He holds a Bachelors Degree in Commerce with specialisation in MIS and e-commerce. When he's not crunching numbers and juggling spreadsheets, Issa spends considerable time in gaming, cars and music.