Our diverse and experienced leadership team has come together to create one of the most innovative, technologically superior, and customer-centric companies in the world.

Co-Founder & CEO

Ganesh Gopalan

Ganesh is a seasoned technology and business leader with over 25 years of experience across global technology companies and the deep-tech startup ecosystem. Before founding Gnani.ai, he held leadership positions at industry giants like IBM and Texas Instruments, where he gained extensive expertise in technology development, marketing, and business strategy.

Ganesh’s passion for creating world-class technology from India led to the founding of Gnani.ai, a conversational AI company focused on transforming customer and agent experiences through speech, text, and multimodal AI. Under his leadership, Gnani.ai has become a leading player in voice-first AI solutions, serving clients across BFSI, telecom, healthcare, and other industries.

At Gnani.ai, Ganesh is responsible for Sales, Marketing, HR, and Finance while driving the company’s vision to make India a powerhouse of AI innovation. He is deeply committed to building a globally competitive, research-driven company that solves real-world enterprise challenges through Agentic AI.

Ganesh is also a strong advocate for the democratization of AI, believing that making conversational AI accessible will unlock innovation across industries and empower businesses of all sizes.

He holds an MBA in Marketing and Technology from the Indian School of Business (ISB). Outside of work, Ganesh enjoys playing tennis and cricket and is an avid reader of science fiction.

Co-Founder & CTO

Ananth Nagaraj

Ananth Nagaraj is the Co-Founder and CTO of Gnani.ai, responsible for driving the company’s technology strategy, customer engagement, product management, and delivery. With a strong background in signal processing and wireless technologies, Ananth brings over 12 years of experience from organizations like Texas Instruments and Kyocera, where he led teams in 4G and signal processing.

At Gnani.ai, Ananth focuses on building AI systems that simplify human-machine interaction through speech and language technologies. He has been a key force in developing Gnani.ai’s transition from traditional conversational AI to a comprehensive Agentic AI platform, combining speech-to-speech LLMs, industry-specific SLMs, and agentic workflows. His work is centered on enabling AI agents that can not only understand and respond in multiple languages but also automate tasks and make decisions autonomously in real-world enterprise environments.

Ananth’s long-standing vision has been to make information accessible to a wide and diverse population, especially in vernacular languages, by advancing speech recognition and voice-first AI systems. He strongly believes that AI should not just interact but assist, automate, and deliver real outcomes in customer service, sales, and enterprise operations.

Currently, Ananth is actively involved in leading the development of voice-to-voice AI agents, working towards enabling natural, end-to-end conversational experiences without relying on text intermediaries. His contributions are shaping Gnani.ai’s Agentic AI stack to power voice automation across industries including banking, insurance, telecom, and customer service.

Outside of work, Ananth is passionate about exploring the cultural and geographic diversity of India. He is a deep tech enthusiast and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.

VP - Engineering

Bharath Shankar

Bharath Shankar leads the design and engineering of Gnani.ai’s AI systems, focusing on building enterprise-grade Agentic AI platforms that combine speech-to-speech Large Language Models (LLMs), industry-specific Small Language Models (SLMs), and agentic workflows. His primary responsibility is to develop systems that enable AI agents to understand, reason, and autonomously handle tasks across customer service, sales, and internal enterprise processes.

At Gnani.ai, Bharath has played a key role in the evolution of the platform — from its origins as a conversational AI system to a full-fledged Agentic AI stack. He leads the architecture of AI agents that are capable of speech understanding, task automation, agent assistance, and autonomous decision-making. His team focuses on making these systems efficient, scalable, and suitable for production deployment in sectors like banking, insurance, telecom, and healthcare.

Currently, Bharath and his team are working on advancing voice-to-voice AI models, enabling AI agents to handle complete conversations with customers — from understanding queries to generating voice responses — without relying on intermediate text. These capabilities are central to Gnani.ai’s goal of delivering natural and autonomous customer-agent interactions in voice-based channels.

Prior to Gnani.ai, Bharath spent over a decade at IBM India Systems Development Labs, where he held senior roles in the Cognitive Systems Group. His work spanned AI-powered enterprise systems, distributed computing, and system optimization. He holds two patents in computer networking and distributed systems.

Bharath graduated as a Computer Science Engineer from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU). Outside of his work, he is passionate about following emerging technologies, enjoys playing chess, and likes traveling.

Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

John Philip

John Philip is a revenue and growth strategist with over 25 years of experience scaling enterprise technology businesses across India and global markets. A domain expert in enterprise communications, contact center solutions, and managed services, John has a track record of building high-performing sales teams, leading large-scale go-to-market initiatives, and accelerating revenue growth across complex B2B ecosystems.

Before joining Gnani.ai, John held senior leadership positions at HP, Cisco, Avaya, and Tata Telecom (now Avaya GlobalConnect). At HP India, he served as Country Head for Managed Services, where he led national sales and delivery transformation. At Cisco, he spearheaded the Contact Center Practice across India & SAARC, driving adoption of next-gen CX solutions. His journey at Avaya included roles such as Senior Director of Sales and Head of the IT/ITES Practice, where he delivered consistent double-digit growth and built key strategic alliances.

John also brings an entrepreneurial lens to his role, having founded a venture that was successfully acquired by Cure Foods. This blend of corporate leadership and founder experience makes him uniquely equipped to scale high-growth AI startups.

At Gnani.ai, John leads the company’s global revenue strategy, including enterprise sales, partnerships, and go-to-market expansion. He is focused on taking Gnani’s Agentic AI platform to enterprises around the world—enabling automation, enhancing customer experience, and driving measurable ROI for clients.

Outside of work, John is an avid reader, film enthusiast, and fitness buff who enjoys running, cycling, and has even completed a Half Marathon.

Director - AI Services

Hariprasad Rebala

Hariprasad Rebala is the Director of AI Services at Gnani.ai, responsible for leading AI solutioning, delivery, and client success across industries, with a strong focus on BFSI. He brings over two decades of experience at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and enterprise transformation.

Before joining Gnani.ai, Hari played a pivotal role at Mindtree, where he led key AI and analytics programs as part of the company’s enterprise transformation strategy, especially for BFSI clients. His expertise spans AI-driven customer experience, risk analytics, intelligent automation, and operational efficiency in regulated industries. Over the years, he has worked extensively with banking, insurance, and financial services enterprises, designing and implementing AI systems that drive measurable business outcomes.

At Gnani.ai, Hari is focused on expanding the company’s Generative AI and Agentic AI offerings. He works closely with clients to deliver AI agents powered by speech-to-speech LLMs, industry-specific SLMs, and agentic workflows tailored for BFSI operations. His leadership ensures that AI deployments are not just technically sound but also aligned with industry regulations and business goals.

Hari is passionate about making AI practical and impactful, bridging the gap between advanced AI capabilities and real-world enterprise needs. His deep understanding of both technology and domain challenges makes him a key contributor to Gnani.ai’s vision of transforming enterprise automation through Agentic AI.

Outside work, Hari is known for his collaborative leadership style and keen interest in emerging AI trends, especially in the context of financial services.

Board Advisor

Lakshmi Narayanan

Lakshmi Narayanan was elected as the President in March 1998, was appointed as its Chief Executive Officer on December 22, 2003, and serves as a Director. Mr. Narayanan served as the Chief Operating Officer of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. from March 1998 to December 2003.

He joined the Indian subsidiary of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. as Chief Technology Officer in 1994 and was elected President of the subsidiary on January 1, 1996. Prior to joining Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., from 1975 to 1994 Mr. Narayanan was the regional head of Tata Consultancy Services, a large consulting and software services company located in India.

Mr. Narayanan holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Indian Institute of Science.

Board Advisor

Mahesh Ramachandran

Mahesh Ramachandran is a successful Serial and Social Entrepreneur turned investor. Mahesh is an angel investor, mentor, independent director supporting innovative startups, and helps build the ecosystem. He is a distinguished Sloan Fellow of London Business School.

Mahesh is a Leadership Council and Programme Management Group member of FinBlue – FinTech Centre of Excellence set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India at STPI, Chennai. Mahesh is the founder of Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd which operates in over 30,000 locations across 27 states in India.

​He brings with him several decades of rich & varied experience in the field of Entrepreneurship, Investing, FinTech, Rural Marketing, Digital Transformation, Leadership, Mentoring & Governance. Mahesh Ramachandran’s entrepreneurial ventures include peer to peer foreign exchange portal, targeted advertising, and digital payment solution, and financial inclusion.

Hailing from Thanjavur, South India, he loves Coffee, Carnatic Music, and Comics.