West Coast Forum 2005

October 29 & 30







"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him - and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
                                                - J. Paul Getty

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Vicki Virk was born and raised in Punjab, India. Though she has been in the United States since the age of 12, she is still very connected to her culture and heritage. She is fluent in both Punjabi and Hindi. Vicki is not only an avid lover of the arts and culture, she is also an attorney with membership to the State Bar of California. Though she became an attorney, her passion to dance inspired her on a different path that led her to form dholrhythms. Vicki has been dancing to bhangra all of her life. She is the leading instructor, choreographer, and creative director for all dholrhythms classes, workshops, performances, and events.



Navin V. Nagiah, CEO CIGNEX, is a senior business executive with extensive marketing, strategy, and operational experience in high-technology enterprises in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Navin was the founder, president, and CEO of Xisource, a San Francisco-based enterprise software company with offices in London and Mumbai. Before Xisource, he was one of the founding employees of Internet Securities Inc. He set up the India, China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asian operations of the company from the beginning and was the managing director for Asia at the time of the company's $60 million merger with Euromoney (LSE Symbol: ERM). Navin has extensive experience as a board member/advisor of pre-IPO companies and holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Kansas State University.



Premal Shah is President of Kiva.org, a web-based marketplace for investments in microfinance. He was formerly a Senior Product Manager at PayPal.

Prior to PayPal, he was a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting. Premal has had a long standing interest in development and microfinance. He was awarded a grant from Stanford University to research one of India's largest microfinance institutions, the Self Employed Women's Association. More recently, Premal took a sabbatical from PayPal to work full time at an Indian NGO, focusing on women's economic empowerment. Premal graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.