DharmaCon 2026
Three panels, two keynotes, and an afternoon of mentor roundtables. Here's who's in the room so far.
9:00 - 9:45 AM
Setting the tone for the day: an opening address, then two keynotes.
Order of Canada
Dr. V.I. Lakshmanan (OC)
Opening Speaker · Scientist and President, SVBF
Dr. V. I. Lakshmanan is an internationally recognized scientist, entrepreneur, and CEO of Process Research ORTECH with over four decades of leadership in sustainable technology. Honoured with the Order of Canada, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, he serves as President of the Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation and is Past Chair of the Canada India Foundation.
3 Million+ Meals Served
Hanuman Dass
Keynote · Founder and Executive Director, Go Dharmic
Hanuman Dass is the founder and Executive Director of Go Dharmic, a UK-based charity for universal compassion and social action, built on the philosophy of Sanatana Dharma and the mission to "Love All. Feed All. Serve All." Since founding the organization in 2010, he has grown it to over 3,000 volunteers working across global hunger relief, humanitarian crisis response, environmental action, and education. Go Dharmic has delivered more than three million meals globally, developed libraries for over 60,000 children, and launched initiatives including the Go Dharmic volunteer app, the circular fashion store Good Karma, and The Salt Ride, an annual cycling trip for environmental action in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi. Alongside Go Dharmic, Hanuman brings over twenty years of leadership experience in financial markets and technology. He has co-authored three books - Moving Mountains, The Power of Dharma, and Pearls of Wisdom from Hinduism - and is currently working on a translation of the Upanishads.
90+ Trips to India
Gary Comerford
Keynote · Former President & CEO, Canada-India Business Council
Gary Comerford is a Board Member of Novelis and Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Governors at Brock University. He has also served as Chair of the Pacific Insurance Advisory Council since 1999 and as former Vice Chair of the Canada-India Business Council. He spent more than two decades at Sun Life Financial, most recently as Senior Vice President, International, where he led the company's return to India and the creation of its joint venture with the Aditya Birla Group - a partnership that grew into one of India's largest life insurance and asset management businesses. He later served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Reinsurance Group of America, and as President and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council. Gary has travelled to India more than ninety times over twenty-five years and is a longtime advocate for deeper Canada-India trade and investment ties. He writes and speaks frequently on international business, partnership-building, and Canada's opportunity in emerging markets.
Dr. Subodh Verma
Keynote · Cardiac Surgeon and Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Subodh Verma is an internationally recognized cardiac surgeon-scientist and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. His work spans cardiac surgery, cardiometabolic medicine, heart failure, atherosclerosis, and clinical trials, with contributions that have helped shape cardiovascular science and patient care in Canada and around the world. He has been named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Clinical Medicine since 2022, and his honours include the University of Toronto Lister Prize, the Howard Morgan Award for Distinguished Achievements in Cardiovascular Research, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Gold Medal in Surgery. Beyond the operating room and laboratory, Dr. Verma is a TEDx speaker and public educator whose message draws on lessons from more than 5,000 human hearts to explore breakthrough thinking, resilience, equity, and the power of interdependence.
9:45 - 10:45 AM
Getting into the room is one thing. Being heard once you're there is another. This panel brings together Hindu Canadians who've made it into boardrooms, newsrooms, and executive teams to talk honestly about how they got there, and what they do with the seat now that they have it.
Top 40 Under 40
Reetu Gupta
CEO and Ambassadress, The Gupta Group
Reetu Gupta is the CEO and Ambassadress of The Gupta Group and Easton's Group of Hotels, one of Canada's leading hospitality and real estate organizations, with more than $1 billion in assets under management and over 5 million square feet of mixed-use development. Since stepping into leadership in 2018, she has helped shape Toronto's evolving skyline. She is an investor and owner in Toronto Tempo, Canada's first WNBA franchise, sits on the Board of Directors for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, and serves on the Philanthropy Committee for the Toronto International Film Festival. Twice named one of Canada's Most Powerful Women by WXN and recognized on Canada's Top 40 Under 40, she is also the author of Auspicious (2023) and Whispers of the Soul (2025).
IT Manager of the Year
Kalyan Chakravarthy
VP, ESAFE Product Approval Services · CIO, Electrical Safety Authority
Kalyan "KC" Chakravarthy is a technology executive, entrepreneur, and board leader with more than two decades of experience across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. He currently serves as Vice President of ESAFE Product Approval Services and Chief Information Officer of the Electrical Safety Authority. He was previously Chief Information Officer for the Regional Municipality of Durham and Director of IT at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was named IT Manager of the Year at the 2011 ComputerWorld IT Leadership Awards. Alongside his corporate career, he has built and invested in several businesses. Kalyan serves on the Board of Governors at Durham College and previously sat on the boards of Grandview Kids and the Literacy Council of York & Simcoe. He believes leadership is defined not by title but by the ability to take calculated risks, learn from setbacks, and create opportunities for others, and is passionate about mentoring the next generation.
Former McKinsey Partner
Prashant Pathak
CEO, Ekagrata Inc. · Investor & Former McKinsey Partner
Prashant Pathak is the CEO of Ekagrata Inc., a private investment and diversified holding company with assets across food and agriculture, infrastructure, specialty manufacturing, and digital commerce. He holds a BTech in electrical engineering from IIT and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. He was elected a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led the North American telecom and financial services practices and the Canadian strategy and corporate finance practice. He went on to co-found ReichmannHauer Capital Partners, a Toronto private equity and business-building firm, and later led the strategic process behind the creation and NYSE listing of PARTS iD Inc. Prashant served for roughly a decade as a Government of Canada appointee to the Business Development Bank of Canada board, and is an executive in residence with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He has sat on the boards of the University of Guelph, MaRS Discovery District, and the Fields Institute, and helps run Project Beyshick, a social venture fund supporting entrepreneurship in First Nations communities. He was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 in 2009.
10:45 - 11:45 AM
Politics is not a spectator sport, and our community has spent too long watching. Elected officials, staffers, and organizers break down how political power actually gets built in Canada, from riding associations to Parliament Hill, and what it takes for young Hindu Canadians to stop being a demographic and start being a constituency.
Twice-elected MP
Shuvaloy Majumdar
MP, Calgary Heritage · Shadow Minister for Canada–US Relations
Shuvaloy Majumdar is the Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage and Shadow Minister for Canada–US Relations. He serves on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. He previously served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird, and from 2006 to 2010 led operations supporting democratic reformers across Iraq and Afghanistan with the International Republican Institute. He was founding Foreign Policy Director and Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Platinum Jubilee Medals, Shuv is a Patron of Hong Kong Watch and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Twice elected to the House of Commons, he now serves the community he grew up in.
Managing Director, CJPAC
Emile Scheffel
Managing Director, CJPAC
Emile Scheffel is the Managing Director of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) and brings extensive political experience at all levels of government across Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. He previously served as executive director of the BC Liberal Party, where he oversaw strategy for a leadership race, two by-elections, and a provincial referendum. Before that, he held communications and issues management roles in the BC Premier's Office and Ministry of Health. In the private sector, Emile has managed provincial community affairs for CN Rail and led communications for a fast-growing Canadian fintech company.
More speakers
Announcing soon
1:00 - 2:00 PM
Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim leaders sit down for an honest conversation about what our communities share and where we genuinely differ. At a moment when religious identity and freedom feel more contested than they have in years, this panel looks at what real allyship requires, and how to stand with another community while staying rooted in your own.
Dr. Raj Balkaran
Scholar of Sanskrit Narrative Literature · Director, Indian Wisdom School
Dr. Raj Balkaran is a Toronto-based scholar of Sanskrit narrative literature and a lineage-trained teacher of the Hindu wisdom traditions. Holding a PhD in Religion, he convenes the Purana Section of the World Sanskrit Conference and is the author of The Goddess and the King in Indian Myth and The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth (Routledge), and The Stories Behind the Poses, which has sold over 50,000 copies worldwide. He teaches at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and McMaster University, where he also serves as Chaplain of Indian Spirituality, and directs the online Indian Wisdom School. His work regularly crosses community lines: he has advised the International Committee of the Red Cross on Hindu ethics of warfare and appears on CBC, BBC, and The Wire. He hosts the New Books in Indian Religions podcast, with over 400 conversations with leading scholars.
Jewish Leader
Announcing soon
Muslim Leader
Announcing soon
2:00 - 4:00 PM
Two hours of networking roundtables organized in eight zones by industry - medicine, legal, engineering and tech, design and media, education, business, public service, and finance - each hosted by mentors from that field.
“कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥”“You have a right to perform your duty, but never to the fruits of your actions. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
- Bhagavad Gita
