Prashant Gokarn is DigiAsia’s co-founder, co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors. Mr. Gokarn focuses on DigiAsia’s international expansion plans, investments and capital raises, strategic initiatives and sales to international partners. In his over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Mr. Gokarn has held executive strategic roles across geographies.
From 2011 to 2017, Mr. Gokarn was the Chief Strategy and Digital Services Officer at Indosat Ooredoo, currently PT Indosat Tbk. (trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison), a telecommunications provider in Indonesia. In this role, he was responsible for driving significant cost and investment efficiencies that helped the company achieve profitability in 2013. Additionally, Mr. Gokarn led the digital transformation of the company by managing a successful technology accelerator (www.ideabox.co.id), while also managing a larger venture capital fund known as Softbank-Indosat Fund, which was a $50.0 million early-stage fund, set up in 2013, and was one of the first of its kind focused on the Southeast Asian markets. Prior to that, he served in various leadership roles in India as well as the United Kingdom.
Between April 2008 and June 2011, Mr. Gokarn was President of Reliance Communications’ GSM/3G business, one of the leading telecom operators in India. In that role, he set up and ran the entire 3G operations across India, and executed within more than 11,000 3G sites within 100 days of receiving spectrum from the Government of India, and subsequently drove a focus on distribution, content and partnerships.
Prior to that, Mr. Gokarn was a Partner at Spectrum Strategy, London, a media and telecommunications specialist and financial investment advisor to the industry, from September 2000 to March 2008. Mr. Gokarn received his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, and undergraduate degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Alexander Rusli is DigiAsia’s co-founder, co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Rusli is responsible for Indonesian market operations, licensing and financing. Mr. Rusli has over 25 years of experience across the technology, telecommunications and retail industries, with demonstrated expertise in strategic leadership, business development and marketing management.
He has been an active investment and business professional, both personally in early-stage start-ups and professionally through private equity investments. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Rusli was the Chief Executive Officer of Indosat Ooredoo, now known as PT Indosat Tbk. (trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison), a telecommunications provider in Indonesia. Prior to Indosat, he served as a Managing Director of Northstar Pacific, a Singapore-headquartered, private equity firm managing more than $2.5 billion in committed equity capital, dedicated to investing in growth companies in Indonesia and to a lesser extent, other countries in Southeast Asia.
From April 2000 to October 2009, Mr. Rusli was a special advisor to the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises of The Republic of Indonesia. Mr. Rusli currently serves on the board of directors of WWF, Indonesia, a position he has held since February 2014. Mr. Rusli is a graduate of Curtin University, Australia, where he received bachelor to doctorate degrees.
Prabhu Antony serves as a director of DigiAsia and is StoneBridge Acquisition Corp.’s President, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Antony is co-founder of Sett & Lucas Inc, a Hong Kong headquartered financial institution that specializes in cross border mergers & acquisitions (“M&A”). As an M&A advisor, he has won several awards from the M&A Advisor Forum, including an award for Investment Banker of the Year among 650 participating financial institutions in the United States.
In 2017, Mr. Antony was the deal lead on the acquisition of Starpoint by Day & Zimmerman, which won the M&A deal of the Year ($50.0 million – $75.0 million), and in 2014, he was awarded the 5th Annual 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition. Additionally, Mr. Antony is the fund manager at Linus Ventures, a family office fund that manages secondary market and pre-initial public offering investments. He has had several notable investments and eventual exits, which include secondary market pre-initial public offering investments into DocuSign and Palantir, both of which exited through initial public offerings, a late stage investment into Meetup, which exited through acquisition by WeWork, and an early stage investment in Supr Daily, which exited through an acquisition by Swiggy, an Asian food delivery unicorn.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and instrumentation engineering, a master’s in business administration and a post graduate diploma in international business. Mr. Antony is an alumni of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Anna University in India.
Bhargava Marepally serves as director of DigiAsia and is StoneBridge Acquisition Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Marepally provides more than 20 years of experience in the IT Services industry and is the founder and served as the CEO of GSS Infotech (GSS).
In 2009, GSS was included in “Forbes’ list of Asia’s 200 Best Under $1 Billion”. Mr. Marepally directed an acquisition led growth strategy that included buyout of ATEC, Infospectrum and System Dynamix. He is a serial entrepreneur with stakes in several services firms across four continents serving several fortune 500 clients.
Mr. Marepally holds a double Master’s degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.
Rudiantara serves as an independent director of DigiAsia. Mr. Rudiantara is currently serving as a commissionaire at various enterprises that include PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Tbk, PT Amartha Nusantara Raya, PT Rukun Raharja Tbk, PT Vale Indonesia Tbk , PT Semen Indonesia Tbk, and PT Solusi Sinergi Digital Tbk.
From 2014 to 2019, he served as the Minister of Communications and Informatics of Republic of Indonesia. From 1997 to 2014, Mr. Rudiantara served as Director or Commissionaire in different enterprises, including PT XL Axiata Tbk, PT Semen Gresik Tbk, PLN (Persero), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Persero), PT Indosat Ooredoo Tbk.
Mr. Rudiantara earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from IPPM, Jakarta, and graduated from Universitas Padjajaran (Padjadjaran University), Bandung with a major in Statistics.
Kenneth Sommer serves as an independent director of DigiAsia. In 2021, Mr. Sommer founded Sundance kso S.A.R.L, in Luxembourg, which invests in and advises start-up companies. From 2018 to the end of 2020, upon retirement, Mr. Sommer served as the Chief Financial Officer at Kneip Communications, a data services company for the asset management industry, and remained in an advisory role until 2022.
Prior to Kneip Communications, Mr. Sommer served as the Chief Financial Officer of Mercedes Pay S.A., and Chief Risk Officer in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions of PayPal. Mr. Sommer’s prior experience includes senior leadership roles at Visa International (2000 to 2007), serving as Chief Executive Officer and board member from October 2006 to December 2007, and as Chief Financial Officer from March 2000 to October 2006.
Mr. Sommer led the restructuring efforts that resulted in the transition of the company into Visa Inc. in 2007, and the company going public with an initial public offering in 2008. Prior to joining Visa, he spent 18 years with Citigroup/Citibank, where he held senior finance roles. Since January 2023, Mr. Sommer has been an independent director on the board of Convera Europe S.A., a B2B payment services company.
Mr. Sommer attended the Eli Broad school of Business at Michigan State University, receiving a degree in accounting and served on the board of the business school from 2006 to 2011.
Andreas Gregori serves as an independent director of DigiAsia. Mr. Gregori is a highly experienced business executive and entrepreneur with over 15 years of global C-suite experience with leading technology and telecommunications. Mr. Gregori has vast experience in driving growth through bold commercial and technology programs for multi-billion-dollar organizations and start-ups in both mature and emerging markets.
Since 2019, Mr. Gregori has been served as President of Axiom D Inc., where he devises new digital revenue streams around core value propositions, customer value management, and data monetization. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Gregori served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Digital Officer of Indosat Ooredoo, where he led commercial strategy, marketing product, customer care, digital ventures, and digital services across consumer segment. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Gregori served as Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Partner at Industrial Development Group, where he led company asset growth, project pipeline monetization, and business development activities with senior government representatives, financing, and donor organizations.
Mr. Gregori has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany.
