Our Founders

Mr. N S Bala joins Data Safeguard’s Advisory Board to help create global vision.

N S Bala is a Technology entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In his current role, he is the Group CEO of iGreenTree, a company focused on leveraging AI to address opportunities in the Energy sector and making an lasting impact in the area of sustainability. iGreenTree is about scaling an exciting global technology business, but with a sense of purpose. He is also an advisor to product and services startups on their strategy and growth plans.

Prior to assuming his current role, Bala built his own venture with a singular focus on process automation that has since been merged with iGreenTree. He was also an independent director on the Board of Startek, a NYSE listed company until earlier this year.

A large part of his career was at Wipro, a global systems integrator where he had the opportunity to lead many industry focused business units globally. He has been a key contributor to Wipro's journey in becoming one of the prominent players among global technology service providers.

Over the years, Bala has helped turnaround and scale struggling businesses by aligning capability to changing market scenarios, building a strong customer advisory capability and driving integrated delivery, especially in the Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing & HiTech and Pharma industries.

Bala has also been instrumental in pioneering the use of Toyota Production Systems principles in application and software development that was

developed into a case study by the Harvard Business School and is being taught at the institute to MBAs. He was invited by Harvard to speak on the case study. The delivery model has also been featured in the book, Bangalore Tiger by Steve Hamm.

His innovation, CIGMA, won Wipro the Nasscom Innovation Award.

Bala has been a regular speaker at various forums during his years in the industry. He has also been invited for panel discussions by the World Economic Forum at Dalian and by The Economist. He holds a MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, one of the premier management institutes in India.

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Jay Como an Executive Advisor, brings extensive leadership experience from his roles in global financial institutions. With a background as Chief Data Officer at several major banking and financial services organizations, Jay's expertise in strategic data management and governance is a valuable asset to our mission.

Jay holds an MBA from Saint Mary's College of California and serves on their School of Economics and Business Administration Advisory Board. His profound industry knowledge and advisory proficiency will be instrumental in advancing Data Safeguard's commitment to robust data privacy compliance and synthetic fraud prevention solutions.

Ken Chrisman joins the Data Safeguard Advisory Board with over 35 years’ experience in executive roles at American Express, The Doctor’s Insurance Company, and Wells Fargo Bank. Leading the board of directors at The Doctors Company, 2008 – 2016, Mr. Chrisman chaired the Governance and Technology Committees. He has provided oversight for several S&P100 companies, managing their technology evolution.  Ken has held CIO roles, providing direction and guidance for information and operational systems, in addition to helping companies during periods of organic growth and acquisitions.

Mr. Chrisman received his BA in Engineering from University of California, Davis.

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Dr. Keshab Panda joins Data Safeguard’s Advisory Board to help create global vision.  Dr. Panda is an industry veteran with over 37 years of demonstrated history in Technology Research, Product & Software and Industrial Engineering. His prior experience as a global technology executive will help Data Safeguard expand its global footprint.  

Prior to joining Data Safeguard’s advisory board, Dr. Panda served as the CEO & MD of L&T Technology Services, Board Member at L&T Infotech, Business Head of Americas and Europe at Tech Mahindra, and Senior Scientist at Indian Space Research Organization & Aeronautical Development Agency.

Dr. Panda earned his PhD from IIT, Bombay, a Master of Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and an Advanced Management Degree with a focus on Business Administration and Management from Wharton Business School.  Dr Panda has received CEO of the year award, Best Business Leader of the year and Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.