Imagining the Post-COVID
World of Scholarly Communication

Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development

Sourav Dutta heads the Strategy and Corporate Development function at CACTUS. He plays a pivotal role in channelizing the efforts of the organization toward building a new tech-driven ecosystem. Previously, he has led strategy and M&A assignments to drive transformation initiatives, technology-led disruptions, and growth and entry strategies across the globe for Tata Consumer Products, Tech Mahindra, and prestigious Fortune 500 clients of PwC Strategy Consulting. He has an MBA from IIM Bangalore and a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications. He can be reached out for consultations involving commercialization opportunities for emerging technologies, building collaborative networks across industry players, and business and operating model transformations.

Chief Technology Officer and Head of Cactus Labs

Nishchay Shah oversees technology and innovation across products and brands globally at CACTUS. Experienced in handling tech-budgeting, outsourcing, and global tech recruitment, Nishchay manages a large department with over 250 experts working in product management, software development, UX, DevOps, Digital innovation, and Machine Learning. He focuses on creating, translating, and mobilizing big-picture visions downstream. Nishchay has over 15 years of experience in software development and technology and strives to stay on the bleeding edge of innovation. He has worked in the US for over a decade, and has handled diverse teams in the US, Belarus, Bulgaria, India, and the UK. Having successfully led both B2C and B2B product teams in the past, Nishchay has a thorough understanding of the end-to-end product and technology life cycles. He has a master’s degree from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, specializing in Computer Networks and Database Systems.

Senior Vice President Global Academic & Publisher Relations

Nikesh heads CACTUS’s strategic alliances division, working closely with societies, publishers, universities, and research institutes in Europe. Before CACTUS, the engineering graduate worked in the financial industry where he managed large teams. Nikesh is dedicated to bridging the gap between the East and the West when it comes to research, and is passionate about open science and the quick and effective dissemination of science to all stakeholders. He has been instrumental in effecting partnerships with some of the world’s top scholarly publishers, societies, universities, and research institutes. Nikesh is a huge sports fan who also loves reading biographies and follows politics closely.