Leadership & Governance

V K Mathews

V K Mathews is the Founder and Executive Chairman of The IBS Group. Mathews founded IBS in 1997 with a vision to redefine the way the global travel, transportation and logistics industries managed their businesses. With over 17 years of in-depth understanding of the aviation industry, having served Emirates for over a decade, Mathews set out to fulfill his vision for the industry with just 55 employees joining him in his entrepreneurial venture. IBS today is a multinational corporation, serving over 200 clients worldwide, employing over 3000 professionals from 30 different nationalities and poised to be the No. 1 IT solution provider to the global air transportation industry. Mathews was instrumental in IBS acquiring six international companies (in Europe, USA and India) during its 25 year journey which has added its portfolio of offerings to some of the best airlines, busiest airports, leading cruise lines, top oil & gas companies and renowned travel distributors & hotel groups in the world.

With over 30 years of work experience, Mathews is a thought leader and a specialist in aviation business. He is a much sought after speaker at various global aviation events including those organized by IATA, ICAO and AACO.

Mathews holds several important positions in Government agencies, academic institutions and trade bodies in India. He was the Executive Council Member of NASSCOM, the premier trade body of the IT-BPO industries in India and has served as the Chairman of the NASSCOM Regional Council. He currently chairs several institutions including Trivandrum Agenda Task Force and Trivandrum CityConnect Foundation. He is a Member of the Kerala Chief Minister’s High Power IT Committee (HPIC), as well as the Advisory Body of the Kerala State Higher Education Council and a Member of the Board of Directors of Kerala ICT Academy and Technopark, Kerala, India. Mathews is the past Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Kerala and a current member of CII Southern Regional Council. He has received several awards from the Government, media and trade associations including Management Leadership Award, Business Man of the Year Award, IT Man of the Year Award, Millennium Leadership Award and Enterprise Excellence Award.

Mathews holds a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and had executive management education from Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.

Anand Krishnan

Anand has been CEO of IBS Software since 2018 and has led our transformation into becoming the leading provider of SaaS solutions for the Travel Industry. Anand has a 25-year track record of building high-quality, high-growth businesses. Prior to joining IBS he served as Executive Vice-President at Canonical Software where he led commercialization and growth. Prior to that, he held several executive positions over a decade at Microsoft and was responsible for launching and growing Microsoft's Cloud business internationally. Anand holds a Masters in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas and an MBA from Stanford University. He remains based in London.

Ashish Nanda

Ashish Nanda is an experienced finance professional, with almost 23 years of extensive service at the helm of financial services at various enterprises. Prior to joining IBS, Ashish was the CFO at Signature Global Group, leading key areas like Finance, Accounts and Legal & Secretarial functions, investor relations, IPO processes and their end-to-end digital transformation. He has served as Chief Financial Officer at Nucleus Software Exports Ltd, a BSE/NSE listed IT products/services company, where he was responsible for driving key improvements across multiple functions including Strategic Planning, pricing, taxation, board reporting and governance. He played key roles in significantly improving shareholder values and managed the various mergers and acquisitions at Nucleus. He has also held leadership positions in finance at NIIT Ltd, and was responsible for business finance of all three functions like IT/ ITES, Education and Training.

Jitendra Sindhwani

Jitendra Sindhwani is the President & Head of Global Sales and Marketing.

Jitendra, fondly known as Jimpy, is a veteran professional who has made a mark in the global technology arena with over 19 years of diverse experience in management consulting and IT services for different verticals – Communications, Media and Entertainment. Prior to joining IBS, he was with technology services giant Infosys for 16 years and has contributed significantly to the company’s growth across different regions, clients and verticals. Jimpy, who has spent most of his working life in USA, has also led several strategic projects including M&A initiatives, penetrating into the emerging digital and SMAC space. Jimpy brings on board a multitude of professional competencies and strong people leadership skills to supplement the business growth objectives of IBS.

In his new role, Jimpy will chart out new strategies to broaden IBS’ footprint in the aviation business, penetrate unchartered geographies, strengthen current engagements, thus consolidating IBS’ dominant presence in the Travel, Transportation and logistics technology space. In an industry marked by fierce competition, Jimpy will focus on helping customers stay ahead by facilitating business innovation and supporting these game changing processes using next generation systems. Jimpy completed Engineering from IIT Delhi, India and is a Post Graduate in Management from IIM Bangalore, India. He lives with his family in USA and will be based out of Washington DC.

Peter Krebs

Peter Krebs brings more than 20 years experience in the travel technology industry with a strong background in strategy development and executive management. Prior to IBS, he was the CEO of Atraxis North America (IT company in Swissair Group). Peter is a native of Denmark, educated at Copenhagen Business School, supplemented with courses under the MBA program at Henley Business School in the UK.

Akshay Shrivastava

Akshay Shrivastava is Senior Vice President and head of IBS’ Consulting & Digital Transformation business for the travel, transportation and logistics industry globally.

Having joined IBS in July 2008 as head of its Cargo Line of Business, Akshay was responsible for expanding iCargo’s global footprint - making IBS one of the leading IT solutions providers to the air cargo industry. In the following years, in his roles as Chief Delivery Officer and Global Head of Business Solutions & Service Delivery, Akshay led IBS’ 1500 plus global team to deliver IBS’ products and services to more than 170 customers worldwide.

Under his leadership IBS’ consulting business has grown many folds in recent years. IBS has formulated a number of strategic partnerships with its customers, enabling their digital transformation and innovation journeys.

Prior to joining IBS, Akshay worked with the Emirates Group in Dubai in various capacities. He takes special pride in the fact that he and his team successfully formulated and executed an IT strategy for Emirates SkyCargo that played an important role in making it a world leader in the air freight industry.

In a career of over 25 years in travel technology, Akshay has been involved in major IT and business initiatives for a number of travel companies, airlines and airport handlers around the world. His diverse industry experience includes managing large multicultural teams and a global customer base while building and effectively executing strategies, successfully delivering large complex projects, creating products for the industry, and leading large global IT products & service businesses.

Akshay holds a Masters’ Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He also has a Masters’ Degree in Physics.

Jayan P

Jayan is the Senior Vice President & Head of Global Human Resources. He is responsible for developing the HR organization as a credible business partner for IBS as it enters its next stage of growth.

With over 19 years of experience at IBS alone, his leadership and management skills have spanned different functions within the Company – Global Service Delivery, Production Services and Line of Business (LoB) management.

In his previous role, Jayan headed the Software Services LoB, responsible for acquiring several large and well-known customer accounts. Prior to this, he successfully set up the Production Services wing of IBS that manages Resources Deployment, Project Management, Technology Competence and Network Services. Jayan was also instrumental in setting up and managing IBS’ Technology Consulting Division and played a key role in the international level quality certifications of the Company, defining and institutionalizing several processes and policies within the organization. His understanding of current market dynamics helped him set up different organization-wide initiatives like Product Certification and Productivity Improvement programs.

Jayan holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Kerala. Prior to joining IBS in 1997, Jayan had a brief stint with the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Christopher Branagan

Chris is an experienced CTO and comes to IBS with over 30 years of experience shaping tech strategy and driving large transformation projects. He has worked extensively in scaled organizations with experience covering B2B, B2C and eCommerce. Most recently, Chris was CTO at Hotelbeds Group – a 7 billion Euro global business processing 4 billion searches daily – where he was tasked with merging Hotelbeds, GTA and Tourico into a common trading platform and a consolidated technology footprint. Chris also created and implemented a new operating model for the combined technology teams and drove the transition of the organization to Agile, Cloud & DevOps. Prior to this role, Chris was CTO at Kuoni GTA – a leading travel distribution company - where he led the modernization of the technology stack and brought an integrated approach to digital commerce. Before joining Kuoni, Chris was at Tesco where he led the replacement of Tesco’s direct web platform with a marketplace platform. Chris was also previously CTO at EasyCar (part of the EasyGroup companies).

Arun Hrishikesan

Arun Hrishikesan is the Senior Vice President for the Innovation Eco system as IBS Software and is responsible for collaboration with leading universities in the world, active participation in the start-up ecosystem and tech fraternity across the world that will help in leading-edge technology adoption, patentable IP creation, developing a team of technology leaders for the company and maintain thought-leadership position in the market.

Having joined IBS in its founding years, Arun played a significant role in crafting the success story of IBS. He played several roles in IBS from product development to service delivery, pre-sales to technology and has been instrumental in many business initiatives of the company. In his earlier role as head of Global Service Delivery and member of the Executive Management Team, Arun was responsible for development and implementation of all IBS products and solutions globally. He was the founding member of the Cargo initiative of IBS, which is now a leader in the Cargo Management space of the aviation industry.

Prior to joining IBS, Arun was with Hewlett Packard working on Distributed Computing Environment for HP-UX, and with the Indian Space Research Organization on development of onboard computer systems for India's satellite launch vehicles. Arun is a graduate in Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, from College of Engineering, Trivandrum and a post graduate in Systems Science & Automation from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

James Blamey

James is Vice President of Corporate Communications, responsible for developing and managing IBS Software's external communications strategies, covering corporate communications, storytelling, product PR, media & analyst relations and web & social outreach.  With more than 20 years of experience in communications, James has worked in some of the world’s most innovative technology companies. Before joining IBS Software in 2019, James was Director of Communications at Microsoft, Skype and Veritas Technologies, breaking down barriers of communication with thought leadership and ground breaking stories of innovation, leading global teams and key responsibilities for global PR and AR activities.

Ashok Rajan

Ashok is a Senior Vice President & Head of the Cargo & Logistics Business. Having spent close to 20 years with IBS, he has grown through the ranks of the organization to be currently heading one of IBS’ most successful businesses and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team of the company.

A domain and technology specialist, he has played varied roles in the organization from heading product design and engineering functions, to program management to marketing and business development. His credentials include conceptualizing the first ever new-generation platform for the air-freight industry, program managing major transformation programs at some of the biggest airlines in the world and being at the helm of a major market expansion initiative that resulted in a record number of customer acquisitions by any provider in the industry in a single year, thus positioning IBS to be the undisputed leader in the air freight technology space.  

Ashok is a much sought after speaker on the air cargo conference circuit. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

Mathew M Baby

Mathew is a Senior Vice President & Head of the Aviation Operations Solutions business for IBS, consisting of Airline Operations Solutions, Airline Engineering Solutions, and Airport Solutions.

Being part of IBS from day one, Mathew has served in several roles from product management to service delivery, pre-sales to business operations/development and has spearheaded many business initiatives of IBS over the years. In his earlier roles, Mathew was one of the founding member of the Cargo initiative of IBS, and as the head of Airline Cargo business, was instrumental in making iCargo a leader in the Cargo Management Solution space for the air transportation industry. Mathew currently oversees the development and delivery of iFlight NEO – the next-gen digital platform for airline operations from IBS.

Mathew is a graduate in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and a post graduate in Control Systems Engineering from University of Kerala, Trivandrum.

David Friderici

David Friderici is Senior Vice President and Head of Aviation Passenger Solutions at IBS Software.

David joined IBS in 2010 tasked with the objective of defining strategy and leading product management for the IBS Passenger Service System (PSS), iFly Res.

He is currently the head of IBS’ Aviation Passenger Solution business comprising of the PSS product and the new airline retailing product, iFly Retail. With over 27 years of experience in travel technology, David uses his deep and comprehensive understanding of the industry to set out the vision and roadmap for this line of business.

Since 2013 David is also part of the IATA NDC and ONE Order working groups and advisory forums, where he provides expert contribution to help shape the future of Airline Distribution and Retailing, fuelled by his strong belief that the airline industry is overdue for disruption.

David started his career at Hitchhiker GmbH building airfare management systems, air shopping and pricing platforms and eCommerce solutions for the travel industry.

Prior to joining IBS Software, David held various roles at Hitchhiker and Buchungsmaschine, including Director of eCommerce and Director of Product Strategy, where he led critical projects with brands like Expedia, Kuoni, HotelPlan and major airlines like KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways and American Airlines.

Asish Koshy

Asish is Vice President & Head of the Tour & Cruise Business for IBS Software. In this role, he is responsible for a range of next generation solutions offered to these industry verticals.

Asish has been part of the IBS team since its inception and has served in several roles from product management to service delivery to business development with professional experience both in the United States and India. In his earlier roles, Asish was instrumental in the launch of IBS’ Energy & Logistics practice, working closely with leading oil & gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico. He was also responsible for heading the service delivery in the Americas region.

A thought leader in the cruise domain, Asish has vast experience in enabling business transformation through use of technology and he has conceptualized iTravel-Cruise, IBS’ next generation digital platform offering for the cruise industry.

Steffan Berelowitz

Steffan is a serial entrepreneur, digital business pioneer, and hospitality innovator with a track record of building global e-commerce operations. For 15 years, Steffan led his own digital consultancy where he oversaw e-commerce transformation for some of the world’s leading brands including LEGO, Dell Computer Corporation, IBM, Fidelity Investments, and 2 divisions of General Electric. Steffan joined the hospitality industry in 2015 when his company was acquired by Pegasus (formerly Travel Tripper). For the past 8-years, Steffan built and launched a series of award winning and cutting edge technologies for hotels, including a chain level booking engine, e-commerce websites, ad technologies, and conversion optimization solutions. Steffan has extensive experience as a senior executive within global hospitality firms whose solutions include CRS, CRM, analytics, revenue management, and distribution solutions. At IBS Software, Steffan now serves as VP and Head of Hospitality Business and is responsible for expanding the iHospitality suite of solutions.

Marcus Puffer

Marcus Puffer is Vice President & Head of Loyalty Management Solutions at IBS Software. In this role, he is responsible for the loyalty product suite, a next generation platform carrying out some of the most successful customer engagement programs in travel and transportation. Before his almost 6 years tenure with IBS, Marcus has served as General Manager of topbonus, airberlin’s loyalty program and the second largest frequent flyer program in Germany with more than 3mn members and over 120 partners. He successfully managed the corporatization of topbonus and subsequent sale of 70% to Etihad Airways. Prior to that, he spent a decade at Star Alliance - the leading global airline alliance - in roles spanning Network and Membership Development. Marcus started his career with Austrian Airlines with a focus on market research and long term network planning.

Manu K P

Manu K P heads the Energy & Resources Logistics business of IBS software. In this role, he is responsible for a range of integrated solutions that enable energy & resources companies worldwide to take control of their end-to-end people and material supply chain. With diverse experience over 20 years across multiple domains, Manu has been focussing on leading transformation programs for the ERL sector across the globe in the last decade. Into his seventh year with IBS Software, he has played many roles in the organization including service delivery, product development and driving organisational excellence initiatives.

Prior to joining IBS, Manu worked with Infosys for 15 years, where he was leading a portfolio of energy companies.