Unreasonable Mentors

Navin Ramachandran

Ambassador & and catalyst at Kanthari and Former COO of Match Group and CEO of Match Group LATAM and APAC

Navin is an Unreasonable Mentor. Navin was part of Unreasonable FUTURE 2019, and has advised over 15 Unreasonable companies.
Started my career in supply chain optimization after a bachelors in mechanical engineering and a post graduate in systems engineering. The company i2 technologies was at the forefront of developing software for inmemory optimization of supply chains which significantly reduced the time required for companies to react to supply chain variabilities. Joined as a consultant implementing these systems and over the next six years went one to run sales for Europe - working with companies like Airbus to help them link their supply chains with their suppliers to reduce the time required to complete the A380 project. Post i2 I travelled around India and played a small part in helping start a non-profit called Kanthari in India to help develop social change leaders from around the world. Also did some freelance consulting in South Korea and Germany for Samsung and 3M. This lead me to McKinsey which at that time was trying to get more expertienced folks into the firm. Started at McKinsey in the Silicon Valley office, then moved to San Francisco and Dubai over the next five years. Left McKinsey as Associate Partner after the financial crises brought down the Dubai economy. Took another break to travel and spend some time at Kanthari to work with the first batch of participants in the leadership program. Went back to the Bay Area to join a few McKinsey colleagues at a Bio tech start up called Amyris where I led a team to commercialize their first product and close the first large customer deal. The cosmetics division that I helped launch continues to be the main line of business for Amyris. From Amyris I was asked by a few colleagues I had worked with at i2 to help the Match group launch an offline business that compliments their online product. Over the next six months we built the team, launched the business and I moved on to take over the LATAM business for the group and six months later I also took on PeopleMedia, another business within the Match group. Both LATAM and PeopleMedia were turnaround situations where the CEO and senior team was let go due to business performance and we had to build back the team and turn the businesses around. Then I took on the role of COO for the group to drive innovation, integrate the various Match group businesses and reduce technology costs across the group. In preperartion for spinning off the Match Group and take the company public, I also took on the role of CEO for Match group LATAM and APAC which was one of the highest growth areas for the company, starting with Japan where we just completed a major acquisition of one of the largest dating companies there. In February off 2017 I left Match to travel and spend a year helping the Kanthari project with their strategy and also mentor several of the participants to help launch their projects in the areas of education, environment and disability rights. Currently on a break but continuing to mentor some of the kanthari alumni. Still based in SF but spending most of the time in Asia for the moment.