Dr. S. Mahesh Anand is an educator, corporate trainer, and AI consultant with more than 20 years of experience and expertise in these fields. He has trained over 50,000 learners, founded SCS-India, and led programs like “Learn AI with Anand.” An award-winning expert, Dr. Anand continues to inspire through his teaching, research, and his book on AI fundamentals.
About the Technical Reviewer
Tharun Reddy Pakala has nearly a decade of experience in data analytics, AI governance, and model risk management within regulated financial services. His work sits at the intersection of emerging AI technology and institutional accountability, with a focus on ensuring that AI systems deployed in highstakes environments are transparent, compliant, and auditable. Tharun is pursuing an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, twice named to the Dean's Honor List, with concentrations in Applied AI, Strategic Management, and Entrepreneurship. He holds a Master of Science in Business Analytics from the University of Texas at Dallas, where he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, recognizing the top 20% of business graduate students globally. An IEEE Senior Member, a distinction held by fewer than 10% of the IEEE's global membership, Tharun judges the SWE Awards and the New York Business Plan Competition, bridging technical and business dimensions of AI. He has reviewed two AI-focused books, and has recently began writing a book called “Mastering AI Governance Architecture for Financial Institutions”.
Varun Misra is a Director, Technical Architect, and Enterprise CRM strategist with over 16 years of experience delivering large-scale digital transformation initiatives. He specializes in designing and implementing enterprise CRM platforms that align people, processes, and technology to drive sustainable business value. Varun has led global engineering and architecture teams in delivering complex, multicloud CRM solutions across enterprise environments, helping organizations modernize their technology landscape, while maintaining operational excellence. His expertise spans enterprise architecture, CRM platform strategy, cloud-native design, and scalable integration frameworks. Varun is particularly focused on bridging the gap between executive vision and technical execution, ensuring that strategic objectives translate into practical, high-impact solutions. In recent years, Varun has been actively working at the forefront of AI-driven innovation, specializing in Generative AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Machine Learning. He focuses on the strategic application of intelligent automation, autonomous agents, and predictive models to enhance customer experiences, and improve decision-making across organizations. Through his work, Varun continues to help enterprises harness emerging technologies to build smarter, more adaptive, and future-ready digital platforms.