Join the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development at London Business School for a leadership dialogue co-hosted by Amit Mehra and Professor Rajesh Chandy, with featured institutional guests Leslie Maasdorp, Chief Executive Officer of British International Investment (BII) and Vindi Banga, Partner at CD&R, Chair Haleon Plc, Chair of UK Government Investments & Chair Imperial College Council. Together, they will examine a defining question for India and other fast-growing emerging markets: How can AI-driven growth be powered by clean, reliable and financeable infrastructure?
Data centres and AI compute are becoming central to India’s next phase of digital growth. But AI is digital only at the interface; the infrastructure behind it is intensely physical. It requires affordable and reliable power, grid capacity, cooling, water, land, backup generation and substantial long-term capital. At the same time, air pollution imposes heavy costs on public health and workforce productivity – and could worsen if emissions-intensive backup generation expands alongside new infrastructure. India therefore has an opportunity not simply to add more infrastructure, but to build a cleaner and more resource-efficient model of AI-led growth from the outset.
Drawing on experience across technology entrepreneurship, global business, private equity, development finance and market-building, the participants will explore:
- What will make AI and data-centre infrastructure in India bankable at scale
- How development finance institutions and private capital can share risk and crowd in institutional investment
- How resource-efficiency and clean-air outcomes can be measured, valued and incorporated into investment decisions
- Which opportunities in renewable power, grids, storage, cooling, cleaner backup power and logistics are most ready to scale
- What India can demonstrate for other emerging markets confronting the same growth and infrastructure challenge.
The public dialogue will follow a small invitation-only roundtable convening leaders from infrastructure finance, private investment, operating companies, academia, and civil society. Insights from that discussion will help inform the public conversation.
Date: Wednesday 18 November 2026
Time: 5:15pm
Location: LT 19, Sammy Ofer Centre / London Business School, W1H 1FP
About the speakers
Leslie Maasdorp is Chief Executive Officer of British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. He was previously Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, Vice Chairman of Barclays Capital, President of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in South Africa and International Advisor to Goldman Sachs. Earlier in his career, he served in South Africa’s post-apartheid government, leading the restructuring of state-owned enterprises.
Vindi Banga is a Partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Chair of UK Government Investments and Chair of Haleon Plc. He also serves as Chair of CD&R’s Sustainability Council, Chair of Council at Imperial College London and a Non-Executive Director of The Economist Group. Previously, he spent 33 years at Unilever, where he served as President of the Global Foods, Home and Personal Care businesses and as a member of the Executive Board. Vindi has previously served as Senior Independent Director at GSK and Marks and Spencer.
About the hosts
Amit Mehra is a tech entrepreneur and global growth executive at the intersection of AI infrastructure, energy transition, and clean air. He is President of Global Growth Markets at OXON Technologies, an energy efficiency and emissions reduction firm, and serves as Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Clean Air. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Accenture, UK, founder and CEO of Reuters Market Light (RML AgTech), a pioneering mobile-first ag-tech venture, and an Advisor to help establish the Wheeler Institute.
Rajesh Chandy is Professor of Marketing and holds the Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship at London Business School, where he is Co-Academic Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. His research examines innovation, entrepreneurship and the role of markets in tackling poverty and driving growth in emerging economies. Rajesh is also co-editor of Management Science special issue on “Business and Climate Change” and previously served as Area Editor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Management Science.