Sri Ricky Kej
Three time Grammy® Award Winner, US Billboard #1 artist, United Nations Ambassador & “GQ Hero 2020”, Ricky Kej is an internationally renowned Indian Music Composer and Environmentalist. Ricky has dedicated his life and Music to creating awareness on the Environment, and positive social impact. He has performed at prestigious venues in over 35 countries, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Sri Manish Sabharwal
Sri. Manish is Vice-Chairman of Teamlease Services, one of India’s leading staffing and human capital firm. Teamlease is also implementing India’s first vocational university and national PPP apprenticeship program. The company has hired 1.8 million employees over the last 15 years.
In 1996 he co-founded India Life, an HR outsourcing company that was acquired in 2002 by a listed US company called Hewitt Associates. Consequently, he was CEO of Hewitt Outsourcing (Asia) based in Singapore for two years.
Sri. Manish is a member of the National Skill Mission, Central Advisory Board of Education and has served on various policy committees for education, employment and employability. He served as an Independent Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He is a Member of Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and a governing board member of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He is also Managing Trustee of the New India Foundation that offers fellowships for writing books about post-1947 India and is a columnist for Indian Express. He got his MBA from The Wharton School and is an alumnus of Shriram College, Delhi and Mayo College, Ajmer.
Sri Amish Tripathi
A graduate of IIM Kolkata, Amish Tripathi boasts a distinguished career spanning 14 years in the finance sector, during which he served in banking institutions worldwide. Beyond his financial prowess, he has soared as a best-selling author, with his books have sold over 7 million copies and translated into more than 20 languages. Additionally, he has held esteemed positions such as Minister of Culture at India’s high commission in the UK and Director of the Nehru Center in London. A versatile achiever, he has garnered prestigious awards and emerged as a contemporary thought leader.
Prof. Bhimaraya Metri
Prof. Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur is a distinguished academician, renowned teacher, researcher and an astute administrator. An outstanding leader of management education, he has performed key leadership roles at many premier management institutes and corporate in his remarkable career. Dr. Metri is the former Director of IIM Tiruchirappalli. He has also contributed immensely as Dean at L& T Institute of Project Management Vadodara, IMI New Delhi, MDI Gurgaon and leading research programmes at BITS Pilani. Currently, Dr. Metri is the member of Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU), He is also serving on the panel of experts for mentoring the Institutes of Eminence (IoE) and also as the Chairman of – All India Board of Management Studies, AICTE, New Delhi; Management and Systems Division Council (MSDC); Human resources management and innovation sectional committee of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), New Delhi and AIMA Board of Studies, New Delhi. Dr. Metri has trained more than 100 Vice Chancellors of Central, State and deemed Universities in the country. He also has trained more than 1000 Directors, Deans, Principals and HODs of leading Engineering Institutes including NITs under World Bank assisted project of MHRD-TEQIP to improve the quality of technical education in the country Dr. Metri was the first Indian elected as the Vice President, Asia Pacific Division, Decision Sciences Institute (DSI). Dr. Metri is the only serving IIM Director to receive the country’s prestigious AIMA-Kewal Nohria Award for Academic Leadership in Management Education. Distinguished Services Award by Asia Pacific Decision Sciences Institute, Top Director Award by CSR; Prerana Purshkar-Distinguished Alumnus Award, and “Top Rankers Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership” by Top Rankers Management Club, New Delhi.
Sri Anurag Behar
Sri. Anurag Behar is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation & Chancellor of Azim Premji University, Bhopal; he was the Founding Vice Chancellor of Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. He has an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a BE in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Trichy. He enjoys long distance running. Anurag has been closely involved with efforts to improve education in India for the past eleven years. He has been a vocal advocate for the critical importance of public systems, in particular the public education system for the past few years he has also been engaged with environmental and ecological issues. He writes a fortnightly column for the newspaper Mint, on Education and Ecology Anurag has served on the Board of Wipro GE Healthcare Ltd and of the TERI University. He serves on various government & industry councils, such as the National Mission on Teachers and Teacher Education, the Government of India implementation committee for the Justice Verma Commission, and with the CII’s National Climate Change Council. He has been honoured by the World Economic Forum, by being recognized as a ‘Young Global Leader’.
Prof. Michel Danino
Visiting Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar
French-born Prof. Michel Danino has lived in India since 1977. A student of Indian civilization, he has written on protohistorical India (The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, 2010) and Indian culture (Indian Culture and India’s Future, 2011; Sri Aurobindo and India’s Rebirth, an edited volume, 2018). Between 2011 and 2014, he was a visiting faculty at IIM Ranchi and twice a scholar-in-residence at IIT Kanpur. Since 2011, he has been teaching courses on Indian civilization and knowledge systems at IIT Gandhinagar, where he is currently visiting professor and has been assisting its Archaeological Sciences Centre.
Prof. Michel Danino was (2015-18) a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research; he is currently a member of the Research Council for History of Science (Indian National Science Academy), the Central Advisory Board on Culture, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, and the Academic Council of Indic Academy. He is also convener of a CBSE committee for the course Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India whose two-volume textbook he co-edited (with Prof. Kapil Kapoor, 2013 and 2015). In 2017, the Government of India awarded him Padma Shri by for his work on education and culture.
Sri Harish Bijoor
Sri. Harish Bijoor is a Brand-thinker and practitioner operating out of Bengaluru, India. He runs a unique boutique-consulting outfit branded “Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.”, a brand name that has a consulting presence across the markets of Hong Kong, Seattle, London, Istanbul, Dubai and the Indian sub-continent.
- Harish has spent his career across the aggressive realms of FMCG, Telecom and Consumer Durables. He is considered a marketing practitioner and thinker who is ahead of the consumer thinking curve, year on year.
- Harish is a public speaker who speaks to corporate audiences across the globe in the realm of motivation, people-management issues, brands,
marketing and business at large. He has spoken to corporate audiences across the world for 10419 hours to date. - Harish teaches at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad & Mohali, in addition to semesters at overseas Business schools in the US and Europe. He has been teaching at the Indian School of Business for the past 15 years.
- Harish has recently published a book titled, “Marketing Trends – Smart Insights into the world of Indian Business”, a serious book written in a style that is distinctly young and ‘MTV-ish’!
- He is currently involved in his second book on core branding. The book is titled, “Brand Irrationals: a fundamental journey into brand-think”
- Harish has simultaneously been commissioned to write a book on “Customer Service mechanisms” at play in contemporary marketing contexts.
- Harish is actively involved in research relating to Rural Consumer Behavior, Rural Retail Networks and Trade mechanisms at play. The current research exercise he is involved in spans a 6-year period covering 84,850 consumers across India.
- Harish has published papers extensively on the subjects relating to Strategic Marketing, Branding, Consumer Behavior, Retail networks, Rural marketing, Marketing research and Trend-analysis.
- Harish Bijoor contributes regularly to Business publications on Branding, sales, distribution and related topics.
Sri Prakash Belawadi
Sri. Prakash Belawadi is an Indian theatre, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983. He has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He has been a motivational speaker at events and TEDx conferences. Prakash Belawadi’s debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003. For his tremendous achievements, he is conferred with ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ by Government of Karnataka. He is recipient of Karnataka Nataka Academy, Pride of Karnataka by Bangalore Round Table, Helpmann Award, Australia for his excellent acting skills in “counting and cracking”. He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey. Belawadi is one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens and co-founder of Centre for film and drama.
Sri S. V. Ranganath
Sri. S. V. Ranganath belongs to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), from where he retired after a long and successful tenure as Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka (2009-13). He has been a member of the IIHS Board since 2014.
He has worked as a civil servant in various capacities both with the Government of India and the Government of Karnataka. He was Chairman Indian Coffee Board; Resident Director, Indian Investment Centre, Abu Dhabi; Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka; Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser in the Department of Space; and Member (Finance), Space and Atomic Energy Commissions.
Post-retirement, Sri. Ranganath was also non-executive Chairman of IFCI (2014-17). He was Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council; and Member, Karnataka Knowledge Commission. Currently, he is Chairman, NABFINS, a NABARD-promoted microfinance company. He has an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Delhi.
Sri M.P. Kumar
He is an entrepreneur and a leader with diverse expertise in nurturing and growing companies profitably with great concern for society and culture. He is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Global Edge Software Ltd (founded in 1992, has over1200 employees), a leading embedded software and solutions company operating out of Bangalore, Hyderabad (India) and Milpitas (USA). He has been a hands-on technology professional, worked in several companies including UBM (Ultra Business Machines), Srujana Technology and KSSIDC. He is a postgraduate in science from Bengaluru University, India.
Mr. Kumar brings over three decades of IT industry experience in growing high technology companies. He is an Angel Investor and has invested in technology and social impact startup companies. He mentors for young entrepreneurs and help several companies to prosper including Adamya Group Companies, iNabling Technology, Pico Mobile, Aseema Softnet Technologies, iSol Softech, etc, His key strengths include starting companies, rise VC funding, serving professional board and merging companies. He has keen interest in incubating IP development in India for licensing to global companies and help companies to manufacture niche technology end products for Indian and global market.
He has served on several Government committees / task forces such as Karnataka Vision Group, Karnataka State Innovation Council and Karnataka egovernance Task Force. He is also associated with industry bodies like Indian Angel Network, TiE Bengaluru, ISA (Indian Semiconductor Association) and NASSCOM India.
Mr. Kumar has an unrivalled concern for the society and culture. He has been guiding and contributing to several charitable institutions including Youth For Seva (YFS), Nele, Tapas, Sadhana, and Development Foundation. He is also a life member of Institute for Socio Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru.
Prof. Yashavantha Dongre
Vice-Chancellor, Chanakya University
An academician par excellence, Prof. Dongre has over 28 years of research experience and has completed his post-doctoral research at Ritsumeikan University, Japan & Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Osaka, Japan.
Prof. Dongre has served as the Professor of Commerce and the Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Board at the University of Mysore. He is also a Consultant to the High-Powered Committee on Cooperatives set up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, and serves as the Co-Secretary of the ICA-AP Committee on Cooperatives in Educational Institutions.
Prof. Yashavantha Dongre has held various responsible positions including Vice-Chancellor (I/C), Registrar, Director of the Post Graduate Centre and Director of Planning. He has published over 100 journal articles and 8 edited books. He is the Founder Member of The Third Sector Research Group, India (TSRGI), founded in 1993. This network of researchers, which began as an informal entity with three researchers from one university, has today expanded into a major research group in India with 80 members from five southern States of India. He has designed the Masters’ program in nonprofit management at the University of Mysore, titled Master of Management of Non-Profit Organisations (MMNPO) and run by the Vivekananda Institute of Leadership Development.
Prof Dongre has been undertaking research projects with various agencies such as Manipal University, Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium, the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, etc. He has been serving on the Editorial Boards of two Journals in Kannada – Arivu Baraha (Knowledge and Expression) an independent social science journal and Abhivruddhi Adhyayana (Development Studies) brought out by the Kannada University. He currently chairs the Asia Pacific Regional Research Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance.
Prof. M. K. Sridhar
An inspiring academician and Professor in Management, popularly known as MKS, Prof. M. K. Sridhar is a Teacher, Researcher, Institution Builder, and Mentor to thousands of students across the world. With over four decades of teaching experience, Prof. MKS served as a Professor, Dean, and Director of the Department of Management Studies at Bangalore University.
He was the Member Secretary and Executive Director of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission from 2009 to 2013. He was a Member of the Committee for drafting the National Education Policy and a Member of the All-India Board of Management Studies, AICTE.
Currently, Prof. MKS is a member of the UGC, New Delhi, and the Executive Council of the Central University of Kerala. He was conferred with the “Karnataka Rajyotsava Award” by the Government of Karnataka, the “General President Gold Medal” by the Indian Science Congress Association, and the “Padma Shri” – the fourth highest civilian award for his contribution to the domain of Art and Literature.