The mission of Industry Advisory Board is to advise the university and enhance and expand its impact as the foremost teaching, research, and experience-led university in the country. The Board of Advisors provides counsel and advocacy to the university leadership regarding priorities and the future direction of Bennett University. We are proud that our board is one of the finest in the country and consists of industry leaders, representing different industries and disciplines from all over the world. In working with the university leadership , these eminent board members supports the university as it carries out its Strategic Plan of delivering world class education programs across our domains of Engineering, Management, Law, Media and Liberal Arts.
ORGANIZATION: International Bar Association
Designation: Senior Legal Council
Anurag Bana is an Indian qualified lawyer with a BCL from the University of Oxford and over 19 years of experience, as a legal advisor, practitioner and researcher having worked across global jurisdictions, in the arena of International law and policy sector. His work trajectory spans a judicial clerkship with a Supreme Court of India Judge, internships at international organizations including the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. He has practiced in Indian law courts and worked briefly in the corporate sector with Skoda Auto in Czech Republic.
Anurag is an influencer and thought leader in the emerging areas of legaltech, disruptive innovation, internet of things, digital assets and attorney-client privilege and confidentiality issues. He has published and presented several specialist papers on technology law related issues covering cyber security, blockchain technology, digital identity and social media laws
As the Chair of the IBA Social Media Working Group, he led the development and adoption of the international social media principles for the legal profession by the IBA in 2014. He is the IBA representative at the UK Attorney General’s International Pro Bono Committee; a fellow of the European Law Institute, a founding member of the Chinese European Legal Association; a member of the Advisory Group on Diversity and Inclusion of the Society for Computers and Law and; life member of the Oxford Union Society.
Anurag is in the expert panels of the following organizations:
ORGANIZATION: Khaitan and Company
Designation: Senior Partner
Haigreve is a Senior Partner and heads the Corporate/M&A and Private Equity practice at the Firm. He is an elected member of the National Executive Committee of the Firm which is responsible for the firm’s strategic growth and development. He advises companies, boards of directors and financial institutions on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, corporate governance, corporate restructuring and other corporate and securities laws matters.
He has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex M&A and private equity transactions in India and is sought after for his expertise by some of the most prominent Indian promoters, Indian and international companies, Indian regulatory agencies as well as some of the largest global funds investing in India. He advises a range of large Indian conglomerates and multinational clients in various business sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, infrastructure, steel, software and information technology.
Haigreve has been consistently recommended by many of the world’s leading law chambers and accreditation bodies. Sources also praise him as an “outstanding lawyer” who is “extremely good and very sharp when it comes to large transactions’’. He has been acknowledged for his experience and expertise by:
Haigreve is on the Board of Directors of various companies including Jio Platforms Limited, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, CEAT Limited, JSW Steel Limited, Tech Mahindra Limited, Inox Leisure Limited and Borosil Renewables Limited.
ORGANIZATION: Rolls-Royce
Designation: President - India & South Asia
Kishore Jayaraman is President for Rolls-Royce India and South Asia. Since taking over the role nine years ago, Kishore has been instrumental in driving strategic focus and significant expansion across the Rolls-Royce Defence, Civil Aerospace and Power Systems businesses.
A strong proponent of technology innovation, he led the establishment of Rolls-Royce’s digital and engineering capabilities in India that now contribute to global development projects.
Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Kishore held diverse leadership roles across markets at GE for 23 years, and his last assignment was as President and CEO of GE Energy, South Asia.With an MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, Kishore serves on several boards and is at the helm of industry committees and associations, whilst being a champion for sustainability and strategic ecosystem evolution for the present and future.
Kishore is based in New Delhi, India.
ORGANIZATION: Boston Scientific, India Hub
Designation: Managing Director
Manoj Madhavan took over as the Managing Director for Boston Scientific, India Hub in July 2019 and also leads the Boston Scientific operations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives & Sri Lanka. He is a member of the Boston Scientific Asia Pacific regional leadership team.
Manoj has over 17 years of experience in leadership roles across sales, marketing and general management. He had joined Boston Scientific Global in March 2014 as part of the Global Leadership Development Program. Over the last 6 years, he has worked in various marketing leadership roles in the US, Australia & New Zealand. Prior to taking over the business for the India Hub, Manoj was the Country Leader for Boston Scientific Philippines and ASEAN Marketing Leader for the Urology & Pelvic Health Business, where he scripted a business turnaround and delivered one of the fastest growth rates in that business in the Asia Pacific region. Under his leadership, BSC Philippines team won the ‘Regional Excellence Award’ in 2018 for delivering outstanding performance across all key commercial metrics.
In past, Manoj had tenured with Johnson & Johnson as the Business Manager for Tier 2/3 Markets in India. Before Johnson & Johnson, Manoj spent a few years in Financial Services as well.
Manoj is an MBA from MDI, Gurgaon and INSEAD. He is extremely passionate about patient outcomes and likes to work on enhancing market access and collaborating with governments and public organizations to ensure improved access to healthcare.
ORGANIZATION: Cosmos Maya
Designation: Chief Executive Officer
Megha Tata joined Cosmos Maya as Chief Executive Officer on Oct 2022. Megha has held leadership roles at organisations such as BTVI, HBO, Turner International and Star TV, in an illustrious career spanning more than 28 years. An industry veteran, she leads multiple national as well as international industry forums and an esteemed member of the National Media and Entertainment Committee of FICCI, and is also the second woman to ever become the President of the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association.
Megha has been instrumental in launching several marquee projects for the network in India, including the local launch of streaming service discovery+, now India’s largest aggregated real-life infotainment OTT service. Under her leadership, Discovery has forayed into original Indian content, with discovery+ launching a slew of exciting originals, including the critically acclaimed 'Into the Wild with Bear Grylls’ episodes with Rajnikanth and Akshay Kumar. Her knowledge and deep-rooted understanding of the business have aided the network to achieve new heights in the animation genre with Discovery Kids smart strategy and marquee content line-up for the Indian audience. Rebranding Discovery’s sports channel - Eurosport in March 2020 is a journey that's worth a lot of learnings.
In 2020, Discovery India retained its position as the ‘Most Trusted Real-Life Entertainment Brand’ by TRA Research Private Limited for the 10th year in a row, with content teams being singled out for innumerable accolades including; ‘Network of the Year’ as well as ‘Best Entertainment Programme’ and ‘Best Infotainment Programme’ for Man vs Wild with Bear Grylls and Prime Minister Modi at the 25th Asian Television Awards.
Megha has been bestowed with multiple industry accolades during her career. She is recognized amongst the top 50 influential women in media, marketing and advertising and was also conferred ‘Women of the decade in media’ by the Women Economic Forum in 2018.
In addition to being actively involved in industry initiatives, Megha is energized by engaging with young minds through guest lectures at leading educational institutes including IIT, IIM, ISB, UBS, and is passionately involved as a Volunteer with Isha Foundation - a non-profit organization started by Sadhguru.
ORGANIZATION: BNY Mellon Technology, India
Designation: Managing Director
Nitin Chandel is the Head of BNY Mellon Technology in India and has offices in Chennai and Pune. Based out of Pune, Nitin manages and leads the global technology team of close to 5,500 across India. He drives technology transformation, focusing on digitization and infrastructure resiliency. Additionally, he also oversees recruitment and retention of top technology talent.
Prior to this, Chandel was Senior Vice President at Visa for its Developer Platform and led a global team from India. He built out Visa's India Technology Center in Bengaluru. He has also held several senior technology roles at Microsoft, where he led Bing Ads development teams both in Bengaluru and in the company's corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S. His past experience includes the following –
ORGANIZATION: Avian WE
Designation: Group CEO
Nitin Mantri is a dynamic leader in the world of communications. He’s the Group CEO of Avian WE and the President of International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO). He was the President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) for five years - from 2015 to 2020. Recently he was also appointed to the Global Advisory board of the PRCA and is the Co-Chair of the PRCA APAC and PRCA Global Ethics Council.
Nitin joined Avian WE (then known as Avian Media) as its CEO in 2006. The firm was then two years old and operated out of an apartment in Delhi with 10 employees and a handful of clients. In a few years, Nitin set the template for year-on-year growth. Today Avian has over 200 employees in six offices in India. Its key clients include Airbnb, Amazon, Child Investment Fund Federation, Deloitte, Facebook, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Pernod Ricard, Philips, Reckitt, Samsung, Sony India, Viacom and VMware.
Nitin’s experience of over two decades in diverse sectors and his ability to mitigate crisis and train the C-suite in managing the media helped Avian win clients for life. Nitin and his business partner also founded Chase India, now a subsidiary of Avian WE, in 2011 to work on public policy mandates for Indian and multinational companies. Before joining Avian, Nitin worked at Brodeur/Pleon (now Ketchum), a Europe-based public relations and communications consultancy that belongs to the Omnicom Group, in London. He was responsible for Pleon’s UK operations, and headed the corporate and technology B2B practices. Nitin began his communications career at Genesis PR (now BCW) after completing his MBA from the Birla Institute of Management Technology.
Nitin takes a keen interest in the development of the public relations industry. Since he became the PRCAI president in 2015 he has focused on improving the public perception of the profession in India. As president of ICCO, Nitin is making the global PR industry relevant to different markets, and potential talent. He regularly speaks at the AMEC Global Summit, ICCO Global Summit and Sabre Awards. Nitin teaches and charts course syllabus at prominent mass communication colleges in India to increase awareness about the profession at the grass-root level.
He has been recognized on several platforms for his contribution to the industry including the Individual Achievement award at the Sabre APAC in 2021 and the ‘Global PR Leader of the Year’ at the 2015 ICCO Global Awards.
Nitin lives in New Delhi with his wife and two children.
ORGANIZATION: LTI Mindtree.
Designation: Chief Sustainability Officer
A consummate HR leader and mentor with an experience of 30+ years in Human Resources function globally across multiple countries and across Manufacturing, Consulting, IT & BPO industries. Paneesh has been driving strategic HR initiatives to realize bottom line results and enhance employee engagement in pursuit of organizational objectives.
A creative thinker, problem solver and decision maker, effectively balancing the employee needs with the mission of the organization.
He pioneered initiatives and led large HR interventions with an objective of creating an organization climate providing workforce strategy and management translating into a wide range of people programs, career development, total rewards, inspire and lead large teams deliver business needs and stimulate environment.
In Mindtree, Paneesh oversees the entire gamut of human resources function and employee life cycle management. Heading a large team of 150+ HR professionals, globally, he drives significant initiatives for creating an organization climate that fosters innovation, creates high energy culture and makes the company an employer of choice.
Awards & Accolades:
Paneesh has been conferred with several awards in HR excellence throughout his distinguished career;
Paneesh’ s articles and expert opinions on the evolving trends and paradigms in Human Resources regularly appears in high profile publications such as The Times of India, Human Capital and Smart Manager magazines.
An avid fan of cricket, Paneesh represented Madhya Pradesh in the CK Nayudu & Cooch Bihar trophies, college cricket team in his early days and also captained hisschool cricketteam
ORGANIZATION: Indian Express Online Media
Designation: Chief Executive Officer
Sanjay Sindhwani, currently CEO, Indian Express Online Media, has over 25 years in the Media Industry across Print, Television and Digital.
As CEO of Indian Express Online Media, Sanjay is working on growing the strong portfolio of Express brands viz. IndianExpress.com, FinancialExpress.com, Loksatta.com, Jansatta.com, Inuth.com to greater heights. He is specially focused on diversifying the revenue streams and improving profitability. As a part of the diversification exercise, Sanjay led the acquisition of MyInsuranceClub.com an insurance aggregator into the IE family. He also launched several new IPs like India Gaming Summit, BrandWagon Conclave and Awards, India Education Summit plus many more in Healthcare and Pharma, Small and Medium Enterprises and Automotive space. He is now focused on growing the subscription business for the IE Digital.
Prior to joining Indian Express, he was with EconomicTimes.com for 12 years as the Business Head. He conceptualized and launched ETPrime, the premium subscription product for The Economic Times. He also responsible for launching ET in multiple Indian languages and on mobile as early as 2007; created ETMarkets, ETRise, and several other verticals, and steered ET Digital into the No. 1 position in the Business News category with huge margin over its competitors. He also started several new IPs like ETPrime Women’s Leadership Awards, ET Campus Star – a program to identify and celebrate talent across college campuses, ET Markets Global Summit to engage different audience segments and acquire new readers into the ET fold.
Between his two 12 year stints at ET Sanjay also dabbled with Television @ Television Eighteen.
His first stint at ET started on the editorial side with ‘The Economic Times’ print, where he spent over 5 years before being smitten by the internet bug and moved into setting up and launch the economictimes.com website in 1999. He was the first Analyst to identify and highlight the issues and challenges in the Unit Scheme 64, months before the downfall of scheme was officially accepted and acknowledged.
Over the years he has moved across functions like edit, product, business-development, new initiatives, strategy, and P&L management.
Follow Sanjay on twitter @Sindhwani_IE or connect @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sindhwani/
ORGANIZATION: PwC India
Designation: Chief Operating Officer
Satyavati Berera, COO of PwC India, has over 35 years of diverse experience across several sectors and is also a member of PwC India's leadership team.
Satya started her career as an article trainee in 1980 and went on to become an Audit Partner in 1995. Before becoming the COO in 2016, she played key leadership roles at the firm such as the Consulting Leader, Risk Advisory Services Leader and also the Managing Partner for the firm's North region. Satya has extensively worked across sectors in the areas of Assurance, Consulting and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Services. She was actively involved in designing and implementing control strengthening and process improvement solutions for a variety of Indian and multinational companies. In her current role as the COO, in addition to managing the firm's operations she is driving the firm's transformation agenda.
For the last several years, Satya has been closely associated with Mobile Creches, a not-for-profit organisation devoted to the education of young children from marginalised communities. Satya graduated from Lady Shri Ram College in Economics and is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
ORGANIZATION: Sopra Banking Software
Designation: Chief Executive Officer
Sunil Goyal is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Sopra Steria India, a part of the €4.3 billion Sopra Steria Group, headquartered in Paris. Sopra Steria Group is one of the top 5 French IT Services company in France having a strength of 46,000+ professionals worldwide operating from 30 countries.
Sunil started his career as a telecom support professional at Unitel and then managed sales at Wipro. He soon branched out to start on his own and co-founded Momentum India with almost no seed capital in 1993.
Under the leadership of Sunil and the co-founder, the company soon became the largest channel partner for Wipro InfoTech for their IT products in India. They were also instrumental in raising USD 1.5 million funding from Citibank when they diversified into software in the year 2000. Momentum was subsequently acquired by Sopra Group in July 2005.
At Sopra Steria India, Sunil is responsible for all functions including Software Delivery, HR, IT, Finance and Administration. Sopra Steria has centers in Noida, Chennai, Pune and Bengaluru, with an employee strength of 4200+ people. His Passion has always been People and he has been instrumental in setting up a high performance driven culture at the
Sunil is also the Chief Executive Officer of Sopra Banking Software Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. (SBSI), a subsidiary of the Sopra Steria Group. SBSI has 900+ Software professionals and is involved in developing and supporting the Banking Software, which the group is selling in European, African and Middle East market. Sunil was also former Co-Chair of NASSCOM’s regional council at Noida.
ORGANIZATION: Societe Generale Global Solution Centre
Designation: Chief Executive Officer
Sunil Shah is Global Head, Societe Generale’s Global Solution Centres in India and Romania, & CEO, Societe Generale’s Global Solution Centre in India. He oversees the operations of the offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Bucharest, delivering Information Technology, Banking Operations, Finance and Research services to Societe Generale’s entities worldwide.
Sunil has over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology (IT) and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sectors. He joined Societe Generale Global Solution Centre in 2011 and was appointed as the CEO in 2018. Prior to this role, Sunil worked with Fidelity for over seven years where he led the Asset Management IT team. He has also worked with Infosys for over a decade managing large programs for financial services firms and consulting assignments across India and globally.
Sunil holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Mysore, and an MBA from INSEAD, Singapore and France.
ORGANIZATION: Arthur D. Little - Middle East
Designation: Managing Partner
Thomas Kuruvilla is a member of the Global Board of Arthur D. Little and is responsible for Arthur D. Little’s operations in the Middle East. Thomas is also the Head of the Strategy and Organization practice in South Asia and the Middle East. Thomas has been with Arthur D. Little since 1998 and was responsible for Arthur D. Little’s Singapore operations
Thomas has led many public sector transformational engagements on economic development and digital transformation across industries: transport, telecoms, health care and real estate/smart city. Thomas has also supported various family conglomerates in the Middle East in developing and executing their strategy. Thomas is on the board of a few family conglomerates in the Middle East.
Thomas is a part-time faculty at many Indian Institutes of Management (IIM - Ahmedabad, Bangalore & Udaipur), India – for programmes covering International Business Strategy; Family Conglomerate Strategy & Governance; Strategy/Management Consulting. Thomas is a member of the Industry Advisory Panel of S P Jain School of Global Management. Thomas is also a speaker in conferences in the areas of Corporate Governance, International Business Strategy, Turnaround Management, and Corporate Venturing.
Consulting specialities: Consulting and operational/management experience in the Middle East, Europe and South East Asia in the areas of strategy development & implementation, organization evaluation & design, due diligence, merger and acquisitions, turnaround and performance management - both in public and private sectors, including family conglomerates. Thomas has experience in many industries (Telecoms, Maritime, and Financial Services) and functional (Strategy and Organization, M&A, BPR) practices.
Mr Kuruvilla has a Bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kerala University and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, Australia/Asian Institute of Management, Philippines. Before joining Arthur D. Little, he worked with Larsen and Toubro, the largest engineering company in India. Thomas was also selected as a Pilot Officer with Indian Air Force.
ORGANIZATION: Grant Thorton
Designation: Partner and Global Leader – Tax
Vikas Vasal is the Global Head of Tax for Grant Thornton International Ltd.; and the National Managing Partner – Tax for Grant Thornton in India.
He is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in management consulting. He has over 25 years of experience on Business, Tax and Regulatory matters, across Industries
His international experience includes working with a large consulting firm in New York, USA (2011 to 2014) with the International Tax Team.
He is part of the National Executive Committee for Tax, of prominent business chambers like CII, FICCI etc.
With in-depth management experience in leadership and business management, he is a well networked professional in financial circles and industry associations/business chambers
He is a regular speaker at business and professional conferences in India and overseas on Economic Policy, Tax and Regulatory matters
He contributes regularly to various leading business newspapers.
He is a Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant and an alum of Shri Ram College of Commerce.
ORGANIZATION: Tech Mahindra
Designation: General Counsel
A business leader who provides tactical & practical vision that is vital in corporate decision making while preserving overall legal health of Tech Mahindra & group companies worldwide
Role description
Vineet is currently serving as a Global General Counsel of Tech Mahindra Limited, a US$ 5.3 Billion Indian MNC providing IT, ITeS, Consulting & BPO Services to clients worldwide. In capacity as the corporate officer in-charge of the Legal function, he is responsible for the handling entire Legal & Regulatory affairs of Tech Mahindra and its group & portfolio companies worldwide and advising & supporting multi-billion cross-border Commercial transactions, Mergers & Acquisitions, Disputes & Litigations, Ethics & Global Compliance, Legal Policy & Regulatory Affairs, IPR & strategic legal support.
Areas of expertise
His work experience of over 25 years spans across wide variety of practice areas including Commercial & Contract laws, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions, Global Regulatory Compliances, Financial & Banking, Real Estate and SEZ & STPI regulations, Company law, IT, Data Protection, Privacy, Cyber & IPR laws, Criminal law, Telecom, Litigation & Arbitration, Employment laws, Bankruptcy laws, Competition laws & Corporate affairs and Indirect Taxation laws.
Professional experience
After working as practicing lawyer in Delhi High Court and the district courts in the initial years, Vineet embarked on the journey of becoming an in-house counsel with Punj Lloyd Group in a secretarial-cum-legal role, which exposed him to various facets of the law that eventually formed a significant part of his responsibilities. This was followed with an 8 years’ stint with the TATA Group (Tata Unisys, Tata Infotech, TCS) and working closely with Tata Sons and Tata Services, which further provided exposure to global deals & transactions. At American Express, working on complex legal challenges he got the opportunity to solve regulatory, legal & compliance issues in the banking, finance sector and NBFC sector. Vineet has also worked with HCL Technologies for over a decade and his path at HCL was punctuated by his significant role in handling billion-dollar contracts, complex litigations & arbitrations, establishing SEZ/STPI/Free-trade Zones, ensuring Global Compliances, resolving Customs & Indirect Taxation issues, filing of Patents, Copyright, Trademarks & resolving IPR-related issues, handling public affairs functions and strategic legal assistance for HCL Corporation and Foundation. He provided active legal & regulatory support in HCL’s entry in the software business segment - the biggest IP acquisition the Indian IT/ITeS space has ever seen.
Currently, as the Group General Counsel for Tech Mahindra and its group companies the across globe, he leads a team of 100 lawyers who are located in different parts of the world and are taking care of the legal & regulatory aspects concerning the Tech Mahindra Group & portfolio companies and Tech Mahindra Foundation & its CSR activities. Vineet acts as a bulwark against legal challenges and roadblocks faced by the group to pave way for exponential business growth in tandem with risk mitigation and compliance with country law & legal obligations.
Education and Memberships
Vineet graduated with a B.Com (Hons) degree from prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce and L.L.B. from Delhi University. He holds additional qualification & degrees in Company Law, Labour Laws, Industrial Relations & Personnel Management, IT & Cyber Laws. With the wide-ranging areas of practice, he also serves on the Board of Studies and Advisory Boards of leading law school/universities, editorial board of legal journal & magazines and member of various trade associations and advocacy groups such as CII, FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and INBA.
Awards & recognitions
Pro bono work
Vineet believes that his role as a Group General Counsel is not only restricted to handling legal affairs for the Tech Mahindra Group, but also extends towards lending a hand to alleviate social imperils. Noting the lack of access to legal aid and resources among marginalized communities, he places great emphasis on providing legal advice and ensuring access to justice for such people.
As the Group General Counsel for Tech Mahindra, Vineet feels that it is an important responsibility for the entire team to contribute towards the overall organizational goal of undertaking CSR activities. He has fully espoused the company’s CSR policy and works tirelessly to make the CSR activities a success and a longstanding initiative. He also drives members of the legal team to participate in volunteering in company’s CSR activities, besides their individual initiatives in line with the legal aid and awareness.
ORGANIZATION: Status Neo
Designation: Chief Operating Officer
An accomplished and forward-thinking Chief Operating Officer with over 30 years of comprehensive experience in the technology sector, blending a unique mix of hardware and software expertise to drive operational excellence and innovation. Currently steering a leading technology firm as its COO, with a keen focus on integrating data analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance business processes, I oversee strategic initiatives that safeguard data integrity, streamline ISMS audits, and foster business process automation. My journey has been marked by transformative leadership roles, including IT Head, CISO, Digital Officer, and Technical Director for a prestigious US-based company. My project portfolio spans across vital domains such as Virtualization, Cloud Solutions, Supply Chain Optimization, SAP implementations, Quality Assurance, and Electronic Data Interchange.
ORGANIZATION: Ogilvy
Designation: Associate President
Over two decades of working in the marketing and advertising industry across Delhi & Mumbai, the last 10 years at Ogilvy. I have worked across diverse categories which include FMCG, Automotive, Telecom, Entertainment, and Insurance. Consequently, garnered extensive experience in managing large global brands right from my first days in advertising. I believe that strong communication ideas emanate at the intersection of culture, consumer insights and brand promise. Ideas that are not just creatively stimulating but also effective for business. In the last 20 years, I’ve strived to create cohesive teams of good people to do great work in a stimulating environment for business growth and development.
ORGANIZATION: Kochhar & Co.
Designation: Senior Partner
A seasoned corporate lawyer, with a sub-specialisation in Infrastructure, Financial Regulation and Restructuring, Banking and Finance, and Private Equity. He is based in both Delhi and Mumbai and represent a professional blend of top tier In-house experience (formerly Group General Counsel of IL&FS and Legal Director, IDFC Alternatives) combined with several years in international law firms based in London and Singapore. His clients include banks, NBFCs, corporate and financial services companies, project developers and EPC. His current assignments include M&A transactions in the Roads sector, Renewable Energy and actions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and related regulations in India.
ORGANIZATION: Charlet Hotels Limited
Designation: Managing Director & CEO
An industry stalwart, Sanjay Sethi comes with an extensive experience of more than three decades in providing strategic vision and leadership to leading hotel chains, and across segments in the hospitality industry.
In February 2018, he returned to Chalet Hotels and took the company public in February 2019. Currently the company’s portfolio consists of ~2550 hotel rooms spread across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in Luxury and Upscale segment. The portfolio includes JW Marriott Sahar Mumbai, The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake and Marriott Executive Apartments Mumbai, Four Points Sheraton Vashi Mumbai, Novotel Pune, Marriott Whitefield Bengaluru and Westin Mindspace Hyderabad.
Prior to joining Chalet, Sanjay founded Keys Hotels & Resorts in 2006. He had a fourteen-year stint with the Taj Group of Hotels and worked briefly with ITC Limited as Chief Operating Officer for their Hotels Division. In December 2019, he was conferred the coveted Hall of Fame Award by Hotelier India. Sanjay was recognized as the Best Hospitality Professional India by the Pacific Asia Travel Writers Association in March 2020.
Recognized as a thought leader in the hospitality industry, Sanjay is an active member and speaker at key industry bodies and events such as FHRAI and HICSA. He is an Executive Committee Member of the Hotel Association of India (HAI) and a special invitee to the Executive Committee of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI). Sanjay is also an Executive Committee member of the National Tourism Committee of CII and the Global Hospitality Committee of GRI.
ORGANIZATION: Atos
Designation: Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources
Atos is a leader in digital transformation with circa 120,000 employees in 72 countries and annual revenue of € 12.2 Billion.
Current Roles:SVP, Head of HR for Atos in India
+ Head of HR Global Delivery Centres Worldwide (India, Poland, Philippines, Malaysia, Romania, Bulgaria...)
Additional Responsibilities:+ Manages Global HR Budget
+ Member of Board of Directors for Atos entities in India
+ Member of India Governance Council
Previous Organizations and Roles:Director (M&A), Human Resources (Asia Pacific and MEA)
ORGANIZATION: Larsen & Toubro Limited
Designation: Advisor to CEO & MD, Group Human Resources
HR leader with over 44 years of experience in multiple HR functions across diverse industries. My goal is now to contribute to industry with my experience in leading HR for over 4 decades for large companies and more particularly after leading the HR function of India's most successful and large engineering and construction conglomerate L&T. At L&T, I have contributed by conceptualizing & implementing a Performance Management System called FAIR, developing a high potential programme with over 19000 assessments of leaders in 2 decades and several other first of the kind HR Policies, particularly in Leadership Development & Talent Management
Alumni of TISS and FMS Delhi, Sriram has worked in leadership positions with organizations such as L&T, Taj, British Petroleum etc.
ORGANIZATION: Robert Bosch Chassis systems India Pvt Ltd
Designation: Managing Director
Experienced Managing Director with a dedicated 35years of working with biggest automotive supplier - Robert Bosch. He has Vast experience at Various divisions of Bosch in India. Strong international experience dealing with leading a large manufacturing division in Germany in high precision fuel injection products, international production network and supply chain. He was part of the core team in winning a EFQM excellence award in Germany and CII Business excellence award in India.
He has handled many international projects including setting up of India's largest export Oriented unit (EOU) and product relocations to India for export market.
He is a language enthusiast, with a good skills in German language and well versed with many Indian languages.
ORGANIZATION: Morgan Stanley, India
Designation: Managing Director
Rajat Mathur is a Managing Director of Human Resources and is currently the Head of HR for Morgan Stanley, India. Rajat has over 25 years of experience in Human Resources with the last 15 years being at the helm of the function both locally and overseas. Rajat has been with Morgan Stanley for 10+ years and has served as Asia Head of Talent for Morgan Stanley in addition to his current role.
Previously he was Director of Human Resources for Deutsche Bank- Global Offshoring Centres. His experience also includes running his own Consulting and Adventure Company focused on developing Life skills in the youth community. When he is not climbing mountains, he also writes books, having already published a book called “Dear Dad” and been a contributing author for the book “A Wonderful Boss”.
ORGANIZATION: Suzlon Limited.
Designation: President and CHRO
Comprehensive experience of 27 years in developing and executing strategic Human Resources agenda of organisations. Most of these agenda are driven for profitable growth of business. Extensive exposure to large corporations with business spread across geographies, in India and overseas as well.
Coached by Dr Ram Charan have been recognized for expertise in implementing world-class practices to transform organizations into high-performing and profitable entities. Coordinate with global management consultancies to develop productivity enhancement programs to yield superlative business results. A licensed practitioner of Thomas Profiling System and an expert in implementing Gallup, Leadership Circle and GPTW frameworks, I identify and hire leadership talent across generic and niche skills. Ensure sustained development of employees to build organisational capabilities as well as to retain and promote talent.
ORGANIZATION: NXT Digital (Hinduja Group)
Designation: Managing Director and CEO
Vynsley Fernandes is a veteran media executive and a leading technocrat, with three decades of experience in delivering and managing assignments globally - for DTH (Direct-to-Home) & HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky) platforms; Internet Service Providers, digital cable networks; and news & entertainment channels. Prior to his current role at Hinduja Global Solutions, part of the global Hinduja Group; he has managed high-profile assignments at blue-chip organisations including 21st Century Fox (News Corporation), STAR Television, TATA SKY and INX Network. With an academic background in Mass Communications and Media, Vynsley is considered a thought leader in the media & entertainment space. He continues to represent the industry at various international and national forums and has several accolades to his credit including being recognized with the prestigious “CEO of the Year” award presented by World Leadership Congress in 2021.
Zydus Group
ORGANIZATION: Zydus Group
Designation: President - Group Human Resources & Corporate Communications
Rishikesh has had an incredible impact in the area of human behaviour, organization building and cultural transformation in India with leading MNCs and large Indian Business organizations . For more than two decades, he has immersed himself in the practice of People Processes, Organization Development, and Change Management. Applauded for his work in the area of Programmed Change Management and facilitation of multiple projects around cultural transformation, he has endured to design the decisive 'predictable organizational architecture' while preserving result driven distinctiveness of the enterprise.
In earlier years of career, Rishikesh worked with Sarabhai Group, Glaxo India, Pfizer Ltd. in Human Resources function for Manufacturing vertical.
ORGANIZATION: Dun & Bradstreet
Designation: Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Avinash is a highly experienced, execution-focused senior leader with a strong, global background and brings more than 3 decades of experience and a vast network of business relationships. Avinash has worked extensively in financial services including M&A, equity and debt financing, private equity placement and advisory across the EMENA and Asia.
Prior to joining Dun & Bradstreet in 2021, Avinash worked with Rabo Equity Advisors where he was the Managing Director since 2018. Over the years, he has held various leadership positions including recently as Head of Deloitte India's Financial Advisory Services business. He has worked in senior positions across geographies and products in various institutions such as HSBC, UBS, Barings, Citibank, Falcon Capital, and Alpen Capital. In his initial years in the USA, he also worked as an equity analyst covering the Oil Services sector at Wedbush Morgan Securities (Los Angeles) and Howard Weil (New Orleans).
Avinash has an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University (Deans List with full fellowship) and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU Varanasi.
Avinash sits on the National Executive Committees of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
