Nadir Godrej

Director, Godrej Industries Ltd.

Nadir B. Godrej is the Managing Director of Godrej Industries Ltd. and Chairman of Godrej Agrovet Ltd. He is also the Co-Chair of Godrej Good & Green Governing Council. He holds a Master of Science degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has been a Director of several Godrej companies since 1977 and has developed the animal feed, agricultural inputs and chemicals businesses of Godrej Industries and other associate companies, and has been very active in research.

Godrej is deeply committed to the GOOD and GREEN strategies and achievement of set targets for the Godrej Group. He encourages and supports a shared vision value for all programs of Good and Green.

Godrej is on the Board of several companies. Besides his professional assignments, Mr. Godrej was the former President of Oil Technologists’ Association of India, Indo-French Technical Association and the Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturers Association of India.

Godrej is the President of The Alliance Francaise De Bombay. And also a Member of the CII National Council and Chairman of the CII National Committee on Chemicals.

Godrej has been awarded the Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur, Globoil Life Time Achievement Award – 2012, OTAI Life Time Achievement Award – 2012, Chemtech CEW Leadership & Excellence Award -2013, and Chemexcil Life Time Achievement Award – 2013. He also received the Porter Prize 2013 for Creating Shared Value awarded to Godrej Industries Ltd. Recently, Mr. Godrej was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award by the The All India Liquid Bulk Importers and Exporters Association (AILBIEA) at their 16th Anniversary celebrations on April 1, 2016.

 

Om Prakash Bhatt

Director (Independent Non-Executive), Tata Steel Limited.

Om Prakash Bhatt is currently an Independent Director at TATA Steel Ltd. He has served as a Group Executive of National Banking of State Bank of India. Bhatt served as the Head of the entire State Bank Group consisting at 8 domestic and 5 international banking subsidiaries, 10 non-banking subsidiaries and 2 joint ventures. He was an In Charge of the National Banking Group at SBI.

He was an In Charge of the National Banking Group at SBI. Bhatt served as the Managing Director of State Bank of India since April 2006 and State Bank of Travancore since February 2005.

He served as the Chairman of State Bank of India from July 1, 2006 to March 31, 2011. He served as a Deputy Chairman and Director of Indian Banks' Association. He has been a Director of State Bank of Saurashtra since July 1, 2006. He has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of Tata Consultancy Services Limited since April 2, 2012. He has been an Independent Non-Executive Director at Standard Chartered PLC since January 1, 2013 and Tata Steel Limited since June 10, 2013. He served as a Director of State Bank of Mysore until March 31, 2011.

Bhatt is a Commerce Graduate and is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is a graduate in Science and a post graduate in English Literature.

 

Bahram Vakil

Founder, Partner AZB & Partners

Bahram Vakil is the second generation in a family of lawyers. Bahram had been with Little & Co. for 20 years before joining hands with CZM. Vakil served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Accelya Kale Solutions Limited (also known as Kale Consultants Ltd.) from July 7, 2011 to July 1, 2013.

One of the co-founding and senior partners of AZB & Partners, Bahram N Vakil is among India’s foremost infrastructure and project finance attorneys. Bahram is one of the few infrastructure lawyers in the country who has been involved in five of the eight fast track power projects and has been acknowledged as a leading project finance lawyer by most international publications for over a decade.

The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business mentions that Bahram Vakil is a gregarious and hard headed lawyer according to clients who value his “smart, reliable and practical advice”. His finesse in negotiations is especially singled out. “He adds value in negotiations, ensuring both parties see the other’s point of view” states Chambers Global. He has an LLM from Columbia University, and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Bahram has extensive experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity and Project Finance and has won plaudits for his work in the project finance space. Acknowledged as the “King of the Power Sector” by Chambers & Partners.

Vakil served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Accelya Kale Solutions Limited (also known as Kale Consultants Ltd.) from July 7, 2011 to July 1, 2013.

 

Gunit Chadha

Founder, APAC Financial Services Private Limited

APAC Group is a financial services platform founded by Gunit Chadha that seeks to leverage best-in-class execution to service the unique needs of customers who are underserved by the current credit markets.

Gunit Chadha has been the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank AG since June 2012. Chadha is credited with building a dominant investment banking franchise for DB in India and the new businesses he started include investment banking, equity and sales trading, retail banking, asset management, among others. He has over two decades of retail, corporate and investment banking experience in both the US and India. He served as Chief Executive Officer at Deutsche Bank AG, India from August 1, 2003 to June 5, 2012 and also served as its Managing Director.

Before moving to Deutsche Bank in 2003, Chadha was the managing director at IDBI Bank. His previous roles included senior positions at Citicorp Securities in New York and at Citibank, South Asia. He was a member of IBA's managing committee besides being on the board of Association of Merchant Bankers. He was also a member of the Reserve Bank's technical advisory committee.

Chadha is an alumnus of St Stephen's and IIM-A, also holds an advanced management degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Bhaskar Pramanik

Board Member State Bank of India, Former Chairman – Microsoft India

Bhaskar Pramanik currently serves as a board member for the State Bank of India. As the former Chairman of Microsoft India he looked after the company's overall sales, marketing and all other transactions across India. He retired from Microsoft in September 2017. Prior to joining Microsoft, Pramanik held leadership position at such esteemed organizations as Sun Microsystems and Cisco Networks.

Pramanik is a 1972 engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has also attended the Advanced Marketing Management Program at the Stanford University. Through his more than 30 years of experience in the Indian IT industry, he is crediting with building his organizations' presence in India.

 

Viswanathan Raghunathan

CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, India; Director, Schulich MBA Program in India

Raghunathan is an academic, corporate executive, author, columnist and a hobbyist and features among the top 50 Global Indian Management Thinkers of the Thinkers Magazine, 2013. He was a Professor of Finance at IIM, Ahmedabad for nearly two decades. In 2001, he switched career as a banker for the next four years, serving as the President of ING Vysya Bank, in Bangalore.

Since January 2005, he has been the CEO of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, which over the last nine years, he has steered towards several prestigious awards. Since 1990, Raghu is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bocconi, Milan, Italy, and Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada. He is also a well-known author and a columnist in India and has authored 12 books, including Games Indians Play, and over 500 papers and articles. He has held a regular column with The Economic Times for nearly 25 years and currently blogs for Times of India.

He sits on numerous boards; has been on various national level committees; has served on several doctoral dissertations and examinations, and lectures extensively in India and abroad.

Collecting old and ancient locks is his hobby and his collection is probably the largest in India. He has cartooned for a national daily and has played chess at the national level in the past. He has held a cartoon column briefly with a leading national daily in the Past.

Raghunathan holds a doctorate from IIM, Calcutta.

 

Subhabrata (Rontu) Basu

Co-Founder & Partner, Quest Partners

Rontu is a banking professional with over 30 years experience in the financial sector and has worked in senior positions with DSP Merrill Lynch, ANZ Grindlays, Jardine Fleming, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank. He played a key role, in the launch of the Strategy and Business Consulting practice of Quest, in 2004, and has led several India entry strategy assignments across diverse sectors. He has also been the India Country Advisor” to the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, since 2005 and has helped them formulate and execute their India strategy and presence.

 

Theodore Peridis

Professor of Strategic Management; Director, Global Leadership Program; Director, India MBA and Executive MBA Programs

Theodore Peridis is a professor of Strategic Management at York University’s Schulich School of Business and the Director of the Global Leadership Program. He was a visiting professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and today, he is spearheading Schulich’s MBA program in India.
Theo has worked with many companies around the world as an advisor on strategic management issues and has served as a special consultant on structuring and managing acquisitions and alliances. Among those are global corporations such as American Express, Bombardier, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Nestle, DuPont, General Electric, IBM, and SAP, as well as some small high-tech firms such as Microbix, Metalink, and Photovac.

Theo has taught in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. He was named "Best in Class" by Canadian Business magazine and voted “Professor of the Year” by the Joint Kellogg-Schulich EMBA program. He received a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Athens, a M.A. in Management Science from the University of Kent, a M.Phil. in Management and a Ph.D. in Strategy from New York University. He is a Fellow of the Eastern Academy of Management and an International Fellow of AIM Research Institute in the UK.

Professor Peridis’ research addresses critical decisions of strategists, whether leading entrepreneurial firms or major corporations. Among his current projects, he has been looking at the integration challenges of mergers & acquisitions and the dynamics of strategy as practice. His textbook on Strategic Management is in its 5th edition and has written a number of business cases showcasing strategic decisions.

 

Preetha Reddy

Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals

Preetha Reddy is the Executive Vice Chairperson of the Apollo Hospitals Group, Asia’s foremost integrated healthcare provider. She is widely recognized for her contributions in making high quality healthcare accessible to millions across India. She is also the Managing Trustee of the Apollo Hospitals Education Trust; a principal body steering the educational endeavours of the group.

Preetha works closely with the organization’s 9000 clinicians in introducing contemporary protocols to continuously enhance clinical outcomes. She leads the thrust on quality improvement processes to achieve the highest standards of patient satisfaction.

Acclaimed as the pioneer of private healthcare in India, Apollo Hospitals has a robust presence across the healthcare ecosystem. Since 1983, the group has touched the lives of over 150 million individuals who came from 140 countries.

In addition, Preetha Reddy works with industry bodies and the Government of India to advance policy decisions on healthcare.

 

Nadir Patel

High Commissioner of Canada for the Republic of India; Ambassador of Canada to the Kingdom of Nepal; Ambassador of Canada to the Kingdom of Bhutan

Nadir Patel serves as Canada’s High Commissioner for the Republic of India, with concurrent accreditation as Canada’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Nepal and to the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Prior to his arrival in India, where he oversees Canada’s largest diplomatic mission abroad, Nadir served as Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. In this role, Nadir oversaw an annual departmental budget of nearly $10 billion with 2,300 branch employees, and concurrently held the role of Chief Human Resources Officer for the Department’s workforce of 10,000 employees. Nadir previously served as Canada’s Consul General in Shanghai, China, managing Canada’s presence in Eastern China and leading Canada’s participation in World Expo 2010. Prior to that, Nadir held a series of high-level government positions, including Chief of Staff to the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Senior Policy Advisor to the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, and Canada’s Chief Air Negotiator negotiating an unprecedented 43 international airspace treaties.

Nadir was appointed by India Abroad to its inaugural (2008) list of the Top 40 most influential Canadians of Indian descent. On January 1, 2011, Nadir was profiled by Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper as one of 45 Canadians Changing the World. He has been selected as one of 100 all-time Alumni of Achievement during Wilfrid Laurier University’s 100th year anniversary celebration in 2011, and was honoured by the Indo-Canada Ottawa Business Chamber with its 2011 Award of Excellence for career achievement. In 2012, Nadir was selected by Embassy Newspaper as one of Canada’s top 80 most influential in Canadian foreign policy and in 2014, Nadir was selected by Power and Influence Magazine as one of the top 100 Canadians most influential in Canadian foreign policy. In 2017, Nadir was awarded the NetIP Hall of Fame Award by the Network of Indian Professionals Canada and in 2018, Nadir was awarded the Global Gujarati Award.

Nadir has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from New York University’s Stern School of Business, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the HEC Paris School of Management.

 

Puneet Chhatwal

Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer - The Indian Hotels Company Limited

Mr. Puneet Chhatwal joined IHCL as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in November, 2017. He is a global professional with over three decades of leadership experience at highly-acclaimed hotel groups in Europe and North America.

Under his leadership, IHCL has embarked on a journey of re-imagination, unveiling its five year business strategy - Aspiration 2022 with a vision to become South Asia’s most iconic and profitable hospitality company. In line with the strategy, the company is on its path to deliver sustainable profitable growth through margin enhancement, scaling of hotels portfolio and refresh of its brandscape and offerings.

Prior to this, Mr. Chhatwal was the Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Executive Board of Steigenberger Hotels AG – Deutsche Hospitality. He was also the Chief Development Officer of The Rezidor Hotel Group – Carlson Hotels Worldwide. Mr. Chhatwal is a graduate of both Delhi University and Institute of Hotel Management, Delhi. He has completed an MBA in Hospitality from ESSEC, Paris and an Advanced Management Program from INSEAD.

Mr. Chhatwal has won awards including the prestigious Carlson Fellowship and was rated as one of Europe’s 20 extraordinary minds in Sales, Marketing and Technology - HSMAI European Awards 2014. He was also the First Alumni included in the ESSEC-IMHI Hall of Honor 2014.