Thirteen Leadership Conclave

Ms Silky Agrawal Founder, GeoCarte Radar Technology Pvt. Ltd., Gandhinagar

Ms Silky Agrawal is the Founder and Director of GeoCarte Radar Technology Pvt Ltd, a civil engineering services company that uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology to aid in construction, utility mapping, and site investigation. Ms Agrawal received her BE in Civil Engineering from Institute of Engineering and Technology, DAVV, Indore (2013), and MTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar (2015). She founded GeoCarte shortly thereafter, which was incubated by IIEC at IIT Gandhinagar. Ms Agrawal has worked on several prestigious projects, including working for Shree Somnath Trust, Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station, CST in Mumbai, and the Dholavira archaeological site. In 2023, Ms Agrawal was conferred with the IIT Gandhinagar Young Alumni Excellence Award for outstanding entrepreneurship.

Mr Michael A. Alvarez Board Member, Hospital de la Familia Foundation and Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, USA

Mr Michael A. Alvarez is a seasoned professional with a rich career spanning multiple high-impact roles in academia, medical settings, industry, and consulting, with deep expertise advising business and medical professionals within their chosen areas of interest and specialization. His contributions are characterized by strong leadership skills, innovative program development, and the ability to structure meaningful strategic partnerships between industry and academia. Early in his career he was a management consultant with Accenture in NYC, focused on biopharma and energy clients. Mr Alvarez later founded and directed centers for workforce development industry relations, entrepreneurship, and innovation at premier institutions including Stanford University, Columbia University, UC San Francisco, and MD Anderson. His strategic vision, seasoned leadership, and management capabilities enabled him to from high functioning teams and transform the centers he has led into globally recognized world class operations. His contributions have not only driven technological advancements and enhanced the training of biomedical and business professionals, but also enhanced global health, improving access and equity in Latin America, India, and across the US, reflecting a comprehensive impact on the healthcare and life sciences industries and their workforces. He serves on several Boards including the Hospital de La Familia Foundation, advancing healthcare access in Guatemala; the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, increasing STEM education among Latinos; and the IndUS Setu Global Foundation, fostering opportunities to advance US-India shared goals related to health and economic prosperity. Mr Alvarez holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston College, and certificates in Executive Leadership (UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business), Intellectual Property (University of Washington), and Healthcare Economics (Harvard Business School).

Shri Anup Bagchi Managing Director & CEO ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Shri Anup Bagchi is the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited. Prior to this Shri Bagchi was on the Board of ICICI bank and has worked across various functions of the bank across retail , MSME, Corporate banking, Treasury in addition to credit policy and data analytics area. Shri Bagchi also has extensive experience in Capital markets and was the Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Securities. He has represented ICICI Group in various regulatory committees of key bodies such as RBI, SEBI and IRDAI. He received his management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and an Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Shri Harsh Bhargava President, Competitiveness Mindset Institute & President, Bankworld Incorporated, USA

Shri Harsh Bhargava is an MBA from Harvard Business School. He started his career in India as a Tata Administrative Service (TAS) officer with Tatas. Shri Bhargava is the Founder & President of I Create Inc, a nonprofit corporation, providing comprehensive entrepreneurship programs for women, unemployed youth, and army veterans at 14 centers in India for the past 25 years. He is also Co-Founder & President of Competitiveness Mindset Institute, USA (CMI), involved in research and training of key non-cognitive skills to Indian youth and professionals. Over 7000 participants have undergone CMI’s flagship program “Finding the Leader in You” or FLY in over 160 universities, institutions and firms in India and the US including IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Bombay, Indore, NID, BHU, NJCU (USA) and educational institutes in Srinagar, J&K. Core skills trained in the FLY program are conscientiousness, perseverance, innovativeness, taking initiative, problem solving with communication as the cross-cutting theme. These non-cognitive skills were identified as critical for Ethical Leadership and for being Globally Competitive by a nationwide survey completed by 2700 CEOs, experts in academia, and thought leaders in India. Shri Bhargava continues his part time work as the President of Bankworld Inc, a Washington, DC based management consulting company with experience in over 75 countries. Projects include competitiveness strengthening in emerging markets and entrepreneurship. He is an author and a speaker at global and national conferences in the US and India and at universities such as the Wharton Business School, IITs in India, etc. He has been a Guest Professor at IITGN for the past 6 years.

Shri Pradeep Bhargava Chairman, MECF Ltd, Pune

Shri Pradeep Bhargava earned his BSc (Honors) from Rajasthan University, Jaipur and BE in Electronics and Communications from IISc Bengaluru and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Shri Bhargava is the former Managing Director of Cummins Generator Technologies India Limited. He had steered the growth of the Organization, made it a Market Leader and a major global player. Shri Bhargava’s association with Cummins started in 2000, where he was first responsible for steering growth and transforming a leading Engine business into a wholesome Energy Solutions Enterprise. A veteran in the industry, Shri Bhargava has held responsible positions in both private and public sector organizations. His tenure with the public sector spanned a decade, during which he worked with Indian Space Research Organization, Atomic Energy Commission, Electronics Commission, and Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd. (BHEL). In the private Sector, he has held various positions at the Kalyani Group, first helping them diversify and thereafter spearheading the Group’s entry into Consumer Electronics (Kalyani Sharp India). He then helped steer the foray of the Group into the infrastructure sector. Shri Bhargava was the CEO of the Lighting Business of General Electric, Bengaluru prior to joining Cummins. He was the Executive Member of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). He is involved with education institutions such as Symbiosis International University, IIM Ahmedabad/ Bangalore/ Udaipur in different roles. He is an Independent Director on listed Companies, and Trustee on various Foundations. Active on various Industry forums, he Chaired CII’s Western Region and was President of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Pune.

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia George J. Bishop, III Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering, Clemson University, USA

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and his M.S and PhD from Cornell University in Materials Science and Engineering. Prof Bordia is the George J. Bishop, III Endowed Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering. He has served as the Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Clemson University (2013-2019). From 1991 to 2013, he was a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington (UW). He started his career as a Research Scientist in the Central Research and Development of DuPont Co. from 1986 to 1991. He is currently a Guest Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India. Prof Bordia’s research is at the intersection of materials and mechanics and is focused on fundamental and applied studies in the processing and properties of complex material systems for energy, environmental, and medical applications. Current emphasis is on ceramics, composites, multilayered, and porous materials. He has been the thesis advisor of 18 PhD students, 15 Masters students, and mentored and supervised the research of over 20 post-doctoral research associates and over 25 visiting graduate students, scientists and professors. Prof Bordia has authored or co-authored over 190 peer-reviewed technical publications and has presented over 300 invited lectures and seminars. In his academic career, he has been a PI or Co-PI on over USD 70 Million of extramural research funding. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the Indian Institute of Metals, and the International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. He has also been elected as an Academician in the World Academy of Ceramic.

Dr B.K. Gairola Special Secretary (e-Governance) to Government of India and Former Director General, National Informatics Center

Dr B. K. Gairola has more than 45 years of experience in handling e-governance in various Central and State Government Departments. He was Mission Director (e-Governance), Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. Earlier, he served as Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India for six years. He was the founding Director of IIIT Naya Raipur. Dr Gairola was conferred the SKOCH ICT for India – Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 and the Science and Technology Excellence Award 2010 by the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology. He is presently serving as Deputy Chairperson “Haryana Pehchan Patra Authority” Government of Haryana.

Prof Ashish Garg Professor and Head, Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering and Kotak School of Sustainability, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Ashish Garg is an engineer by training and is currently Professor and the Head of Sustainable Energy Engineering (Founding) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He has founded several sustainability-related entities and actions at IIT Kanpur since 2020, including the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering, Kesavan Center for Energy Policy and Climate Solutions, and Kotak School of Sustainability, securing external funding of over 125 Cr. Prof Garg research is on different aspects of clean energy and sustainability, with current interests in solar photovoltaics, energy harvesting, hydrogen, recycling, decarbonization, NetZero, and energy policy matters, with over 200 research publications. For his research, he has worked with several universities and companies, nationally and internationally, with executed projects of 20+ Crores as PI and co-PI. Prof Garg research has given rise to 30+ Masters and 15+ PhD theses. He is also a passionate teacher with a few courses on MOOC platform which are globally accessible. He has conducted several national-level exercises to develop a well-rounded materials engineering curriculum that has resulted in a few initiatives in IITs/NITs and IISc. He is a regular speaker and panellist on several forums related to sustainability. He passionately advocates sustainable living and sustainable practices for a better world and for adopting a collaborative approach for the same. In his free time, he loves to trek in Himalayas.

Dr Yogesh Goyal Assistant Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick, School of Engineering, Northwestern University, USA

Dr Yogesh Goyal received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the IIT Gandhinagar and PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University. Dr Goyal is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. His lab is housed within the Center for Synthetic Biology. With a unique background in engineering, developmental biology, biophysical modeling, and single-cell biology, the Goyal Lab develops quantitative approaches to problems in developmental biology and cancer drug resistance. Dr Goyal’s work has been awarded highly prestigious awards from various private foundations including from Pew Charitable Trust, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Jane Coffin Childs, Cancer Research Foundation, STAT Wunderkinds, and Schmidt Science Fellows.

Prof Nuno Guimarães Professor, Department of Information Science and Technology (ISTA) University Institute of Lisbon, (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal

Prof Nuno Guimaraes graduated in 1983 in Electrotechnical Engineering at Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST/UTL), MSc. In EEC IST/UTL (1987) and got his PhD in Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering (1992) from IST, Lisbon, Portugal. He was Professor at IST/UTL (1992/1997) and Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1997/2012), invited Professor at the TUB (Berlin Institute of Technology) Germany (2010), and consultant/researcher at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, USA (1989-1991). He was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (2003-2009), Pro & Vice Rector of ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (2012-2018). He was a member of the board and founder of several startup IT companies (1999 to 2006). Prof Guimaraes is Senior Member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) since 2012, Chair of the Portuguese Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) since 2021, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Cyberspace and Law Research Center of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon since 2022. His academic and scientific interests include Human Computer Interaction and User Experience, Digital Society Challenges, Technology and Law. He is a visiting scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar since 2014.

Mr Prabal Gupta Executive Director, US-India Initiatives & Innovation University of California, San Diego, USA

Shri Prabal Gupta holds a Master of Science concentrating in Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods from University of Massachusetts Amherst (1993). Shri Gupta is a senior business leader with Board level experience and leadership roles in global, blue chip financial firms across asset management, private equity, M&A and corporate finance business divisions in US, UK and Middle East. Shri Gupta has held senior executive roles in leading firms globally: Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Nicholas Applegate (Allianz subsidiary), Lloyds Banking Group, Bank Muscat. He spearheaded several strategic partnerships across many global jurisdictions with premiere global banks and financial institutions. Shri Gupta also served as an Officer of the Board at Nicholas Applegate Institutional Funds. He has also been featured in many trade journals & financial publications. Shri Gupta was the President of TiE, South Coast chapter ((Orange County to San Diego), which is the largest non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, established to foster entrepreneurship & mentorship. He was an Advisory Member of the Loomba Foundation in London (UN Approved Charity) and also was the Treasurer and Board Member of the Muscat American Business Council, US Embassy Commercial arm in Oman.

Shri B. V. Jagadeesh Managing Partner, Kaaj Ventures, USA

Shri B V Jagadeesh holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University and a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bombay. Shri Jagadeesh is a Founder Managing Partner at KAAJ Ventures, FalconX (a global technology company incubator), and SVQuad, an Angel syndicate that invests and guides next gen entrepreneurs. Before founding KAAJ, Shri Jagadeesh served as a founding investor and CEO of NetScaler. NetScaler pioneered the concept of Application Delivery and was successfully sold to Citrix for $325M, and served as Group VP and GM for Citrix's Application Networking division. Prior to Netscaler, he co-founded and served as CTO of Exodus communications in 1993 that pioneered the concept of Internet data centers. He was instrumental in the successful IPO of Exodus in 1998. Currently, Shri Jagadeesh is an active investor and serves on the board of several Silicon Valley Startups. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Leavey School of Business, SCU and teaches at several other universities such as IIT Gandhinagar, IIT BHU and many others. He is also very actively involved with several non-profits for the betterment of the society such as UVCE Foundation - providing scholarships to deserving students, One School At A Time - that constructs school buildings for the underprivileged, and Akshaya Patra - providing mid day meals to over 2 Million children everyday. ISB Hyderabad has established a chair in the name of B V and Anu Jagadeesh and Shri Jagadeesh has also graciously endowed the Anu and B V Jagadeesh Chair at IIT Gandhinagar to promote innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal Former Director Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal graduated from DAV College, Chandigarh with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature, economics and political science with an honour’s in English literature. He completed his MBA from Punjab University with a specialization in Marketing. He joined the Indian police service after qualifying the prestigious Civil Services Exams (UPSC) in 1985 at the age of 23. He is an officer of the 1985 batch who has worked in command positions in the state of Maharashtra and the Govt. of India. He has worked as Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Director General of Police Maharashtra, Director General, CISF, and the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A highly decorated officer, he is the recipient of the Asadharan Suraksha Seva Praman Patra (2020), President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services (2009), Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Services (2002) and Internal Security Medal, Govt of India. He is known for his exemplary contribution in institution building, leadership and administrative acumen. In his 38 years of service in the Government, he has worked on diplomatic assignments overseas and has extensive understanding of international relations. Shri Jaiswal is holding Director’s Certification Master Class conferred by Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and his current assignments are Independent Director – HDFC Life Insurance Corporation, Independent Non-Executive Director – Dreamcap Management Ltd, and Advisory to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP and Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India Limited.

Prof Pankaj Jalote Distinguished Professor Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi

Prof Pankaj Jalote is currently a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi. He was the founding Director of IIIT-Delhi from 2008-2018. Earlier, he has also been an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland College Park, Professor and Head of Computer Science Department at IIT Kanpur, and Chair Professor at IIT Delhi, he has also been Vice President at Infosys for two years, Visiting Researcher at Microsoft in Redmond for one year, and Interim Vice Chancellor of Delhi Technological University (DTU) for six months. He has a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, MS from Pennsylvania State University, and Ph.D from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of five books, some of which have been translated in Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc, and the Indian edition of his text on Software Engineering was adjudged the bestselling book by the publisher. His main area of interest is Software Engineering and Higher Education. He has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Intl. Journal on Empirical Software Engineering, and IEEE Trans. on Services Computing. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and INAE and a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Kanpur.

Shri Maulik Jasubhai Chairman & Chief Executive Jasubhai Group, Mumbai

Shri Maulik Jasubhai is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Jasubhai Group which includes Jasubhai Engineering, Jasubhai Media, CHEMTECH Foundation & Jasubhai Foundation. Under his leadership CHEMTECH has expanded the scope of services by adding technology verticals, and key business networks for the Indian Chemical Processing Industry. He is passionate about the Student Outreach Program, an initiative of CHEMTECH Foundation launched by the Founder Chairman Shri Jasu Shah which aims at developing future leaders for the industry. Currently, he is spearheading the Indian and international operations of Jasubhai Engineering, which operates in Precision Manufacturing for Aerospace & Defense Industries and Specialized Process Equipment & Engineering Services.. Prior to his current role he was the Founder CEO of Jasubhai Digital Media. Jasubhai Digital Media was a pioneering IT Media company with brands like Digit, Chip, Skoar and ZDNet.com. Shri Maulik holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania. He started his career with Executive Director with Fisher Rosemount, now Emerson Process Management Systems. Shri Maulik is also the Honorary Consul General of Austria in Mumbai.

Mr Ajinkya Kulkarni Co-founder of Wintwealth, Bangalore

Mr Ajinkiya Kulkarni obtained his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar in 2012. Mr Kulkarni is co-founder and CEO of Wint Welath. He comes with rich experience of working in lending and fintech for 8+ years. He is personal finance writer and was also recognised as LinkedIn Top voices of India. Before starting Wint Wealth, Mr Kulkarni was Vice President and head of Merchant lending business at Mswipe. Through Mswipe merchant lending, he enabled credit access to thousands of merchants who otherwise won't get the credit facilities. In 2014, Mr Kulkarni started CreditPeriod.com- an invoice bill discounting platform. Creditperiod.com was successfully sold to Flexilaons in Feb 2017.

Prof Robert Lund Professor and Chair Department of Statistics, Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Prof Robert Lund received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and PhD in statistics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Prof Lund is a Professor and department Chair of statistics at the Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a 2007 elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and was the 2005-2007 Chief Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association. He has published over 110 refereed papers and has graduated 26 PhD students. His research expertise lies in probability and statistical climatology.

Prof Shekhar C Mande Distinguished Professor Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University and JC Bose Fellow, National Centre for Cell Science. Former Director General, CSIR & Secretary, DSIR, Govt of India.

Prof Shekhar Mande received his M.Sc in Physics from the University of Nagpur in 1984 and PhD in Molecular Biophysics, from IISc Bangalore in 1991. Following his PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. He has served on many national and international committees, including the scientific advisory committee of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy; Management Council of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; member of the Council of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; member of the Management Councils of the Solapur University and the Savitribai Phule Pune University; member of the Governing Body of the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA), etc. Prof Mande is currently Distinguished Professor at the Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, the position which is generously funded by Dr. Anand Deshpande. He is an elected Fellow of all three Science academies, namely, National Science Academy of India, Allahabad; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He has been recognized by many awards, mainly the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences in 2005. He served as the Director General of CSIR and Secretary of DSIR, Govt of India during October 2018- April 2022.

Shri Ruyintan E. Mehta President, WIN Foundation and Director of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, USA

Shri Ruyintan (Ron) E. Mehta was a serial entrepreneur in several plastics manufacturing businesses in the US and Canada for over 25 years. After his retirement, Shri Mehta has been involved full time in technology-enabled philanthropy and higher education in India. He serves as President of WIN Foundation that was spawned out of Wheels Global Foundation to support innovations and fund novel programs in Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) issues in India. Many IITs in India - IITB, IITGN and IITKGP and several highly respected NGOs in India are beneficiaries of over $2 million in grants awarded by WIN Foundation to address WATSAN and MCH issues in India. Shri Mehta is the current Director of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation. He also serves as the President of Maker Bhavan Foundation which works in the education domain. Previously he has served as President of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation and President of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation. Shri Mehta holds a B Tech (Chemical Engineering' 70), from IIT Bombay and a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and Engineering Administration from the University of Connecticut and the University of Utah respectively.

Prof Richard K Miller President Emeritus, Professor of Mechanical Engineering Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, USA

Prof Richard Miller earned his B.S at the University of California, Davis, his S.M. from MIT, and Ph.D from the California Institute of Technology, USA. Prof Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999; in June 2020 he became President Emeritus. He then served as the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT (2020-2021). Prof Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors, and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He is co-recipient of the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education twice—in 2013 and again in 2022. Prof Miller also received the 2017 Brock International Prize in Education, and the 2011 Marlowe Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2014, he received the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2002 he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Davis. Prof Miller has served as Chair of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation.

Dr Darshan V. Pandya Retired IT Consultant, Philosopher of the Future

Dr Darshan Pandya completed his BSc (Eng) (Hons) and PhD in Chemical Engineering and later an MSc in Operational Research and Management Studies from Imperial College, London. An avid traveller, he has visited forty-five countries and lived in five. After working in British Petroleum in London, he taught Operational Research and Statistics at the National University of Singapore for three years before switching to the IT industry and working in the USA and Canada until his retirement in 2015.

Prof Govidan Parayil Dean and Professor, Patel College of Global Sustainability and Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies University of South Florida, USA

Prof Govindan Parayil earned his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va. (1990), his M.A. in Applied Economics from American University, Washington, DC (1985), an M.S. in Science, Technology and Policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. (1983), and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Calicut, India (1978) (formerly Regional Engineering College Calicut). He was a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Environmental Change at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Since 2017, Prof Parayil has been serving as Dean and Professor of the Dr. Kiran Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida (USF). At USF he also holds a concurrent appointment as a tenured full professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies. He was Vice-Rector of United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan (2008-2014) and Director of UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (2009-2013) while on leave from the University of Oslo, Norway, where he was Professor of Science, Technology and Innovation (2004-2015). He was an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Information and Communications Management, National University of Singapore, and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Social Sciences at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has authored, edited and co-edited six books and published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous book chapters. A leading expert in the field of global sustainability with particular interest in energy and climate change, Prof Parayil follows an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability – from describing problems using knowledge and analytical tools from engineering, management and social sciences to finding innovative solutions that are user-focused and market-driven.

Dr Sunil Parekh D.Litt. Senior Strategy Advisor to Indian MNCs; Founding Curator at WEF Geneva @ AGS

Dr Sunil Parekh obtained his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi. Dr Parekh is a man of truly diverse interests and has vastly contributed to varied fields, including industry, social sectors, public policy, academia, entrepreneurship, culture, start-ups & research publications. He is also a fellow of the Indian Council of Arbitration. Dr Parekh is a senior member at Zydus Group (Pharma), Jubilant Group (Diversified), Boards of iCreate, GVFL Ltd., CSIR NEIST @Jorhat. He was an invited speaker delegate at COP27 UNFCCC Conference on Climate Change, Egypt. He has a wide domain experience gained over 50 years spanning both manufacturing & agriculture, in India & abroad. He had also set up & successfully managed several projects in India & Africa including Africa’s largest integrated Oil & Flour Mill. Dr Parekh is deeply connected with the startup entrepreneurial ecosystem. He founded techXchange in 2018, an India UK partnership to support startup exchange for raising money & exploring new markets. He is involved deeply with several NGOs & is on the Boards of various universities; and has published two major contributions on Gujarat’s industrial development with OUP (Oxford) & ORF (Brookings affiliate). Dr Parekh has been recognised twice in the Top 100 Top Eminent personalities of Gujarat, Awarded the prestigious OCND Award by his Alma Mater IIT Delhi in 2014 & ET ICON of the year in 2018. Dr Parekh is the Founder Chairman of PANIIT GAA. He was awarded a Doctorate of Literature Honoris Causa in 2023 in recognition of his lifelong achievements in diverse fields.

Shri Jignesh Patel President IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, USA

Shri Jignesh Patel received an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University in 1993, a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1992, and holds a CFA designation. Shri Patel established an investment platform Charioteer Capital in 2018 to make diversified private investments in sectors such as commercial properties and startup ventures. His venture portfolio includes 15+ companies in various domains, typically at the seed level. Prior to that, he was a Senior Managing Director at C-III Capital Partners – a $4 Billion NYC based real estate investment company where he was responsible for investments in opportunistic commercial real estate securities such as CMBS and CRE CLOs. For three years prior to C-III, Jignesh managed National Australia Bank’s (“NAB”) approx. $1 billion CMBS, CRE CDO, and commercial real estate loan and swap portfolio in the US and UK. Previous to NAB, Shri Patel was a member of the CMBS trading desk at Bear Stearns and J.P.Morgan for eight years. He was responsible for secondary trading of commercial real estate backed securities. He also headed the structuring group, where he led the structuring of over $30 billion of transactions. Shri Patel is an active participant in various nonprofit organizations: He is President of Pratham NY Tri-State, President of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, and a board member of TiE NY. He was previously on the board of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation.

Shri Samir Patel Chief Strategy Officer, StarIC, USA

Shri Samir Patel has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical and Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Master of Science degree in EECS from UC Santa Barbara. He is currently serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at StarIC since February 2022. Prior to that, he held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Blue Cheetah Analog Design, Inc. from August 2021 to December 2021. Before that, he served as the Chief Strategy Officer at HCL Technologies from February 2020 to July 2021. Shri Patel also has a significant tenure at Sankalp Semiconductor Pvt Ltd, where he held multiple roles including CEO from April 2013 to July 2021, and President from January 2009 to March 2013. Shri Patel served as the COO at Ripplex from February 2007 to September 2008. Early in his career, Shri Patel worked as a Senior Vice President at Rambus Inc. He started his professional journey as a Circuit Design Engineer at National Semiconductor in 1983. He worked at Catalyst Semiconductor and Sun Microsystems before joining Rambus in 1991.

Prof Mythily Ramaswamy Professor (Retd.) School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore

Prof Ramaswamy retired as Professor in the School of Mathematics at T.I.F.R, Bangalore in 2019 and had earlier completed her term as the Dean of the center (2011-2014). She was NASI Senior Scientist attached to ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore and currently is Senior Visiting Associate, ICTS and Adjunct Professor in Chennai Mathematical Institute. She was awarded the PhD from University of Paris 6 and has been visiting faculty at the University of Rome, University of Paris and Toulouse, University of Rutgers, State University of Mississippi and Virginia Tech. Prof Ramaswamy was the Sofia Kowalewsky visiting Professor at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany and received the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, 2016-17. Prof Ramaswamy’s research interest lies in Analysis of differential equations and applications to control problems. She also likes to read and write about the lives of great mathematicians and has contributed articles in the journal “Resonance” on the lives of two pioneering women mathematicians. Prof Ramaswamy is the recipient of the Karnataka State Kalpana Chawla award for women scientists, 2004, a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, Recipient of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Medal, she serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Ramanujan Mathematical Society, and earlier served in Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences-Mathematical Sciences and Boundary Value Problems.

Shri Sanjiv Rangrass Director and Board Member, Zetwark and Former CEO Agri Business, Group Head Sustainability& R&D ITC Limited Andhra Pradesh

Shri Sanjiv Rangrass is a Mentor, Coach and an Angel Investor. He is a Senior Adviser with Mckinsey. He works as an Independent Director on the board of Zetwerk - a manufacturing Unicorn and a Venture Partner in Capria – a leading venture fund that supports early-stage tech startups. He is also a co-founder of TAC (The Agri Collaboratory) - a “non-compete” not for profit, Agriculture “Think and Do Tank” – helping build Digital Public Infrastructure and Goods for Agriculture in Open Source, along with the Ecosystem and the Government. His core passion is focusing on talent development, succession planning and mentoring. Several of his mentees have gone on to launch successful start-ups like Blackbuck, Zetwerk, Log 9, Vegrow, Bharat Agri, Capillary Technologies and Orange Health where he has personally invested as an angel. Till June 2022, prior to his superannuation from ITC Limited, Shri Rangrass was ITC’s Group Head for R&D, Sustainability and Projects. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive of the Agribusinesses for ITC Ltd. He joined the Company in 1982 after completing his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. With his vast experience covering Production, Engineering, HR, Projects, Supply Chain, Agriculture and Sustainability over 4 decades, he is sought for his inputs and advice by the industry and the startup eco system. He has also been a part of the team with McKinsey which anchored and supported the Expert Group for the Finance Commission of India to make recommendations to double Agri Exports from India. He has been a former Board of Governors for IIM Shillong and is an Executive Member of the Pan IIT Council.

Prof Supreet Saini Professor, Chemical Engineering & Fellow, Wellcome Trust/DBT (India Alliance) Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Prof Supreet Saini obtained his BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2005 and PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2010. Prof Saini is a Professor & a DBT/Wellcome Trust (India Alliance) Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Prior to joining IIT Bombay, he was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (2010-2012), where he also headed the Faculty Recruitment Committee among other responsibilities. He is the recipient of the Young Engineer Award 2017 (Indian National Academy of Engineering) and the Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award 2011 (Department of Biotechnology). His research interests include understanding how chance, determinism, and history shape evolutionary trajectories of populations and communities.

Shri Piyush Shah Former Executive Vice Chairman Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd., Ahmedabad

Shri Piyush B Shah, Bachelor of Technology (Electrical Engineering) from IIT Bombay (1975 Batch) was the founder of “Hi-Rel” (Hi-Rel Electronics (P) Ltd.) started in 1983. “Hi-Rel” was the pioneer in the field of Power Electronics, being almost the “First in India” to collaborate with Western and Japanese Companies, (Such as Rockwell Automation, Cyberex-Danaher, Vacon, Hitachi) and manufacture cost effective products for the Indian market. The main customer segments were Oil and Gas, Steel, Cement, Utilities, Textile and Synthetic Fibre. Shri Shah was the Managing Director of the enterprise from 1983 to 2018. The enterprise is now known as Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics (P) Ltd. Shri Shah is passionately pursuing new ventures in the field of Automation, Renewable Energy, Energy Management and Battery Solutions. He is actively involved with IIT Gandhinagar, being a member of the Endowment Committee. He was the chairman of CII, Gujarat in 2012-13 and was a member of various Western Region and National committees. He is a Senior Member of IEEE. He has been associated with Nirma Institute of Technology since the beginning of the Institute, 25 years ago. Shri Shah was an Executive Council Member of Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA) in the year 2011-12.

Shri Bipin A Shah Principal Advisor, Chips & High-tech Advisors, former CEO Kovair

Shri Shah obtained his BEE (Hons) from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and a MSEE from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Shri Shah is recently retired CEO of Kovair Software, and a founder of Chips and High-tech Advisory based in Lafayette California. His entrepreneurial activities have included three startups commencing with Altera Corporation – a programmable logic chip company, CEO of Invox Technology a voice recording chip company and CEO of Kovair Software. He has been an angel investor and a board member in several startups through his General Partnership in an early-stage venture fund - INC3 Ventures. Shri Shah Professional career started at Fairchild Semiconductor in California where he grew his career in Product Engineering, Quality, Reliability and Business Unit Management roles. He then became part of a startup Altera where he was VP – Operations for over 10 years and President of Altera Japan for 3.5 years. His social and philanthropic activities have included the cofounding of TiE in Silicon Valley, cofounding of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation US, cofounding of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, USA, and being one of the Board of Advisors to the President of California Polytechnic at Pomona, Calif. He has been Construction Committee Chair for the building of Jain Bhawan in Milpitas, Calif and Jain Center’s President, Board member and Chair.

Shri Bhupen Shah Technopreneur, USA

Shri Bhupen Shah holds a Master of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Shri Shah is a serial entrepreneur with proven track record in technology and product development and engineering management in embedded digital media and communication. Over his career, Shri Shah has on four occasions successfully exited the companies he co-founded or joined at early stage such as Sling Media maker of Slingbox and Sling TV. He has successfully built cost-effective India-based development organizations several times. Besides being a serial entrepreneur, Bhupen is also an angel investor and has funded 50+ companies, most of them started by Indian entrepreneurs. Bhupen is also an active investor in several early stage VC funds investing in US, India and south east Asia. Shri Shah is an active contributor to non-profit organizations such as Akshay Patra, Pratham, Yoga Bharati, IIT Gandhinagar, Foundation for Excellence and Maitri.

Shri Mukesh Bhai Shah CEO & Managing Partner of Shah Bhogilal Jethalal & Bros (AAAG)

Shri Mukesh Shah is CEO & Managing Partner of Shah Bhogilal Jethalal & Bros (Brand name AAAG), a leading firefighting equipment manufacturing company. A commerce graduate with ICWAI, he joined the family run business in the early 90s, and under his guidance, the firm has grown to a remarkable level, with national and global presence, and clientele boasting major industries and organizations. He has been involved in all activities of the company i.e. production, improving market presence and the development & evaluation of new products. Besides this, he is an active member of the Bureau of Indian Standards Sub-Committee on Fire Fighting Equipment for over two decades, and holds a leadership role in industry and professional associations such as the FSAI and the FPAI. As part of his philanthropic activity, Shri Shah has supported and sponsored fire testing and training facilities at IIT Gandhinagar and GSFC University, and remains passionate about improving fire safety in the country.

Prof Chandrima Shaha INSA Senior Scientist, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata

Prof Chandrima Shaha received her MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Calcutta followed by postdoctoral training at the Kansas University Medical Center and The Population Council at Rockefeller University, New York. Prof Shaha is the former Director and Professor of Eminence, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, and the immediate past President of the Indian National Science Academy. Her research interest revolves around the phenomenon of cell death and her laboratory has contributed substantially to the understanding of cell death in unicellular organisms. Amongst the several prestigious awards, she is the recipient of the Ranbaxy Award for Basic Sciences and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar medal of INSA. She was a JC Bose National Fellow, Govt. of India and is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Trieste, Italy; Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad; West Bengal Academy of Sciences, Kolkata. Prof Shaha served/serving as a Member of the Council of all four Academies of Sciences of India and is on the committee for TWAS Awards. She is currently a Member of the Governing Council, Indian Association of Cultivation of Science, Bose Institute, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She is a member of the ‘Scientific Advisory Committee’ of the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Delhi and the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa. Formerly, Prof Shaha served on the ‘International Consortium on Male Contraception’, in New York; and the ‘Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility’ of the World Health Organization, Geneva. She was Chair of ‘Biotechnology based program for Women’, Department of Biotechnology.

Mr Manish Sharma Accenture’s CEO of the Americas and the US Market Unit Lead, USA

Shri Manish Sharma is Accenture’s CEO of the Americas and the US Market Unit Lead, the largest of Accenture’s worldwide geographic markets which includes North America and Latin America. He is also a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee. A 29-year veteran of Accenture, Shri Sharma previously served as Accenture’s global chief operating officer before assuming the role of CEO of North America in September 2023. Prior to this role, as group chief executive of Accenture’s Operations practice, Shri Sharma led global business process services experts and helped clients across the world transform their businesses and create opportunities for their people to do more rewarding work. Shri Sharma earned both a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s in Management from the University of Mumbai.

Mr Rahul Singh Assistant Director, Global Marketing & Strategy, Office of International Engagement, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Mr Rahul Singh received a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. Mr Singh is an expert at connecting three Is – Ideas, Insights and Individuals. Mr Singh is Assistant Director of Strategy & Marketing at NTU, Founding President of Indian Scholars' Association representing Indian alumni of NUS, NTU, SMU & SUTD, President of IIMB Alumni Association Singapore, Principal - Corporate Advisory Group at IIM Udaipur, and Academic Advisor to Jaipuria Institute of Management. Mr Singh regularly speaks at corporates and universities on topics that concern millennials such as careers in twenty-first century, conscious capitalism, ESG, and cross-cultural understanding. He has authored An Atheist gets the Gita, Engineering to Ikigai and You Know the Glory, Not the Story.

Shri Arvind Singhal Founder & Chairman of Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd., Gurgaon

Shri Arvind Singhal has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from IIT Roorkee, India (1979) that has also recognized him as a “Distinguished Alumnus”, and an MBA from the UCLA, USA (1982). He is the Founder & Chairman of Technopak Advisors, one of India's leading management consulting firms focusing on consumer products & retail sector. Shri Singhal sits on several Boards (including some not-for-profit) as an Independent Director. He is currently on the statutory Boards of Metro Brands and Blue Star Ltd. In the past, he has served on the statutory or advisory Boards of Welspun Living, Greaves Cotton, Premium Transmission, LG Electronics (India), Mahindra Retail, Dubai headquartered Apparel Group, and West Africa headquartered Group SNS. He has also served on the Board of Governors of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi, and IIT Roorkee. Shri Singhal is a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Delhi Chapter and serves on its Board of Directors, and an active member of Indian Angels Network (IAN). Over the years, Shri Singhal has been invited to speak at leading academic institutions and professional forums which include Harvard (USA), Wharton (USA), UCLA (USA), ESADE (Spain), various IIMs (India) and IITs (India), and the Vatican (Italy) to list a few. Shri Singhal has also been a regular columnist for leading Indian business papers including Business Standard and Economic Times, and a frequent contributor (over 400 published articles) to major Indian and international business publications that include the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Saurya Prakash Sinha Product Lead, Stripe, Bengaluru

Mr Saurya Prakash Sinha received his BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar in 2013. He was earlier co-founder of Recko, which was acquired by Stripe. Recently he left Stripe, and has been actively investing in tech start-ups through his family office.

Prof Nitish V Thakor Professor of Biomedical Eng, Electrical Eng, Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Prof Nitish Thakor received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and earned both M.S. in and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof Thakor is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has an appointment in the Johns Hopkins Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prof Thakor directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering and is also the director of the NIH Training Grant on Neuroengineering. He also served as the founding Director of Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) from 2008-2022. Prof Thakor teaches Medical Instrumentation and Rehabilitation Engineering, and his research focuses on neuroengineering (technologies for brain monitoring, brain machine interface, neurally controlled upper limb prosthesis). He is an author/co-author of more than 450 refereed publications and a Major Reference Work Handbook of Neuroengineering. He is actively engaged in international scientific programs, collaborative exchanges with various Universities. Prof Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE, Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Fellow of International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering and is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Thakor is a Distinguished Alumnus and Distinguished Service Alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Prof Satish K Tripathi University President, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

An internationally distinguished researcher and higher education leader, Prof Tripathi, PhD, is the University at Buffalo’s 15th president. Prof Tripathi, who served as UB’s provost from 2004-2011, was dean of the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, from 1997-2004. Previously, he spent 19 years as professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, including seven years as department Chair. In 2024, Prof Tripathi was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A fellow of IEEE and AAAS, he has published more than 200 scholarly papers and supervised more than 30 doctoral and postdoctoral students. He served on editorial boards of many international scholarly journals and program committees of numerous international conferences. Prof Tripathi graduated at the top of his class from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto, as well as master’s degrees in statistics from the University of Alberta and BHU. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from BHU and honorary doctorates from Maharaja Surajmal Brij University, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, and Brock University in Canada. Prof Tripathi is co-chair of the Association of American Universities (AAU) Task Force on Expanding U.S.-India University Partnerships, and he serves on the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. Previously, he was chair of the Mid-American Conference Council of Presidents and Internet 2. He also served on the boards of the AAU, the NCAA Division I, the NCAA Board of Governors, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Prof. Nitin Kumar Tripathi Vice President of Academic Affairs, Executive Director-Special Degree Program, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Prof Nitin Tripathi received his PhD and MTech in Remote Sensing from IIT Kanpur in 1994 and 1987, respectively, and BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT Warangal in 1984. Prof Tripathi is the Executive Director of Special Degree Programmes at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, and is a Professor of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems there. Previously, he served as the Dean, School of Engineering and Technology, Director, Academic Quality, Leader ICT, and Coordinator of Remote Sensing and GIS at AIT. Before joining AIT, he worked at IIT Kanpur as a lecturer and assistant professor (1989-94). He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Geoinformatics and is a life member of Association for Geoinformation Technology and Indian Society of Remote Sensing. Prof Tripathi has authored over 232 peer-reviewed papers, Books, Book Chapters in the area of Geoinformatics applications for health, forest, environment, and marine and coastal zone monitoring, and has guided nearly 175 masters and 49 doctoral students. He is a recipient of the DAE Young Scientists Award (1994), AICTE Career Award (1996), and Osaka City University Distinguished Researcher Award (2007), as well as the Distinguished Alumni Award from NIT Warangal (2006).

Mr Rohit Toshniwal Co-founder Sprih, Pune

Shri Rohit Toshniwal is currently the Co-Founder of Sprih, an AI-driven platform designed to accelerate climate action by guiding organizations on their journey to net-zero and helping them unlock business value from their climate investments. Prior to Sprih, Shri Toshniwal co-founded Arkin Networks, which was later acquired by VMware. At Arkin, he spearheaded development of a leading Internet Datacenter Operations product, and then scaled the business to over $250M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) inside VMware. Shri Toshniwal is known for his expertise in building world-class teams, driving innovation, and executing product strategies from concept to global leadership. Passionate about environmental sustainability, Shri Toshniwal enjoys mentoring young entrepreneurs with big dreams, fostering the next generation of leaders committed to making a positive impact. He received his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1999.