Eleventh Leadership Conclave

Ambassador V Ashok Former India's Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Zimbabwe and Secretary, Govt of India

A graduate in Civil Engineering from IIT, Delhi, Ambassador V Ashok held diplomatic assignments in Hongkong, Malaysia, China, Austria, Sri Lanka and USA. He was India’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Zimbabwe and retired in the rank of Secretary, Govt. of India. He is Guest Professor, IIT Gandhinagar, Adjunct Professor IIT Bombay and NIAS, Bengaluru. He was also 2018 Garwood Fellow, University of California, Berkeley. He speaks Chinese and several Indian languages. He has authored a book, Dasavatara – The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu.

Shri Harsh Bhargava President Bankworld Incorporated, USA

Shri Bhargava is Co-Founder & President of Competitiveness Mindset Institute, USA (CMI), involved in research and training of key non-cognitive skills to Indian youth and professionals. CMI’s flagship program “Finding the Leader in You” or FLY, designed to enhance ethical leadership and global competitiveness is now being taught in over 40 universities and colleges including IITGN, IIT Bombay, BHU and NID. The FLY program is based on findings from an extensive nationwide survey in India under the aegis of IITGN and Bankworld Inc, a Washington DC based management consulting company with experience in over 75 countries. The study identified attributes key to enhancing ethical leadership and global competitiveness. Shri Bhargava is also the Founder & President of I Create Inc, a nonprofit corporation, providing comprehensive entrepreneurship programs for women, unemployed youth, and army veterans in India for the past 22 years. He 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. Shri Bhargava is an author and has spoken at global conferences and institutions including IIT, Wharton University etc. and delivered the keynote address on Entrepreneurship at the international conference of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in New York. Shri Bhargava is an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Prof Pratim Biswas Dean, College of Engineering, Professor, Dept of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering University of Miami, USA

Prof Biswas is the Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Miami. He is a faculty member in the Dept of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, with an affiliated appointment in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Prof Biswas is a pioneer in his field recognized for applying aerosol science and engineering to multiple areas, such as energy and environmental nanotechnology, solar energy, air pollution control, and medicine. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he was the Lucy and Stanley Lopata Professor and Chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He has won several teaching and research Awards including the 2018 Fuchs Award, the premier international aerosol award given to a scientist for outstanding contributions in aerosol science and technology; the 2016 Harry White Award by the International Society for Electrostatic Precipitation; the 2015 Cecil Award given for exemplary accomplishments in Environmental Engineering by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the 2013 David Sinclair Award given for outstanding contributions by an established scientist by the American Association for Aerosol Research; the Distinguished Faculty Award by Washington University in 2012; the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2011. Prof Biswas received his BTech degree from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and his MS from the University of California, Los Angeles and PhD from the California Institute of Technology.

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

Prof Bordia is the George J. Bishop, III Endowed Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering. He is also a Guest Professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, IIT, Gandhinagar. He has served as the Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Clemson University (2013-2019). Before joining Clemson in 2013, he was a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington (UW). From 1998 to 2005, he was the Chairman of his Department at UW. 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. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (2020); Academician in the World Academy of Ceramics (2012); Fellow of the Indian Institute of Metals (2010); and Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2002). Prof Bordia has won several awards including Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2007), Outstanding Educator of the Year Award of the American Ceramic Society (2012), Distinguished Service Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India (2020), and the 2022 Champion H.Mathewson Award from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Engineers. Prof Bordia received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in Mechanical Engineering and his M.S and PhD from Cornell University in Materials Science and Engineering.

Prof Nitesh V Chawla Frank Freimann Collegiate Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Notre Dame, USA

Prof Chawla is the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is the Founding Director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society. He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAIA. Chawla is an expert in artificial intelligence, data science, and network science, and is motivated by the question of how technology can advance the common good through interdisciplinary research. As such, his research is not only at the frontier of fundamental methods and algorithms but is also making interdisciplinary advances through collaborations with faculty at Notre Dame and community, national, and international partners. Chawla is the recipient of multiple awards for research and teaching innovation including outstanding teacher awards (2007 and 2010), ACM, IEEE and AAIA Fellow honors, National Academy of Engineers New Faculty Fellowship, and several best paper awards and nominations. He also is the recipient of the 2015 IEEE CIS Outstanding Early Career Award; the IBM Watson Faculty Award; the IBM Big Data and Analytics Faculty Award; the National Academy of Engineering New Faculty Fellowship; and the 1st Source Bank Technology Commercialization Award. In recognition of the societal and community driven impact of his research, Chawla was recognized with the Rodney F. Ganey Award and Michiana 40 under 40 honor. Chawla is a founder of Aunalytics, a data science software company.

Shri Kamalesh Dwivedi Angel investor, Mentor Business advisor to early stage startup companies, USA

Shri Dwivedi is the President and General Partner at 3Lines Venture Capital in the US. Investment interests span over a broad spectrum of disruptive technology-powered, early stage startup companies in USA and India. ex-CIO of several major corporations in their transformative phases. As a member of the corporate leadership teams, enabled multi-billion dollars return in portfolio companies of global Private Equity firms. Shri Dwivedi is an alumnus of lIT Kanpur, Carleton University and Harvard Business School. He resides in Atlanta, USA.

Prof Ashish Garg Professor, Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Garg is a Professor and the founding Head of the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Prior to the formation of this department in 2020, he was a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Ashish Garg obtained his PhD degree in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2002 and was a Fellow of Downing College, of Cambridge University during 2001-2003 before joining IIT Kanpur in 2003. While on deputation from IIT Kanpur, he was also the Dean of Faculty Affairs at IIT Jodhpur in 2017, where he also laid the foundation of the Materials department. He has also had brief stints at RMIT University and CSIRO, both in Melbourne (Australia) and in Tata Steel, Mumbai and Infineon Technologies, Germany. His research interests are in materials and device development for energy harvesting and storage e.g. photovoltaic, ferroic and multiferroic, triboelectric and battery materials, their device integration and scale-up, as well as in carbon neutrality and NetZero. His research contributions have been recognized in the form of several national and international awards. He is a supporter of sustainable living and as the Head of the Chandrakanta Kesavan Centre for Energy Policy and Climate Solutions at IIT Kanpur, he is currently leading the IIT Kanpur Carbon Neutrality initiative. Prof Garg has a keen interest in teaching and educational matters and has led initiatives to reform the curriculum of Materials Science and Metallurgy education in IITs and NITs and has contributed to curriculum reforms in IITs and NITs. He has also contributed to a few courses on NPTEL/MOOC platform.

Dr Yogesh Goyal Assistant Professor Northwestern University, USA

Dr Goyal is an Assistant Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Dr Goyal received his BTech. with Honors in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, and his PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering focusing on quantitative developmental biology from Princeton University. Dr Goyal major honors include Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI Award, Schmidt Science Fellowship, STAT Wunderkind, and the Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship. Dr Goyal’s group combines theory, computation, and single-cell resolved experiments to track and control cellular plasticity and fate choices in developing tissues and cancer.

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

Prof Guimarães, Full Professor at ISCTE-IUL, graduated in Electrotechnical Engineering at the Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal (1983) where he also completed his MsC and PhD (1992). He received his Habilitation in Informatics in 1999, from the University of Lisbon. He is Professor at ISCTE-IUL since 2012. He was also a Professor at IST/UTL (1992/1997) and Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1997/2012) where he was Dean (2003-2009). He was Pro- and Vice Rector of ISCTE-IUL (2012-2018) and member of the board/founder of several startup IT companies (1999 to 2006). He was a research consultant for AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, USA (1989-1991), invited Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin Institute of Technology), Germany (2010) (Institut für Psychologie und Arbeitswissenchaft) and is a visiting scholar at the IIT Gandhinagar, India (2014, 2019-2022). He is Senior Member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), chair of the board of the Portuguese Chapter of the Internet Society and member of the board of the Center for Cyberspace Law Research of the University of Lisbon. Prof Guimarães current Research interests are Human Computer Interaction and User Experience, Digital Society Challenges, Law and Technology.

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

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. He has successfully invested and guided several companies such as Nutanix (IPO), Yodlee (IPO), Arkin (acqd: VMWare), NetMagic Solutions (acqd: NTT), and many others both in Silicon Valley and India. 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. Shri Jagadeesh 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, Akshaya Patra - providing mid day meals to over 2 Million children everyday. ISB in Hyderabad has established a chair in the name of BV and Anu Jagadeesh.

Prof Sudhir K Jain Vice Chancellor Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

Prof Jain is the 28th Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. Dr Jain is an internationally reputed scholar of earthquake engineering and a visionary academic administrator. He was conferred the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honour, for distinguished service in the fields of science and engineering, by the Government of India in 2020. Before joining BHU, he served as the founding director of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar for over 12 years. Prof Jain has made seminal contributions to earthquake engineering practice and education in India. He was instrumental in the development of several important seismic codes in India, and has trained thousands of professional engineers and college teachers in earthquake engineering. He established the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur and developed the National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE), supported by the Government of India. Prof Jain was elected as an international member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2021 (one of the only 18 elected from India) and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for Academic or Research Excellence in 2018. He served as President of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering from 2014-18 (the second Indian to hold this position) and was elected as its honorary member in 2021. He was elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2003, and conferred Life Membership by the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) in 2013. Prof Jain served on the faculty of IIT Kanpur for 35 years from 1984-2019. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Roorkee (1979), and Masters (1980) and Doctoral (1983) degrees from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Dr Hemant Kanakia Founder Maker Bhavan Foundation, USA

Dr Kanakia is a founder of Maker Bhavan Foundation, charity organization established in California, USA to support programs aimed at making India’s engineering colleges among the best in the world. Dr Kanakia is a serial entrepreneur based in Washington DC, USA. Since 2010, he has made angel investments in 20 early-stage companies in India ranging across education, technology and healthcare sectors. Dr Kanakia was founder and CEO of Torrent Networking Technology (acquired by Ericsson for $500 M) and co-founder of Photuris (acquired by Meriton) and Gemplex, inc. (acquired by Tata Telesystems). Prior to starting Torrent, he worked at the research arm of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Dr Kanakia is an ex-member of the Board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University and Virginia Polytechnic. He was President of Washington DC chapter of TiE and a member of the global board of trustees of TiE. Dr Kanakia holds an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, a M S from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph D in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Shri Parimalbhai Karani Real Estate Developer Ahmedabad

Shri Karani is an Ahmedabad based Real Estate Developer. He holds a BTech Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay (1975 batch).

Dr Dileep Mavalankar Director Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, (IIPHG), Gandhinagar

Dr Mavalankar has been heading the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar as its Director since 2012. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. Dr Mavalankar has received several honours & awards, including Paul Harper Award 1990, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, USA; Hewlett Foundation Fellowship for pursuing Doctor of Public Health at Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1984 and nominated to the membership of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, The Honorary Public Health Society, USA, 1983. Dr Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the high level Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India in 2005. He was the Chair of the Technical Working Group on Maternal Health by the Government of India. He was also a member of the Steering Group on Health for the 12th Five-year Plan of the Planning Commission of India. Dr Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH and Dr P.H from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. He was Member Secretary of the Covid Task Force for Gujarat state appointed by CM of Gujarat.

Shri Ruyintan E Mehta Co-Director Water Program, Wheels Global Foundation, USA

Shri Mehta was a serial entrepreneur in several plastics manufacturing businesses in the US and Canada for over 25 years. After his retirement, he has been involved full time in technology-enabled philanthropy and higher education in India. Shri Mehta is the Executive Director 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 and previously served as President of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation. Shri Mehta holds a BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering and Engineering Administration from the University of Connecticut and the University of Utah respectively.

Prof Richard K Miller Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus Franklin W. Olin College Of Engineering, 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 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. He 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. Prof 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.

Mr Kislay Pankaj CTO Micelio Electric Vehicles

Mr Pankaj is an innovator and currently leading the Micelio Motors business. At Micelio Motors, they are designing a new EV for B2B last mile cargo carrying purposes and related IOT devices. Micelio is a startup anchored around the family office of Mr. S.D. Shibulal, the Co-Founder of Infosys. The idea is to create an Ecosystem which propels EV adoption. Mr Pankaj is also a member of the founding team of Ather Energy, India's first Smart Electric Scooter where he learned the nuances of building up a consumer product company (B2C EVs) from scratch and delivering 2 products (Ather 450 & Charging Infrastructure), in the market. Mr Pankaj has a personal life goal to achieve Nirvana through the path of Science and that is only possible if one can create a bridge between Science, Philosophy, Art and the real world around us.

Shri Sunil Parekh Founder & Chairman PanIIT Gujarat Alumni Association, Ahmedabad

Shri Parekh is a senior mentor and leveraged his vast networks to help young start-ups besides his corporate engagements with Zydus Group (Pharma), Jubilant Group (Oil & Gas). Shri Parekh is deeply connected with the startup entrepreneurial ecosystem and actively engaged as a board member of CIIE@ IIMA - Seed fund committee member & Mentor Edge, as well as at the NID Incubator in Ahmedabad. Shri Parekh is a Founding Curator on the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Initiative. Currently as Advisor to Zydus-Cadila Healthcare Ltd. Group, he is actively involved in their special projects. And as Strategic Advisor to Jubilant Group, he brings his network & experience to help the group in its various activities in Gujarat. He has been awarded the top 100 Eminent people of Gujarat. He has a wide domain experience gained over 30 years spanning both Manufacturing and Agriculture & Food Processing industry. In addition he has built a huge understanding of a consumer focused industry Inlaks Group & Grand Cereals Oil Mills Ltd in West Africa, which grew on the basis of consumer understanding and selling B2C. He is one of the early pioneers of building Indo-African companies with large footprints.

Shri Jignesh Patel Founder Charioteer Capital, USA

Shri Patel founded and runs a commercial real estate oriented private investment firm Charioteer Capital. Previously, he spent two decades on Wall Street in various investing and trading roles for structured products. He has been an active participant in various IIT related nonprofit activities, and also serves on the board of Pratham USA, New York.

Prof Mythily Ramaswamy Former Professor T.I.F.R. Centre for Applicable 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 to 2014). She is currently NASI Senior Scientist attached to ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore 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. She 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. 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.

Prof Supreet Saini Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Prof Saini is a Professor & a DBT/Wellcome Trust (India Alliance) Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Prior to joining IIT Bombay, he was an Assistant Professor, 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 are in the area of evolutionary microbiology. Prof Saini obtained his BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2005) and PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2010).

Shri Amit Saluja Centre Head Gandhinagar COE, NASSCOM

Shri Saluja is Senior Director and Head of NASSCOM center at Gandhinagar. In addition to NASSCOM, Shri Saluja has held leadership positions at IBM, General Electric, and RPG Transmission in a career spanning over 25 years. Having worked with industrial and technology companies in multiple domains, he has gained a rich and diverse experience in using digital technologies such as AI, Cloud, Analytics, and IoT to usher in greater efficiencies in manufacturing and driving business growth. He is a firm believer in making optimum use of technology for transforming internal business processes. Shri Saluja is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and expert in devising Design Thinking methodology for building technology roadmaps. He is also a certified Smart Industry Readiness Index Assessor and trained to evaluate enterprises on digital maturity and advice for manufacturing transformation journey Shri Saluja mentors Manufacturing Enterprises and startups on business strategy, process improvement and building technology roadmap.

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

Shri Shah, Bachelor of Technology (Electrical) from IIT Bombay, is the founder of “Hi-Rel” (Hi-Rel Electronics (P) Ltd) which was established at Gandhinagar, Gujarat as a corporate entity in the year 1983. Hi-Rel was subsequently 100% acquired by Hitachi-Japan in October 2015 and it is now known as Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd. Hitachi is amongst the top 100 companies in the world. Hitachi Hi-Rel now has plants at Gandhinagar and Sanand, employing over a thousand people. Shri Shah stepped down from Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd w.e.f. 31st March 2018. He is now actively engaged in supporting start-up ventures in variety of Industry/Service sector. He is passionately pursuing new ventures in the field of Energy Management Systems and renewable energy field. He has been an active member of Indian Angel Networks (IAN) for last 5 years. Shri Shah has more than 35 years of Power Electronics Industry experience. Shri Shah was the Chairman of Gujarat State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2012. Shri Shah has been a Member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – IT Gujarat Task force, Gujarat Council and Regional Council Committee of Western Region of CII and a member of National Council on Innovation in the year 2014-15. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and an Expert member in the Post Graduate Board at Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad. He is also actively involved with IIT Gandhinagar as a member of the Endowment Committee. Shri Shah was an Executive Council Member of Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA) in the year 2011-12. An avid Golfer and a Bridge player, a voracious reader, he enjoys travelling to discover new locales and places.

Shri Arvind Singhal Chairman and Managing Director Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd., Gurgaon

Shri Singhal is the Founder & Chairman of Technopak Advisors, one of India leading management consulting firms focusing on consumer products & retail sector. Shri Arvind sits on several Boards (including some not-for-profit) as an Independent Director. He is currently on the statutory Boards of Welspun India, Greaves Cotton, Metro Brands, and Blue Star Ltd. He is also serving on the Board of Governors of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi. In the past, he has served on the Advisory Board of LG Electronics (India), statutory boards of Mahindra Retail (a Mahindra Group company), Premium Transmission Ltd, and The Mobile Store (an ESSAR Group company), and on the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. 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. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from IIT Roorkee (1979) that has also recognized him as a “Distinguished Alumnus”, and an MBA from the UCLA, USA (1982).

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

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 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. He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and earned both a M.S. in and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.