Sumanta Basu is a distinguished academic and industry expert, serving as Dean-DER and Professor at IIM Calcutta. He holds a PhD from IIM Ahmedabad and has further honed his leadership skills through the GCPCL program at Harvard.

Previously, he worked as a Process Innovator in the Product Management Group at Wipro BPO, specializing in product conceptualization, automation, and algorithmic innovations, while also leading intellectual property creation.

His expertise spans operations management, product implementation, quantitative modeling, statistical analysis, and algorithmic innovation.

Mr Rajesh Kumar is a distinguished marketing professional with extensive experience across global multinationals, startups, and local enterprises. He specializes in helping family businesses and B2B startups build strong, globally recognized brands, creating long-term value and competitive advantage.

An alumnus of IIM Calcutta and NIT Kurukshetra, he has further refined his expertise through executive programs at Wharton, Harvard, and ISB. A respected speaker, writer, and visiting faculty, he has also served on the India Board of The Marketing Society (UK) and the Governing Body of DMA Asia.

Committed to women’s empowerment and elderly care, he contributes his time as a Board Advisor at BD Foundation. Based in New Delhi, he has a passion for photography, culinary arts, and travel. He welcomes professional connections via LinkedIn or WhatsApp.

Mr Sooraj Dhawan is a trade and investment expert with 30+ years of experience. As Founder & Director of Falcon Exhibitions, he connects global businesses to Indian markets. He is the President of IEIA, overseeing a ₹300,000+ crore ExpoEconomy, and a Director at IIMCIP, fostering startups. He also leads the India Supply Chain Alliance, advises trade bodies, and is a corporate dispute resolution specialist. A dedicated follower of Paramahansa Yogananda’s SRF/YSS Foundation, he balances business leadership with spiritual pursuits.

Mr. Ajay Jain has over 40 years of experience as an entrepreneur and Business Head in the corporate world. Now, he is focused on mentorship, consultancy, advisory services, and teaching following the exit from his entrepreneurial venture.

He holds a role as a member of the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta, serves as a Knowledge Partner to the TERI-NMCG Centre of Excellence on water reuse, and is a professor at several leading institutes.

As the business head of JK Helene Curtis, Mr. Jain transformed the company into a high-growth, highly profitable enterprise by developing and implementing new business strategies based on understanding consumer behavior, markets, and the requirement to reposition products.

He demonstrated leadership in numerous strategic initiatives such as the cross-division, cross-functional “Scenario Planning” team under the guidance of world leaders. He led a cross-functional team, “New Horizons,” drawing from across businesses to plan the future for Raymond and participated in the globalization task force.

Currently, he is a member of the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta and participates in the Audit Committee, Personnel Committee, and Building & Works Committee set up by the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta. He also served as President of the Delhi and Mumbai chapters of the IIMCAA and Vice President of the Chennai chapter.

Jayashree Mohanka is a distinguished business executive with extensive experience across multiple industries. As the former Director and CEO of Electro Zavod India Pvt Ltd, she led strategic initiatives that significantly enhanced the company’s market presence and operational efficiency. Her tenure as Vice President of Marketing at Eveready Industries saw her drive innovative marketing strategies, contributing to substantial market growth.

At Jenson & Nicholson, she excelled as General Manager, overseeing key business operations and driving success in the paints and coatings industry. She also served as Regional Manager at Titan Company Limited. Beginning her career as a Product Manager at Reckitt Benckiser, Jayashree was instrumental in product development and marketing strategies. Her career is marked by leadership excellence, strategic vision, and a relentless pursuit of organizational growth and innovation.

With over 30 years of experience in the Automotive industry, Mr Malhotra has worked in different functions of sales, service, network expansion & development, brand building and customer-centric initiatives in organizations including Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki Mahindra & Mahindra and Nissan India. He has worked across the length and breadth of India. His last corporate assignment was as Managing Director, Nissan Motors India(2014-2018)

Graduated from IIM-Calcutta in 1983 and joined the automobile industry when it was at a nascent stage in India. His career has been deeply involved in areas of brand building, strategic marketing, retail network expansion, training, rural marketing, customer-centric initiatives and formulating group-level strategies.

Served as an Executive Council member of SIAM, the apex body of the Auto Industry and was the Chairman of Auto Expo 2018 held in Delhi. Presently strategic consultant and advisor in the auto domain and independent director on the board of reputed companies.

Keynote speaker at management /industry forums such as FADA, ETAuto, National HRD Forum, NASSCOM, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers( SIAM).Key speaker at marketing and sales conferences in companies across different industries. The speaker in prestigious business/engineering schools.Professor of Practice at IIT Roorkee and IIT Mandi and visiting faculty at IIM Kolkata. Regular speaker/panellist on prominent TV Channels (CNBC, NDTV, ET Now, Zee and Sansad TV).

Mr T.N. Hari has spent 20 years in the Start-up ecosystem and has had a ringside view of the journey and the critical turning points.

He had participated in the growth journeys of 5 startups, in 5 different sectors, as an executive team member and played a key role in their scaling journeys and subsequent exits.

Four of the startups went on to be acquired by large marquis companies and one listed on NASDAQ, three of them also went on to become Unicorns. In the process, Mr Hari developed a deep understanding of the challenges startups go through as they scale their businesses.

He shared this knowledge widely in many forms as an Angel Investor, Advisor to VCs, sounding board to founders, author and columnist.

Mr Hari has now started the Artha School of Entrepreneurship, along with a few like-minded individuals, to help founders scale the journeys of their start-ups and build large and sustainable businesses. LinkedIn had identified him as one of the top voices in India consecutively for three years from 2016-18.

Saibal Chattopadhyay is an Indian academic and management professor. He is the Director-in-Charge of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Professor in Operations Management at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Mr. Chattopadhyay holds Ph.D. in (Statistics) from University of Connecticut, Storrs, U.S.A.; MS (Statistics)University of Connecticut, Storrs, U.S.A.; M.Sc.(Statistics) University of Calcutta, INDIA and B.Sc.(Statistics)Presidency College, Calcutta, INDIA. He has more than 13 years of teaching and research experience in Presidency College, Calcutta, and at the University of Connecticut, Stamford. He has also held visiting appointments in the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and has also been involved in offering workshops on his research area, Sequential Analysis, to students of the University of Maryland, College Park.

His research interest includes Multi-stage and Sequential Analysis and Survey Sampling. He is an Associate Editor of the journals Sequential Analysis, Taylor & Francis, USA and of International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management, World Academic Union, UK. He also serves in the editorial boards of International Journal of Information and Management Sciences, Tamkang University Press, Taiwan and the Journal of Indian Business Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK.

K Chandran is a graduate of IIT Madras and a post graduate of IIM Calcutta(1982-84).With 35 yearsof experience across multiple industries,he has headed profit centres across India,America,UK,Europe and ANZ.He has led many cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisition transactions,and more recently,has been actively mentoring start-ups.Business Groups that he has worked forinclude HCL,CK Birla,Rane,Hinduja and Reliance Capital.

Prof. Bhaskar Chakrabarti has been Professor of Public Policy and Management at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Calcutta since 2004. He holds a Fellow of Management (PhD) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is expertise in the area of Politics, Decentralisation and Local Governance, Public Service Delivery and Public-Private Partnerships, Public Systems Management; Environment and Development.