MR. V. N. BHATTACHARYA

Mr. V. N. Bhattacharya is a business strategy consultant. He advises and works with senior management teams to help make businesses competitive, grow rapidly and profitably in a sustained manner.

A seasoned business leader, Mr. Bhattacharya has over 35 years’ business experience in diverse industries in India and abroad. He started his career in Hindustan Unilever Ltd, and subsequently executed national responsibilities in sales, marketing and customer service in several other firms. VN was the Chief Executive at BPL Telecom Ltd. before setting up his own consulting practice.

V. N. Bhattacharya blends rich managerial experience with good academic credentials. He is a chemical engineer from the IIT, Kanpur and a post-graduate in business management from IIM, Calcutta, Presently, he teaches Strategic Thinking and Game Theory at IIM, Ahmedabad as well as IIM, Bangalore. Previously, he has also taught Strategic Management at the Mudra Institute of Communication and Advertising, Ahmedabad and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.

Besides consulting, Mr. Bhattacharya also trains managers to develop strategic thinking and leadership capabilities. He has addressed large audiences and conducted workshops for numerous corporations in India and abroad, as also for industry bodies such as NASSCOM, CII, and the management associations of Bangalore, Madras, and Hyderabad.

MR. VIPEN KAPUR

Mr. Vipen Kapur has over 40 years of experience in banking and general management, much of it as an expatriate. His banking experience includes assignments with Grindlays Bank (1966 – 76), Bank of America (1976 – 83), and banks in the Middle East (1983 – 88). Subsequently, he assumed general management roles with the Al Rushaid group (1988 – 93), Sinar Mas Group (1993 – 2001), and with the Ballarpur Group (2001 – 04). He is presently the Executive Chairman at Maxima Global Executive Search and also an independent Director on the board of Shriram City Union Finance Ltd, Chennai.

Vipen graduated in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai (1966). He is very passionate about Organization Development. He is the author of a book entitled “Power through People and Principles”, which was published by McGraw Hill from Singapore / Delhi in 1999 / 2000. This book was awarded the first prize by the Indian Society of Training & Development in 2001.

DR. R. KRISHNA MURTHY

Dr. R. Krishna Murthy is the head of S. R. Mohan Das & Associates, a consultancy firm that specializes in the field of Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management. He is also the Director of Industrial Relations Institute of India, a non-political and non-governmental organization, as well as the editor of its monthly journal ARBITER.

Dr. Krishna Murthy completed his MBA (1976) as well as his Ph.D. in the area of compensation systems from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. Subsequently, he also completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Law.

As an organizational consultant, Dr. Krishna Murthy has been associated with a number of companies to assist in organizational change and Human Resources developmental activities within the organization. He is presently retained as an Employee Relations advisor by a large number of well-known companies. He is also on the Board of Directors of Nucleus Securities Ltd and Mega Ace Ltd.

The co-author of a book “Human Resource Management: The Indian Situation”, Dr. Krishna Murthy is also a visiting faculty at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, both at Mumbai.

MR. GARY GULLER

Gary Guller is a world-renowned, record-setting mountaineer, and is simultaneously an inspirational speaker and coach who is trusted by the world’s top corporations as well as the United States Army and Navy. Gary is also a regular speaker at top US business schools.

In 2003, Gary was the leader of the largest ever cross-disability group to reach the Mt Everest Base Camp. Gary went on to personally scale the peak of Mt. Everest a few weeks later. He thus become the first ever person in the world to do so with the availability of only one arm. In April 2010, he also completed the grueling Marathon des Sables in Morocco – a 6 day, 250 km endurance race across the Sahara Desert.

Gary uses his extraordinary experiences to educate participants and teams on the importance of integrity, determination, diversity and team work. He shows how these traits lead to personal, team and organizational success.

Gary’s sessions are full of vivid images and inspiring, real-life stories. He encourages participants to look deep into themselves, and then set goals that maximize individual and collective potential. Through his personal example, he then shows how these goals may be achieved.

MR. SHIRISH B. JOSHI

Shirish B. Joshi is a freelance HR and OD consultant to leading corporate and social organizations in India and abroad. He is presently retained by a large number of leading companies as an HR generalist, as an expert in the areas of managerial compensation and knowledge worker productivity, and as a facilitator for organizational change. Shirish also consults with government, leading NGOs and international donor agencies towards facilitating social and institutional development.

His expertise in human and organization development as well as employee relations has been developed in the course of extensive corporate experience as a Human Resource Manager. He has worked with the ONGC (1983 – 91), and at the Thermax Group (1991 – 2000) where he was a member of the Group Executive Committee.

Shirish completed B.Com (1980) from Pune, followed by an MBA (1983) from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. Subsequently, he acquired specialized training in personality inventories (like MBTI and workplace Big Five), process work, large-scale system change, entrepreneurship development and industrial economics from leading institutions across the world.

Shirish is a visiting faculty at the Xavier Labor Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, and also the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC), Institute of Management Development and Research (IMDR) as well as the Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), all at Pune.

DR. DANIEL K. SAINT

Dr. Daniel K. Saint is a distinguished and committed leader with over 25 years of leadership, consulting, and teaching experience, he brings energy, care, and understanding to the complex challenges of human systems. In his most recent assignment as the Managing Director for a global services firm, Dan led a transformational journey that yielded superlative, best-in-class business performance and also won an inclusion on the Best Places to Work.

Dan brings a real-world perspective for clients gained through work as a Partner and Global Practice Leader at Deloitte; as a senior executive in international finance and operations at Xuma, Federal-Mogul, and Chrysler; and as a captain in the US Army 82nd Airborne Division. He has served clients globally including Boeing, Chrysler, Daimler, General Motors, Intel, Lowe’s, Sears, and the World Bank.

Dan holds a Ph.D. in Organization Development from Benedictine University, and is a graduate of both the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland’s IOSD program and the MIT Organizational Learning Center program. He holds an MBA from the University of Detroit and a BA from the University of Pittsburgh.

DR. ANIL K MAHESHWARI

Dr. Anil K Maheshwari was most recently the Director of Marketing Communications with Panduit Corporation, USA. Prior to joining Panduit in 2009, he was senior manager for marketing at IBM Corporation in Austin, TX for 8+ years. He brings over 25 years of executive, consulting and academic experience in the IT and management domains in India and the USA. He has also worked with the Wipro Corporation, and the City University of New York, among others. He is actively engaged in the areas of experiential learning, trust, transformative leadership, IT Governance and Risk management, apart from others.

Anil completed his PhD in the area of Management Information Systems from the Case Western Reserve University, USA (1995). Prior to that, he completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi (1981) and post-graduation in business management from IIM Ahmedabad (1983). A member of the Academy of Management, Anil teaches periodically at the Colorado Technical University as an Adjunct faculty member.

MR. AJIT MULLA

Mr. Ajit Mulla is a human process and change facilitator in the areas of leadership, teamwork, personal effectiveness, performance management, coaching & mentoring, change management and Organization Development. His clients include several family owned as well as professional Indian organizations, as also multinational corporations – across industry sectors in the Asian geography.

Ajit completed his BA (Honours) in History from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and his Masters in Modern History from Delhi University. He is a certified Assessment Centre assessor from Saville & Holdsworth, U.K. He is also an accredited facilitator for both the MBTI as well as the FIRO – B psychometric instruments.

The major part of Ajit’s HR organizational experience of 23 years was gained at ITC Limited in various roles – as Training Manager in its Corporate Head Office, as an Internal Consultant with ITC’s Manpower Development Group, as the Head of Organizational Development for its Tobacco Division, as also its major factories in Bangalore and Saharanpur. Ajit has also been the Vice President – HR with Punjab Anand Batteries Limited, Chandigarh and was responsible for setting up the Human Resource Management systems at Surya Tobacco Company in Nepal.

MR. T.R. DOONGAJI

Mr. T R Doongaji, a Tata group veteran of 45 years, brings with him a wealth of management acumen and experience to companies on the Boards of which he serves. He also leads “Credibility Consulting” – his own firm that provides management consulting services.

A Gold Medalist and a J N Tata Scholar, he joined Tata Steel in 1966 and has the experience of turning around companies. He served as the Managing Director of Tata Metals and Strips Ltd. and as the Jt. Managing Director of Tata SSL Ltd. before retiring as the Managing Director of Tata Services Ltd. at the end of 2008.

In addition to serving on Boards of companies, he presently serves as a Trustee of reputed Trusts and Institutions, and is also engaged in management education as Dean (Business Excellence) at two reputed Management Institutes in Mumbai.

Mr Doongaji was the first recipient (in 2006) of the “Ethics In Business” Award instituted by the International Association for Human Values, Brussels.

MR. V.M. RAMALINGAM

Mr. V.M. Ramalingam (Ram) is a renowned human process and change facilitator, coach and trainer with 36 years of prior managerial experience in organizations covering the domains of Manufacturing, Banking, Finance, Marketing, HRD and OD. He has qualified from the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioural Sciences, USA in the domain of Appreciative Inquiry and Whole System Change.

A management graduate from Madras University (1964), Ram is a Professional Member and former Dean (Professional Development) of the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science (ISABS).A qualified facilitator of Human Process Laboratories (T-Groups), Ram has also functioned as India Director of the Tavistock Institute’s Group Relations Conferences. He is also on the Governing Council of Bion Institute, India, and is an Associate Member of the A.K. Rice Institute (USA).

Ram holds tremendous expertise in administering and interpreting the MBTI and FIRO-B psychological instruments. He has facilitated Organization Development and Change initiatives as well as Assessment / Development Centres for numerous corporate, government and social sector organizations over a distinguished career spanning nearly five decades.

MR. JOEP C. DE JONG

Mr. Joep C. de Jong is presently the Founder and Managing Director of JLS International (JLS), an organization that offers consultancy and support in the areas of leadership, personal development, coaching and organizational development (OD) for organizations ranging from the UN’s World Food Program to the European Space Agency. The JLS approach leverages the immense potential that resides within each human individual, and expertly employs Appreciate Inquiry (AI) as a paradigm to help actualize that in life and work.

Prior to this, Joep was the CEO at Van Harte & Lingsma (2009 – 2013), wherein he consistently delivered exceptional business results through the use of AI in the organizations with which they engaged. Previously, as the Director – Learning Solutions at British Telecom (BT) for over ten years, he used Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to lead, coach and facilitate change and innovation. In recent years Joep has developed a special interest in what he often calls ‘The Search for the Soul of the Appreciative Leader’.

Joep has worked on a large number of assignments for trans-national organizations like Abbott, Glaxo SmithKline, Viasys, Compaq (HP), Apple Computer and Chevron. He has also been invited to speak at many reputed international conferences (Boston 2001, Miami 2004, Soesterberg 2006, Tilburg 2008, Copenhagen 2009, Nepal 2009, Ghent 2012). Joep was co-author of the first book (2008) on AI in Dutch ‘Waarderend Organiseren’. Recently, he co-authored (2013) the ‘Handboek Appreciative Inquiry’. He has also published in leading HR magazines like Personeelsbeleid and Avanta (in Dutch) and in the AI Practioner (in English).