Steering Committee

Mr. Kris Gopalalakrishnan

Chairman – Axilor Ventures, Co-founder and former CEO – Infosys

Mr. ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan served as the Vice Chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014, and as its CEO & MD from 2007 to 2011, and is one of the co-founders of Infosys.

Recognised as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s Top Executives. He was selected as one of the winners of the 2nd Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. In 2009, Kris was also selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers. He was elected President of CII, India’s apex industry chamber during 2013 – 14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, 2014. In January 2011, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian honour.

He serves on the Board of Governors of IIT Madras, and IIM Bangalore. He is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIIT Bangalore, and is also on the Board of Trustees of the Chennai Mathematical Institute. Kris holds a master’s degrees in physics and computer science from IIT Madras.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Institute Professor – IIT Madras

Dr. Jhunjhunwala is considered the pioneer in nurturing Industry-Academia interaction in India towards R&D, Innovation and Product Development. TIE conferred upon him the title of Dronacharya for his contributions to the cause of entrepreneurship, as he incubated and nurtured over 100 companies at IIT Madras. He heads the IITM Incubation Cell and Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). He founded and had been leading the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT), and has also conceived and built the first Research Park (IIT Madras Research Park) in India. Dr. Jhunjhunwala has been Chairman and member of various government committees and has been on Boards of several education institutions in the country. He was a Director on the Board of State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics, HTL, NRDC, IDRBT, VSNL and BSNL. Currently he is a Board member of Tata Communications, Mahindra Rewa, Sasken, Tejas Networks, TTML, Intellect, Exicom, BIRAC and Chairman of Technology Advisory Group of SEBI.

He was the founder chairman of Mobile Payment Forum of India, member of Kakodkar committee on IITs and NITs, review committee of AICTE, and has been a chair of a MHRD committee on Quality Enhancement in Engineering Education.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala was conferred the Padma Shri in 2002, Shanti-Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, H. K. Firodia Award, Silicon India Leadership Award, Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress, UGC Hari Om Ashram Award, IETE, Ram Lala Wadhwa Gold Medal, JC Bose fellowship, Bernard Low Humanitarian Award and many more. He is fellow of IEEE, INSA, NAS, IAS, INAE and WWRF. He has also been conferred an Honorary Doctorate by University of Maine and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Prof. V. Kamakoti

Director – IIT Madras

Kamakoti Veezhinathan received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Madras. He joined the faculty of IIT Madras in 2001 and took over as its Director in January 2022.

He specializes in the area of Computer Architecture, Information Security and VLSI Design. He heads the Microprocessor Development Program and the Information Security Education and Awareness Program at IIT Madras funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. He is member of the National Security Advisory Board. He was also the Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force constituted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. At IIT Madras he has served as the Chairman, JEE and as Associate Dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research.

He has over 150 publications in International Journals and Conferences, guided many research scholars for their PhD and Master of Science (By research) program. He has coordinated and successfully delivered close to 50 projects from Industry and Government R&D establishments. He serves in the Technology committees of the National Stock Exchange and Reserve Bank of India.

Dr. Kamakoti is the recipient of DRDO Academic Excellence Award, Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association Techno Visionary Award, ‘Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship’, ACCS Life-time Achievement Award, IBM Faculty Award and VASVIK Industrial Research award.

R. RAGHUTTAMA RAO

CEO

R. Raghuttama Rao, fondly called Raghu, is the Chief Executive Officer of GDC. Former Chief Mentor of ICRA, a credit rating and analytical firm in South Asia and a subsidiary of Moody’s, his last executive role was as MD & CEO of IMaCS. IMaCS is a management consulting business founded by him as a subsidiary of ICRA, which has an operating footprint in over 20 countries.

He was a member of ICRA’s start-up team in 1991 and has helped developed many areas of ICRA, including credit rating, management consulting, analytics, IT and research. Raghu has wide consulting experience in areas of public policy, risk, strategy and capacity building. Prior to ICRA, Raghu has also worked with Larsen & Toubro Limited and Maruti Suzuki Limited.

Raghu has a post graduate diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad and is a Bachelor of Technology in M.E from IIT Madras. He is a qualified management accountant and was a Fulbright scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

RAJIV JAIN

Chief Operating Officer

Rajiv is the Chief Operating Officer of GDC. He has over three decades of experience as a business leader, performance coach and startup mentor.

Rajiv has worked in leadership roles in the telecom & power BOP products, solar modules, automobile tyres, textiles, and paints industries. His most recent corporate roles were as Managing Director of CEAT Bangladesh Ltd. and as Chief Operating Officer of RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd. As part of a sabbatical break, Rajiv also headed, for a year, a USAID South-South cooperation project focused on improving the livelihood of farmers in India, Kenya, and Malawi.

Rajiv is a TQM champion (certified by JUSE, Japan), Business Excellence Assessor (certified by CII – Institute of Quality), LEAN Startup instructor (certified by GDC – IIT Madras), Development Centre Assessor (trained by SHL), and an NLP trained Performance Coach. Rajiv is also trained by USAID in Managing International Cooperative Agreements & Grants.

Rajiv is deeply committed to social impact through volunteering with NGOs in the field of mental disabilities, youth mentoring, and helping marginalized women.

Rajiv is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a graduate of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. He did his early schooling at St. Xavier School, Delhi.

Rajiv’s detailed profile is available at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajivkumarjain.

ANAND KV

Chief Innovation Officer

KV has a deep understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship, the start-up ecosystem in India, and training and coaching methods. In his earlier avatar, he was a Senior Business Leader in pay television, cable, broadband and e-commerce industries. He was a member of the founding team and has served as the Chief Service Officer of Tata Sky Ltd. He played a pivotal role in implementing revenue management and customer experience strategies, systems, policies and processes at Hathway Cable & Datacomm Ltd. during its digitalization as the President of Digital Platforms. KV designed and created the Customer Experience Blueprint at Flipkart as its Senior Vice President. Prior to these assignments in India, he spent several years in the Middle East and Hong Kong with STAR TV in numerous leadership roles and a short stint at BSkyB in the United Kingdom.

Post his corporate career, he has been working with the Deshpande Foundation (Hubli), and several other accelerators in India in designing and delivering programs for start-ups. He was appointed as a Consultant and Chief Mentor for Youth Co:Lab India in 2020, an initiative by UNDP and Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), India. KV also coaches and mentors Change Makers, Social Entrepreneurs and Fellows of a leadership programme for aspiring young Women Leaders.

KV is a Cost and Management Accountant by education (CMA), a Professional Certified Coach (ICF), certified MBTI and Strong Interest Inventory professional and an NLP practitioner.

M.Subramanian

Chief Marketing Officer

Subramanian is a business leader with over 35 years of experience in Marketing and business Development functions.

He has extensive work experience in auto, steel, and non-life insurance sectors.

His experience covers product marketing, services marketing and not for profit markets.

He has held senior positions in Murugappa Group, in their steel and insurance businesses.

He has spearheaded the Office of Institutional Advancement in IIT Madras as CEO, enabling the institute to raise over Rs.350 crores in five years.

He has a degree in engineering from IIT Madras and a management degree specializing in marketing.

Surya Kumari K.

Program Manager

Hailing from the education industry, Surya Kumari K has 4+ years of experience, working as the admission counsellor at IB World School. Being a global educator has widely expanded Surya’s scope of exposure, helping her inculcate similar values in her work.

Over the years, Surya has carefully invested in an array of skill sets. The same include database management as well as time and team management. Surya’s strong communication skills and the ability to be a good orator, give her an edge over many of her colleagues. Her robust decision-making skills and the ability to organize efficiently go a long way in helping her achieves her goals. In addition to this, Surya’s exceptional ability to offer valuable counselling makes her a great addition to any organization.

Popular for generating leads through various available sources, helps Surya’s cause of active marketing. Her expertise lies in talking to corporates, making her home brand more visible than ever before. Besides active curriculum briefing and counselling for new admissions, Surya also helps in following up for fee payments and works closely with the finance team. She is certainly the best person for addressing queries and hand-holding foreign national registrations. Coordinating with the management, aiding orientation sessions, documenting new student files and organising field trips and career counselling fairs are some of the functions she most efficiently performs. Harmonisation with the corporate team for Model United Nations and completing paperwork for Times Education Icons Awards have been the highlights of Surya’s career so far.

Surya’s has pursued Advanced and Master Level specialization in Overseas Education as well as International Career Counselling. Besides this, she holds a diploma in MS Office and IT Fundamentals. Surya is also well versed in C &C++ Programming Language

Sivakumar Sundaram

Community Manager

Sivakumar is pursuing his entrepreneurial journey since 2013. Prior to it, he co-chaired the mobility council to device Auroville’s Transport from 2010-2014.

One of his major interests is in making meaningful human connections and building conscious businesses. He terms it as building “compassionate capitalism”

Serving as a volunteer and a  life- member of Auroville, he fructified many projects which strengthen the ecosystem by bringing Human Unity and continuously evolving as an individual and collective.

He lives in Auroville and holds a B.E in Automobile Engineering from K.L.N College of Engineering  and an M.E in Production Engineering, from Thiagarajar College of Engineering.