Faculty

Aman Kaleem is a filmmaker and co-founder of Red Stone Films, a storytelling, creative media agency and a film production house based in New Delhi. She is a guest faculty at Aligarh Muslim University. Her last film Eidiyaan won numerous international and national awards. Her recent film Shaadi, Sex, Aur Parivaar, funded by Public Service Broadcasting Trust, explores the institution of marriage through the lens of three Indian brides. 

Gaurav Saini is a theatre trainer, actor, director, and short-film maker. He conducts a range of workshops in theatre and theatre therapy for individuals as well as institutions. He started his journey in theatre with Barry John, first as a student of acting and then as an assistant teacher.  

Irfana Majumdar is the artistic director of the NIRMAN Theatre Studio, Varanasi. She is a theatre director and performer. Her work focuses on ensemble-based devising and creation, physical and vocal training practices, collaborative creation, and solo performance.

Preeti Singh has 18 years of experience in communications with organisations including McKinsey & Company, Indian School of Business, and USIS. In her role as manager of professional development at McKinsey, she coached several high performers on communicating with impact and enhancing their interpersonal and people skills. She has recently set up her own venture called “My Satori Path” which offers training on these essential capabilities to schools, colleges, and corporate firms. 

Pushpa Nair is a marketing and communication professional with over 25 years of experience in PR consulting, corporate communications, and marketing. Her specialties include Integrated marketing strategy, public relations and communication strategy and implementation, brand building, media sensitization and message development for spokespersons. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication and a guesst faculty at Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.

Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist, translator and children’s author with over fifteen books to her credit. She was the 2012 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Sampurna’s poems have been translated into Irish, Welsh, Scots, German, Swiss-German, French, Estonian, Arabic, Tamil, Kannada, Manipuri, Bangla and Bambaiyya.  

Chandrika Bahadur is Director for Education Initiatives at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. She has a background in economic development, international policy making and philanthropy. From 2001-2008, Chandrika worked with the United Nations in different roles.

Dr. Gitanjali Surendran Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School. Gitanjali graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in 2000 with a first class in BA (Hons) History. She completed an MA in modern Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2002. She received a Commonwealth Scholarship to read modern history at Oxford University for another masters degree which she completed in 2003. She joined Harvard University for a Phd in history in 2006.

Her research interests include modern South Asian cultural and intellectual history, environmental and gender history. She is also interested in public history and is exploring ways to bring academic history into public discourse. 

Dr Jyotsna Puri (Jo) is the Head of GCF’s Independent Evaluation Unit. She has more than 20 years of experience in evaluation research in agriculture, environment, health and infrastructure related poverty alleviation policies. She is a well-recognized leader in using qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation. Jo has worked in a variety of multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, UNDP, and UNEP. Before joining GCF she was Deputy Executive Director and Head of Evaluation at the International Initiative of Impact Evaluation (3ie). She is also Adjunct Associate Professor, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, USA. 

Meenakshi Gopinath is a Fulbright Scholar, a Padma Shri Awardee and an educationist. She retired as the Principal of Lady Shri Ram College in 2014, which is rated amongst the best institutions of higher learning in India. She is also the Founder and Honorary Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace).

Mihir Sharma is the author of Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and India columnist for Bloomberg View and Business Standard.

Niyam Bhushan is on a mission to transform India into the Superpower of Design in the World. With this aim, he founded DesignRev.in where he has conducted over 40 Design workshops in just 3 years, over 8 locations across India, partnered with NASSCOM and SHEROES. Niyam has mentored and guided over 200 startups in these three years and conducted several workshops and consulting for top IT corporates. He\'s consulted with Apple, Google, Intel, DK, Xerox, C-DAC, Living Media, to name a few. As an entrepreneur, he founded two businesses, in publishing, and in IT, before turning to full-time consulting. He is an industry-pioneer and veteran in various disciplines of Design: Design-Thinking, UX Design, Graphic, Print Publishing, Textile-Print, Watch-Dial Design, Typography and more. Niyam is also the former Editor of PCWorld, CHIP, and a former Contributing Editor to LinuxForYou, HT Tech4U, and invited on BBC and NDTV shows, as well as a speaker at the Jaipur Literature Festival. 

Pronab Sen is the Country Director for the International Growth Centre’s India Central Programme. He has held several eminent government positions, including that of Chief Statistician. He specialises in macroeconomics and public finance.

Pushkar is an Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at BITS Pilani-Goa. He has previously taught at McGill University, Concordia University, the University of Ottawa and Goa University. He is the co-author of Democracy, Civil Society and Health in India (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and has written journal articles on Chilean politics and health reforms, and on democracy, public goods provision, and health in India. 

Rear Admiral Dr Rakesh Chopra Rakesh Chopra is an MSc from Madras University and CUSAT, and an MBA from B school JBIMS in Mumbai. After completing an MPhil from Mumbai University in Strategic Studies & International Relations on “Energy Security”, was subsequently awarded the PhD from the same University for his doctoral thesis on ‘TheStrategic Significance of Oil and Gas for the Security of India’ which examined the history, strategic importance and vulnerabilities of India’s energy sector, and its effects on future economic growth and national security. On retirement from the Indian Navy in 2006 in the rank of Rear Admiral, Dr Rakesh Chopra took up appointment on the faculty of XLRI Jamshedpur as Professor of Strategy and was subsequently appointed as Chairperson of the Strategy Area. He shifted to IMT Ghaziabad in Nov 2009.

Roz Savage is the first (and so far only) woman to row solo across the world’s “Big Three” oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian. She holds four Guinness World Records, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to fundraising and the environment. She now writes, speaks, and lectures on sustainability, courage, resilience, and change.

Rudrangshu Mukherjee is Professor of History at Ashoka University. He is a renowned historian and author, and was most recently Editor of the Editorial Pages, at The Telegraph, Kolkata. Prof. Mukherjee has taught history at the University of Calcutta and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of Manchester and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prof Mukherjee is internationally acclaimed as a historian of the revolt of 1857 in India. His first book Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance has become a standard reference on the subject. He has also authored and edited several books on other themes, including The Penguin Gandhi Reader, Trade and Politics and the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Das Gupta, Remembered Childhood: Essays in Honour of Andre Beteille, New Delhi: The Making of a Capital and Great Speeches of Modern India. His forthcoming book is Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives. 

Shuchi Sinha has over a decade of experience in the practice of corporate law with the leading law firms in India. She is a Partner at AZB & Partners, with an active practice in mergers and acquisitions, private equity investment and debt finance. She also worked on a summer assignment in London, U.K. with the international law firm Steptoe & Johnson, in their Trade Law and Intellectual Property practices. 

She has been advisor to a large number of clients including multilateral international organisations, funds, foreign banks and Indian corporate houses on various transactions and is also experienced in advisory work relating to regulatory matters under the Indian legal and policy framework. She was one of the lead Partners advising the investor in a foreign direct investment M&A deal in the Indian telecom infrastructure sector that won the M&A Deal of the Year – South Asia award at the Asia Legal Awards 2016, held recently in Hong Kong. 

Shuchi has also published extensively on legal issues in international legal journals as well as in well-known Indian newspapers and news magazines. 

Prior to undertaking corporate law practice, Shuchi spent many years in journalism and was a Senior Correspondent at India Today magazine, covering various beats including business and legal issues. Degrees held: LL.M., University of London LL.B., Faculty of Law, University of Delhi Certificate course in International Trade Laws, World Trade Institute, University of Berne, Switzerland B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in English, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.

Sonu Bhasin is one of the early and senior women professionals in the industry and had led businesses in senior leadership positions during her corporate career, including director at ING Barings; president, Axis Bank; group president, Yes Bank. Currently Sonu is an independent director on boards of well-known companies. She is the founder of Families and Business (FAB), a platform for family businesses, and the editor of Families & Business magazine.

Sundar Sarukkai is Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore. He is trained in physics and philosophy, has a PhD from Purdue University, USA. He published Translating the World: Science and Language (2002), Philosophy of Symmetry (2004) and Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science (2005). He was previously the Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities at the Manipal University.

Prof. Susan-Gale Wintermuth received her Juris Doctorate degree from University of Arizona, USA, in 1976, after having earned her Master’s degree and two Bachelors’ degrees. She practiced predominately commercial law for 18 years before entering academia, where she specialises in Private Commercial and Private International law. She teaches at the China-EU School of Law winter semesters and then at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, and Stockholm School of Economics, Riga, Latvia, spring and summer semesters.

Unni Karunakara is currently a Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University. He was elected International President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in 2010. He was responsible for setting up a vastly successful tuberculosis control programme in Ethiopia. Dr Karunakara has held various academic and research fellowships at universities in Africa and Europe. 

Urvashi Butalia is a publisher and writer. Co-founder of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publisher, and now director of Zubaan, she is also author of the award-winning oral history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India.

Yugank Goyal is a founding faculty member of OP Jindal Global University. In his previous capacity as Assistant Dean at Jindal University, he cultivated research architecture of the law school and led its collaboration with world’s leading law schools and think tanks around the world. As a prolific public speaker, he has addressed more than three hundred leading schools, colleges and universities in India on importance of law and social science education. He has also worked as a consultant on rural development projects with ICICI Bank’s joint venture with West Bengal state government. He has published on matters related to legal institutions, development economics, higher education and intellectual property. He has also served as Faculty at Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy.

Avik Chatterjee has been a facilitator and corporate trainer since 2004 working with clients like Airtel, Microsoft and Samsung. He currently works with OD Alternatives as an executive coach conducting programs in the areas of team effectiveness, change management, leadership development and creativity and innovation.

Mr Shekhawat is the UK-Europe CEO of Akshaya Patra Foundation and is based in London. He is a speaker, strategic partner and independent advisor on company boards including Erehwon Innovation Consulting, Sevendots. He has had a career of over 25 years where he worked with Nielsen, Reckitt Benckiser and Coca-Cola.

Kanika Pandey Tiwari has experience in human resources with Baxter (a US Based Healthcare Organisation). She is also a certified Trainer (ASTD), Mentor (Cherie Blair Foundation), Assessor and Leadership Coach. She is currently engaged in teaching at premier business schools, research, mentoring and training/consulting in different areas. 

Dr. Nivedita Narain works as an Integrator for PRADAN, and Indian-based NGO that works at grassroot level to remove mass poverty and challenge inequalities at multiple levels. She is also Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development Practice in Ambedkar University Delhi.

Nivedita’s professional expertise includes rural development, organisation behaviour and human resource development, women’s empowerment, livelihoods development, and group processes. She has undertaken consulting assignments for organisation development.  She is a certified trainer in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, training of trainers, and entrepreneurial motivation trainer at NIESBUD (National Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development) and is currently undergoing certification as a group process facilitator.

Radhika Singh is an organisational leadership performance and executive coach. She consults on leadership coaching and succession planning. She is a Certified Coach in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Ramnath Narayanswamy is a senior professor in the Economics and Social Sciences Area at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. His areas of interest include Business and Society, Economic Reforms in Transition Economies (India and China), Spirituality and Self Development and Leadership Development, Outsourcing and Creativity and Innovation. His latest book is likely to be released in 2016. He is also completing a volume on management insights from Indian spirituality. He was Visiting Research Fellow in the Center for Russian and East European Studies of the University of Birmingham and Reader in the Center of Eurasian Studies of the University of Bombay. He was also invited by the German Foreign Ministry to do a study on The Indian Response to Perestroika 1985-1990, (supported by a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation) which was subse PhD, Economics and Sociology, Ecole des HautesEtudesen Sciences Sociales, Paris, France DEA (Sociology), University of Vincennes Paris, France DHESS (Economiques), Ecole des HautesEtudesen Sciences Sociales, Paris, France Master of Political Science, Poona University, India Bachelor of Political Science, Poona University, India.

Santhosh Babu is the Managing Director of Organisation Development Alternatives and works with organisations and leaders to shift limiting beliefs and bring about lasting positive change. He has been identified as a CEO Coach by Business World, Economic Times and Business Standard.

Shalini Mittal currently works as an associate consultant with OD Alternatives and is the Founder Director of n(Able) Solutions, an executive and leadership solutions consultancy set up by her in 2011. She is also the Founder of n(able) Change, a social change initiative focusing on gender equality and adult literacy. She has over 14 years of rich and varied experience of creating training solutions with expertise in analysing training needs, creating and customizing content and an established track record of excellent training delivery.

Masters in Industrial & Organisational Psychology

Professional Certificate in Education (PGCE), the University of Sunderland

Valerie Belanger is an internationalist with 10+ years of experience in building networks and rethinking leadership. She has problem-solved with municipal leaders in Central America, coached education entrepreneurs in the Middle East, and convened journalists, artists, environmentalists, diplomats, and venture capitalists from across 80+ countries. Most recently, she has been inspiring new thinking around leadership development within the business school context. Her previous experience includes work with Yale World Fellows, Ashoka and the Synergos Institute.  For two years, Valerie served as a municipal development volunteer with the Peace Corps in El Salvador.

Vivek Law the Founder of Investonomix, a digital content website on managing finance. He has also been a senior Business journalist with Bloomberg UTV and has diverse range of experience in Broadcast Media. He is also the author of The Money Book, which simplifies the process of investing and saving.