Panel of Facilitators
Prof. Ashok N Korwar
After obtaining B Tech from IIT Bombay in 1977, he studied in the PGP at IIM Ahmedabad but left to join UCLA where he obtained a Ph D in management in 1982. His paper, ‘Seasoned Equity Issues’, jointly with R Masulis, published in the Journal of Financial
Economics (JFE), 1986, remains the definitive work on the subject and is one of the most widely
cited articles in the Finance domain.
He has competency in Finance, marketing, and business development and has led the winning
pricing strategy on the largest deal in IT history in 1987.
He was a Professor at IIM, Ahmedabad, and associated with Finance, strategy, and
international management areas. He has served as chairman of the PGP (MBA) program and
coordinated the Senior Management and MEP programs, among other roles. He was an adjunct
professor at IIM Indore and mentored the finance faculty.
He has worked with Persistent, Suzlon, Tech Mahindra, Sanofi Aventis, Deepak Fertilizers, Opus, and Credila. He regularly conducts programs on scaling, ‘The Second Orbit’ for TIE – members, NASSCOM, JITO, and Exim Bank, often together with Dr Anand Deshpande, Chairman, Persistent..
He authored ‘Creating Markets Across the Globe’ and won the DMA/Escorts prize for best
management book in India in 1997. His primer for operating managers – ‘Finance at Work’ – was
published in 2019. He co-authored ‘The Consultant and the Client’, published in 2022.
Currently, his work focuses on helping companies, and people, grow to the next level. He
focuses on strategy, organization design, and building organizational capability through
management processes and people. Facilitating Vision workshops and designing strategic
initiatives, and coaching/mentoring are some of the ways he works with senior management of
clients.
Together with Mr Arun Jain and others, he is a co-founder of The School of Design Thinking in Chennai, which evangelizes design thinking as a mindset.
Prof. V. Raghunathan
He is an academic, author, corporate citizen, columnist, and hobbyist.
He has a PhD from IIM, Calcutta. He was a former Professor of Finance, at IIM Ahmedabad,
former President of ING Vysya Bank, and former CEO at GMR Foundation. From 2013 to
2020, he was an Adjunct Professor at Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto,
and the Director of their India campus in Hyderabad. He was a Visiting Professor at SDA
Bocconi, Milan, Italy for nearly 25 continuous years. He is on numerous boards of
corporates, stock exchanges, educational institutions and hospitals, and various national-level
committees of the Finance Ministry, Securities & Exchange Board of India, Institute of
Chartered Accountants of India, etc.
He has authored over 15 books and written over 600 papers and articles. His book Games Indians Play (Penguin 2006, 2019) has been a national bestseller. His latest book is Irrationally Rational: Ten Nobel Laureates Script the Story of Behavioural Economics, (Penguin 2022). His forthcoming co-authored book is tentatively titled, Raising a Resilient Kid: A Handbook for Parents and Educators, with Penguin.
He has probably the country’s most varied collection of old and ancient Indian locks.
Meena Raghunathan
ESG Expertise, Writer, Speaker
She is a Senior development sector professional with 3600 ESG experience. She was closely
involved in developing organizational systems and processes, including HR.
She was honoured to be a Board member of Amrutanjan Health Care, GMR Energy Ltd.,
GMR Warora Energy Ltd., and GMR Kamalanga Energy Ltd. She has deep exposure to
governance through serving on Corporate Boards, Audit Committees, and CSR Committees,
as well as non-profit Boards.
She has Chaired GMR Group’s Committee Against Sexual Harassment for a decade. She was
a part of the Core Group on Environmental Education Programme, South Asia of the Asia
South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE). She was one of the members of the
Senior Leadership Team and Group Integration Council, the highest management body under
the Corporate Group Holding Board. She was part of the core team which developed Govt. of
India’s official submissions to the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, 1992, and the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, Johannesburg, 2001.
She is a recognized Speaker at various forums on CSR, Employee Engagement, Education,
Skills, General Management, and Women Empowerment.
She writes for diversified audiences and has authored over 40 publications, including college
and school textbooks, academic papers, teacher manuals, children’s books, etc.
Currently, she is teaching a course on Ethics, Sustainability, and Governance as a Visiting
Faculty at MYRA School of Business.
Nripjit Singh (Noni) Chawla
After obtaining his MBA (at that time called PGDM) from IIM, Calcutta, he worked in India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) for four years. During that time he got excellent exposure to marketing of services especially advertising & promotion and dynamics of management of a public sector organisation. He also spent three months training at the Irish Tourist Board in Dublin, Ireland, learning how to promote tourism.
After ITDC he joined ITC Limited in its Hotels Division. He worked in ITC for a total of 21 years, out of which about 16 years were in the hotel business and the balance in the International Business Division and one year in the short-lived Power Division. At the end of his tenure in ITC Hotels, he was heading marketing, personnel and new project development. In the International Business Division he was heading diversification and new project development.
After taking premature retirement from ITC Noni Chawla joined Korn/Ferry International (at that time the largest executive search firm in the world) as the country head for India.
During his tenure at Korn/Ferry International he was offered the position of Managing Director of the newly founded healthcare company of Max India Limited. He started the healthcare business of Max India Limited.
After 32 years in the corporate sector he switched to teaching, consulting and training.
He has been a visiting faculty member at various Business Schools in India including Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, Infinity Business School, New Delhi and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Noni Chawla has experience in Tourism, Hospitality, Healthcare, Executive Search, International Business and Management Consulting. He has Functional Experience in General Management, Marketing, Project Planning, HR, Strategic Alliances and Corporate Planning.
He has served on Boards of several companies including Max India Limited, Select Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. and Huhtamaki-PPL Limited. He has represented his employers on Joint Business Councils and several industry committees. He has done consulting work for the African Development Bank, The World Bank, UNICEF India, UNICEF Afghanistan, NGOs, and private sector companies. He has conducted training programmes for many organisations including private and public sector companies, IFC, The World Bank, etc. He has published articles in business and general press on subjects as diverse as management, tourism & travel and current affairs. He has been invited as guest speaker at various industry conferences.
Prof. Samir Barua
Served as Director, IIMA (Nov 2007 – Mar 2013)
After Master of Technology (IIT, Kanpur, India) in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, he worked for two years in the industry before completing his doctorate in Management (IIM, Ahmedabad, India). He joined the faculty at IIM, Ahmedabad, India, in 1980. His academic and professional pursuits cut across several disciplines. Specific areas of interest include capital markets, portfolio theory, international finance, operations research & decision sciences, applied statistics, operations management, management information & control systems, corporate governance, corporate strategy and leadership. He has taught courses in these areas at IIM, Ahmedabad, India, and as visiting professor to academic institutions in USA, The Netherlands and Singapore. He has also taught extensively in national and international executive training programs. He has authored about two hundred papers/articles that have been published/ presented in national and international academic and business journals/ publications and conferences. He has co-authored two books: Portfolio Management; and The Great Indian Scam: story of the missing Rs. 4000 crores. The second book became a best-seller. He has authored more than seventy case studies in management (including globally bestselling cases) and has also authored several management games for training in managerial decision making.
He has been a consultant to many public and private organizations, in manufacturing, petroleum, banking and financial services. He has been intimately associated with the Indian Financial Sector and the Indian Energy Sector for over two and a half decades. He has prepared policy papers for the Finance Minister; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Petroleum; Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Reserve Bank of India (RBI); and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He has served as member of several policy making committees set up by the government including those on Reforms of Indian Capital Markets; Reforms of Debt Markets; Reforms of the Media Sector; Pricing of Petroleum Products. He was member of the Committee set up by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) for preparing a Report on Reforms of Stock Exchanges. He has been a member of the CII Committee on Corporate Governance. He has served on selection committees for top administrative and professional positions including Chairman (TRAI), Deputy Governors of RBI and Directors and CEOs of large organizations.
He was member of the Technical Committee on Government Securities set up by RBI (1998-2000); Risk Management Group for Equities constituted by Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), 2001-03; Steering Committee and the Curriculum Committee on Certification for trading in Financial Markets of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1999-2002; Governing Board of Bombay Stock Exchange (1999-2003); Derivatives Market Council of the Bombay Stock Exchange (1999-2003); Index Committee of the Bombay Stock Exchange (1999-2003); Governing Board of Foundation for Research on Portfolio Management set up by ICFAI; Monetary Policy Committee of RBI (2009-2011). He was member of the Expert Committee on Pricing of Petroleum Products (2013).
He was member of the Boards of National Mineral Development Corporation (1999-2002), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL), a Fortune-500 company (1999-2008); SBI Mutual Fund Trustee Company (2000-2006); Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) a fortune 500 company (2008-2012); STCI Finance Ltd. (1997-2012); Paras Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (2006-2010); Coal India Ltd. (2006-2013); ICRAF, Nairobi (2007); ILRI, Nairobi (2007-2013); IIMA (2007-2013); Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) a fortune 500 company, (2011-2014); Prasar Bharti (2011-2015); IOTL (2010-2016); Axis Bank (2011-2019); Tata Projects (2015-2020); Torrent Power (2008-2022); Torrent Pipavav Generation (2008-2022); NICCL (2017-2022). He has served on the governing boards of several academic institutions. Currently, he is member of Board of Axis Capital; Equitas Small Finance Bank; and Torrent Gas.
In addition to continuing with his reading and writing, he is actively engaged in advising several startups.