Advisory Board

Professor
S. Sundararajan

Professor Sundararajan holds a degree in Mathematics and Law and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), with expertise in a unique combination of fields like mathematics, statistics, law, accounting and management. He has over 5 decades of rich and varied experience in consulting, advisory and training (academic, professional and executive education) in the field of finance and business management. He is in Oman since January, 2009 and is presently a Director at the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, Oman and a partner in ICMA Online, UAE.

Professor Sundararajan’s major areas of interests include IFRS, Performance Measurement and Management, Family Business Mentoring and Coaching and Corporate Governance.

Professor Sundararajan has, since 2009, designed and delivered more than 100 Executive Education Programs in the Gulf Region, to participants from over 200 companies, on various topics like Corporate Governance, Financial Statement Analysis, US GAAP, IFRS, EVA, Balanced Score Card, Valuation of Companies, and Strategic Cost Management. He provides business advisory services encompassing and blending knowledge and insights from finance, management and strategy offered as a unique Extended Management Back-up service to enable organisations achieve sustainable business growth by setting up, reviewing and monitoring a strategic management process and a performance measurement and management system. He advises family businesses on achieving Family - Business longevity.

Prior to 2009, he was a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) for 18 years. He is a recipient of Best Professor Awards from the students at IIMB. He was a member of the Governing Board; Centre for Corporate Governance and head of Executive Education at IIMB. He has anchored several programs in the in-house programs conducted by India’s largest organizations like Reliance Industries, Tata Group and other well-known organizations. He was selected for the Corporate Governance Training Workshop conducted by World Bank at Washington DC, USA

He was instrumental in setting up the entrepreneurial and incubation center at IIMB, with the objective of promoting entrepreneurship in emerging and sunrise sectors and was the center’s first chairperson. Before joining IIMB he was with XLRI Jamshedpur for two years, a consultant for 16 years and was in service with a bank and a mining and manufacturing company for 2 years each.

Board membership details

• He was associated with ICAI as a member of:
  • Accounting Standards Board for 4 years;
  • Committee for Review of Education and Training; and
  • Task Force set up by ICAI to prepare the Concept Paper on Convergence with IFRS.
• He was nominated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India on the Council of Management of Bangalore Stock Exchange.
• He was on the Board of Directors of several companies.

Padmaja Ruparel

Padmaja Ruparel is nationally recognized as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has helped co found many of the relevant institutions, besides being an active Angel investor herself. Her operating experience spans large corporates, M&A, and startups/early stage companies.

She has been awarded as one of the 'Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business' by Fortune India for 2017, 2018 2019, & 2021, is listed in Forbes India’s W- Power Trailblazers and "30 Most Powerful Women in India" by Business Today for 3 years running. The Women Economic Forum recognized her with its "Women of the Decade in Investment Banking" award.

She is Co Founder & President of Indian Angel Network (IAN), India's first and now possibly one of the world’s largest group of business angels, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas. She built IAN from inception, making it within 15 years a unique institution globally, with close to 500 investors across 10 countries and a portfolio of ~200 companies in 7 countries, spanning 17 sectors. She has operationalised IAN’s international operations in London – making it the only angel group in the world to set up operations outside of its home country.

Padmaja has been nominated as Co Chair of Global Business Angel Network (GBAN). She is a member of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Innovation, Incubation and Technology Entrepreneurship. She is a member of several committees of BIRAC (Dept. of Biotech, Govt. of India), various committees of Ministry of Finance, DPIIT, & SEBI. Padmaja is a member of the Executive Council of IVCA (Indian Venture Capital Association)

Padmaja is the Senior Managing Partner of the IAN Fund I, a uniquely differentiated Fund which along with IAN, is set to create the largest horizontal platform in India for investing in seed and early stage ventures.

She is a member of the Governing Council of EM3 Services, a nation building venture seeking to create a paradigm shift in the Indian agricultural sector by improving productivity. Padmaja is an Independent Director on the Boards of Avendus Finance Pvt. Ltd. & Ester Industries Ltd.

Apart from cofounding IAN, she also set up and operationalised the Delhi chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) the world’s largest organization focused on entrepreneurship with over 16,000 members across more than 60 chapters across 14 countries. She also established a unique model of an incubator, in partnership with the Indian Government, leveraging 400 mentors to provide mentoring & domain expertise to around 50 young fledgling incubatee companies. She played a key role as Executive Director in building the Indian Venture Capital Association, India's oldest and largest association of VC and PE firms. Currently, she is a member of IVCA’s Limited Partners Council

She helped the creation of Lankan Angel Network in Sri Lanka. She contributed actively in the Planning Commission’s Committee on "Angel & Early Stage Investing in India" which resulted in a seminal report: "Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India".

In her corporate avatar at Xansa India, (Xansa was a US$800mn company listed on LSE before being acquired by Steria), she led several functions over a 16 year period : handled recruitment operations, built and successfully executed an innovative brand and communication strategy and led the corporate social responsibility initiative which engaged employees, clients as also the government. She was a key member of the corporate strategy and M&A team as the Company went public, forged joint ventures and the final acquisition of the Indian company.

Padmaja picked up entrepreneurial strings very early in her career – she revived and grew the family real estate business in Calcutta – growing if from 50,000 sq ft to over 250,000 sq ft over 2 years and turned it around to become a profitable business.

A graduate with English Honours, Padmaja then completed her MBA as well as Chartered Accountancy (Intermediate) with her internship with S.R. Batliboi (an E&Y group company).

Doreswamy Nandkishore

Keynote speaker, consultant, trainer, business Guru....Help Realize Your Potential

Key Interests/ Expertise:

• Turnaround situations and Crisis Management
• Transformation of Old Economy Businesses with "Tech based" inputs & Innovation
• Leadership and Coaching in the new "Tech led" and "Sharing Economy"
• Emerging Markets, Globalization and Cross Cultural operations, Sales & Distribution
• Consumer Engagement through Experiential Marketing, Neuro-marketing and Digital
• Corporate Social Responsibility and Creating Shared Value through Social engagement

Experience:

Nestlé Group Companies

Retired as CEO/ Executive Vice President for Nestlé in Asia, Oceania & Africa. Was earlier, global CEO for Nestlé Nutrition in charge of markets all over the world including US, Europe & LatAm. Prior to which was CEO for Nestlé in the Philippines, and Indonesia. Over 36 years of global experience in fast moving consumer goods across a diverse set of environments in both emerging and developed markets.

Professor of Practice, Indian School of Business,

Executive Fellow - London Business School,

A Visiting faculty position, primarily associated with the Strategy & Entrepreneurship faculty, that requires lectures and teaching on MBA & Executive Education Programmes, research and participation in the vibrant intellectual life of the School

Non Executive Director and Consultant: Several companies

Angel Investor and VC in India (Curo Health Care, Faircent, Cointab, The Mom's Co, Kraftshala), UK (Vyn, Global Gene Corp, Global Resonance), Switzerland (Livinguard), Africa (mPharma, Tiserin Capital), USA (Pander Labs Inc)

Suresh Prabhu

Mr. Suresh Prabhu, is the Founding Chancellor of Rishihood University, Visiting Professor of London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mr. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu is a veteran politician and diplomat who has held key positions such as the Minister of Civil Aviation, Railways, Commerce & Industry among others. He has also served as India’s Sherpa to the G7 and G20. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

He has been a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for 4 consecutive terms from 1996 10 2016, and later a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from 2016 to 2022. He has held several government and semi government positions, that includes the Chairmanship of Maharashtra State Finance Commission, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, Member of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Board, among others. He is a part of various global organizations and strategic dialogues including the Global Water Partnership, World Economic Forum, United Nations Development Program, Asia Energy Forum, United Nations Committee of Biodiversity and is a also a member of the Board of Advisors of India’s International Movement to Unite Nations.

Suresh Prabhu has constantly featured in the list of top five ministers in India from 2014 to 2017 in terms of both performance and accessibility in nationwide surveys conducted by various institutions. He was the 2nd best performing Minister in India Today’s report on the performance of key ministers of Govt. of India; was awarded ‘Indian of the Year in 2017; and was declared "Best Member of Parliament in 13th Lok Sabha" by Aaj Tak. He was also featured amongst top three Indian leaders of the future in the cover story of the Sept 2000 issue of the Hong Kong based Asiaweek Magazine.

His life has been devoted to social service, and he has engaged with various NGOs and Social Organizations.

T.N. MANOHARAN

T.N. Manoharan was born in a Freedom Fighter’s family with agriculture as the occupation. He is a Chartered Accountant of 38 years of standing., He is a law graduate. He has authored books for professionals and students on Taxation.

He was the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India during the year 2006-07.

He served as the Chairman of Canara Bank for five years up to August, 2020 and as the Administrator of Lakshmi Vilas Bank during November, 2020 till its merger with DBS Bank. CA. Manoharan is currently a member of the RBI Standing External Advisory Committee for evaluating applications for Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks. He is on the board of Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development.

He is presently Chairman of IDBI Bank.

CA. Manoharan is recipient of several awards including the CNN IBN "Indian of the Year 2009" award from the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in December, 2009. Mr. Manoharan was conferred the civilian honour "Padma Shri" award by the President of India on 7th April, 2010.