Madhukar Kamath (76BMD) is AAAI President

The Hindu (July 31): Mr Madhukar Kamath (76BMD), Managing Director & CEO of the Mudra Group, has been unanimously elected as the new President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2007-2008.

The AAAI is the apex body of advertising agencies in the country and comprises 84 members who account for approximately 80 per cent of all the advertising business in the country.

Commenting on his appointment as the President of AAAI, Mr Kamath said, “The Indian advertising industry is undergoing tremendous change. I believe marketing communications play a valuable role in the economy. The task at hand is to improve the image of the industry and to promote the interests of the advertising agencies so that they continue to make an essential and ever-increasing contribution to the nation.”

XLer as a Poet

Sabyasachi Nag (92PMIR) published his first book of poems early this year with Writers' Workshop.

Sabyasachi Nag, Bloodlines, A Writer’s Workshop Redbird Book, ISBN 81-8157-571-7 hardback (100 Rupees), 50 pages, 2006, Available from Lake Gardens Press, 162/92 Lake Gardens, Kolkata 700 045, India.

The review reads:

Calcutta, India-born Sabyasachi Nag, now a resident of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, represents one of the new, refreshing voices writing poetry today. A poet sensitive to what is happening in the world around him, Sachi Nag writes vividly and strongly on themes that draw from his Indian background, on nature topics, and on current events. His writing is never dull but is full of fresh surprises that reward the reader.

The poet is unflinching in tackling difficult and brutal topics....
Read on...

PL Barua (70PMIR) the New IOC (Assam Oil Div) Chief

DIBRUGARH, April 30 – PL Barua today assumed charge as the executive director of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil Division), which has its divisional headquarters at Digboi. Prior to taking over as executive director of Assam Oil Division, Barua was executive director (Human Resources) at Refineries Headquarters of Indian Oil Corporation Limited for the last one year. Earlier, he was on deputation from IOC to head the human resource function of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd as advisor (HR) from 1999 to 2006, where he established the organisational set-up of the newly formed company NRL and implemented many innovative HR policies and practices.

An alumnus of GUwahati’s Don Bosco High School and Shillong’s St. Edmund's College, Barua completed his post-graduation in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from XLRI of Jamshedpur. He joined the erstwhile Assam Oil Company Limited as assistant labour welfare officer in August 1970....

Leena Nair (92PMIR) to head HR at Hind Lever

MUMBAI (Economic Times, March 5, 2007):
Leena Nair, general manager – HR (HPC, foods and leadership supply), Hindustan Unilever (HUL), has been promoted as vice-president, HR.

Ms Nair will be the first woman manager in HUL’s history to rise to vice-president level. Ms Nair has been with HUL ever since she joined the company as a management trainee from XLRI Jamshedpur in 1992.

Expressing delight over her appointment, Ms Nair said, “I feel excited about such a great opportunity. HR is an important function in HUL, and we have been thought leaders in the industry in terms of policies and planning to attract the best talent. I hope to take this forward and continue the good work.”

XL Alumni Achievement '06-'07: A Round-Up

Here is a compilation of the achievements by XL alumni during last one year (06-07).

Though the list is neither complete nor comprehensive, at least it is indicative of the diverse fields in which XLRI Alumni have been achieving excellence:

Aquil Busrai (72PMIR), Executive Director (HR), IBM India, was conferred the Life-Time Achievement Award for his work in the field of HR by the National HRD Network.

Sujit Baksi (72PMIR) took over as the President, Tech Mahindra.

Vikram Rao (75BMD), head of ABG’s Garment Business, joined the Board of Aditya Birla Group.

Prof Gerald Tellis (BMD 1977), the Director of the Center for Global Innovation, Neely Chair of American Enterprise and Professor of Marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (LA), was awarded 2006 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research by 2006 American Marketing Association Educators' conference in Chicago.

Harsh Kumar (78BMD) was appointed the Managing Director of Mahindra Intertade.

Prakash Puram (78BMD), CEO, ixMatch, was inducted as a Member into US President’s Export Council (PEC), making him the first India-born MBA to take up an advisory role to the White House

Bijou Kurian (81BMD) joined Reliance Retail Venture’ Lifestyle Business as the CEO.

R Ramakrishnan (82BMD), President and COO of Bajaj Electricals was invited to address the 1000+ gathering of professionals at the Campus Symposium of Iselorn, Germany. The other speakers included Bill Clinton, Lord Chris Patton (frm Governer of Hong Kong), the German Finance Minister, and CEOs of Credit Suisse, Audi, Mushreq Bank, etc.

George Zacharias (82BMD) was appointed the Managing Director, Yahoo! India.

Suri Venkat (83PMIR) took over as the Chief Operating Officer of Sify.

Vinod Sawhney (83BMD) was appointed as the CEO of Bharti Retail (P) Ltd.

Rajan Krishnan (85BMD) took over as the Business Head of the Principal Mutual Fund, the Asset Management Group of PNB.

Vineet Nayar (85BMD), President, HCL Techologies Ltd., was featured in the Fortune magazine for creating, as the title of the article says, “The Most Modern Management – in India”.

Surajit Shome (86BMD) was appointed the Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking of Lehman Brothers India.

Gargi Banerji (86PMIR), Founder of Pragya, was given Sadguru Gnanananda National Award (2007) for her work on environmental conservation. She was felicitated by the Governer of Tamil Nadu, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.

Vijay Nair (87PMIR) published his second book, and first novel, “Master of Life Skills”. The book was launched by Harper Collins India, and received very favourable reviews.

Vikas Gupta (88BMD) joined the Anand Bazar Patrika Ltd as the President, BusinessWorld magazine, and the Chief Marketing Officer.

Milind Chalisgaonkar (89BMD) took over as the CEO of the Bharti AXA General Insurance India.

Ashish Rajpal (92BMD), the co-founder & Managing Director of iDiscoveri, was featured among the “50 Leaders shaping the Indian Education in India” in Education World.

Rajiv Kaul (92BMD), the former Managing Director of Microsoft India, joined as Partner, Actis in London.

Anu Kumar (94PMIR), with Economic and Political Weekly, published her 2nd book “Letters for Paul” (Mapin Books). The book was released by Shyam Benegal at Crossword, Mumbai.

Mohit Nayyar (95PMIR), Director – HR, P&G India was awarded the “Young Achiever” award by the National HRD Network.

Brajesh Bajpai (96BMD) moved from Pepsi to take over as theCountry Manager, Marico - Egypt.

Dinu Poonacha (96BMD) was appointed the President – Corporate Stategy and Planning for the Rs. 2,300cr Yash Birla Group.

Anuradha Vijayakrishnan (98BMD), with Citibank, was selected by the renowned literary agent, David Godwin for her forthcoming novel, making her the 60th such author worldwide, and the 6th Indian (including Arundhati Roy).

S Ministhy (98PMIR), an IAS officer and rank-holder of her batch, published her first book of short stories “Unequal Equations.”

Ajay MK (99PMIR), Head - HR, Colgate Palmolive (Malaysia & Singapore), and the G-Sec of the batch, published his first book of short stories: “Drizzle of Yesteryears & Other Stories” (Frog Books, India).

Nandita de Cunha (01BMD), a consultant with KPMG, published her first book, “The Magic of Maya” (Rupa Publications). The book was released by Anil Dharkar at Crossword bookstore, Mumbai.

Kumar Anand (05BMD) and Lara Lobo (06PMIR), both in Standard Chartered Bank (India), won the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006 – an event involving cross country running & cycling, rowing, puzzle cracking, deciphering, map navigation, stock market simulation, etc, - and competing against 35 participating corporates included the likes of Barclays Bank, ICICI Securities, ICICI Bank, J P Morgan Stanley and a host of others like Unilever, Infosys and our formidable Indian Navy.

... the list, as mentioned ealier, is incomplete....

Lehman Brothers appoints Surojit Shome (86BMD) as New MD

Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, today announced the appointment of Surojit Shome (86BMD) as managing director and head of Investment Banking, India, based in Mumbai.

Mr. Shome brings to the Firm a depth of experience in the Indian market covering the corporate banking, capital markets and investment banking product range. He is responsible for building the Firm’s investment banking franchise in that market and reports to Kunho Cho, head of Investment Banking, Asia Pacific, at Lehman Brothers, and Tarun Jotwani, chairman and chief executive officer, India, at Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Shome joins Lehman Brothers from Citigroup, where he was most recently a managing director and head of Corporate Banking for the Indian sub-continent overseeing corporate and financial institutions coverage teams for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. He has a bachelors degree in Economics & Statistics from Presidency College, Kolkata and a postgraduate degree in business management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

A Breed Apart - A Story of 2 XLers

Why Some Execs Are A Breed Apart
Kunal Guha
(Economic Times, Tuesday, December 26, 2006)

When one starts off in the corporate world, they’re well aware of the ‘why’ and so the ‘how to’ follows. But after a couple of years, and hours of labour many lose sight of the ’why’. It all seems pointless and does not commiserate to the effort exerted. Even at this point, most people choose to sit back and suffer, while satiating themselves with the minor perks that their corporate life offers.

They lament, grieve and hypothesise about the sorry state of the world. But it is only a select few who take up a cause that infuses a new dimension of meaning to their lives. They do this knowing that their endeavours might not always bear fruit. But when you find a cause which could light up your soul and fill you with a feeling of vitality every single day- it goes beyond all rewards. We profile two such brilliant personas who have dedicated their lives for a greater cause- to serve humanity and fulfil themselves in the process.

The wind beneath her wings

After passing out of XLRI in 1988, Gargi Banerji did what most would do: she chased corporate success at Tata Consultancy Services. A couple of years down, she went on to do something which could again be safely called as a logical next step by moving out on her own and setting up a consulting firm- Prometheus with another XL-er and TCS colleague Sunil Pillai. Life was routine up until her participation in a path-changing expedition that took her across the length of the Indian Himalayas in 1990.

Having spent her childhood in the Himalayas, the call of the Himalayas had always been there, and this adventure ride catalyzed her to undertake work to address the growing degradation of the region in a more active manner. She began by trying to draw the attention of several NGO’s towards this neglected land.

But since most did not venture into the remote villages and high altitude areas, she decided to take things on her own hands and co-founded Pragya with Pillai in 1995, and has since then dedicated her career to addressing the issues of the Indian Himalayas and improving the lives of its indigenous communities. Pragya has been very successful in developing innovative solutions to problems such as depletion of medicinal plants, reducing water resources, lack of livelihood options. A recent Pragya initiative is addressing the problem of electricity in high altitude villages.

Banerji explains, “Normally, electricity is generated at a central point and then distributed. But many of the remote Himalayan villages can’t be reached this manner, and even those that are electrified, suffer power breakdowns lasting even upto 2-3 months. We have developed a mode of decentralised energy generation using renewable sources for local usage and have installed a solar wind hybrid system- a windmill and a series of solar panels – to light up a remote village at an altitude of 14000 feet. Being a modular system, it can help in electrification of all remote, unserviced villages.”

Why are you doing this?

One of the basic reasons one works is to impact the world with one’s work. In the corporate environment, you can at the most impact a few thousand people in the particular organisation and among its customer base. But in working for a social cause, you are able to impact an entire community and that is what has kept us enthused.

What have you gained?

There is tremendous learning and opportunity to be creative in this kind of work. In the corporate sector, the context is structured and solutions are standardised. But generating electricity for remote Himalayan villages is a wide canvas with not a line - a delight for one’s creative self! Besides, the satisfaction of bringing electricity to a farmer’s hut or for that matter, introducing a new cash crop to an entire valley, has to be felt, to be understood.

Teaching values to Generation Y

Ashraf Patel, another XLite from the batch of 1990, has a similar story. She was working with Escorts Finance, when the 1993 Mumbai riots took place. She was deeply affected by the state of affairs post-riots. Patel explains, “After the 1993 Bombay riots, I was disturbed by the polarisation of society which was affecting us very deeply. Communalism was moving to violence based on hatred that we had for each other and I just wanted to do something about it. So, it all started of with a desire to make people question violence and the repercussions of it and see the connection between self and society.”

Patel quit her job to launch Pravah, a New Delhi-based organisation that facilitates high school and college students to confront conditioned values and stereotypes, expands their awareness of social issues and gives them the leadership skills needed to tackle pressing social problems.

Why are doing this?

We are doing this because we have a vision of a society that we want to live in and the kind of society we live in today needs serious changes. Everyone has a role to play in it being a part of the larger community. If everybody says that someone else will do it then it will never be done. Non-violence, social justice and equity of opportunity are three values that I would want my society to imbibe. I have also been inspired by my volunteering days in school and college where I was actively concerned about social issues.

What have you gained?

There is a lot of learning about social issues and you are able to make an impact. What counts for us most is ,when for instance, young people take up a campaign as a result of our exchange with them. The idea is to create a sense of purpose and direction and a sense of community, and belonging to the larger world. Your message to management grads:

While you are studying management, you should keep your minds and eyes open and be aware of social issues around you. Securing a job should not be the only objective, we should all engage in social action. For me the solution would be that everyone, in which ever field they would be in, should be involved in social issues.

Harsh Kumar (78BMD): MD of Mahindra Intertrade

Mahindra Intertade, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mahindra Group, announced the appointment of Mr. Harsh Kumar as Managing Director. He had joined as Joint MD last year...

Mr. Harsh Kumar has had a distinguished career of over 25 years in various functions spanning manufacturing, marketing and strategic / project planning in reputed organisations. He has an excellent academic record with a B.Tech (Mechanical) degree from I.I.T. Delhi and a PGDBM (Marketing / Finance) from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

He started his career with The Indian Tube Co. Ltd. as a Management Trainee and moved on to Tata Steel where he was involved in diverse functions such as Marketing, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Prior to joining Mahindra Intertrade, he was the Executive Vice President, Tata Metaliks Ltd., responsible for Marketing & Sales, Exports, Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions

XLer's Launch of "Maya of Magic"

Crossword Bookstores

invites all for the launch and reading of

“The Magic of Maya”
by

Nandita da Cunha (BMD'01, XLRI)

Anil Dharker will launch the book, followed by a dramatic presentation of excerpts by Raell Padamsee's ACE Productions

Date: Friday, 8th December 2006
Time: 7.00 pm
Venue:
Crossword Kemps Corner
09/11, Mohammedbhai Mansion, NS Patkar Marg
Below Kemps Corner Flyover
Kemps Corner, Mumbai - 400026

RSVP
Ms Bakhtawar Bamboat – 23842001 / 9820776765

R Ramakrishnan (82BMD), Exec President & COO, Bajaj Electricals in Germany

R. Ramakrishnan (82BMD), Executive President and COO, Bajaj Electricals was invited to speak at The Campus Symposium at Iserlorn, Germany on September 28 & 29, 2006 to a group of over 1000 German business leaders and Professionals.

Ramakrishnan spoke on "Tomorrow's India - Opportunities and Challenges". Other speakers included Mr Bill Clinton, Lord Chris Patten of Oxford (Former Governor General of Hongkong) , General James L Jones of NATO, Mr Rudi Weyler of Audi, Mr Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair of Mashreq Bank, Mr M. Rudiger , CEO of Credit Suisse , Mr R. Groger , CEO of O2 and the German Finance minister amongst others.