Dr. Anil Bajpai is an alumnus of three of India’s most premier institutions; a B.Sc. in Physics from St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University,1978), BE (Electrical Tech & Electronics,1981) from IISc, Bangalore and PGDBM from IIM-Ahmadabad (1983)

He has had a corporate career spanning mainly across two important sectors; semiconductors and telecom. Notable assignments he has undertaken include Vodafone Essar Spacetel Ltd. as Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Infocom Ltd. as CEO (Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Odisha), Consultant and Advisor for Sahara India and Loop Telecom, DSS Mobilink as Vice President (Operations), Airtel as General Manager (Sales, Marketing and Customer Care). He served Continental Device India Ltd in several capacities.

Dr. Bajpai has initiated huge telecom network rollouts from scratch as a business head, overseeing both network infrastructure and sales and distribution infrastructure across several states in India. A techno commercial approach to Project management and strong management skills have been deployed to achieve and exceed targeted objectives.

His special ability is absorption of technology and motivating teams to deliver results, more so in project rollouts.

His foray into the academic space began 8 yrs. ago with heading the School of Management as its Director of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. In a short spam he took all metrics of performances to the next level i.e. Placements, Quality of Education, Ranking and the Industry interface. However closest to his heart has been student satisfaction.

Presently, Dr. Bajpai is Chief Operating Officer at Prestige Education Foundation and Head (VC designate) for upcoming Prestige University at Indore (MP), at this stage he is involved with strategy formulation in terms of courses and resources with phased manner implementation of the strategy.

Prestige group contracted BCG (Boston Consultancy Group) to assist with forming alliances both with Academia and Corporate leaders in 5 chosen areas of MBA programs in the first phase of University operation.

Dr. Debendra K. Das was born in Kendrapara, Odisha and graduated from REC (now NIT) Rourkela with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1972, securing the highest percentage of mark among all branches of engineering students of that year under two engineering colleges of Sambalpur University. He received the Best Graduate Gold Medal and was offered an assistantship from Brown University, USA to proceed for his graduate study. After earning his master’s degree from Brown in 1974, he received a job from Tower Iron Works in Massachusetts, which sponsored him for his Green Card (immigrant visa). Subsequently, Dr. Das returned to the University of Rhode Island to earn his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering in 1983. During his study there he married Ms. Katherine Anne Cross in 1978 and their son Sunit Michael Das was born in 1979. After a year of service as a Research Engineer at a US Navy Lab near Washington DC, Dr. Das joined University of Alaska Fairbanks, serving there until 2018, rising to the position of Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering. He currently serves there as a professor emeritus, involved in research with young faculty members and doctoral students.  He has visited India frequently and has presented seminars at educational institutions encouraging higher education to students and faculty in India. In addition to his dedication to engineering, science and technology, Dr. Das has served in various leadership roles in his professional society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Having experienced the hardship of mental illness in his family, he has devoted about three decades to National Alliance on Mental Illness by providing his voluntary services to that organization.

Rajesh Mahapatra has been, at various points over the last 30 years, a business journalist, political analyst, public policy expert, editor and newsroom leader.
He has worked with international publications such as the Associated Press and Bridge News (formerly Knight Ridder Financial Services), before an extended stint at
Hindustan Times where he drove organisational change and digital transformation. He is now the Editor of Press Trust of India, the country’s premier news agency where he leads a team of more than 500 journalists bringing news as it breaks in field of politics, economy, sports and everything else.
He is also the Founder Director of Odisha Dialogues, a non-partisan thought leadership forum that promotes Odisha-focussed research and advocacy.
Rajesh studied economics at Delhi University and JNU, where his research focussed on political economy of food security.

Prof. Ramaiah Muthyala holds a Ph.D. University of Sagar, India, a Ph.D. University of East Anglia, UK, and an MBA University of St. Thomas, MN, USA.

He has 22 years of experience in the pharma industry in four pharma companies in India and the USA, spanning his experience in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing processes. He held various positions, from laboratory personnel to lab director. He was on the board of directors of two pharmaceutical companies. He holds 15 patents and is responsible for introducing four products for commercial success.

Prof. Ramaiah is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota and holds joint adjunct appointments with the Department of Medicine, Bioinformatics, and computational biology. While as Senior Associate Director of the Center for Drug Design and Associate Director of the Center for Orphan Drug Research, he was responsible for new drug development and preclinical studies. In his 23 years of the academic environment, his research area has been in rare diseases (RD) and orphan drug development, specifically, rare blood disorders such as Sickle cell, hemophilia, and thalassemia; blood cancers, neurological diseases such as Spinocerebellar Ataxia, developing novel therapeutics from the repurposing FDA approved drugs.

He published over 40 peer-reviewed papers, books (translated into Chinese), and several book chapters. He was invited as a keynote speaker at several national and international conferences. He has been a reviewer and on the editorial board for several international journals. He received awards and recognitions, notably—Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Foreign Fellow of the AP Academy of Sciences, Distinguished Scientist, and Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ramaiah, in 2005 founded and became president of the Indian Organization for Rare Diseases. He is responsible for drafting RD policy and amending the Drugs and Cosmetic Act. Ramiah is a committee/board member/office bearer to RD International, International RD Research Consortium, NGO committee for RD UN system, National Organization for RD, and European RD Organization.

Dr. Parikh has over 30 years of experience as an academic leader. Dr. Parikh served as a senior-level administrator at several universities in the US and as the Commissioner for Academic Accreditation for the Government of the United Arab Emirates. A graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Dr. Parikh completed graduate work in Chemical Engineering and then went on to receive a Ph.D. in Accounting and Finance at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition, he is a Certified Managerial Accountant (CMA), a Certified Financial Manager (CFM), and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Dr. Parikh is passionate about higher education, international education, and improving access for traditional students and working adults. As an academic entrepreneur, he has successfully engaged in a variety of ventures such as establishing or enhancing branch campuses, ‘turning around’ institutions in financial distress, increasing enrollments and retention, creating new academic programs, and establishing programs in international locations in partnership with local institutions. These ventures have helped enhance his institutions’ academic reputation as well as financial position by increasing enrollment and revenues in a sustainable manner. In addition to expanding programs and increasing enrollments, Dr. Parikh has led or been actively involved in strategic planning, budgeting, and academic prioritization, and has led accreditation efforts at several institutions.

Mr. Brad Mishra comes with international experience of more than 30 years in 32 different countries. He has been the Head of Operations of IBM, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Country Head of Accenture, Head of Global Program Management Practice of Dell, Regional Head of Red Bull for APAC/Middle-East/Africa region and a Principal Secretary of the Energy & Utility Ministry in the Govt of QLD, Australia. After completing BTech in India, he acquired his MTech from Wollongong University and his MBA from RMIT School of Business and Law. In fact, both Universities are amongst the most prestigious institutions in Australia. His experience spans across 18 industry verticals and he brings across a plethora of proficiency in a vast variety of areas.

Over the course of his 23 years in academia, Prof. Kalyan Kumar Sahoo has worked in a variety of roles over the course of his career, including as Vice Chancellor (Arni University, HP), Registrar (Driems), Dean (Kings Business School—Africa), KK University (Hyderabad/HP), Faculty member (SOA University, Odisha, Management University of Africa, Kenya). After working in the business world for a while, he decided to pursue a career in academia in 2002. Since then, he has taught strategic management, marketing, SDM, and advanced strategic management at various business schools in Asia and Africa.

He holds a Doctorate in IR strategy from FMS, RDVV, and is a fellow of CGIA, USA. He passed MBA (Second Topper, FM University, Odisha), MJMC (Gold Medal, Utkal University of Culture, Odisha), Super Specialization in Digital Marketing (University of Illinois), and PGCSM (IIM, Nagpur). He has successfully completed various faculty development programmes from IIM-Indore, IIM-Kozhikode, Copenhagen Business School, and the Ministry of HRD. He has successfully supervised theses of three doctoral students, twenty master’s students, and sixty undergraduates. In addition to his four books, he has also written more than fifty academic articles that have been published in both national and international journals.

He is a member of ISTD, AIMA, VC Council, Ghana Journalism Association, CRD-Lome, and Chartered Global Investment Analyst. His areas of expertise include business strategy, media and strategy, marketing strategy, social media, teaching pedagogy, IR, and competitive advantage. Through his work and assignments, he has been to over twenty different countries across Asia and Africa.

Dr. Meghana Trivedi is an academic clinician scientist with Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Pharmacology degrees. She received her doctoral and postdoctoral training at the University of Houston and the University of California, San Diego, respectively. She also worked at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development as drug discovery and development scientist. Dr. Trivedi is currently a tenured Associate Professor and Director of Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Houston. She also has an adjunct faculty appointment at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, and Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Trivedi is involved in both laboratory and clinical oncology research focusing on the discovery of novel drugs and biomarkers as well as on improving therapeutic outcomes in patients. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), and other organizations. Her research has led to over 48 publications and 65 meeting abstracts in prestigious journals. Dr. Trivedi has served as a grant reviewer for NIH, DOD, as well as other international agencies. At the University, she serves as a faculty senator and a member of the Graduate and Professional Studies Committee.

Dr. Trivedi has served as a mentor to over 100 trainees including junior faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. students, Doctor of Medicine (MD) and PharmD students and residents, as well as undergraduate students in conducting research and in clinical practice. She has experience in developing new Ph.D. programs, new didactic courses for both Ph.D. and PharmD programs, and new clinical, academic, and research experiential training for MD and PharmD students. Her mentoring accomplishments are evident from the successful clinical and research careers of her mentees in hospitals, academia, and industry.

Professor Vijaykumar Krishnan is a researcher,  professor and the chair of the department of marketing at the Northern Illinois University, USA. His primary research area is on sonic branding. In an academic career spanning nearly two decades, he has published in many acclaimed journals and is a Google Scholar. Professor Vijaykumar Krishnan has also published  chapter in the prestigious Oxford Handbook of Music and Advertising. Before the academic career he worked in the Indian corporate world in marketing and advertising for almost two decades including in  Tata Steel, JWT India, and The Times of India. A graduate of IIT Delhi, IIM Calcutta and a Doctoral degree from the University of Cincinnati, Professor Krishnan is also a fourth-generation musician, violinist, researcher, and a teacher in the classical karnatic music genre. He has performed widely including in the All India Radio, Doordarshan and the Madras Music Academy.

Dr. Manjit K. Misra is the Director of the Seed Science Center, the founding Director of the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP), the Endowed Chair of Seed Science, Technology and Systems and a Professor of Agricultural and Bio systems Engineering at Iowa State University. He also served as the Director of the Institute for Food safety and Global Food Security Consortium at Iowa State University.

Appointed as the chair of the USDA National Genetic Resources Advisory Council (NGRAC) for two terms by the USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Misra has served on more than 60 local, national, and international Boards, and committees. These include the steering committee for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Conference on Biotechnology, the Scientific Advisory Council of the American Seed Research Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Iowa Seed Association, the Iowa Crop Improvement Association, and the “First the Seed Foundation.”

Dr Manjit Misra has received a number of awards for his leadership including the “Distinguished Service Award” from the American Seed Trade Association, the “Order of the Knoll Faculty Award” from Iowa State University, the “Global Agricultural Leadership Award” from the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture, the Sukup Global Food Security award and the AE50 award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Association (ASABE) and the “Certificate of Appreciation” from the USDA Secretary of Agriculture for exemplary commitment and dedicated service to the USDA National Genetic Resources Advisory Council.

Satyabrata Das has been in academics since 1977. He took his Honours degree in English with distinction and his master’s from Ravenshaw College, now a University, Cuttack. He worked at the American Studies Research Centre and Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad as a senior UGC Research Fellow. Dr.Das was at Harvard University, the USA on a Fulbright Fellowship. He has published three books on English, American, and Comparative Literature: 1. George Orwell: the Man who saw tomorrow. 2. Ernest Hemingway: The turning point 3.Reflections on the great Indian Epic: Mahabharat in Orissa, Bengal, and Assam.

The first two books were displayed at the World Book Fair, New Delhi in 1996 and received acclaim from scholars and academics. The third book is a pioneering work on the 16th century Odia poet Sarala Das vis a vis his Bengali and Assamese counterparts in rendering the original Sanskrit Mahabharat by Adi Kavi Vysa into regional languages.

Dr.Das has traveled widely in India and abroad, addressed scholarly meets, seminars, and symposia, and published research papers extensively over the last three decades ranging from American literature to British, Commonwealth, Comparative, and Translation.

Presently he leads a retired life since 2016 focused on promoting and guiding students for Ph.D. and CAT, GRE, GMAT, IELTS, and TOEFL.

Professor M.K. Satapathy has worked for thirty years in different capacities including Head, Extension Education (RIE Bhubaneswar), Head, Faculty of Science, Maths and ICT (NERIE, Shillong), Head, DESM, and Dean (RIE Bhubaneswar).  He has experience of teaching, research, and extension both in India and abroad. He has taught at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels and guided Ph.D. students.

Professor Satapathy passed B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. from Ravenshaw College and Utkal University respectively with the First rank in both the Examinations and Completed Ph.D. from Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. He joined as a Senior Post Doctoral Fellow (1991-93) at International Rice Research Institute, Manila Philippines, in the area of Plant Virology. He also worked as a British Council Fellow at WYE College (University of London) in 1993 and a Fulbright Professor (2008-09) in conservation Biology in the school of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Minnesota, USA. He has worked as Professor in Life Science for the last 10 years in NCERT engaged in Teaching, Research, and Developmental activities. He is presently also serving as a member of the Syndicate (executive body) of Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, being nominated by the Hon’ble Governor of Odisha

Professor Satapathy is associated with PRERANA, for the Plantation/ Environmental program in different parts of Odisha. He is deeply interested in educational policies and innovations in the country He is a strong supporter of climate change issues and the popularization of science.

Shri Jagadananda is a Social Activist and Civil Society Leader. In 2005, he was offered a senior visiting fellowship at CIVICUS-World Alliance for Citizen Participation and worked on the issues of legitimacy, transparency and accountability within civil society at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. His publication ‘Civil Society Legitimacy and Accountability’ is widely available in French, Spanish, Arabic, and English languages. His other publications include “Organization Behaviour” a framework for Non-Governmental Development Organisations and an Organisation Self-Assessment tool for NGOs’ (OSANGO).

Sri Jagadananda was previously the State Information Commissioner, Odisha. He was a member of the State Planning Board of Odisha, following his active campaigning for people-centric decentralized planning. He is the President of the National Social Watch (NSW), a broad-based coalition of civil society organizations; He was a Member of the Committee on State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms formed by the Union Ministry for Rural Development, Government of India.

He has held offices as Chairperson, Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), the largest national network of social development agencies in India, Chair of Credibility Alliance, a national forum for the promotion of accountability norms for Civil Society Organizations and currently the Chair of Sa-Dhan, a national network of Community Development Micro Finance Institutions with wide membership spread across the country.

Dr HASMUKH PATEL is a self-motivated R&D leader with more than 15 years of leadership experience in building and leading high-performance teams, stakeholder management, leading cross-functional projects, development and execution of strategy, and open innovation. He has proven track record in commercialization of range value-added ingredients and food products through successful applications of novel processing technologies including High Pressure Processing, Micro Sieve Technology, membrane filtration, Ion-exchange, Enzymatic hydrolysis and cross-linking, Cavitation and Extrusion technology for improving functionality of dairy and food products and ingredients and providing better health and nutrition solutions for food and beverage industry globally.

Dr Patel is an inventor/co-inventor of 9 patents and a Thought Leader, with advanced qualifications (Masters and Ph.D.) in Food Science and Technology with proven track record in providing R&D and technology leadership in world-class food and beverage companies in the various parts of the world including USA, China, New Zealand, Europe and India in the field of R&D, QA, technical services, product and process optimization, commercialization.

Dr Patel has served as invited expert protein and nutrition task force on World Health Organization (WHO/FAO). Also, served as a consultant and invited experts by Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) on the East Africa Government projects in collaboration with WHO/ FAO for combating malnutrition and providing practical nutrition solution to solve stunting and malnutrition in underdeveloped countries. He served as a board member on Cornell University Food Science and Industry Partnership Program (CIFS-IPP) for 3 years. In addition, he contributed to lead number of professional activities (see professional activity section for more details).

Prof. Saroj Nayak is currently a professor and Dean (Faculty and Planning) at IIT Bhubaneswar. Nayak was a full tenured professor at Rensselaer, USA until 2014. Before joining the faculty at Rensselaer in 2000 Dr. Nayak was a Princeton Materials Institute Jr. Fellow at Princeton University. His research interests lie at the interface of physics, chemistry and engineering, with principle areas of focus on nano and nano-biotechnology.

Prof. Nayak was the leader of the focus centre program at Rensselaer. The program was part of a consortium of GATECH, MIT, STANFORD, SUNY Albany, RPI and was supported by DARPA and IBM, INTEL, and other semiconductor companies. Prof. Nayak secured more than 15 crores funding from government, industries, and foundations over the last five years for establishing two centers of excellences (one on energy and other is on nano-biotechnology) at IIT Bhubaneswar. He has more than 200 publications to his credit with a h index of 50.

Prof. Nayak co-founded the first startup at IIT Bhubaneswar, Kalinga Renewable Energy Manufactures (KARMA) that currently employs 30 people and introduced the first micro solar pump certified by MNRE. With support from the SWISS Foundation and in collaboration with MIT, USA KARMA integrated the first CIGS technology with mobile solar power.

Ankur Rupani is a Life coach, teacher trainer and curriculum developer. His interests are in Wellbeing and how meditation and spirituality can be integrated with mainstream education. He has helped many achieve wellness and happiness through his guided meditation programs. He holds a B.Tech from IIT – Varanasi and a Masters in Engineering from UMCP. However, a dissatisfaction with the education system and a desire to contribute led him to change his career and to a second Masters from Naropa, USA with a focus on integral , holistic education. His project explored education models of Rudolf Steiner and Sri Aurobindo’s integral education. He has since then been in diverse roles including teacher at a private school in US, Teacher trainer with Indus international training and research center in Bangalore, Project director with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Learning Center, GRE, GMAT  coach and Counselor for Higher education in US with various organizations. In his spare time he loves to travel, read spiritual books and videos exploring frontiers of science, spirituality and consciousness.