Mr. Narinder Nayar
Narinder Nayar believes in the dictum “think local and act Global“. Despite his busy schedule as Founder and Chief Executive of Concast (India) and Director of several other companies, he still finds time to promote several other social and business initiatives. Narinder has been actively and passionately involved with the Mumbai Transformation Programme, which is spearheaded by the Hon’ble Chief Minister. As Chairman of Mumbai First, Narinder was instrumental in arranging a study together with McKinsey on how Mumbai could be transformed into a world-class City over the next 10 years. Following this study, several initiatives have been taken by the Maharashtra Government including constituting a Citizens’ Action Group of which the Chief Minister is Chairman and Narinder is the Vice Chairman.
In addition, Narinder is also an active member of the Empowered Committee headed by the Chief Secretary to monitor various ongoing projects in Mumbai. He has led a team of experts from Mumbai to Singapore for discussions with Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and to study the measures adopted in Singapore for long term planning. Based on the Singapore experience, Narinder strongly advocated the need for a 40-year Vision document for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Ashank Desai
Mr. Ashank Desai is the founder and former Chairman of Mastek Limited, a publicly-held IT solutions player with global operations. He also guides Mastek Foundation, whose mission is to enable “Informed Giving and Responsible Receiving”. He is involved in multiple social initiatives as well, and is Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of Mumbai First, an NGO working on the mission to make Mumbai a world class city. He has been involved with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Executive committees at National & Regional level. He is widely recognized as an industry veteran, and is one of the founder members & past Chairman of NASSCOM. He is also a former President of Asian Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO). It is an organization founded for the development of IT in the Asia – Pacific region, which comprises of 20 IT Countries like Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, India etc.
In the last few year, he is actively involved in the field of education, and has been a member of the Governing Boards of IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Jodhpur, and the Goa Institute of Management. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of SJMSchool of Management, IIT Mumbai & IIT Hyderabad. He is involved in Entrepreneurship Management in the country. He is the Vice-Chairman of Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT. He is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
He has been conferred with the “Distinguished Alumnus” Award by IIT Mumbai and “Fellow of the Society” honour by the Computer Society of India (CSI) in recognition of his services to the Indian IT Industry as an entrepreneur and for his contribution to the growth of education. He has also been presented with the Honourable Contributors Award by ASOCIO – the only Indian to receive this recognition twice. He was conferred with the much coveted Outstanding Entrepreneur Award at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) 2010 India. Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2010 India is organized by Enterprise Asia – a non-governmental organization in pursuit of entrepreneurship development across the region. Mr. Desai studied at IIT Mumbai and IIM Ahmedabad.
Roger C.B. Pereira
Roger C. B. Pereira, Vice Chairman & Member of the Board of Governors: Mumbai First. He is also the Convenor of the Collaborating Chambers of Commerce and Director British Business Promotion Agency (BBG).
Roger leads Roger Pereira Communications Pvt Ltd. and Vandrekar Communications Pvt Ltd. Is Mentor & Director, Turning Point Brand Consulting Pvt. Ltd. India Partner, Chartwell Partners, U.K., and India Board Member of The Population Media Centre, U.S.A. He is also on the Board of Directors of a few companies. And on the Advisory Board of a few others, including NGOs. Roger was the Founder and was CEO & MD of R&PM:Edelman. Before that, of Burson Marsteller Roger Pereira Communications. And before that, was CEO & Director of Shilpi Advertising Ltd.
He was also the Founder President of The International Advertising Association (India Chapter) & member of the International Board of Directors, New York, U.S.A. He initiated and was Co-Founder & Chairman of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), President of the Advertising Agencies’ Association of India and The Advertising Club, Mumbai.
In a career spanning a little over 50 years, he has worked with a wide spectrum of brands. From Air India and Apple to Wrigley and Xerox. He is also the recipient of several national and international awards for a range of advertising and public relations campaigns including the Clio Awards, the New York Advertising Festival Award, the IPRA Award and IAA scholarships at New York in 1964 and London in 1967. He has subsequently served on the juries for these awards. He was honoured at the Emmy Awards in New York, at the United Nations with the UN Award, at the Banff Television Festival at Canada and at the Hollywood Academy for Television Arts and Sciences. He has also received several Lifetime Achievement Awards including The International Advertising Association (IAA) Award.
Mrs. Radhika Nath
Radhika Nath currently heads the Synergies division at the Mahindra Group, a platform to coordinate non-core product sourcing and requirement as a strategic enabler of business agility, to raise the Group’s capabilities, performance, and ultimately – value. She has over 25 years of experience in the retail industry, export and trade. She has played a pioneering role in developing the Mahindra Group’s retail strategy and is currently part of the management team for Mom & Me, the Maternity Division of the Mahindra Retail company. Mahindra Retail is an extension of the US $16.7 billion Mahindra Group’s trading foray in the domestic India market. In a short span of time, her team has successfully created a strong brand with pan India presence, operating 100+ Mom & Me stores across 45+ cities in India.
Prior to this, Radhika led the Apparel Division for Mahindra Exports and served as a Director for Avex Pvt. Ltd, a garment export company for the Mahindra Group. Under her leadership as Brand Manager for Mahindra Intertrade, she secured key partnerships for the Group’s retail division with International Childrenswear Brands such as Disney and Ladybird, establishing the group’s global presence.
She is also the former President of the Indian Merchants Chamber- Ladies Wing (2016-2017) and led the Chamber’s 50th year commemorations, with Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India.
Radhika is passionate about education and saving the environment. She is an active member of the Governing Council for Mahindra schools and drives a number of their educational initiatives. As a result of her efforts as chairperson of the governing council of the JC Mahindra Memorial School in Khopoli, Maharashtra, the school has collaborated on innovative teaching technology for over 700 students. It is also a qualified “green school”, with an energy-saving programme focused around waste, water and sanitation efforts, created in collaboration with the Tata Energy Club. The school also hosts regular tree-plantation drives as well as health awareness camps for both students and parents and is a charter member of the Junior Red Cross.
An avid reader, Radhika enjoys travel, and is a keen wildlife conservationist. She is also an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer.
Mr. Sanjay Ubale
Sanjay G. Ubale was the director, partnerships at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India Country office in Delhi. He has earlier served as managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons, the group’s real estate and infrastructure development arm.
In his career spanning over thirty-one years, Sanjay has held many key positions, notable amongst them were: secretary to government for Mumbai’s Development; secretary to the chief minister; joint secretary, Administrative Reforms; managing director of a public-sector undertaking called Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation; collector and district magistrate of Sangli district in Maharashtra; and project director of the World Bank and DfID assisted Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project.
Sanjay is a distinguished IAS Officer. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Mumbai University, an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, Bombay University and a master’s degree in development studies from the University of Bath, U.K. He has also completed his Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.
Governance, infrastructure, rural & urban development, water & sanitation, and community-based development are some of his areas of interest.