Dr. BN Suresh obtained his degree in Science and Engineering from Mysore University and   completed his Post Graduation from IIT Madras. He obtained his Doctorate under Commonwealth Scholarship in Control Systems from Salford University, UK. He joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Department of Space, Trivandrum in 1969 and   discharged several responsibilities as Head, Control & Guidance Division, Group Director, Guidance and Simulation Group, Deputy Director, Avionics etc before taking over as Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 2003. He served in that capacity for four and half years till end November 2007.

 As Distinguished Scientist and Director VSSC, he provided the dynamic leadership for the development of launch vehicles and contributed significantly for the successful launches of ASLV, PSLV and GSLV. He pioneered the development of complex technologies like, space navigation guidance and control systems involving hardware and software, aerospace control actuation systems, integrated simulation for launch systems and R&D management. He is instrumental in establishing full fledged and state-of-the-art laboratories needed for the evaluation of complex systems. He has nurtured and built world class actuation systems and launch vehicle simulation laboratories. His role in defining the activities for advanced technology development and their planning for space transportation is very significant. He played a crucial role in steering the very complex Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), which involved several new and critical technologies. The module was flight tested successfully with perfect re-entry and recovery operations.

Dr Suresh  took over as Founder Director  for  the  Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Trivandrum in 2007 and served for three and half  years till Nov 2010. He was responsible in establishing this autonomous Space Institute to prepare the bright and young students to meet the human resource needs for future programmes of ISRO.  He has contributed significantly to structure the state-of-the-art curriculum for all graduation and post graduation courses. He gave a big thrust to research activities and established excellent research laboratories.  He ensured that the Institute was shifted to its new campus at Valiamala within a short span of two years after establishing all the needed infrastructure.   In the short span of three years IIST has been recognised as one of the premier Institutions in the country not only by Indian academia but by many foreign academic Institutions.

He took keen interest in promoting the system engineering activities in the Country and was actively involved in the activities of System Society of India (SSI).  He was the President, SSI, for 6 years and organised a number of National System Conferences all across the Country. He was Co-Chair for the International programme Committee and Chairman for the Nation Planning Committee for the International Astronautical Congress held at Hyderabad in 2007 with more than 2500 delegates out of which 1100 were foreign delegates.

Presently Dr Suresh is Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO HQ. In the last five years, he is actively involved in Mission Readiness Reviews (MRR) for all launch vehicles of ISRO as Chairman MRR. He also chaired the integrated technical review for GSLV Mk 3 and also for Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) with members drawn from several National R&D and academic Institutions to review all systems of these vehicles for their smooth function in flight. During this period, he has written a book “Integrated Design of Space Transportation System” in association with one of his colleagues and the book is released recently. This Book addresses the integrated design aspects of launch vehicle involving multiple disciplines and also the complex issues associated with this system.

He was also distinguished Professor at IIT, Bombay and MIT Manipal for 4 years. During this period he has interacted with a number of graduate, post graduate and research students and delivered lectures in a few selected areas in Aerospace Engineering. He is a member of Board of Governors, IIT Madras. He is a Fellow of several professional bodies like Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Astronautical Society of India (ASI), Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) and International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) at Paris. He is also Fellow and Past President of System Society of India (SSI). He was head of Indian delegation for the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) at Vienna, Austria during 2004-07. He was selected as Chairman of the prestigious United Nations Scientific and Technical Committee for the year 2006 by the Countries of the Asia Pacific. This has been a unique distinction for India, as for the first time, a technical expert from a developing Country was selected for this coveted post since its inception 42 years ago.

Dr Suresh has delivered several prestigious guest lectures like, Ramanujam memorial, Vikram Sarabhai memorial, Dr. Srinivasan memorial and many more in prominent Institutions and national conferences. He has also delivered invited lectures at several International Institutions like European Space Policy Institute, Paris, Space Institute at Strasbourg, United Nations conferences at Vienna and many more. He has published more than 45 technical papers in prominent international and national Journals, Conferences and Symposiums. He has guided more than 450 technical reports on various technology developments at VSSC during his tenure of 38 years.

Dr Suresh  has been conferred with  several awards & honours and prominent among them are “Dr. Biren Roy Space Science design Award”   from Aeronautical Society of India, “Agni Award” from DRDO for achieving self reliance,  “ASI  Award”  for contribution to space technologies, by Astronautical Society of India, “Distinguished Alumni Award” from   IIT Madras, “Ramanujam Award” by PSG Institute of Technology  for System Engineering, “Technical Excellence Award” by Lions International, “Outstanding Achievement Award” by  Dept of Space, Govt.  of India, “Lifetime Contribution in Engineering Award” by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) for his significant contributions to space technologies, “National Systems Gold Medal” for lifetime contributions to large systems from System Society of India, “Aryabhata Award” the highest award by Astronautical Society for his invaluable contributions to aerospace developments and “Big Kannadiga Award” by FM 93.7  Radio for  Science in 2014, the Karnataka “ State Rajyotsava Award” for 2014 for Science & Technology and the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Karnataka State Science and Technology Academy for his contributions in Science and Technologies.

 In recognition of his meritorious contributions to Science and Technology, Govt. of India conferred on him “Padma Shri” Award during the year 2002 and “Padma Bhushan” during the year 2013.

Barbara Masi, Ph.D. is the Director of Education Innovation and Assessment Initiatives in Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University of Rochester. She was formerly the Director of Education Innovation and Assessment at the MIT School of Engineering. Dr. Masi oversaw ABET accreditation processes for MIT for over a decade and now oversees ABET activities at the University of Rochester. Her current research explores issues of professional practice, the use of education technology and active learning pedagogies, and interdisciplinary learning in STEM education. Her experience also includes consulting to numerous colleges and universities in ABET and STEM education and to corporations in materials engineering.

Dr. Masi received her B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT. She also received her joint Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Basil Wakelin, the immediate past chair of the International Engineering Alliance and former Chair of the International Professional Engineers Agreement, has been a consulting engineer in the agricultural processing and industrial sectors.  He has been actively involved in international engineering education standards setting as well as competence assessment and accreditation for many years. He has worked and advised in many countries including presentations at numerous international conferences as well as mentoring institutions as they develop accreditation systems.

An active Christian involved in the prison sector, he also enjoys flying aeroplanes and building things and has been a judge in national sausage and bacon competitions.

Dr Deepak B Phatak

Born on 2nd April 1948, Professor Phatak obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from SGSITS Indore in 1969, and his M Tech and Ph D from IIT Bombay. He has been serving with IIT Bombay since 1971. He headed the CSE department from 1991 to 1994, He was the first Dean of Resources of the Institute from 1995 to 1998. He was the founding head of the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT from 1998 to 2002. He briefly served as head of SJ Mehta School of management, from 2004 to 2005. He is currently Subrao M Nilekani Chair Professor, in the department of Computer Science and Engineering.

His research interests are Data Bases and Information Systems, Software Engineering, System Performance Evaluation, IT enabled Education, and IT strategy planning. His primary research inclinations are in Technology application and deployment. He has guided 7 PhD and over 170 MTech students, and has authored over 50 publications. In the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT at IIT Bombay, which he set up in 1998 (now merged with the Department of CSE), he created a focus on applied research. He started an IT incubator to foster innovation through start-up companies. It has now flourished as IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), and is considered the best incubator in India. He also started the country’s first interactive distance learning program using VSATs. This initiative has now blossomed into the Centre for Distance Engineering Education (CDEEP). Using the experience gained in that initiative, he recently completed a national mission project to train 1,000 teachers at one time, in several core engineering subjects using ICT, through a series of ISTE workshops. By June 2012, his efforts had succeeded in training over 20,000 teachers from across 1,200 engineering colleges in the country. Encouraged by the excellent feedback from participating teachers, the National Mission has entrusted him with the responsibility of training 1,50,000 teachers in the next 3 years, through mega-workshops training 10,000 teachers at a time.

He set up the Affordable Solutions Lab (ASL) at IIT Bombay in 2000, which attempts to develop low cost technology solutions. He is regarded as the pioneer of smart card usage in financial transactions in India. Through ASL, he popularized use of thin clients in India. He developed low cost Clicker devices for use in Indian class rooms, and open source multi-media tools for e-learning.

In March 2012, he was given the responsibility of executing the prestigious Aakash project of the National Mission. 1,00,000 low cost tablet computers are to be deployed for engineering education under this project, through 300 Aakash project Centres. Under his leadership, IIT Bombay has succeeded in negotiating an upgraded Aakash-2 version at a price of Rs 2263 per tablet. 14,000 tablets have already been distributed to 250 engineering colleges in the country, and over 12,000 teachers of these colleges have been trained in the educational use of these tablets. It is expected that over 25,000 students in these colleges will start using Aakash tablets in their class rooms, and for their project work, starting with the academic year 2013. Aakash-2 tablet computers are now recognized as the lowest cost educational tablets globally.

Dr. Phatak has had a long association with Computer Society of India, spanning over three decades. He has been involved with CSI COMAD conferences, for many years. He played an important role in getting the international conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) to India, and was the General Conference Co-chair for the same in 1996. VLDB 96 was a resounding success, and helped in generating a strong focus in India on Database research. He was elected Fellow of the Computer Society of India (CSI) in 1999, and fellow of the Institution of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) in 2000. He currently serves as the Chairman of the national board of IT education and research of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

He has been an Open Source evangelist in India, and has pioneered several initiatives to popularize Free and Open Source Software usage. He believes that India should soon migrate from the status of a net taker from Open Source, to become a net giver to the Open Source community.

In 1983-84, He spent one year in his Alma Mater SGSITS, to set up the department of Computer Science in the college, and initiated the BE program in Computers. He spent subsequent summer in the University at Indore (DAVV), to set up the Computer Center, and to initiate the MCA program.

In 2003, he took a year-long sabbatical leave to tour across the country. He visited over 60 colleges, interacting with students and teachers. He discovered the enormous talent that exists in each of such smaller places. Realizing that such students and teachers are eager to seek some useful guidance and mentoring, he started the 'Ekalavya project' in IIT, which attempts to provide web based support in educational projects, and fosters growth of collaborating communities across educational institutions.

He has been a consultant and adviser to many organizations on various issues related to Information Technology. In the financial sector, he has been an I.T. adviser to State Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India, Unit Trust of India, IDBI, Life Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance, UIIC, SEBI, NSDL, ECGC, etc. He works on several committees advising Central and State Government departments, on issues related to IT projects. He has worked on the governing boards of NIBM, IDRBT, UTIISL, ISIL, etc. He recently served on the board of Bank of Baroda, and currently serves on the boards of HDFC Asset Management Company, IBPS, and National Insurance Academy. He is currently on the IT and HR committees of the Board of Bank of Baroda. He is also a permanent invitee to the payment system Board of RBI.

He was conferred Life time achievement awards by Skoch foundation in 2003, by Data Quest in 2008, and by Dewang Mehta Business School awards in 2010. He was listed among fifty most influential Indians, by Business week in 2009. He received the 'Excellence in Teaching' award of IIT Bombay in 2009; and the IIT Bombay Industrial Impact award in 2010. On 26th January 2013, He was conferred the Padma Shri award by the Government of India, for his services in Science and Technology.

Dr. Phatak believes that teaching can't be just a profession, but has to be one's 'Dharma'. His dream is to see a resurgent India catching up with the world, using Information Technology as the springboard.

Elizabeth Taylor AO

Emeritus Professor

HonFIEAust FTSE FAICD

CPEng NER APEC Engineer IntPE(Aus)

10 years with the Maritime Services Board of NSW in design then construction management. Joined University of Technology, Sydney as an academic and completed a law degree. Resigned from the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean, Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health, CQUniversity in 2009. Now consulting as an External Member, Gate Reviews, Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, Defence.

Currently Chair, RedR (Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief) Australia and RedR International. Also Chair, EA Accreditation Board and elected Deputy Chair, Washington Accord, International Engineering Alliance in June 2015.

Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004.

Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Elected to Fellow, Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2015.

Included in Engineers Australia's list of Australia’s 100 Most Influential Engineers every year from 2004 to 2011, 2013 to 2015.

Dr. Kai Sang Lock is a Past President of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore. He takes a leading role in accreditation activities, being the Chairman of the Engineering Accreditation Board from 2002 to 2009. He serves as Washington Accord mentor and reviewer to several countries. He also gained hands-on experience as program evaluator and team chair. He was Chairman of Singapore Standards Council from 2001 to 2006, taking a leadership position in setting and promoting standards and code of practices. He served many years as a Board Member of the Professional Engineers Board, Singapore, and chaired its examination committee that put together the examination system for qualifying professional engineers. He is a Founding Fellow and a Vice-President of ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology.

He has been a practicing professional engineer for the past 15 years, and was previously a faculty in the National University of Singapore for 17 years. He also acts as arbitrator and adjudicator.  He has been assigned as a mentor of India by ABET to facilitate India to become a member of Washington Accord.

Dr. M. Anandakrishnan obtained his B.E from College of Engineering, Guindy in 1952 and Ph.D in Civil Engineering (1960) from the University of Minnesota, USA and was Professor of Civil Engineering at IIT, Kanpur (1963 to 1974). He was the first Science Counselor at the Embassy of India Washington, D.C. (1974 to 1978). He served in the United Nations Centre for S&T for Development, New York from 1978 to 1989 and later as  Vice-Chancellor of Anna University for two terms from 1990 to 96. He was Vice-Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education from 1996 to 2002 and concurrently the Advisor to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Information Technology and e-Governance. He was  Chairman, Madras Institute of development Studies from 2003 to 2008.

 Since June, 2007 he is the Chairman,  Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.  He has authored four books and published over 200 papers.

His  honours and awards include Padma Shri from the President of India (2002); The Order of Scientific Merit from the President of Brazil (1996); Distinguished Leadership Award  of the University of Minnesota (2003); Honorary Fellow of the Indian Society for Technical Education (2005); UGC National Swami Pranavananda Saraswati Award in Education (2006); Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Kanpur University (2008); D.Litt from Rajasthan Technical University (2014); Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India. 

Dr. Malcolm Reeves is a principal hydro geologist and senior technical advisor at SNC-Lavalin Environment. His core areas of expertise are in aqueous geochemistry, groundwater resource evaluation, and the analytic and numerical simulation of groundwater flow and contaminant transport. He is considered one of the leading groundwater experts in western Canada and has authored numerous consulting and technical reports and has published over 30 refereed and conference papers in the numerical modeling and geoscience areas. He has worked on projects across North America and internationally and is responsible for developing regional groundwater flow and transport models at many industrial sites.

Malcolm Reeves is a licensed professional engineer and licensed professional geoscientist and has served as a Councilor with the Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS). He is also licensed as a professional engineer in Alberta (APEGA) and Ontario (PEO). Malcolm is currently a member and past-chair of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) responsible for national accreditation of engineering programs. In 2009 he became a Fellow of Engineers Canada for volunteer service to the engineering profession and in 2013 he became a Fellow of Geoscience Canada for volunteer service to geoscience.

Dr. Michael K.J. Milligan is Executive Director of ABET, the recognized leading accreditor for college and university technical education programs worldwide. Dr. Milligan is responsible for ABET’s strategic vision, administration, and accreditation operations. He reports to the ABET Board of Directors, which is comprised of representatives from ABET’s 33 member societies.

Prior to joining ABET, Dr. Milligan led an Aerospace Corporation team charged with assisting in the development of an environmental satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Milligan also served 24 years as a career U.S. Air Force officer and engineer, where he managed international research portfolios for the U.S. Air Force, involving radio frequency technology, space weather, and superconductivity. He engaged with scientists in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Africa, and visited universities and research institutes in more than 30 countries.

Dr. Milligan served as Deputy Department Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has also served as a Program Evaluator for ABET in electrical and computer engineering.

Dr. Milligan earned a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, an M.S.E. from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a B.S. from Michigan State University — all in electrical engineering. He earned an M.B.A. from Western New England College. Dr. Milligan is a senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, and a registered professional engineer in Colorado and Maryland. He lives in Severna Park, Maryland, with his wife, who is also an engineer, and their two sons.

Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri holds a Master’s Degree in Management Studies (M.M.S.) and Ph.D. in International Marketing Strategy area from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He has about ten years experience in the industry- in sales, marketing and training, and over fifteen years of experience in academics. He has also completed a post-graduate Diploma in Training and Development from Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD), New Delhi. He is the founder director of IIM Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Before taking over the current post, he was a Professor in Marketing group at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He is on a special leave from IIM Calcutta to set up IIM Tiruchirappalli. He was also the Chairperson of Career Development and Placement Cell at IIM Calcutta during 2008-10.

He teaches courses in Marketing Management, International Marketing, Services Marketing and Strategic Brand Management. His major research interests are in Brand / Marketing Audit, International Marketing Strategy and Global Competitiveness areas. Currently, he is researching on the role of home country government in promoting the global competitiveness of the firms emerging from that country. He has over twenty research papers published in several refereed reputed journals and magazines at national and international levels.

He has co-authored a book titled Principles of Marketing, with Philip Kotler, North-western University, USA; Gary Armstrong, University of North Carolina, USA and Ehsan-Ul-Haq, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan which has been published by Pearson Education (Prentice Hall).

As a professional corporate trainer, he has been conducting corporate training programmes for over fifteen years and has conducted several programmes in sales, marketing, strategy, and customer care and CRM areas. He has so far conducted his training programmes and workshops in India, UAE and France.

He is a visiting faculty with Euromed, Marseille Provence (an EQUIS Certified B-school), and CERAM, Sophia Antipolis, France and teaches the courses of Marketing, International Business and International HRM to their students of MBA.

His latest innovation in teaching is ‘application of inquiry method of learning to the management education’ where the students are encouraged to ask the questions and learn by the inquiring about the knowledge

R Natarajan received his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (of the then Mysore University). Subsequently he obtained the M.E. degree of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; and the M.A.Sc and Ph.D degrees from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He has worked as a National Research Council Fellow in Canada, and as a Humboldt Research Fellow in Germany.

He served as The Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras from 1995 to 2001, and as the Chairman of The All India Council for Technical Education, a statutory body of the Government of India, from 2001 to 2004.

He was the Vice – President of The Indian National Academy of Engineering during 2002-2006, and the Chairman of the Research Council of the Central Fuel Research Institute,  Dhanbad during 1995-2005. He is currently the Chairman of the Board for IT Education Standards of Karnataka, and the Co-Chairman of the Engineering Education Forum of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

He is a Fellow of: Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Society for Technical Education, National Academy of Social Sciences, Institution of Engineers (India), Indian Institution of Plant Engineers, National Foundation of Indian Engineers, Indian Institution of Materials Management, and Madras Science Foundation.

He has been conferred Honorary Doctorate Degrees by: The University of South Australia, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (A.P.), Kanpur University(U.P.),  Nagarjuna University (A.P.), Purvanchal University (U.P.) and NIT, Agartala.

He has been a Member of the Editorial Boards of: Fuel (London), Fuel Science and Technology, Indian Journal of Technical Education, and Staff and Educational Development International; Editor of: The Journal of The Steam and Fuel Users’ Association of India, and The Journal of Plant Engineering. He is currently on the Editorial Board of: International Journal of Engineering Education and of the Journal of Engineering Education (published by The American Society for Engineering Education).

Dr. Raman Menon Unnikrishnan is the Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Fullerton. Prior to joining CSUF, Dr. Unnikrishnan served as the Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at RIT, Rochester, New York for 10 years. He is credited with placing the EE Department as the 3^rd best among similar departments (2002) within comprehensive universities. During 1988-91 he was the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research for the College of Engineering at RIT.

Dr. Unnikrishnan is active nationally and internationally in the field of engineering education and accreditation and served as an ABET/EAC Commissioner during 2008-2013. He is serving this role again during the 2015-16 accreditation cycle. During 2009-2014 he served as a Mentor to India as it sought full membership in the Washington Accord.

Dr. Unnikrishnan received his BS degree from the University of Kerala, India, MS from South Dakota State University, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri, all in electrical engineering. 

The Fullerton Chamber of Commerce honored him as “Educator of the Year” in April 2015. He is the recipient of the “Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching” at RIT. In 2000, he received the IEEE “Third Millennium Award” for Outstanding Achievements and Contributions. In 2006 he was given the “Missouri Honor Award,” one of the highest honors given by the University of Missouri to an alumnus.

Dr. Unnikrishnan is a Fellow of IEEE.

Robin W King was educated in the UK, gaining his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College in 1972.  He worked as a research engineer with the British Broadcasting Corporation, and in academic positions in Papua New Guinea and the UK, prior to moving to Australia in 1985.  Robin King has held academic positions at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.  He was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment at the University of South Australia in Adelaide from 1997 to 2007, and on retirement was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor.  Robin King now lives in Sydney, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney.  Robin King has published more than 150 papers on communications engineering, most notably in multi-disciplinary research areas of speech technology, and on engineering education and accreditation.  

Since 2007, Robin King has undertaken several national and international roles to support engineering education and accreditation.  He authored a major report national report on engineering education in Australia in 2007.  He was the part-time Executive Officer for the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED) for 2008-14, and led several projects on improving aspects of engineering education, including a major collaborative project on improving the quality of engineering students’ exposure to engineering practice.  During 2009-13 he chaired the International Experts Group for the engineering module of the OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) project.  As a Consultant he has facilitated workshops on outcomes-based engineering education and accreditation in Australia, Japan and Thailand, and has given presentations on these topics in Sri Lanka, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and India. 

Robin King was elected as a Fellow of Engineers Australia in 1993 and as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (UK) in 2006.  He was Chair of the Accreditation Board of Engineers Australia for 2007-12, and Chair of the Sydney Accord for 2001-15.  He was Engineers Australia’s lead delegate to the International Engineering Alliance annual meetings for 2008-15.  He was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia in 2015.  In 2011 Robin King was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and chaired their Education Forum during 2013-15.

S Premkumar has been one of the key business leaders of HCL. His association with the group spans many years in various capacities from across HCL Limited, HCL Frontline, Deutsche Software & HCL Technologies.

He is the Executive Vice-Chairman of HCL Infosystems Ltd. and focused on building and executing a robust transformation agenda to augment the pace and sustainability of profitable growth at HCL Infosystems, that is reinventing its value though a start-up like vigour and pace.

Also, he is the Chief Mentor of HCL TalentCare Pvt. Ltd., which is a Professional Vocational Employability focused HCL start-up, which focuses on bridging the competency gap between graduation and employment and creates sustained professional capability on one side and High Quality best value talent for companies to help them improve their competitiveness.

Between 2012 and early 2014, he was with Apollo Hospitals Group, as the Group CEO. Working closely with the Board, he was actively involved with the transformation agenda across Strategic Go to Market initiatives, Customer Experience, Strategic Partnerships and Globalization.

Prior to that, he was the Senior Corporate Officer and President for HCL Technologies, leading Financial Services, from a USD 100 M business to over USD 1 Billion in a quick, profitable and organic way. He also lead the Healthcare verticals and was the Corporate Sponsor for the APAC & Japan region. With focus on Customer centricity and business excellence, he has been instrumental in forging Global Partnerships that have resulted in creating value across borders.

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, FREng, is an analyst and global speaker on tertiary education and innovation trends at the meetings facilitated by the United Nations Academic Impact, World Bank, OECD, EU, Governments, and universities around the world.  Since 2000 he has been serving the global community in various capacities which includes Founding Chair of Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC); Vice-President of International Federation of Engineering Educator Societies (IFEES); and Board Member of Asia Society for Innovation & Policy (ASIP). He authored the book The Changing Face of Innovation.  He conducts workshops on ‘global attributes of graduates’, ‘nanotechnology’, and ‘strategies for research, innovation and entrepreneurship’.

He is among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (Thomson Reuters).  He is a Highly Cited Researcher (www.highlycited.com).  He is among the top four researchers of Singapore (EU Report), and the most cited engineer in the history of Singapore.  He authored 6 books, and ~ 700 international journal papers which attracted ~ 50,000 citations and ~ 100 H-index. He received PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK and the general management training from the Harvard University, USA. He is an editorial board member of ten international journals.  He received numerous awards and recognitions which include IFEES Presidents’ Global Visionary Award; Changjiang Scholar and Leading Talent, China; Nehru Fellowship, India; Lee Kuan Yew, LKY Fellowship, and NUS Outstanding Researcher, Singapore.  He is an elected international fellow of major professional societies and academies of Singapore, India, UK and USA. His university leadership includes National University of Singapore (NUS) Vice-President (Research Strategy), Director of NUS Enterprise, and Dean of Faculty of Engineering.

Professor Surendra Prasad received his education at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Delhi. He has served IIT Delhi for more than four decades, having held a number of academic and administrative responsibilities, including its Director for 6 years between 2005 and 2011. He is an eminent educationist and Researcher and has received numerous recognitions for teaching and research, including among others, the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in Electronics and Telecommunications for the year 1987, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Engineering Sciences for 1988, the Om Prakash Bhasin Prize  for research in Electronics and Communications for 1994, the VASVIK award for Information Technology for 2006, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Systems Society of India (2011), the distinguished alumnus award of IIT Kharagpur and was honoured with an honorary doctorate by the Loughborough University, U.K. (2007).

He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Science and has been a member of the Governing Body of CSIR and CSIR Society, Govt. of India and  numerous boards of IIT,’s, NIT’s and other engineering Institutions.

He is currently the honorary Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). As Director of the premier IIT Delhi, Dr. Prasad, together with his colleagues, was able to take a number of initiatives for taking the Institute to the next level in research and teaching. Thanks to the collective effort of the entire Institute fraternity  during his tenure as Director, IIT Delhi is now counted amongst the top in the country, and ranked very high internationally.

Suresh Mhatre is amongst the first of the new generation of managers in the IT industry who have specialized in IT Consulting.

After schooling in St. Mary’s Bombay, Suresh completed his college education in St. Xavier’s, before proceeding to SPCE, University of Bombay for a degree in Engineering.

During his graduation, Suresh was elected Chairman of the Bombay University Students Council and was a member of the University Senate.  After graduation in Mechanical Engineering in 1977, Suresh went on to complete his Masters in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University Of Florida, USA.

Suresh then joined TCS in January 1979 and spent his initial years developing software before going on to head the Management Consultancy Division in TCS - Bombay.

His technical excellence won him the IIIE Gold Medal for the ‘Best Case Study’.  He also went on to become the National Vice-President of the Institute of Management Consultants of India.  He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India.

In 1989, Suresh was shifted to HR and appointed the youngest Head of Manpower Allocation Committee of TCS, which handles all project allocations.  In the next 3 years he completely overhauled the department and achieved the greatest jump in manpower productivity experienced by TCS.

Also he helped TCS introduce the concept of key resource identification and mentoring which has helped in controlling attrition.

In 1992, Suresh went on to head the Branch Level Review team in Bombay, which reviews the manpower productivity and client satisfaction. During this time, he also was member of the JRD-QV award winning team, which introduced world-class values to TCS.

In 1998, Suresh was appointed Head of HR Sourcing with a view to attracting the best possible talent within TCS.  As the Head of all recruitment in TCS, Suresh headed a team that was the largest single recruiter of technical manpower in the country.  He also headed the Project Allocation Group, which matches skills with project request.

During this Suresh initiated a program for accreditation of all the engineering, management schools in the country. This formed the basis of fixing recruitment quotas and remuneration for students of those institutions.

In 2001, Suresh was shifted to the Strategic Planning Group where his main challenge was to build up a world class IT organization, which will provide hi-technology solutions to TCS clients.  Moreover, he spearheaded TCS’s efforts to more to a higher strategic orbit of providing business solutions rather than only IT solutions.

In 2003, Suresh went back to Management Consulting and has worked in the area of e-Governance. He was the Chief Technical Architect for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. He was also the Project Director of the MCGM Project for a period of 5 years during which he implemented 12 modules of SAP for over 4,000 users.

Currently, Suresh leads the IT Strategy team for e Governance, Ports and Academic Institutions.

Suresh is currently located in Bombay with his wife Kajal and 2 daughters Anandi and Aarti.