LEAD Prayana 2015 Role
Models and Speakers
Dr. Sree Sree Sree Shivakumara Swamiji (Founder of
the Sree Siddaganga Education Society, Tumkur)
He is the head of Sree Siddaganga Math in Tumkur District
and founder of the Sree Siddaganga Education Society. He has established educational
institutions which offer several courses in traditional learning of Sanskrit as
well as modern science and technology. He has immensely served humanity and in
recognition has been conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature
by Karnataka University in 1965. He continues his humanitarian work even at the
age of 107 and is known as "Nadedaduva Devaru" (Walking God) in
Karnataka.
Dr. Narayan Reddy (Organic Farmer)
Mr. Ramji Raghavan (Founder and Chairman, Agastya Foundation)
Ramji Raghavanis the Founder and Chairman of Agastya
International Foundation.It was founded in 1999, Agastya’s stated vision is to
build a creative India of “thinkers, solution-seekers, and creators” that are
“humane, anchored and connected” by making practical, hands-on science
education accessible to rural government schools. Agastya has so far lived up
to its vision as it currently runs the largest hands-on science program in the
world. Ramji is also a member of the Karnataka State Innovation
Council. He is a recognized public speaker and has spoken at the
Education World Forum, the annual INK Conference, the Clinton Global
Initiative, Harvard India Conference, and the MIT Media Lab.
Mr. Rajinish Menon (Director,
Microsoft Ventures)
Rajinish is the Director of Mictosoft Ventures. He is a
business leader with demonstrated ability to tackle tough business and
management challenges. He previously worked at SAP Consultancy and Reliance
Energy Limited. In his earlier stints donning various hats, he has always
emphasized to put process and systems that promotes institutionalization of the
division/enterprise. He has crafted visible growth strategies, based on strong
fundamentals and people management skills. He attributes his successes to the
wonderful team he had the privilege of leading and which he has nurtured well
with a good sense of managing by proper direction setting and giving them
appropriate freedom to leverage their core strengths. His core belief is best
summarized by the adage – “Walk together and one will walk a long way”.Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade (Dharmadhikari, Dharmasthala)
As the Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala, Dr. D Veerendra
Heggade is a leader, philanthropist, educator, social reformer, and an emissary
of art and culture. Dr. Heggade is the Director of the Industrial
Development Bank of India (IDBI). He is also a member of the National
Foundation for Communal Harmony, Delhi; Shree Amarnathji Shrine Board, Jammu
and Kashmir Advisory Board of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development; and Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams Development Advisory
Council. He has undertaken project programs for the economic, social, and
moral uplifting of poor agricultural laborers, artisans, and
others. Dr. Vinod Bhat (Pro-Vice Chancellor, Manipal University)
Dr. Hattangadi Vinod Bhat spearheads the diversification of
the Manipal University course offering- international collaborations and
research. He has been responsible for the spectacular growth in external
research funding for the Manipal University; increasing the funds from less than
1 crore per year to more than 20 crores a year in seven years. Earlier, he was
the recipient of the Fogarty International Center Fellowship at the Summer
Institute, University of Alabama USA, and was conferred the FRCP from Glasgow
University in 2008. In 2004, Dr Bhat was appointed Director Planning, Manipal
University. In 2005, he was appointed as Registrar and in 2010, he was
appointed as the Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal University. Today, he is the
face of the university.Dr. Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande (Chairman, Sparta Group LLC)
Mr. Raju Reddy (Founder and CEO, Sierra Atlantic)
Raju Reddy is the Founder and CEO of Sierra Atlantic, an IT
services company headquartered in California, US. Under Raju’s
leadership, Sierra Atlantic grew to be a best-in-class global services company
over a period of 17 years and was consistently ranked amongst the best-managed
companies. Raju is actively engaged in the community and serves in
leadership roles in various non-profits. He is currently on the Board of
the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, and is the Chairman of
BITSAA Intl, the alumni body of India’s #1 private university, BITS Pilani. Prior
to this, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Puente, a Wharton
School non-profit program which helps underprivileged communities worldwide
gain access to technology. He also co-founded SIPA (Silicon Valley Indian
Professional Association) in 1987 and was instrumental in starting the TiE
Chapter in Hyderabad.
Mr. Phanindra Sama (Co-founder and CEO, redbus.in)
Phanindra Sama is Co-Founder &
CEO of redbus.in, India’s first and largest bus ticketing company.
Founded in Aug. 2006, redbus today has operations across 22 states and offers
services for 19,000+ routes and has built relationship with about 700+ bus
operators and 40,000+ travel agents. redbus was nominated by Forbes as one of
the top five startups in 2010. redbus is ranked #1 amongst the fastest growing
companies in India in a survey conducted by the All World Network. Phanindra is
ranked third among India’s “Most Promising Entrepreneurs” by Business World. He
was also chosen as a Global Shaper in the 2011 World Economic Forum.
Mr. Suhas Gopinath (Founder, CEO, and Chairman,
Globals, Inc)
At a young age of 25, Suhas is the Founder, CEO, and
Chairman of Globals Inc., a multi-million dollar software company that
maintains a presence in the US and several European countries. He was 16
when he incorporated his company and launched his website. One thing that sets
his company apart from other Indian software companies, and probably one of the
key reasons for the company’s success, is that the company focuses on both
English and non-English speaking countries. Suhas plans to get his company
listed by 2015 and has goals to start expanding into African countries.
Mr. Vivek Pawar
(Founder and CEO, Sankalp Semiconductor)
Vivek Pawar is the CEO and Founder of Sankalp Semiconductor Pvt.
Ltd. Vivek started Sankalp Semiconductor with his leadership team in October of
2005. He brings in 20 years of industry experience in varied functions of
general management, operations, program management, customer relations and rich
experience in mixed-signal and analog product design, system on chip (SoC) development,
including firmware development. Prior to Sankalp Semiconductor, Vivek worked as
Program Manager at Texas Instruments Inc. (Houston, USA) from 2003-2005 and as
General Manager for Broadband Silicon Technology Center in Texas Instruments India,
Bangalore from 2000-2003. He was also part of the TI India Management Team.
Mr. Kailash Satyarthi
(Founder of Bachanpan Bacahao Andolan)
He is an Indian children's rights advocate and an activist
against child labor. He has founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (lit. Save the
Childhood Movement) and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000
children from 144 countries. In 1980, he gave up his career as a teacher and
became secretary general for the Bonded Labor Liberation Front. He has also
been involved with the Global March Against Child Labor and its international
advocacy body, the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE).
He has also served as the President of the Global Campaign for Education, from
its inception in 1999 to 2011.He has been awarded with 2014 Noble Peace Prize.
Mr. Anshu Gupta
(Founder, Director GOONJ)
He is popularly known as the Clothing Man, he has done his
Mass communications and masters in Economics. He left his corporate job in 1998
and started as a freelance journalist and founded GOONJ with a mission to make
clothing a matter of concern and to bring it among the list of subjects for the
development sector. An Ashoka Fellow and the Global Ambassador of Ashoka, Anshu
is creating a mass movement for recycling and reusing of tones of waste
material by channelizing it from the cities to the villages, as a resource for
rural development. Mr. Gautam Ostwal (Founder, CEO at Elegant Drugs Pvt Ltd)
He is a pharmaceutical manufacturer and exporter. He also
works in other business domains, including pharmaceutical equipment, medicines
distribution, ground nut export, and the cotton and cotton seeds business.
Gautaum is Chairman of Area AGM, Area X, for which 191 people were taken to Sri
Lanka (this is probably the first time in global Round Table International
history that AGM happened abroad). Gautam is an active community member: he has
worked as a District Rotaract reprepresentative, as the Vice President of the
North Karnataka Drugs & Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association, as Rotary
President of the prestigious Rotary Club of Hubli Midtown, and a life member of
Prabhu Welfare Service. Gautam has built 132 classrooms, 30 toilet blocks, and
30 kitchenettes, at a total cost of approximately 3 crores.
Mrs. Jayashree
Desphande (Co-founder, Deshpande Foundation)
Mr. Sasisekar Krish(Founder, nanoPix)
Sasisekar Krish is the founder of nanoPix. He is an
innovator and entrepreneur working in the areas of image processing based
system automation. He has a Masters degree in Controls and Instrumentation from IITM with specialization in Microelectronics. He is also PhD Alumnus of IISc, Bangalore working on VLSI algorithms. He has many national level publications in image processing and related field. He was executive director of TiE for 6 months. He is also the President (Elect) of RCS Online – a VLSI education society which has contributed to Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA)’s education initiatives.
Sasisekar has been working for several years and is developing 5 product lines every year. His long term goal is to create “Aashapuri – The City of Hope”, which is the universal city for education, innovation and enlightenment.
Mr. V.
Krishna Reddy (Co-Founder, Care Hospitals)
Dr. N. Krishna Reddy has graduated from Osmania Medical
College in 1984 with honors. He completed his MD in Internal Medicine from the
prestigious Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research
(PGIMER), Chandigarh in 1987. He did his fellowship in Cardiology leading to DM
from GB Pant Hospital, Delhi University, and New Delhi. He co-founded the Care
Hospitals in 1997, which has grown rapidly from 100-bed strength, single
hospital, single specialty entity to more than 1500-bed strength, 12-hospitals,
6-states, and multispecialty within a short span of 10 years. He is currently
Managing Director, Andhra Cardiology Associates (ACA); Director & CEO at
Care Hospitals; Member, Board of Directors, Care Foundation, and Chairman,
Relisys Medical Devices, which has created a cost-effective end-to-end technology
platform for Stents and Polymer-based Catheters. He is on the Board in the
capacity of Director in many prestigious companies. His key areas of interest
are strategic planning, corporate and clinical governance systems, and delivery
models aimed at providing high quality medical care at affordable costs and
make them accessible.
Mr. Mayur Patnala (Co-founder,
Nirmaan Org.)
Mayur Patnala is a Social Worker and is passionate
about Social Innovation. He is Co-founder & Governing Board
Member of Nirmaan Organization. It started in Pilani in 2005 which
works in government schools, career counseling, livelihoods etc., with 700+
volunteers from BITS, Pilani, Goa and Hyderbad campuses along with 3 corporate
chapters, It has impacted over 1 lakh lives. Mr. Sikandar Meeranayak (Founder of Sankalp Rural Development Society)
Mr. Sikandar Meeranayak, an entrepreneur in the field of
modern-day rainwater harvesting. He works throughout India with the main office
located in the city of Hubli Karnataka. He works to bring awareness about
rainwater conservation practices and protection and recycling of water is
essential. He has grown up in Kotamuchagi, Gadag. While growing up he noticed
the devastating impacts of water scarcity on farmer’s lives. Hence, later a
fellowship at Deshpande Foundation made him a water activist.
Dr. H. R.
Nagendra (Chancellor of SVYASA Yoga University)
He has been the guiding force behind the VYASA movement. Dr.
H R Nagendra holds PhD in Mechanical Engineering from IISc, Bangalore. After
receiving his doctorate in 1968, he served as faculty of IISc in Department of
Mechanical Engineering. He then went to Canada as Post Doctoral Research
Fellow in the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1970. From 2000 to the
present, he has been serving as President, Swami Vivekananda Yoga
AnusandhanaSamsthana, Bangalore and from 2002 to present, he serves as the
Vice Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, the Yoga
University in Bangalore. He has authored and coauthored 35 books on Yoga.
Mrs. Shravani
(Co-founder of Safe Hands)
Dr. H. Maheshappa (Vice Chancellor, VTU)
He holds the degree of BE (Mechanical), ME (Machine Design),
PhD, FIE, FIV, FISME, FWAPS, MISTE is the Vice Chancellor, Visvesvaraya
Technological University (VTU), Belgaum. An academician with 27+ years of
experience in Teaching & Research, Dr. Maheshappa has earlier worked as
Principal, Cambridge Institute of Technology, Bengaluru. He has also served in
various responsible positions (academic / administrative) at University. Dr.
Maheshappa is responsible for introducing many reformations in the University
including Digital Evaluation, employment for rural Engineering College
students, starting of Incubation Center in the University to encourage students
to become entrepreneurs and so on. He has also published number of Research
papers and won various Awards / Honors.
Mr. Dil Raju (Film Producer and Distributor):
He is one of the most successful Telugu film producers. He
produces his films along with his two partners, cousin Sireesh and friend
Lakshman, under Sri Venkateswara Creations. He has produced successful films
such as Dil, Arya, Bhadra, Bommarillu, Parugu,Kotha Bangaru Lokam,Maro
Charitra,Brindavanam, Mr. Perfect, and Oh My Friend. His latest releases are
Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, Ramayya Vasthavayya, and Yevadu.Mr. V. Narsimha Reddy (Founder of Ma Palle Charitable Trust)
Under his leadership, Narsingapally has become a model
village. To achieve this he established “Ma Palle Charitable Trust” in 2007.
He started a water scheme with the contribution of villagers to supply pure
drinking water to each household. Later, he also started a project of ‘Oxygen
Donation’ where each household of the village plants 4 to 5 saplings every year
and takes care of them. He is man behind ‘Save Democracy’ and other development
projects of Narsingapally.