YOUNG LEADERS PROGRAM

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” - John Maxwell

Leaders are the ones who inspire; who blaze a new trail when things get rough. To give hope to people, to see through the haze of uncertainty is the essence of leadership.

Leaders are the ones who motivate others to dream more, do more and become more. To lead is to serve; to put people’s needs first with an eye on the ultimate goal.

Leaders are the ones who listen, ideate, innovate and inspire others with their vision.

IIM Lucknow’s Manfest-Varchasva brings to you the Young Leaders Program, a platform to learn from the most remarkable leaders and visionary stalwarts of current times. A two-day workshop where you will have a chance to see this world through the lens of the most influential leaders from all walks of life.

Participate in this two-day workshop to interact directly with the masters who have helped multiple organizations sail through the storms of unpredictabilities.

Along with the unparalleled experience of conversation with these thought leaders, participants will also receive an e-certificate for participation. All the candidates will be added to an exclusive group of like-minded leaders where they can enhance their knowledge and skills for lifetime! The same platform could be used for getting career guidance and mentorship from graduate and current students of top B-Schools. All the participants will also have free access to the Pro-shows and cultural events happening across the two days at Manfest-Varchasva!

Register now!

CONCLAVES

ICONS

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs

ICONS series is our flagship interaction session with leaders. A platform to share the vision of the leaders who have excelled in diverse domains and have truly lived an ICONIC life. The series has a long legacy of more than two decades and has hosted thought leaders and inspirational stalwarts from diverse backgrounds including the likes of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Mrs. Smriti Zubin Irani, Mr. Ashish Vidyarthi, Mr. Aditya Ghosh, Mr. Ashwin Sanghi, Mr. Piyush Mishra, Mr. Anshu Gupta, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Mr. Rakesh Sharma, Mr. Ravish Kumar, Dr. D Subbarao, Mr. Azim Premji, Mr. Kishore Biyani, Mr. Kapil Dev, Mr. Amish Tripathi and many more.

Manfest-Varchasva is proud to reveal our first set of ICONS, who will address you as keynote speakers this year:

1. Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys 2. Dr. Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India 3. Mr. Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico Ltd.

Business Conclave

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

With every new day organizations face new unpredictable challenges. To keep things up and running while striving for excellence every single day takes long term vision and perseverance.

Business conclave brings to you an opportunity to see the challenges of the industries through the lens of the most prominent leaders. Come experience how these business giants have sailed through the storms of ever-changing business environments.

Manfest-Varchasva is honored to host the following dignitaries for this year’s Business Conclave:

1. Mr. Vineet Nayar, Former CEO, HCL Technologies 2. Mr. Suhel Seth, Founder & MD, Counselage

Social Conclave

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

As humans, our societies have always looked up to leaders to bring a change for the good. It takes a lot to excel in life but true success is defined by how you uplift others. Social leaders have always marched against the headwinds of injustice and unfair practices. They have enabled innumerable people to practice the basic right to live. They have helped countless living beings escape the torture of brutal practices.

Manfest-Varchasva invites you to a social conclave with a panel of some of the most remarkable leaders of this century. Come discover the ways of giving back to society and making this world a better place to live.

1. Mr. M. Hari Menon, Director, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India Country Office 2. Ms. Poorva Joshipura, Vice President of International Affairs, PETA UK 3. Mr. Sudarshan Suchi, CEO, Save The Children

Policy Conclave

“Science and policy making thrive on challenge and questioning; they are vital to the health of inquiry and democracy.” – Nicholas Stern

It’s the policies that give a spine to any society or organization. On this spine rests a skeleton of underlying rules which set a path for future growth and development. A good policy is the one which passes the test of legislative, judicial and executive hurdles. Manfest-Varchasva invites you to share a space with the brightest minds of the nation who have helped the country shape it’s policy. These are the people who have helped the nation emerge victorious from the challenges which have demanded extreme care and competency.

1. Mr. Armstrong Pame, I.A.S. Officer, District Magistrate 2. Mr. Amitabh Thakur, I.P.S. Officer 3. Ms. Karuna Nundy, Advocate, Supreme Court 4. Mr. Rohit Kumar, Founding Partner, The Quantum Hub & Co-Founder, Young Leaders for Active Citizenship

SPEAKER PROFILES

N. R. Narayana Murthy

Mr. Narayana Murthy is the co-founder of Infosys, and has been the chairman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President, and Chief Mentor of the company before retiring and taking the title Chairman Emeritus. Mr. Murthy earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mysore and a master’s degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Before starting Infosys, Mr. Murthy worked at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as the Chief Systems Programmer, and Patni Computer Systems. He started Infosys in 1981 and was the CEO from 1981 to 2002 as well as the chairman from 2002 to 2011. Mr. Murthy conceptualized, articulated and implemented the Global Delivery Model (GDM) which has become the backbone of the Indian software industry.

In 2014, Mr. Murthy was ranked 13th among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders and listed among the ‘12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time’, by Fortune in 2012. Mr. Murthy has been honored with the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri awards. He has also received Legion d’honneur from France and CBE from Britain.

Currently, Mr. Murthy serves on the boards of Ford Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey and the United Nations Foundation. He has served on the boards of HSBC and Unilever, both headquartered in London.

He has served as a member of the boards of various well-known universities in the US like Cornell University, Wharton School, the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and the Rhodes Trust at Oxford. He was the Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

Dr. Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian

Dr. Krishnamurthy V Subramanian, currently the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, is a leading expert on economic policy, banking and corporate governance. A PhD from Chicago Booth and an IIT-IIM alumnus, he authored the path-breaking Economic Survey that commends “Ethical Wealth Creation” for a prosperous India. His idea of Thalinomics — what a common person pays for a vegetarian or non-vegetarian thali — has been acclaimed as the Indian Big Mac Index.

Dr. Subramanian is on leave from the prestigious Indian School of Business, where he is a Professor of Finance. He has previously served on several expert committees including the P J Nayak Committee on governance of banks for the Reserve Bank of India and the Uday Kotak Corporate Governance Committee of Securities and Exchange Board of India. He was also the Founding Board Member at Bandhan Bank (2015-2018). Before beginning his academic career, Subramanian worked as a consultant with J.P. Morgan Chase in New York.

Dr. Subramanian’s PhD dissertation earned the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. During his MBA at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, he was named to the Honor Roll of the Institute for being a top ranker in the batch. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

In previous academic roles, Subramanian served on the finance faculty at Goizueta Business School at Emory University in the United States. He obtained his MBA and PhD in Financial Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business under the advice of Professor Luigi Zingales and Professor Raghuram Rajan.

Saugata Gupta

Mr. Saugata Gupta serves as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Marico Limited. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Bangalore, he joined Marico in 2004 as the Head of Marketing and was elevated to CEO of India Business in 2007 and in 2014 he took over as Managing Director of the company. A dynamic leader, he is responsible for driving the company’s growth and operations both nationally and internationally. He has helped transform Marico into a high performing business with a commitment to sustainable development and best in class governance.

“What has got you here won’t be enough to get you to the next level” – is the mantra that inspires him to keep raising the bar high for his team and himself. Known for his performance- oriented approach, Mr. Gupta drives Marico to be a future-ready organization committed to consistent profitable and sustainable growth combined with societal value creation.

Under his leadership, Marico today is amongst India’s 5 Best Workplaces in FMCG as per Great Place to Work® Institute (India) and has been ranked among the Top 10 in corporate governance among all constituent companies of the S&P BSE 100 Index. Marico has also been featured 6th among India's most sustainable companies with an A+ rating by SUSTAIN LABS PARIS in association with BW BusinessWorld.

Mr. Gupta was ranked #4 in FMCG and #47 pan-India in the Top 100 CEOs list by Business Today-PWC in 2017 and was ranked ‘India’s Most Valuable CEOs by BW BusinessWorld in 2016 and 2018. He was also awarded the Best CEO (Private Sector) at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2019.

Vineet Nayar

Mr. Vineet Nayar, the founder of Sampark Foundation, is the former CEO of HCL Technologies. He is also the author of a highly- acclaimed management book "Employees First, Customers Second".

Never one to shy away from rewriting old rules and testing new ones, Mr. Nayar believes that disruptive technology can break barriers to large-scale social transformation.

Forbes in its 'Heroes of Philanthropy List 2016' has cited Mr. Nayar for this 'Innovation-led large scale social change' and he was featured as a 'Global Thinker 2016' by Foreign Policy magazine for 'unplugging technology so kids can learn'.

An acknowledged management visionary, Mr. Nayar architected HCL's transformation to a $4.7 Billion Global Technology Services Company with over 85,000 employees that led Fortune to recognize HCL as "the world's most modern management" and Mr. Nayar was chosen by Fortune Magazine for its first-ever, global "Executive Dream Team" 2012.

Suhel Seth

Mr. Suhel Seth is the CEO of Counselage, a branding and marketing consulting agency. He has been an advisor to Chairpersons and CEOs across the globe.

Mr. Seth has been the principal brand advisor to MNCs who are either looking at entering India or are in India and facing headwinds either from a brand perspective or a corporate issue. Amongst these MNCs are the entry strategy for Vodafone, Dassault, and Diageo.

Mr. Seth was the principal force and advisor to Coca-Cola when in 2000, they were targeted for pesticides in their products, which led to both a Governmental and public upheaval for the brand. He has organized many outreach programs which included the setting up of an Advisory Board and also an Environment Council. In this domain of crisis management, he was the principal advisor to Ratan Tata in the on-going issue between Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry.

He sits on the Boards of Samsung India and International Tractors Limited.

He is an author of three national best-seller books; a prolific actor both on stage and screen having acted in 167 plays and a well-known television commentator. He has over 4.7 million followers on Twitter.

Mr. Seth is the Chairman of the Branding Committee of India’s foremost business chamber CII for the year 2020-21.

M. Hari Menon

Mr. M. Hari Menon leads the India Office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also oversees the foundation’s work in South and South-East Asia.

Mr. Menon is in charge of managing the foundation's work areas in India, with an objective to improve conditions of family health, sanitation, digital financial inclusion, agriculture, and gender equality. He leads these efforts by working closely with central and state governments, local and global non-profits, community groups, researchers, and the private sector.

Mr. Menon has been associated with the foundation since 2006, with a brief role outside the foundation between 2011 and 2013. He has, over the years, supported a wide portfolio of work in public health, especially in maternal and child health and HIV prevention. Since 2017, he has also been overseeing the foundation’s policy and government relations for South and South-East Asia.

From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Menon served as strategic philanthropy adviser to Rohini Nilekani. He also has experience in the consumer goods and information technology sectors with companies like Colgate Palmolive and Infosys Technologies. Mr. Menon holds a graduate degree in business management from XLRI School of Management, Jamshedpur, and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering & Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Poorva Joshipura

Ms. Poorva Joshipura is the Senior Vice President of International Affairs for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation UK, an affiliate of PETA US. She is the author of the newly released book-’For a Moment of Taste’ a meat, egg and dairy industry exposé.

She is the Chief Functionary on the board of directors for PETA India and the group’s former Chief Executive Officer, the former Director of PETA Europe, and a former co-opted member of the Animal Welfare Board of India. Earlier in her career, Ms. Joshipura held various roles with PETA US.

Since joining PETA 21 years ago, the campaigns she has led to stop animal abuse in the food, fashion and other industries and to encourage all forms of cruelty-free living have been covered by media outlets around the globe, including The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post and many more. She has been a TEDx speaker on how technology and innovation is advancing animal rights.

Ms. Joshipura has personally conducted undercover investigations of animal transport, slaughterhouses, laboratories, and other facilities where animals are abused. She has overseen numerous investigations of live animal markets, factory farms, drug production facilities, animal circuses, and more. She has led campaigns which resulted in iconic British department stores Selfridges and Harvey Nichols to end their sale of foie gras; the Indian government to ban the testing of cosmetics and household products on animals; and Mercedes-Benz to offer leather-free options for its luxury cars amongst numerous other achievements.

Sudarshan Suchi

Mr. Sudarshan Suchi is Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children. He is a seasoned civil society leader with three decades of local and global experience in academics, development, and corporate setting; and, an authority in participatory practices to empower communities to lead the transformation.

An alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi and Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK, Mr. Suchi comes with the core competency of conceptualizing development programs, development-based business models, efficient resource mobilization, establishing partnerships, collaboration, and coalitions towards issues that impact children’s fair access to basic human rights. He has worked with leading organizations like Reliance Foundation, Reliance Life Sciences, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Prior to joining Save the Children, Mr. Suchi was the Secretary-General at SOS Children’s Villages of India. He also brings in grass-root experience from his association with small NGOs like the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD).

Armstrong Pame

Mr. Armstrong Pame is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer currently serving as District Magistrate Tamenglong district of Manipur. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College Delhi. Mr. Pame received the award for India's Most Eminent IAS Officer in 2015. He has earned the sobriquet ‘Miracle Man’ for helping organize villagers to help construct a 100 km road famously known as the "Peoples' Road'' connecting Manipur to Nagaland and Assam through crowdfunding. In August 2012, he raised Rs. 40 lakhs for this purpose through a Facebook page.

In 2012, Mr. Pame was nominated for CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in the Public Service category. Mr. Pame was also invited to the talk show Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi (AKRHZ) by the host Amitabh Bachchan in 2015 as the 'hero' of the episode. Mr. Pame is also the founding curator of the Global shapers Community, Imphal hub under the World Economic Forum. He is now declared as the Young Global Leader of the class of 2018 by the World Economic Forum. In Jan 2019, Mr. Pame was also invited to attend the well-known annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos as a panel member. He was hosted by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at Davos. He is a regular TEDX speaker at different forums including top universities across the country, IIMs and IITs.

Amitabh Thakur

Mr. Amitabh Thakur is an Indian Police Service (I.P.S.) officer and a social activist. He has served as a Superintendent of Police, and as an Inspector General in the state's Civil Defense department. Mr. Thakur holds a B. Tech degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur. He also completed his PhD from IIM Lucknow.

Mr. Thakur began his police career in 1992. He has worked in ten districts of Uttar Pradesh, as a Superintendent of Police. He has worked in multiple departments including Intelligence, Vigilance, Anti- Corruption and Police Training Academy. He was directly promoted from the rank of S.P. to Inspector General (IG). Mr. Thakur is the founder of the National RTI Forum, a grassroots anti- corruption organization in India. He also formed the Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a human rights organization.

Mr. Thakur has co-authored two books, and has compiled two collections of poems. His book Fresh Brew - Chronicles of Business and Freedom traces the careers of 25 IIM Lucknow alumni who turned entrepreneurs.

Karuna Nundy

Ms. Karuna Nundy is an advocate at the Supreme Court of India and an international human rights lawyer. She represents and acts as a legal policy adviser to governments, United Nations, companies, and civil society movements focusing on constitutional law, commercial litigation and arbitration, media law, and legal policy. She received a degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. After a short stint as a TV journalist, she studied law at Cambridge University and later pursued LL.M. from Columbia University, New York.

Ms. Nundy is renowned for her work for human rights and has played a significant role in drafting the anti-rape bill in 2012. Ms. Nundy has made an impact beyond the national boundaries; she has worked as a lawyer in the United Nations. In 2019, the UK foreign office and Canadian Governments appointed her to a global panel of experts to develop legal frameworks to protect the freedom of media across the globe. She has also advised and worked on policy issues for the Nepal Interim Constitution, a workshop with the Senate of Pakistan, the Government of Bhutan, and legal reform in the Maldives.

Ms. Nundy has been included by the Economic Times jury in the list of 'Corporate India's Fastest Rising Women Leaders' which cited her as being 'famous in the corporate world for her expertise in commercial law'.In 2020, Forbes Magazine has named her a Mind that Matters. And Business World awarded her as one of 30 most powerful women in 2020.

Rohit Kumar

Mr. Rohit Kumar is a founding partner at The Quantum Hub and the co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship. Prior to starting his own organizations, Mr. Kumar served as the Head of Policy and Research at the office of Mr. Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, MP (Lok Sabha) and worked for a few years with PRS Legislative Research.

Before shifting to policy, he was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Rohit is a 2013 IPRYLI (India-Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative) fellow with the Asia Society and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School and IIT Bombay.