Aju Jacob

Managing Director, Synthite Industries Private Limited

Aju Jacob is the Managing Director of Synthite Industries Limited, the world's largest producer of value-added spices and oleoresins. He is the youngest son of the late C.V. Jacob, who founded the company in 1972. Aju completed his formative education in Kerala, before obtaining a degree in Chemical Engineering from Bangalore University and later an MBA through the PGPMAX programme at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Aju joined Synthite Industries in 1987, a year after completing his engineering degree. Over the years, he has taken on several key roles within the company. By 1989, he was heading Operations, Sales, and Marketing. In 1991, his responsibilities were expanded to include Supply Chain Management. In 2012, he began focusing on Strategic Growth Areas, New Product Development, Projects, and Strategic Customers. In 2017, Operations were added to his portfolio, and he was appointed Joint Managing Director in 2021. By 2024, Aju had become Managing Director.

Under his leadership, Synthite Industries has experienced remarkable growth, with the company’s annual turnover increasing from just over 6 crores to nearly 3,000 crores. Aju also oversaw Synthite's expansion from a single production unit to a global operation with more than ten manufacturing units.

Aju serves on the Board of Directors for several companies, including Synthite Industries Pvt. Ltd., Intergrow Brands Pvt. Ltd., Algavista Greentech Pvt. Ltd., Pfoods Pvt. Ltd., Gunam Beauty Pvt. Ltd., and Cyntek Holdings Pvt. Ltd. Intergrow Brands operates in the B2C segment, with its 'Kitchen Treasures' brand as a market leader in the spice powder business in Kerala. Algavista is involved in the food industry, while Pfoods is a startup specialising in innovative plant-based dairy alternatives and protein-rich wellness products.

Beyond his role at Synthite, Aju has held various leadership positions. He served as the Chairman of the CII Kerala Chapter from 2023 to 2024. He is the Treasurer of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, which manages a 1,100+ bed super-speciality hospital near Cochin, Kerala. He also heads the management of St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School in Kadayiruppu, Kerala, a position he has held since 2020.

Akhi Ravi

CEO,  Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services

Akhil Ravi is currently the CEO of Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services (a fully owned subsidiary of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories). Prior to joining Aurigene, he had multiple roles in Dr. Reddy’s such as Strategy Lead for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Head of API sales in Europe, and as Plant Head at one of Dr. Reddy's manufacturing sites. Akhil holds a BTech degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay and an MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB). Post ISB, he was a management consultant with McKinsey and Co.

Anil Sainani

Managing Partner,  BAF Consultants

Anil Sainani is the Managing Partner of BAF Consultants, a boutique firm that focuses on addressing the specific needs of family businesses at the promoter and senior management levels. He is a well-regarded expert in various aspects of family business management, including the creation and implementation of family constitutions, succession and estate planning, professionalising operations, enhancing board effectiveness, developing the next generation, facilitating amicable separations, and fostering a strong performance culture. With over twenty years of experience, Anil has worked with more than 250 family businesses across South Asia, ranging from small to large enterprises, including notable names like Godrej, GMR Group, Dalmia Bharat, DCM Shriram, and SRF. He has developed a method that significantly reduces the time required to create a family business constitution from 2-3 years to 6-8 months, with a strong emphasis on effective implementation. His work has been featured in a case study film by Kellogg School of Management and Indian School of Business. Anil also conducts workshops for various organisations including CII-FBN, FICCI FLO, YPO, EO, Young Indians, AIMA, ICAI, etc. He has authored the book "Triumph of Togetherness," endorsed by prominent industry leaders such as Adi Godrej (Chairman Godrej Group), G.M. Rao (Group Chairman GMR Group), Sunil Kant Munjal (Chairman Hero Group Corporate Services) and John L Ward (Clinical Professor, Kellogg School of Management). He holds a master’s degree from IIM Bangalore and is a certified CEO Coach.

Harish Lakshman

Chairman, Rane Group
 

Harish Lakshman is the Chairman of Rane Group, a Rs. 7,200 Crores (USD 870 million) automotive components manufacturing group based out of Chennai. Through its 29 manufacturing facilities across India, Rane Group serves customers across 30+ countries. Four of Rane Group companies are listed on Indian stock exchanges.

Harish started his career as Management Associate in TRW Automotive Inc. in 1996. He joined Rane Group, in 1998 as AGM-Marketing at Rane TRW Steering Systems. He held positions of increasing responsibilities in the areas of marketing and operations. He became Managing Director in 2008 and under his leadership Rane TRW Steering Systems won the Deming Grand Prize in 2011. Harish has been instrumental in expanding the Group’s international presence and product portfolio.

As an active member of several industrial associations and government panels he has been a well-regarded spokesman of the automotive industry. He also played a key role as President of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) for the period 2013-14. He currently serves in the Past President’s Council and as Chairman of Finance Committee of ACMA.

In addition to being a Director in Rane Group of Companies, Harish serves as an Independent Director in public limited company - Oriental Hotels Limited and KCP Ltd.

Harish has been keenly participating in CSR initiatives of Rane Group, as Trustee of Rane Foundation (RF), a public charitable trust founded by Rane Companies. He is also the Chairman of Worth Trust and a Trustee of Swabodhini Charitable Trust both of which serves persons with disabilities.

He holds bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, and master's degree in business from Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, USA.

John A. Davis

Chairman and Founder, Cambridge Family Enterprise Group
Faculty Director, Family Enterprise Programs, MIT Sloan School of Management

John Davis is a globally recognised pioneer and authority on issues related to family enterprise, family wealth, and the family office. Since the 1970s, he has been a leading researcher, author, advisor, and speaker on family enterprise, and is the creator of some of the field’s most impactful conceptual frameworks. Davis teaches MBA and executive courses on family enterprise and family social impact at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he leads MIT’s family enterprise programs. He formerly taught at Harvard Business School for 21 years, where he founded Harvard’s family business studies area.

He is a trusted advisor to family enterprises from more than 70 countries on their multigenerational strategies, including many of the world’s leading families. He is Chairman of the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, a global advisory, education, and research organisation for family enterprises that he founded in 1989. Davis’ insights help to build shareholder value, develop leaders, strengthen families, professionalise businesses and family offices, and pass sustainable enterprises to the next generation.

Krishna Bodanapu

Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Cyient 

Krishna Bodanapu is the Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Cyient and a member of the company’s board of directors. He is responsible for providing strategic direction to the company and creating long-term value for stakeholders. He promotes Cyient's values first culture and focuses on enabling sustainable growth. Krishna has, over the years, successfully established Cyient as its customers' preferred and trusted partner. Cyient has received numerous awards and accolades, including recognition from customers, the industry, and analysts.

An alumnus of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Krishna is a member of several industry associations, including CII and the India-US CEO Forum, and is well-known for his outstanding leadership in advancing the use of technology in engineering and manufacturing practices.

Laila Ollapally

Founder and Mediator, CAMP Arbitration & Mediation Practice

Laila Ollapally is the Founder and Senior Mediator at CAMP Arbitration & Mediation Practice. She practiced in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Karnataka for nearly 30 years and entered the field of mediation in 2007. She was the founding coordinator of the Bangalore Mediation Centre (BMC), a court annexed mediation programme at the High Court of Karnataka.

She has been trained in mediation at the Karnataka High Court and did advanced training at Harvard, Stanford and Pepperdine Law Schools. She is specially trained to mediate family business disputes after undergoing advanced training with Harvard professor, Dana Curtis, on ‘Mediating with Families’.

She has mediated over 600 complex civil and commercial disputes covering a wide range of subjects including commercial, family business, inheritance, and other family settlements. She is on the panel of Mediators at Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC), American Arbitration Association (AAA- ICDR) and is a Board member at the International Mediation Institute (IMI).

She was nominated to ‘The International Who’s Who Legal’ of Commercial Mediation 2019 and as a Global Leader in Mediation for 2020. In 2011, she was awarded the Weinstein Fellowship, the prestigious international fellowship for ADR professionals.

She was a member of the committee constituted by the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC) of the Supreme Court of India, to make recommendations for a draft legislation for mediation in India. She was appointed by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Department of Legal Affairs, Government of India, to be a member of the working committee for drafting the rules and standards for mediation in India.

Martin Roll

Global Family Business & Family Office Expert

Martin Roll is an experienced global business strategist, senior advisor and facilitator to Fortune 500 companies, Asian firms, family-owned businesses, and family offices. He advises clients on strategy, leadership, transformation, stewardship, succession, governance, professionalisation, ownership, impact, and other critical topics for long-term, inter-generational success.

Martin is counselling business families on their legacy building, including crafting and executing a carefully curated balance between past, present, and future which typically characterises successful family-owned businesses.

He works on multi-generational situations and complex challenges globally in all types of cultures. Roll has deep expertise and experience with most types of business family dynamics, multi-generational and next-generation challenges, and long-term planning and strategy situations.

He is the CEO of Martin Roll Company with more than 30 years of board and C-suite counselling experience.

Martin is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company focusing on global family business and family office topics.

He is an advisor to several other global boards and prominent business families, and a mentor for next-generation leaders in business families, start-ups, and high-growth companies.

Martin is a Distinguished Fellow (family business and family office), editor and host of the “INSEAD Family Business Podcast”, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD Business School.

He has mentored more than 650 individual next-generation leaders from global business families and family offices in private, confidential 1:1 conversations (1,300+ sessions).

Mathew Chandy

Chief Managing Director, Duroflex Pvt. Ltd.

Mathew Chandy is a lawyer and entrepreneur. He is currently the CMD and Sleep Evangelist at Duroflex Group, a 1000cr+ leading sleep and comfort solutions provider headquartered in Bangalore. He studied law from the National Law School, Bangalore and practiced at the Magic Circle law firm Linklaters in London, New York, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo. He gave up the practice of law in 2009 and started a quick service restaurant called Mooli’s in Soho (an Indian Chipotle) before returning to India. Teaming up with his cousin brothers and a group of committed professionals, they grew their third-gen family business tenfold in 10 years. The leadership team has once again been supplemented and shuffled as they look to separate ownership and management, go IPO and create a category leader that survives and thrives for many more generations. He is deeply moved by technology and sports, and is curious about sleep, the soul and the universe.

Meher Pudumjee

Chairperson, Thermax Limited
 

Meher Pudumjee chairs the board of her family business Thermax Ltd – an innovative engineering manufacturing company in clean air, clean energy and clean water, based out of Pune, India. A master’s in chemical engineering from the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, Meher joined the business as a trainee engineer in 1990. Two years into the role, she and her husband Pheroz were sent to the UK, to turn around a fledgling subsidiary of the company. After successfully turning it around, they had to return to India in 1996 when Meher’s father Rohinton Aga suddenly passed away. She was elevated to the board of the company and worked in the finance division for a couple of years after which she looked after the Air Pollution Control business and a JV in water. Both Meher and Pheroz helped and supported Anu Aga (Meher’s mother who chaired the company) to turn around Thermax in the late nineties. In restructuring the organisation and the board, the family decided to take a non-executive role.

In 2004, when Anu decided to step down, the board appointed Meher as Chair. She has worked alongside 3 professional CEOs over the past 18 years (with 2 of them retiring from the company). She is passionate about conserving resources, greening the business and helping customers do the same.

She is presently on the board of Teach for India and chairs the board of Akanksha Foundation – both NGO’s involved in education. Meher is also a director on the board of Pidilite Industries. Apart from this, Meher is a philanthropist, loves western classical music, sings in a choir, enjoys spending time with her family and her dog, exercises regularly and has a zest for life!

Prasad Kumar

Founder, Human Endeavour Associates 

Prasad Kumar is the Founder of Human Endeavour Associates, a niche consultancy firm specialising in strategic advisory for owner and partner led companies, family businesses and corporates. He has worked in senior executive roles, with leading companies, partnering in their growth and success. His experience with Family Business Advisory and Corporate Development spans five decades. Most of his engagements are long term partnerships, integrating the cultural and structural dimensions for growth, governance and institution building.

He was serving as the Business Chairman and member of the GMR Group Holding Board, Chairman of RAXA (Homeland Security), Founder, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Parampara Family Business Institute. He has served on the Economic Times Advisory Panel on Family Business, and the Economic Times Advisory Panel on Corporate Board Governance. A postgraduate in Management and accredited in Applied Behavioral Sciences, Prasad has been a certified professional of the International Association of Facilitators and a life member of the association. He teaches specialised modules in family business, leadership and succession at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, Indian School of Business (ISB), SP Jain Institute and many other leading business schools. He has also been Executive-in-Residence at the Kellogg School of Management, NW University, Chicago, USA.

Rajendra Srivastava

Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation
Executive Director - Centre for Business Innovation (CBI), EFPM

Tatwamasi Dixit

Founder, Family Business Research International Centre (FABRIC)

A renowned Vedic scholar, and a trusted advisor,  Tatwamasi Dixit, is a leading family business expert with over two decades of experience with large, diverse, multi-generational family business conglomerates globally. He has integrated Vedic principles with contemporary psychology and business management. Equipped with his domain expertise, wealth of knowledge and insights, he helps families navigate through every imaginable family business challenge and guides them to manage growth, disruptive change and transitions. Depending on the underlying complexity of relationships and various family business challenges, he crafts unique solutions for transformation and harmony.

Dixit helps business families derive solutions for their personal and professional challenges that encompass the ownership, business and family aspects. He aligns them on their family business purpose, vision and values, provides solutions on succession, nextgen leadership development, family business governance, strategy, ownership structure, professionalisation, decision making and difference management, drafts their family business constitution and helps set up their family office.

Vanitha Datla

Vice Chairperson, Elico Limited

Vanitha Datla is the Vice Chairperson of Elico, a Hyderabad-based analytical instrumentation company, and the Managing Director of Elico Healthcare Services Ltd, a respected partner in the healthcare industry. She is currently pursuing a doctoral programme at the Indian School of Business, focusing on the role of women in family businesses. Vanitha is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a post graduate diploma in business administration from the Institute of Financial Analysts of India. 

With nearly three decades of experience, Vanitha has worked across various sectors, including financial services, insurance, cement, power, security printing, instrumentation, and BPO services, in both the USA and India. 

A staunch advocate for diversity, inclusion, and women's empowerment, Vanitha has dedicated the past decade to improving women's representation in the corporate sector through policy development, mentoring, and promoting best practices. Her leadership roles in industry forums at the state, regional, and national levels have equipped her to serve as an independent director on corporate boards and as an advisor to several academic institutions and social non-profit organisations. As treasurer of Women in Network, a non-profit organisation, she and her team work with children from urban slums, mentoring them over weekends to encourage them to return to school and improve their quality of life.