“Our family businesses provide great opportunities for growth if we do our homework right on the topics of leadership, professionalism and family governance,”- Thomas Schmidheiny

Dr. Thomas Schmidheiny, a major business figure in Switzerland, has been actively pursuing several philanthropic initiatives across the world.

Sougata Ray is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship (Practice), Thomas Schmidheiny Chair and Executive Director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the ISB. He has been a Senior Professor of Strategic Management, a member of the Board of Governors and Dean at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, Shibpur. He blends over three decades of experiences in diverse roles – international quality academic and practice research with hands on corporate experience at Infosys Technologies Limited in strategic and senior executive role as Head of innovation Lab and at Steel Authority of India Limited as a front line executive, as independent Director at Indian Oil and Tata Group Companies and as co-founder of two start ups and member of advisory boards of several start ups and social enterprises. He has been a visiting scholar in some of the finest institutions in Asia, Europe and North America. He has been an advisor to many family businesses, medium and large corporations and start ups, and Principal Consultant to leading International Development Agencies. A fairly sought after teacher among his MBA and doctoral students, Sougata has received several prestigious research and teaching awards and many more award nominations. 

 

Kavil Ramachandran (Ram) is Professor of Entrepreneurship (Practice) and Senior Advisor of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the ISB. He has specialized in family business, entrepreneurship and strategy and has 33 years of combined experience as an academic at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and the Indian School of Business.

 

Our research fellows are globally acclaimed family business scholars and practitioners. They provide guidance to the Centre's team and associated faculty members, on our research projects. Their academic leadership and support has helped the Centre excel in research and publish papers in globally reputed, top-tier peer-reviewed business management journals. The invaluable contribution from our research fellows has helped the Centre emerge as a leading think tank on family entrepreneurship and a principal resource for family business wisdom in the South Asian region.

Our associate faculty members are renowned ISB professors in the fields of leadership, change management, entrepreneurship and strategy. They contribute to the Centre through their rich experience in research, teaching and practice in their respective domains. They participate in various research projects and training programmes of the Centre. Their active involvement also helps the Centre offer rich and diverse capability-building workshops to the family business community. They also participate as speakers or session chairs in our bi-annual family business conference and contribute to other knowledge sharing initiatives of the Centre.

The core team at the Centre includes administrative staff, senior researchers and research associates. Administrative staff is involved in ensuring that all the activities of the Centre (conferences, training programmes, workshops, speaker series,  teaching and research) run smoothly. Senior researchers work with the executive director and the research fellows to produce new and relevant academic contributions in the area of family businesses. Research Associates at the Centre provide research assistance to senior researchers and research fellows. They are involved in activities such as data collection, data analysis and in the development of research papers and case studies.