Shyam Kumar is Professor of Management at the Rensselaer Lally School of Management, Troy, New York. His research examines how firms grow and attain competitive advantage through strategic decisions, innovation, and entrepreneurship. His current work focuses on the role of AI and time in organizations. He received his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. He earned his doctoral degree in Strategy from the University of Illinois. Prior to joining academia, he worked with the blue-chip Tata group in their steel business, where he was part of the International Business division.

Professor Kumar’s research has appeared in leading journals and book volumes, including several Financial Times top 50 journals. He has won wide recognition for his teaching and was voted “Outstanding Professor” by graduating Lally master’s students on multiple occasions. He has held various fellowships, and he serves as an editorial review board member at Strategic Management Journal, a premier journal in the strategy field.

At Rensselaer, Professor Kumar has held multiple leadership positions, including Director of the MBA program, Graduate Programs Director, and Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In these roles he has spearheaded important initiatives such as working towards the launch of the Life Sciences MBA concentration. Professor Kumar enjoys playing golf, listening to music, and working across disciplines to pursue novel research ideas.

Jayanta Banerjee has over three decades of work experience and has worked in multiple leadership roles. He has spent most of his career in private equity and has a background in corporate finance. He is the Executive Vice Chairman of Florintree Advisors. Prior to that, he co-founded a mid-market private equity fund management company in joint venture with ASK Group. Before that, Jayanta worked with organizations such as ICICI Venture, Lehman Brothers, EY, ICICI Securities, Bank of America, and Siemens. He has served on the Board of Directors of multiple companies across industries. Jayanta holds a PGDM (MBA) from IIM Bangalore and a BEE from Jadavpur University.

Ramki has 28+ years of experience with 26+ years of experience in Venture Capital /Private Equity – Kotak PE, Carlyle Group & ICICI Venture. He was most recently the CEO of Kotak Private Equity, the Private Equity arm of Kotak Mahindra Group, where he was responsible for managing various growth funds with AUM of over $700mn. Ramki is a Computer Science and Engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal and is a Post Graduate in Management from IIM, Bangalore. His investment experience spans across Life Sciences, Technology, Retailing and Services and has developed a strong network in these segments. He actively participates on the Boards of his portfolio companies and has helped them scale their businesses while managing growth. Before joining the Kotak Mahindra group, Ramki had stints with Carlyle Asia Venture Partners (CAVP), the Carlyle Group’s technology-focused fund, and ICICI Venture, the PE and VC arm of the ICICI Group. Post his graduation, Ramki worked for two years at the Management Services Division of Tata Motors, the largest automobile company in India.

Ashok Samuel is a retired private equity professional with thirty years’ industry experience, most of it in a Sovereign Wealth Fund. He has extensive experience across investment, strategy, risk, operations and team management. He has an interest and experience in teaching and philanthropy. Strong affinity for cultivating relationships; skills and experience in consensus building. He worked with GIC, Singapore, for more than 22 years, and his last held position was the head of Private Equity at GIC, Singapore. He was with ICICI Ventures prior to GIC. Ashok completed his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 1990.

Ashok continues to engage in private equity advisory, with an emphasis on investment selection, organisation development, investment process, portfolio construction and risk management. He is also involved in teaching courses on private equity, financial awareness training, and addressing inequality. He resides in Singapore and teaches at NTU, Singapore and does workshops on financial awareness, retirement planning, etc. 

Partha has over three decades of entrepreneurial and industry experience. A serial entrepreneur, Partha developed India’s first SaaS-based solution to manage apartment complexes in 2008. He also developed a jobs portal in 1999 and a SaaS based software solution for microenterprises in 2012. He successfully ran a manpower recruitment solutions firm for over a decade that catered to many MNCs in India.  Before his entrepreneurial stint, he worked as a merchant banker with ITC Classic Finance, the NBFC arm of ITC Ltd. He has mentored many early-stage startups at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore. He is also a co-founder of a firm that is focused on mental health. Partha comes with a rich experience of managing the Executive Education function at IIM Bangalore. Partha is the author of two books – “Unmet Needs of Entrepreneurship – Why Entrepreneurs Do What They Do?” (2018) and “How to Discover Customer Value” (2021), both published by Rupa Publishers. He completed his MBA from IIM Bangalore.