ABOUT FLAME UNIVERSITY
Academic Council
Prof. Dishan Kamdar is the Vice Chancellor of FLAME University. He took charge of this position on August 8, 2018. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Dean of Academic Programmes and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Indian School of Business (ISB). A leading researcher, senior faculty member, executive coach to CEOs of renowned corporates and family businesses in India, and a favourite professor to all his students, Prof. Dishan handles these multifaceted roles with equal ease.
Prof. Venkataramanan is a distinguished scholar, holding a Ph.D. in Business Analysis from Texas A&M University, an M.S. in Business Computing Science from the same institution, and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras. His expertise spans a range of disciplines, including technology management, decision support systems, supply chain management, computer simulation, and enterprise resource planning. He has published over fifty research articles in leading journals, co-authored a book on Operations research, and has been awarded several teaching awards.
Prof. D. P. Agrawal is the Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), New Delhi since 16th August 2008, before which he was a Member of the Union Public Service Commission.
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is a Professor of Religion at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. She has a doctorate in comparative religion from Harvard University (2003). The focus of her research is devotional literature of medieval north India, especially in its performative aspects. She has also published on women’s devotional genres including garbā dance of Gujrat, Hindu goddess traditions, religious pluralism, and Gandhi. She is the author of Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat: A Legacy of Bhakti in Songs and Stories (New York: Oxford, 2015) and co-author (with Surendra Bhana) of A Fire that Blazed in the Ocean: Gandhi and the Poems of Satyagraha in South Africa, 1909-1911 (Delhi: Promilla, 2011).
Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri is a B.Tech (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and a Fellow of IIM-Ahmedabad with a specialization in Business Policy.
He taught at IIM-A from March 1981 till November 2002.
Dr. Santosh Kumar Kudtarkar holds a Master’s in Physics from IIT-Madras and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (MATSCIENCE), Chennai. A Theoretical Physicist by training, his research interests are in applications of field theory in High Energy and Condensed Matter Physics, Dynamical Systems and Mathematical Modelling in the Social and Management Sciences. He is passionate about Quantitative Models and has completed multiple industrial projects.
Prof. Manoranjan Dash is a Professor and Dean of Computing and Data Science at FLAME University. He has received his Doctorate Degree and Master’s Degree in Computer Science from National University of Singapore, Singapore. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. He is also a Postdoctoral Fellow from Northwestern University, USA.
Dr Amit Kundal is Associate Professor and Dean at the School of Design, Art and Performance, FLAME University. He holds a PhD in Human-Centred Design and a Master of Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a Bachelor’s degree in Design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Gandhinagar. He has also been part of global design programs such as Stanford University’s ME310 Design Innovation course and Aalto University’s Product Development Project (PdP) in Finland.
Mr. Tejas Patani is a member of the proprietary investing team of ENAM Holdings Pvt. Ltd. ENAM Holdings is a privately managed principal investment group with a long heritage of investing in the Indian capital markets. Before ENAM, Mr. Patani worked at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in New York as a member of their U.S. Large Cap Equity Research Team. He is a CFA Charterholder. He also holds a BS, magna cum laude, from Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. An avid sportsman, he plays cricket, volleyball and squash regularly. A relentless passion for perfection and an eye for detail are the hallmarks of his organising abilities.
Prasad Pathak is a physical geographer with specialization in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems. Using these techniques Prasad studies various environmental phenomena. For his doctoral work, Prasad studied glacial lakes in arctic Alaska for changes in their trophic structure and its links with surrounding landscapes. He completed his doctoral degree from University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), NC, USA.
Shernaz Bodhanwala has over 12 years of experience in industry, teaching and training.
Prior to joining FLAME University, she was working as an Assistant Professor at NIIT University delivering courses in Advanced Accounting, Cost Accounting and Credit Evaluation and Analysis in the Masters of Business Administration (Finance & Banking) program. Prior to that, she was Senior Associate Vice President at Amba Research India (Pvt) Ltd, Bangalore, involved in credit research on High yield companies covering sectors like Marine transportation, Oilfield services, Real estate and Airlines. Her credit research work involved detailed credit modeling, covenant analysis and report writing for the clients of large Investment banks and broker houses. She is well-versed in applying S&P and Moody’s methodologies on credit rating.
Gangaraju completed his Post Graduate Program in Communications Management from MICA. Prior to his MBA, he earned his B.Tech. (Dairy Tech.) from Gujarat Agriculture University, Anand.
Prof. Gangaraju has more than 16 years of work experience starting with GCMMF (AMUL) as a Quality Assurance Officer. He followed his stint at AMUL with a foray into communications at Cognito Advertising, Vadodara. His last work experience at Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) was the most extensive where he spent a little more than 13 years managing roles across Sales, Marketing and Media Research. In his last assignment at SPN, he was the Vice President & Head – Viewership Maximisation, which entailed converting the video OTT app SonyLIV’s AVOD viewers into SVOD subscribers and eventually platform content fans. His academic work experience started with FLAME as a visiting faculty in 2016.
In his spare time, he enjoys reading non-fiction.
Vikrant is Chief of Staff to the Managing Partners at Quadria Capital, Asia’s pre-eminent healthcare private equity firm. He works on strategy and investments. He is also ADC to the Chairmen of The Investment Committee (IC), the Remuneration Committee (RC), and the Value Optimisation Board (VOB). Previously, he was Principal EA (Strategy) to the MD at Encube Ethicals, following early-career tenures at Hindalco, Reliance Industries, and EY. Vikrant is an alumnus of FLAME, a philanthropic venture of ENAM Holdings.
Member Secretary
Virender Sharma is a postgraduate in English from Panjab University and holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Pune.
With over four decades’ association with some of the leading and premier educational institutions of the country, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise in academic administration. Before joining FLAME, he was the Head of Administration of the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune, for over ten years. Preceding that, he held the position of Registrar at the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune.
Prof. Andrea Phillott has broad experience as a field and laboratory research biologist and a specialised research focus on the biology and conservation of sea turtles and other marine megafauna in South and Southeast Asia and Australia. She applies research methods from the biological and social sciences to understand threats to wildlife and habitats, their sociocultural importance and conservation needs, and to design and assess conservation practices.
Dr. Kwak is the Dean of the School of Communication, B.M. Labroo Chair Professor of Marketing, and Professor of Marketing at FLAME University. Before joining FLAME, he served as the IIMA Chair Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He also held the position of Professor of Marketing (tenured) at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business for 20 years, where he was recognized as the Dean's Research Fellow, Distinguished Teaching Fellow, and Marketing Ph.D. Coordinator.
Aparna Shankar is a Professor in Psychology at FLAME University. Aparna holds a doctorate degree in health psychology from the University of Leeds. Her doctoral thesis examined psychosocial predictors of maintenance of health behaviours. She also holds MSc in Applied Statistics with Medical Applications from Birkbeck, University of London.
Prof. Kaushik Gopalan is Associate Professor – Computer Science at FLAME University. He completed his MS & PhD from the University of Central Florida, USA in the field of Electrical Engineering in 2005 and 2008 respectively. He has completed B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication from the RV College of Engineering, Bangalore in 2003.From 2008 to 2011, he was a Researcher with the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park.