People

Dr. Arindam Bhattacharya is Managing Director of The Boston Consulting Group, India  and co-leader of Bruce Henderson Institute, BCG’s new research institution, with responsibility for Asia and Emerging Markets.

Before taking over the current role he was a member of the global leadership team of BCG’s Industrial Goods practice and led the Industrial Goods practice in India, and was the co-leader of BCG’s Global Advantage Initiative.

Starting his career with the Eicher Group in India as a graduate trainee engineer, Dr. Bhattacharya has over 25 years of experience in industry, consulting and research focused on the manufacturing industry and has advised leading Indian and global manufacturing companies on competitive strategy. He led the BCG team that worked with India’s Planning Commission on the 12th five-year plan for the Indian industry and the high level plan to improve R&D capability in India. As Head of BCG India, he has grown BCG’s Social Impact Practice in India in Education, Food and Nutrition, and Health Services, working closely with central and state governments.

Dr. Bhattacharya is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Council, and Chairman of CII’s National committee on States Competitiveness. He is a Governing Council member for Save the Children India and has served as expert member on several Government of India committees.

Dr. Bhattacharya writes extensively in the business media on the development of the manufacturing sector in India and globalisation from an emerging market perspective. He co-authored “Globality – Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything”, which was nominated among the best business books by The Economist in 2008.  His book “How Local Companies Keep Multinationals at Bay,” published in the March 2008 Harvard Business Review, highlights business strategies of innovative domestic companies in China, India, and other emerging markets.

Dr. Bhattacharya was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) and received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad).  He completed his Doctorate in Engineering at the University of Warwick, UK, where his thesis focused on ‘time based competition’ in manufacturing industries.

Author, human rights campaigner and founder of the ASHA Centre a British charity working for the empowerment of young people, sustainable development and peace & reconciliation worldwide.

Zerbanoo Gifford holds the International Woman of the Year Award 2006 for her humanitarian work, which spans fifty years of grassroots and global activism. In 1989 Zerbanoo received the Nehru Centenary Award for her work championing the rights of women, children and minorities. A pioneer for Asian Women in British politics, she was in 1982 elected a Councillor in Harrow and was the first ethnic minority woman to stand for parliament. Zerbanoo chaired the Commission ‘Looking into ethnic minority involvement in British Life’ and was a member of the committee advising the Home Secretary.

A director of Anti-Slavery International, she was awarded the Freedom of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, for combating modern slavery and racism. In 2007, Zerbanoo received the international Splendor Award in Hollywood, for her lifetime achievements in the field of equality and human rights.

In 2010 to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of American Suffrage she was honoured by the Sewall-Belmont Museum in Washington DC in an exhibition commemorating key global women who have advanced women’s rights. Author of seven books, her latest being ‘Confessions to a Serial Womaniser – Secrets of the Worlds Inspirational Women’. It highlighted the lives of 300 exceptional women from 60 countries, for which she was awarded a ‘NESTA (National Endowment of Science Technology and Arts) Fellowship’. Zerbanoo’s biography ‘An Uncensored Life’ by Farida Master is published by Harper Collins.

Pheroza Godrej – Art-historian, environmentalist and writer. Her literary career co-relates history, travel, painting and studies of British artists in India (1690-1930).

The publications which she has co-written or co-edited include, Scenic Splendours: India through the Printed Image; Under the Indian Sun, Bombay to Mumbai – Changing Perspectives; A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion and Culture and Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists – Paintings and Drawings from the Victoria and Albert Museum – 17th to the early 20th Century, including an exhibition and seminar for the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai (CSMVS – formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India).

She is closely associated with the CSMVS, Museum Society of Bombay, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).

A reputed curator and Director of Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, which she founded in 1971, Pheroza Godrej is also President of the National Society of the Friends of the Trees, the main focus of which is the promotion of greenery and environment education.

Kumar Iyer is a Visiting Academic at Hertford College, University of Oxford and a Partner at Oliver Wyman, a leading management consulting firm.

He was previously the British Deputy High Commissioner to India based in Mumbai and the Director General for Economics, Trade & Investment for South Asia with overall responsibility for the UK’s economic and commercial relationship with that region. He has held a number of senior posts in the public and the private sectors, including as Head of Financial Sector Interventions and Deputy Director for Strategy, Planning & Budget at Her Majesty’s Treasury, Deputy Director of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and at the Boston Consulting Group in London. He has also spent time as an economist at Cambridge and Harvard Universities.

Professor The Lord Patel of Bradford OBE has extensive experience working at the highest levels, including government, on national and international developments in a wide range of policy areas impacting on education, health and social care, crime, community cohesion, extremism and equality and human rights.

He has contributed to policy development and service delivery and brokered developments between UK statutory, voluntary and business organisations with other countries including India, the Middle East and Europe, to realise real benefits for local institutions and communities.

Lord Patel has undertaken a number of major organisational reviews for a range of national and international organisations including for and on behalf of Government.

His contribution to Government policies, include in 2005 being the architect of the Government’s largest mental health programme – Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care and in 2010, The Patel Review onto drug treatment in prisons. Over the years he has been appointed to a number of national boards and committees; currently he is

• Chairman: Social Work England
• President: Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH)
• Vice President: British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
• Senior Board Director: England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
• Chairman: Breaking Barriers Innovations
• Chairman: India Business Group
• Chairman: Community Innovations Enterprise
• Professor & External Advisor: Queen Mary University of London
• Professional Fellow Mental Health – Institute of Mental Health
• Life Peer – House of Lords
• Chairman/Patron/member of over 30 not-for-profit organisations across England.

Nayan Patel is a Risk Management specialist with over 35 years of experience in international banking. He has held a number of senior leadership positions in the financial services industry in the UK having served as a Director and Senior Manager at Lloyds Bank managing country credit limits, sovereign risk and complex distressed debt portfolio.

He also served as Chair and Lead Manager for a syndicate of multinational banks on international debt recovery and restructuring.

A committed social entrepreneur and a change leader, Nayan has expertise in building strategic links between organizations with ability to engage a wide network of contacts that includes parliamentarians, government officials, diplomats, multinational corporations, philanthropists, NGOs and other non-profit organizations.

Nayan is a member of Rotary Club of Westminster West, Past President of Rotary Club of Ruislip & Northwood and has served as a Special Representative for Rotary International and its charity arm The Rotary Foundation as well as volunteering his time on humanitarian efforts globally. He has been involved extensively on Advocacy in Rotary’s flagship international programme in the fight to eradicate polio throughout the world and serves as an Advisor to The Rotary India Literacy Mission to help eradicate illiteracy and poverty in the Indian sub-continent.

Nayan is a member of International Advisory Board at Somerville College, University of Oxford providing strategic direction, counsel and advice on their flagship Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development and helps promote the Centre in India, the UK, and around the world to build and assist in developing productive relationships with governments, private sector and non-governmental organizations.

He is on the board of Trustees at Lepra UK, a specialist UK based international charity working to beat leprosy, a disease which affects the most vulnerable people in the world causing life-changing disabilities and has also served on the board of Council for Education in the Commonwealth, a UK parliament based NGO and at EDV Global Foundation an NGO dedicated to find effective ways to end domestic violence and abuse against women and children worldwide.

Nayan sits on the Advisory Board of MPower India, a social impact enterprise established and spearheaded by its Founder and Chair Mrs Neerja Birla who is dedicated to end stigma and encourage dialogue around mental health. He is also an Ambassador to the Tutu Foundation UK, part of a leading global movement to inspire youth and young adults to prevent and resolve conflict and help people build peaceful communities and a Patron of Medical Aid Films, a UK based charity which uses innovative media to transform the health and wellbeing of women and children around the world. He is also a Patron of Healing Little Hearts a UK based international children’s charity whose team of volunteer doctors and nurses perform free life-saving surgeries on babies, children and teens suffering congenital heart disease in some of the poorest and lower-income countries of the world.

A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Nayan  has been bestowed with Rotary International’s highest honour the “Service above Self” award in recognition of his contribution to humanitarian efforts globally and for his volunteering service to various charities and education establishments in UK and Internationally.

Born and brought up in Kenya, Nayan completed his higher education in the UK at Trinity College and Manchester Business School specializing in International Banking.

Judith Unwin read Philosophy Politics & Economics at Somerville College and subsequently spent 35+ years in international banking in the City.

Judith initially joined the merchant bank Lazard Brothers & Co., Limited as their first female graduate trainee. She worked in the Bank’s International Division arranging financing for infrastructure contracts in a range of overseas markets; having first visited India in 1984 she has been a regular and frequent visitor ever since.

After 10 years at Lazard Judith joined ANZ Grindlays Bank in London specialising in South Asia, particularly India. Judith was appointed to various UK Government advisory positions including the South Asia Advisory Group under the auspices of the then Department of Trade & Industry and participated in many Ministerial Trade Missions. In 2000 she moved to BNP Paribas in London during which time Judith was a founding member of the Indo British Partnership then Director and Chair, Nominations Committee of the UK India Business Council (2008-2014). Judith took a short sabbatical from the Bank in 2006 to travel to rural India researching women’s self help groups and microfinance and has been a supporter of various Indian charities.

During Judith’s banking career she travelled extensively and worked on many different types of transactions; her final role at BNP Paribas was Head of UK Export Finance and Development Finance Institutions/Multilateral Agencies.

In parallel with her professional career Judith has held a number of Non Executive Director and pro bono voluntary roles across a range of activities and sectors.

Judith retired from banking in 2016 and inter alia is currently Chair of Contemporary Applied Arts in London, a member of the Management Team of Read Easy Hackney, an Adult Literacy project.

Judith was awarded an OBE in 2000 for Services to Export promotion to South Asia.

With a background in academic clinical medicine Dr Nermeen Varawalla is a business leader who has founded, grown and exited from global life sciences businesses in entrepreneurial and corporate settings.

She is a recognised expert and thought leader in the clinical development and global adoption of new therapeutics and healthcare solutions. Nermeen was Founder and CEO of ECCRO an India focussed clinical trials business and most recently was Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at BTG International plc.

Following her medical training at the University of Mumbai Nermeen received a Rhodes Research Fellowship to Somerville College, University Oxford to obtain her doctorate from the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. After working as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Oxford and Birmingham Women’s NHS Hospitals, Nermeen completed an INSEAD MBA to transition to the life science industry. She has served as a Trustee at the Malaria Consortium during a period of transformational growth and remains passionate about Ethical Business Leadership for Sustainable Universal Healthcare.

Sir Suma Chakrabarti is Adviser to the Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on economic development, effective governance and international cooperation. He is also Deputy Chair of the Kazakhstan Supreme Council on Reforms, and of the Management Council of the Astana International Financial Centre. 

Sir Suma is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of ODI, Britain’s premier international development think tank, and works as a Global Commissioner of the New Climate Economy network, as a member of the Clean Growth Leadership Network, the Advisory Board of ECube Climate Finance, the WHO Commission examining post-COVID19 health systems in Europe, the Board of the Project for Modern Democracy think tank, the Commission for Smart Government, of the International Advisory Council of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, and of the WEF Eurasia Policy Group, and as adviser to the Karta Initiative.

Sir Suma also writes and speaks on various international development, climate change, and public service reform issues.

Sir Suma was until July 2020 the sixth President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral development bank (MDB) with global membership.  Sir Suma served two full four year terms, having won competitive elections in 2012 and in 2016.

During his tenure at the EBRD, Sir Suma led the expansion of the institution’s geographical focus to the Middle East and placed greater stress on the less advanced countries of operation.  While continuing with its private sector focused mandate, Sir Suma led the EBRD’s advocacy for market-friendly policy reform, better governance and improved investment climates, engaging personally with the political leaders of the EBRD’s countries of operation and the CEOs of private and public sector clients.

Before becoming President of the EBRD, Sir Suma had a very successful career in the UK civil service and was Permanent Secretary (most senior civil servant) successively at the Department for International Development (2002-2007) and the Ministry of Justice (2007-2012).  

Sir Suma’s earlier career was in international development, starting as a ODI Fellow in Botswana in the early 1980s, and encompassing a range of economic and administrative posts in the Overseas Development Administration (DFID’s predecessor) in London and in the UK office at the World Bank and IMF.

After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, Sir Suma took a Masters in Development Economics at the University of Sussex. He is a honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford University, a honorary bencher at the Middle Temple, and also holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sussex, East Anglia, and the Bucharest University of Economic Sciences, as well as prestigious honours from Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Sir Suma was knighted in 2006 for his work in international development.

Sir Suma was born in 1959 in West Bengal, India, and moved to the UK when he was five. He is married with one daughter.

Mr. Nasser Munjee holds a Master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics (LSE), U.K. His journey in creating financial institutions began with HDFC, which he joined at its inception in February 1978. In March 1993, he was inducted on the Board of HDFC as Executive Director until 1997. He continues to be an Independent Director on the Board of HDFC along with other leading companies.

In 1997, Mr. Munjee played a pivotal role in setting up IDFC and was its CEO in its formative years. Mr. Munjee has a deep interest for rural development, housing finance, urban issues, specially the development of modern cities and humanitarian causes. He is also the Chairman of DCB Bank Limited and of three other Aga Khan institutions in India.

Debbie has lived in the Washington DC area for almost four decades, having grown up in Ontario, Canada. 

She worked as a computer engineer in NASA’s communication division at Goddard Space Flight Center until she retired in 1999 to oversee the construction of a home.  She and her husband Frank Islam have since built another new home in Potomac, MD.

Debbie serves on the Board of Directors of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Honorary Board of the Halcyon Foundation, the Board of Directors of Washington Performing Arts, the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library and on the National Council of the White House Historical Association.  She and Frank are members of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts, the Abraham Lincoln National Council at Ford’s Theater, the Wilson Center National Cabinet, Meridian International’s Cultural Diplomacy Leadership Council, the Monticello Cabinet, the Global Leadership Council of the UN Foundation, the Washington Cabinet at Mount Vernon and the Madison Council at the Library of Congress.