MANAGEMENT

Anuj Bhagwaticompleted his B.S. (Engineering Physics) with distinction (1991) and M.S. (Applied Physics) (1994) – both from Cornell University, USA. Mr Bhagwati, who now heads the A.T.E. Group, joined the Group in 1994. He has been actively involved in a wide range of activities in the group: he introduced IT to the group, managed several companies, put together joint ventures, and has been a part of divestments, turnarounds, start-ups and scale-ups. In the process he has transformed A.T.E. into a modern and technology-oriented group. Under the leadership of Mr Bhagwati, the group has diversified into IoT solutions and safety, health and sustainable technology. The group’s foray into sustainable technology reflects Mr Bhagwati’s personal commitment to the environment. Mr Bhagwati has been involved over the last two decades with the Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (TMMA), India, and was the Chairman for the years 2009-2011. He is deeply involved with various non-profit bodies as well, such as the Urban Design Research Institute (Trustee), the Kala Ghoda Association (Executive Committee Member), Praja Foundation (Trustee), K J Somaiya Trust (Trustee) and the A.T.E. Chandra Foundation (Director). From 2012-2018, he was a member of the Advisory Council of the College of Architecture Art and Planning of Cornell University, USA.

Dr S R Ganesh had a distinguished academic career in leading institutes such as IIT Bombay, Sloan School of Management, MIT (Cambridge, USA) and the London Business School, U.K. He then taught at leading institutes in India and abroad such as the Andersen Graduate School of Management, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, S. P. Jain Institute of Management Research, and SVKM’s NMIMS School Business. He was a member of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, in the 70’s and held the ITC Chair in Strategic Management in the early 90’s. He designed and co-directed AIMA’s innovative top management offering “Advanced Programme on Strategy Choice and Organization Re-positioning” for 4 years. He was a former member of Senate, IIT, Bombay, and a Member of Academic Council, NITIE. His business career is marked with stints as a senior executive with India’s blue-chip companies such as Reliance Industries and Hindustan Lever. He was an Advisor to the Essar Group and a Consulting Advisor to TCS. He was an Independent Director on the Boards of AIA Engineering Ltd. and Aries Agro Ltd. when they went public.He has consulting experience of over three decades in the areas of strategy development, organization development, and management development.

Shailesh Sheth is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has long experience in the engineering industry, as he served as a Managing Director of Perfect Machine Tools Group for several years. Currently, he is a Corporate Strategy Advisor in management and manufacturing technology. Mr Sheth has had long involvement with many leading industry associations and has been the past President of Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, Chairman of National Committee on Capital Goods, CII, New Delhi, Chairman of Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, CII Western Region, etc. He is a recipient of several awards including the prestigious ‘IMTMA-BFW H. R. Gupta Lifetime Achievement Award’. Mr Sheth is an Independent Director on the Boards of several companies such as Jost Engineering, Bharat Fritz Werner, and KNF Pumps

Dr Vivek K Soniis an independent consultant focused on cleantech investments and business strategy and is active in advising entrepreneurs and companies. He was Venture Advisor to Nomura International’s New Energy and Clean Technology Fund, which was operated from London. From 2001 to 2004, he was President, Corporate Technology Strategy and Services, at the Aditya Birla Group, a manufacturing and services global conglomerate. Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group, Dr Soni was Director, Science & Technology, at Polaroid Corporation. Dr Soni started his career at Shell Development Company, a Royal Dutch/Shell Group Company in Houston, TX. He is a Charter Member and current Board Member of TiE Boston and has an excellent network in India and in the financial, business and technical communities in the US.Dr Soni received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. He attended the Executive Development Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Jayendra ShahJayendra Shah is a renowned chartered accountant. He is Director and Promoter of Trans-Continental Capital Advisors Private Limited, a boutique investment bank focused on special situations and private equity. Shah is an accomplished business consultant with over 25 years of experience. His areas of expertise include: business strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, commercial negotiations, and transaction execution oversight. He is a member of the board of directors as well as a part of various advisory committees for various companies.

Nikesh Jain is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has over 25 years of experience, beginning in the lifestyle and retail industry, spanning across functions such as corporate accounts, business planning, investor relations, IPR, legal and commercial, administration, and HR. Nikesh is responsible for group finances, projects, joint ventures, and general management of the group.

Abhijit Kulkarniholds a Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Pune and a post graduate diploma in Marketing Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. Prior to joining A.T.E., Mr Kulkarni has served as Business Head, General Machinery (Motors, Gear Boxes, Fluid Power, Construction, Textile) at SKF India where he worked for a period of 24 years. He has also served as a Business Head, Defence division as well as Business Unit Head, Energy Segment Sales. Mr Kulkarni is a seasoned business leader with 24 years of experience of which 16 years in sales domain and 8 years in manufacturing functions.

K P Singh is a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial) from IIT Roorkee and MBA from Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK. He has around 35 years of experience. He worked with Xerox for 22 years – including a year with Xerox Corp. Webster USA – and was heading the manufacturing operations in India. Also, Mr Singh is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt with a long experience in driving TQM/Six Sigma projects at Xerox. He is with A.T.E. since June 2006 and is responsible for the operations of TeraSpin.

Bhushan Zarapkar an Environmental Engineer, founded his own environmental firm (Alps Environmental Technologies, subsequently known as A.T.E. Envirotech) in the year 2000 after a decade of experience as an environmental engineer. Under his guidance, the firm has executed more than 300 projects in India and across the globe and thus built up extensive experience in the field of wastewater treatment. Mr Zarapkar also did his Executive MBA from IIT Bombay and Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

Ashok Sethuram is a graduate in Physics and Electronic Instrumentation from Bombay University, and a post-graduate in Business Management from Chennai. He has worked for over 30 years in senior positions in industry, providing industrial automation solutions for a variety of applications: paper, sugar, cable, wire drawing, printing, packaging, plastics, textiles…to name a few. In 2005, along with K L Viswanathan, Mr Sethuram set up Valence Electrons Private Limited, in Bangalore, India. Valence is now a part of the A.T.E. group. Valence began by manufacturing electrostatic discharging equipment for industry. The present Valence range includes web cleaning equipment, ink handling, and conditioning products and a specialised air-to-air heat recovery system. Backed by the company’s committed design and application engineering team and A.T.E.’s marketing and sales network, Valence manufactures a range of solutions for a plethora of industries such as paper, flexible packaging and textile, among others.

Anand Mehta completed his studies in engineering in 1986 and began his career soon thereafter with an Indo-German joint venture engineering company. He started in customer support, moved to sales, and later handled product management. He was exposed to international business in another assignment in 1998, when few India-based engineering companies focused on exports. During his 31 year career, he has led domestic sales, international sales, business development, marketing, and product development teams, besides being involved in strategic business planning and general management. He has been with A.T.E. since 2014, and initially handled international business. Today he is responsible for the operation of the print and packaging equipment business unit, covering manufacturing, service, and sales.

Harish Iyer holds a Masters degree in Marketing from NMIMS, Mumbai and a Bachelors in Science (Physics) degree from the Mumbai University. He has over 28 years of diverse industry experience across capital equipment, software products and services, holding senior positions in sales, marketing, and strategy. He started his career with Thermax Limited and has worked with leading global industrial brands, including Terex India, Demag Cranes and Components, Triple Point Technology.

Bhavin Sheth has a M.S. (Computer Engineering) from Rutgers University, NJ, USA and close to 25 years of experience globally as well as in India. In addition to co¬founding technology startups, he has held key management positions at global technology companies such as Cisco, Oracle, and BEA.

Dr Prasanna Rao Dontula leads research and development at A.T.E. His team develops detailed concepts and designs, builds and evaluates prototypes for new products for diverse applications aimed to improve energy efficiency and conserve resources. A mechanical engineer from V.J.T.I. (Mumbai), Dr Dontula completed his post graduation in Materials Science and Mineral Engineering at U.C. Berkeley, before he received his doctorate in Chemical Engineering at U. Minnesota, U.S.A. Since 1993, he has worked on varied clean technologies and enabling areas such as membranes, chemical process additives, effluent and process water treatment, and energy efficiency. He has experience in a number of roles such as R&D Manager and Process Development Manager (at Unilever), and Engineering Technical Leader (at GE). His responsibilities have included academic research and teaching, industrial R&D, process and product development, supply chain innovations, intellectual property management and competitor analysis, R&D strategy and leadership. Dr. Prasanna has co-authored 16 articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters and other articles. He is the co-inventor on 10 patents, and has developed and helped commercialize more than 12 new product and process innovations.

Mr Joshi holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Pune. Prior to joining the A.T.E. Group, he has served as Vice President – Manufacturing, Engineering, Materials, QA & Service at Kirloskar Chillers Private Limited, Pune, where he worked for a period of 26 years. He was earlier head of sales there as well. Mr Joshi brings with him rich experience and a proven track record of setting up, scaling up and heading a business unit and delivering on both commercial and operational targets.