SANJAY LALBHAI

Chancellor, Chairman and MD, Arvind Ltd.

Mr Sanjay Lalbhai is the Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Governors, Ahmedabad University. He is the Chairman and Managing Director, Arvind Limited (formerly the Arvind Mills Ltd.), with businesses in textiles, clothing, and infrastructure development. He presides over the operations of all the textiles and clothing activities of the Lalbhai Group.
Mr Lalbhai was a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He is also the President of Ahmedabad Education Society, and Chairs number of well-known educational institutions in Gujarat. Mr Lalbhai is the Chairman of ATIRA's (Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association) Council of Administration.

PANKAJ CHANDRA

Vice Chancellor

Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor of Ahmedabad University. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2007-2013) and Professor of Operations and Technology Management at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore.  He holds a BTech from the Banaras Hindu University and a PhD from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has been a full time faculty member at McGill University and IIM Ahmedabad and a visiting professor at the University of Geneva, The Wharton School, International University of Japan, Cornell University and Renmin University, Beijing. He was the first Associate Dean (Academic) at ISB, Hyderabad.

Professor Chandra was a member of the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that relooked at the Indian Higher Education system as well as the Committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. He was also a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include Manufacturing Management, Supply Chain Coordination, Building Technological Capabilities, Higher Education Policy, and Hi-tech Entrepreneurship. His recent book titled ‘Building Universities that Matter’ studies issues of Governance, Change and Institution Building in Indian Universities.  He serves on the board of several firms and institutions.

SANJAY CHAUDHARY

Associate Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science

Professor Sanjay Chaudhary is Associate Dean and Professor at School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ahmedabad University. Earlier, he was a Professor as well as Dean (Academic Programs) at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), Gandhinagar, India. His research areas are Distributed Computing, Cloud Computing, Blockchain Technology, Data Analytics, and ICT Applications in Agriculture and Rural Development. He has authored eight books and nine book chapters. He has published more than one hundred and twenty five research papers in international conferences, workshops and journals. He is an active member of program committees of leading International conferences and workshops as well as review committees of leading journals. He has received research grants from leading organizations including IBM, Microsoft and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Seven PhD candidates have completed PhD under his supervision and three PhD students are currently working under his guidance. More than thirty two students have completed MTech theses under his supervision. He holds a doctorate degree in computer science from Gujarat Vidyapeeth. Prior to joining DA-IICT, he worked at Department of Computer Science, Gujarat University. He has worked on various large-scale software development projects for corporate sector, co-operative sector, and government organizations. He is actively involved in various consultancy and enterprise application development projects. He is a senior member of IEEE and Computer Society of India. He is also a patron, Computer Society of India, Ahmedabad Chapter. Gujarat Sahitya Academy has awarded second prize to his book on ગિરનાર ('Girnar') under 'Essays and Travelogue' category for the year 2009. He loves literature, music, travel and wildlife.

SHOBHA DAS

Dean, Amrut Mody School of Management

Shobha Das joined Ahmedabad University as the Dean of the Amrut Mody School of Management on June 14, 2024. She has earlier served as Dean and as Professor, PhD Committee Chair, and Strategy Chair at the IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University.

She holds a PhD in Strategic Management and Organization from the University of Minnesota, USA, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and a BA (Honours) in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She has three decades of teaching and research experience including at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Qatar University.

As Dean of the Amrut Mody School of Management at Ahmedabad University, Professor Das will lead a school that is growing in influence, has one of the most talented young faculty in the country, and offers some very innovative business programmes.

NAUSHAD FORBES

Co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall and Former President, CII

Dr Naushad Forbes is an Indian Engineer and businessman. He is Co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, India's leading steam engineering and control instrumentation company, and was the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (Cll) 2016-17. He is an active votary of energy conservation in industry, and has founded and started the annual Cll Energy Efficiency Summit and Awards for Excellence in Energy Management. He was visiting faculty at Stanford University from 1987 to 2004. He has at various times chaired the National Committees on Higher Education, Innovation, Technology and International Business. He is currently Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He supported the establishment of the Forbes-Marshall Energy Efficiency Centre at IIT-Bombay in 2016.

KAUMUDI JOSHIPURA

Dean, Bagchi School of Public Health

Kaumudi Joshipura joined Ahmedabad University as the Dean of the Bagchi School of Public Health and the Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor of Public Health in 2023. Professor Joshipura is also an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). She serves on the American Public Health Association advisory committee on Climate and Health Equity.

Professor Joshipura focuses on identifying and promoting preventive measures that are free, low-cost, or cost-saving, and that can be adopted widely and globally. She has a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard University. Her research has focused on evaluating lifestyle factors, microbial and inflammatory markers, and other modifiable risk factors for cardiometabolic and other non-communicable diseases. 

SUNIL KALE

Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science

Professor Kale has over thirty years of experience in teaching and research in mechanical engineering with a specialisation in thermo-fluids. After obtaining a BTech degree from IIT Delhi in 1977, he earned MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University in 1981 and 1984, respectively, all in Mechanical Engineering.

He began his career with Tata Consulting Engineers, Bangalore, where he served for three years.  Post-PhD, he was a Research Assistant Professor with the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of West Virginia University, Morgantown, the USA, for four years. As a faculty member at IIT Delhi since 1989, he has held several administrative positions, including Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has mentored IIT Mandi and IIT Ropar on various aspects.

He has taught thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, design, innovation and manufacturing, engineering drawing, and power generation technologies at the undergraduate level. He has taught experimental methods, fire dynamics and multi-phase flows at the post-graduate level. He has developed teaching laboratories that emphasise hands-on work, experimentation and design.

He has several publications on water spray-based evaporative cooling, pool fire dynamics and their suppression, burning of cloth panels, airflow through a non-air-conditioned bus with open windows, and flows through micro-channels. His current research interests are fluid mechanics, fire dynamics, combustion, vehicular emissions, and energy.

As the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at Ahmedabad University, Professor Kale will provide leadership in building the School and developing curricula and teaching-learning methods that emphasise "learning by doing". He will be promoting basic and applied research with emphasis on inter-disciplinary topics by engaging with faculty from SEAS and other Schools of the University. He will also be promoting technology development in collaboration with industry and entrepreneurs to impact society.

MOLLY KAUSHAL

Professor and Director, Centre for Heritage Management

Professor Kaushal has extensive experience of more than 30 years in the field of intangible cultural heritage. She is former Professor and Head, Janapada Sampada Division at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi (IGNCA). She is a folklorist by training and obtained her PhD from Moscow State University, Moscow, in Russian and Indian Folklore. Before joining Ahmedabad University, she was the Mission Director for the National Mission on Cultural Mapping, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, housed at the IGNCA.

DEEPAK KUNZRU

Dean, Graduate School and Research

Professor Deepak Kunzru recently retired as Professor of Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur where he was a faculty since 1974. He was earlier the Chevron Chair Professor at IIT Kanpur. He received his BTech from IIT Kanpur in 1968 and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh,U.S.A. in 1972. He was a Visiting Professor in the Dept.of Chemical Engineering, MIT, U.S.A during Sept-Dec.2009.Professor Kunzru’s main research interests are in the area of microstructured reactors, chemical reaction engineering, pyrolysis of hydrocarbons and petroleum processing. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed international journals and has edited one book. His current research focuses on the use of monolithic reactors for gas-liquid reactions and steam reforming of methane, production of hydrogen from ethanol in microchannel reactors and the development of catalysts for hydrodesulfurization.

PUNIT LALBHAI

Vice Chairman, Arvind Limited

Mr Punit Lalbhai is Vice Chairman of Arvind Limited and leads Arvind Advanced Materials, Engineering and Agribusinesses. He also spearheads initiatives in sustainability, CSR and Innovation at Arvind. He has an MBA from INSEAD and a Masters of Environmental Science from Yale University.

DARSHINI MAHADEVIA

Professor, School of Arts and Sciences

Darshini Mahadevia is a well-known scholar whose research focuses on equity concerns within urban policies relating to climate change adaptation, mitigation, and human and general development. She received her doctoral degree in Urban and Regional Development from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prior to joining Ahmedabad University, she coordinated the Centre for Urban Equity and was the Dean of the Faculty of Planning at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. In particular, Professor Mahadevia’s research has focused on cities and the policies and processes of their development from an equity perspective. She argues for a bi-focal view to assess the impact of the modernist, deterministic, and top-down approach adopted in Urban Planning on the economically, socially, and politically weak segments of society and the city’s ecological resources. She is currently investigating urban data systems in the context of urban development dynamics, their sustainability, and equity. She also is a member of the High-Level Committee on Status of Women, India. Professor Mahadevia has also been an Editorial Board Member of the International Development Planning Review - Journal of the University of Liverpool, Environment, and Urbanization - Asia, since 2019, and Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography since 2017. She has been an Advisory Board Member for Safetypin and WRI Ross Centre Prize for Cities since 2020. Professor Mahadevia has over 120 publications as books, book chapters, and journal articles. At Ahmedabad University this year, she is teaching a course on urban finance, and is part of two interdisciplinary courses -- one on the city of Ahmedabad and the other on neighbourhoods.

MONA MEHTA

Associate Dean, Arts

Mona Mehta is Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Arts at the School of Arts and Sciences. She is a political scientist with research interests in urban transformations, democracy, and middle-class politics in the context of Gujarat and India at large. She is working on a book manuscript examining the cultural politics of urban transformations in post-liberalisation India. Her book will explore what we can learn about India’s urbanisation by examining the trajectories of pastoralists or maldharis, who have increasingly settled into urban spaces, and their strategies to navigate the precarious urban informal economy. Her previous work explored the vulnerability and complicity of democratic and civic spaces in the production of exclusionary politics. She is also interested in the valuable insights that can be gained about complex social phenomena through the use of qualitative, especially interpretive and ethnographic research methods, in the social sciences.

Professor Mehta has previously taught in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Scripps College in Claremont, USA (2010-2012) and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (2012-2020). 

SUDHIR MEHTA

Chairman Emeritus, Torrent Group

Mr Sudhir Mehta is the Chairman of the Rs. 21,000 crore Torrent Group. Born in 1954, he joined the family business soon after completing his education. It was his visionary foresight and enterprising zeal that steered the Group from its early days as a generic pharma manufacturer to its current dominant position in the Indian power and pharma sectors. As an individual, Mr. Mehta strikes a fine balance between his entrepreneurial involvement, social responsibility and philanthropic activities. A strong proponent of education, he is actively involved in various social welfare activities and takes keen interest in promoting education in the rural areas. Mr. Mehta is also closely associated with various organizations, both professional and social.

NAISHADH PARIKH

Chairman and MD, Equinox Solutions Ltd.

Mr Naishadh Parikh, an MBA, is Chairman & MD of Equinox Solutions Ltd. He is on the Board of AES as also on the Governing Council of CEPT University and Ahmedabad Universtiy. He is a member of ATIRA Council of Administration. An ex-Chairman of CII for 1992-93 & 93-94. Associated with CII in various capacities.

PANKAJ PATEL

Chairman and MD, Zydus Lifesciences

Mr Pankaj R. Patel is Chairman and Managing Director of Zydus Cadila. He is currently the President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the Chairman of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Gujarat State Council. He is the Executive Chairman, Vice President and Trustee of the Gujarat Cancer Society and Chairman of the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute.

PARAG M PATEL

Senior Associate Dean, Amrut Mody School of Management

Professor Patel, has two decades of extensive experience in teaching, research and academic administration. He was the Director of HL Institute of Commerce from 2014 to 2016.
Professor Patel has held key positions at different organisations. He is the Chairman, Education Committee, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Vice Chairman, HL College Alumni Association, and was the Member, Education Committee of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). 

Professor Patel has an MPhil in Accountancy and a PhD in Equity Investment Decisions from Gujarat University. Professor Patel has research interest that encompass Accountancy, Capital Markets, and Financial Institutions. He has been featured as a Market Expert in more than 80 live shows on national TV channels. He has had an opportunity to understand the international education scene as a part of the Faculty Development Programme from the University of Cambridge, The United Kingdom. He brings his vast exposure of national and international education to the area of transformative educational leadership.

Professor Patel is keen to make a positive difference to Education Sector and as a Senior Consultant he has advised an INR 100 Crore education initiative, set up by the financial giant, HDFC Limited. The World Education Congress of June 2016 listed him as one of the "100 Most Influential Directors of India in Education’’. Professor Patel has also received Chairman’s Award for “Leadership, Teamwork and Innovativeness” at Ahmedabad University.    

RAGHAVAN RANGARAJAN

Dean, School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Raghavan Rangarajan is Dean and Professor at the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University.

He was on the faculty of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad for over twenty years before joining Ahmedabad University. His areas of research are cosmology and particle physics, and he works primarily on processes that occurred soon after the Big Bang in the very early Universe. In particular, his research has been on topics such as dark matter, the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and the cosmic microwave background. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, and his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1988.

Professor Rangarajan has also been interested in working with college students and has been actively involved in programmes that bring together college students and scientific researchers. He is an editor of the journal ‘Physics Education’ of the Indian Association of Physics Teachers.

PRIYADARSHI R. SHUKLA

Director, Global Centre for Environment and Energy

Professor P. R. Shukla currently holds the position of Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group III (Mitigation) since October 2015. He has a doctoral degree from Stanford University and have been a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad since 1979. He has been awarded the Certificate for the ‘CONTRIBUTION TO THE AWARD OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE’ FOR 2007 TO THE IPCC’ and Certificate for Contribution to Climate Change Research, by the Hon’able Prime Minister, Government of India in 2007   

SAURABH SOPARKAR

Senior Advocate, Gujarat High Court

Mr Saurabh Natwarlal Soparkar is a Senior Advocate practicing in the High Court of Gujarat and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Ahmedabad. Had been standing counsel for the Income Tax Dept for three years from 1986-89. Contributed papers at various residential seminars conducted by ICAI, BCA etc. Shri Soparkar is a Visiting Professor at IIM Ahmedabad on the subject of “Corporate Tax Planning” and “Legal Aspects of Business”.

VIVEK TANAVDE

Associate Dean, Undergraduate College

Professor Vivek Tanavde joined Ahmedabad University in 2017. Prior to this, for over 10 years, he was a Principal Investigator at the Bioinformatics Institute, Singapore. He has also headed the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Lab at Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai, where his work focused on developing mesenchymal stromal cell-based therapies for cardiac and neuronal disorders. From 1999 to 2002, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr Curt Civin at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre, Johns Hopkins University, working on the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Professor Tanavde obtained his PhD in 1999  from the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai, in Applied Biology. He was also the Secretary of the Stem Cell Society, Singapore, for five years and serves on the education committee of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC).

DEVANATH TIRUPATI

Executive Provost

Professor Devanath Tirupati is currently Executive Provost at Ahmedabad University. He was Senior Dean Academic and Dean, Amrut Mody School of Management.  He has received BTech from IIT Madras, PGDM from IIM Calcutta and PhD from Sloan School of Management at the Masschusettes Institute of Technology.  He has over three decades of experience in academia spanning a range of activities in teaching, research and academic administration at some of the best national and international institutions.  He was recognized for his research by the University of Texas at Austin with an Award for Research Excellence and by the National Science Foundation, USA as a Presidential Young Investigator.  He has served on the editorial boards as Associate Editor of prestigious journals such as Operations Research, Management Science and as Department Editor of Production and Operations Management.  He was co-founder of the Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where he was involved in several leadership roles that include Chairman (Admissions & Financial Aid, PGP), Chairman (FPM) and Member of Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee. As EADS (later Airbus) Chair Professor at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) he led the Center for Supply Chain Management for several years.  As Dean (Academic) at IIMB he played a key role in introducing a range of initiatives for promoting research and in developing a comprehensive framework for measuring and evaluating faculty performance. 

SUNAINA TOMAR

Additional Chief Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

Sunaina Tomar, IAS, is a member of the Indian Administrative Service and has been serving in senior leadership positions in the government for over 35 years. During her administrative career, she worked as a Collector and Drawing and Disbursing Officer in various districts of Gujarat and has worked in several departments like Labour and Employment, Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Land Revenue Department, Textiles, Transport, Social Justice and Empowerment and Human  Resources/Education in the state government. 

She holds a postgraduate degree in Psychology from Maharishi Dayananda University, Rohtak, Haryana.

Sunaina Tomar, IAS, is a member of the Indian Administrative Service and has been serving in senior leadership positions in the government for over 35 years. During her administrative career, she worked as a Collector and Drawing and Disbursing Officer in various districts of Gujarat and has worked in several departments like Labour and Employment, Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Land Revenue Department, Textiles, Transport, Social Justice and Empowerment and Human  Resources/Education in the state government. 

She holds a postgraduate degree in Psychology from Maharishi Dayananda University, Rohtak, Haryana.

BALAJI SRINIVASAN

Senior Advisor to the Vice Chancellor, Ahmedabad University

Balaji Srinivasan is Senior Advisor to the Vice Chancellor of Ahmedabad University. Previously, he was the Executive Vice President for Science, Innovation, and Strategy, and Deputy Provost, and Chief International Officer of the University of Chicago, where he continues to serve as Senior Advisor to the President. He received a B.S. in mathematics from Caltech and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Dr Srinivasan has had an extensive career in the international financial markets, serving as Managing Director of Och Ziff Capital Management, based in India and Hong Kong; Executive Director of Goldman Sachs Hong Kong; and Associate Director of Jardine Fleming in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.

SANJAY GOKHALE

Registrar and Member Secretary

Colonel Sanjay Gokhale has 36 years of experience in the fields of Engineering and Administration. He has worked across domains such as establishment, estate management, campus planning, engineering, project management, and material management with the Indian Army and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. He has completed an MTech in Energy and Environmental Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a BS in Physics (Major) and a BTech in Mechanical Engineering.

He began his career as an Army officer in the Corps of Engineers in June 1988, soon after passing out of the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. He took premature retirement from the Army as a Colonel in 2017 and joined TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), subsequently as Deputy Registrar, and also officiated as Registrar before joining Ahmedabad University. In his 36-year career, he has served the entire length and breadth of the country, besides a stint with the United Nations in Sudan (Africa) as a peacekeeper.

As a Registrar at Ahmedabad University, he will be the Member Secretary of the Board and will be engaging with the regulators. He will also be responsible for compliance and the custody of records, the common seal, and other property of the University.