Speakers

Dr Seema Negi, Principal, Sanjeevani World School, is a Global Goodwill Ambassador, an Eduleader, a proud Rotarian and Social Ambassador for Indian Development Foundation. She is the Coordinator for the SAARC Nations Regional Committee for Global Youth Parliament and is also the Secretary-General from India for Global Talk Education. Dr Negi serves as an Advisor to the Sports Academy Association of India and is the Territory Head for the Association for Primary Education & Research. She is associated with many social and educational organisations worldwide. Her passion and dedication lie in contributing her time and efforts to the betterment of society and education. She is also an eminent speaker, moderator and panellist at various conferences, events and summits at global platforms. Her work is recognised by the World Book of Records, UK, in the personal and professional category. Dr Negi is also the recipient of many national and international awards.

Dr Sunil Rai serves as the Vice Chancellor of UPES and is responsible for driving academic excellence, faculty development and engagement, research, rankings and accreditations at the university. Under his able leadership UPES has been awarded as the University of the Year (North India) 2021 by ASSOCHAM and has emerged as one of the top 100 universities in India as per NIRF Rankings 2021. Dr. Rai has a rich experience of 42 years with 19 years in academics, 21 years with the Indian Navy and 2 years in the corporate world. Prior to joining UPES, he was the Vice Chancellor of MIT Arts Design & Technology University, Pune and as Director on Board of Maharashtra IT Corporation, Govt. of Maharashtra, Mumbai. Apart from UPES, he is a member of the Board of Advisors, Outreach Programs of Virginia Polytechnic University, Blacksburg, US. He is also the co-founder of Cambridge Global Partners, Edinburgh, the UK, which provides strategic consulting to several industrial and academic organisations. An excellent communicator and a prolific speaker at many seminars, Dr Rai has managed and headed many universities and pioneered some of their most important programs. He has steered setting up of large campuses, development of integrated enterprise solutions for organizations and creating state-of-the-art technically enabled teaching-learning infrastructure. Dr Rai is also a commissioned officer of the Indian Navy, who has bravely served for 20 years on ships like the INS Vikrant, Nilgiri, Himgiri and the oil tanker Shakti. He has also served as the DGM (MIS) of Goa Shipyard Ltd Vasco, Goa. His current research interests include technology-enabled and people-driven change management, leading universities through modern-day challenges, and organisational development. Dr Rai originally hails from Bhopal and is a proud alumnus of the Sainik School Rewa and the National Defense Academy, Khadakwasla in Pune. Furthermore, his associations include the alumni networks of IIT Mumbai and ASCI Hyderabad, and he is an associate member of IE(India), CSI Mumbai chapter, and IBA Mumbai chapter. Dr Rai is a PhD in Business Continuity Management from BITS Pilani, an MBA with HR specialisation from IGNOU, an M Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Mumbai, a master’s in marine engineering from Naval College of Engineering, INS Shivaji, Lonavala, and a BSc Honours from JNU in New Delhi. A proven thought leader with unbridled enthusiasm for work, a trailblazer beyond compare, an inspiration for every member of the vast UPES corporate family, and a natural people’s person – these epithets describe Dr Sunil Rai.  

Dr Madhu Chitkara, Pro-Chancellor, Chitkara University, is a teacher at heart, who sees education as a mission of life. As a Co-founder, she is the soul of Chitkara campuses. With vast experience of 42 years, her journey from a Maths teacher to a leading educationist is truly inspirational. She has several accolades to her credit in the form of awards at the State and Central government level, such as the State Award for Teachers, International Achiever’s Award (Women Entrepreneur), ‘Women in Education’ award by The Economic Times, ‘Visionary Edupreneurs’ by Pranab Mukharjee, Former President of India and ‘The Lifestyle Women’s Achiever’s Award by The Eye Media Group. Dr Chitkara is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Gold Medal Award in 2004 and was adjudged as the winner of the Women Entrepreneur Award in South Asia. Her case study on Entrepreneurship is published by the Washington School of Business in 2013.

Prof. (Dr.) Abhay Kumar, Vice- Chancellor, Pratap University, has more than 39 years of experience in the field of education. He has been an entrepreneur for 3 years and worked in the industry for over 16 years as Senior Manager- Personnel. He acquired his PhD from the Department of Business Management, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal and completed his MBA from Motilal Nehru Institute of Research and Business Administration, the University of Allahabad. Prof Kumar has a keen interest in the field of Marketing Management; Strategy being his forte and he has more than 20 years of experience in teaching and research. He is the author of several research papers and has also been the Keynote speaker/Chief Guest at a number of Conferences and Seminars. Prof Kumar is a member of numerous bodies related to higher education and is on the Boards of Management and Advisory Boards of many institutes and universities.

Mr. Aman Mittal Additional Director, Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab (India) Lead Strategist at LPU with rich experience in the area of Growth Marketing, Internationalization, & IT Deployment Additional Director at the largest university of India LPU, Aman Mittal is a young and dynamic force of LPU management. An engineer and an MBA graduate from the University of Southampton, The UK he owns a unique force of managing things with latest tech tracks. Leading different teams passionately, he is instrumental in driving university’s Internalization Strategy, University’s Overall Growth & Marketing strategy and Harnessing Information Technology for University Governance, He has led LPU’s growth and marketing endeavor, both nationally and internationally. We will not be wrong in saying that he is one of the most dynamic persons in the education sector with a vast understanding of growth hack and internationalization. Executive Performances: As a senior member of executive-management team for the University, he has provided consultancy to get LPU transformed under complete corporate culture as a well-integrated and accolades -winning model. Internationalization: Under his planning and consultancy, LPU today can safely be regarded as “university with the most diverse student community in India”. With 3500+ international students from 50 countries, LPU is a true reflection of a conglomerate of different cultures and a truly global environment. University forged partnerships and tie-ups, in academic and non- academic areas, with 200+ foreign universities and institutes across the globe including in the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Brazil, New Zealand, Switzerland, China, Spain, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Nepal under his leadership. Marketing & Growth: Today LPU enjoys one of the strongest brand recalls among the Indian universities and he has been the one instrumental in conceptualizing and leading the brand campaign of the university. His forward-thinking has made LPU one of the first Indian universities to adopt a very corporate communication strategy involving Digital Marketing, Traditional marketing and PR. He is a growth-oriented professional who has led the expansion plan of the University by delivering bold marketing, communications and brand- development programs. IT Consultancy: Has been instrumental in making LPU among the very few universities in India to be a paperless university. Has led the IT team of the university to form India’s first most comprehensive university-wide ERP system that has been designed keeping global practices in mind. In addition, has also planned and executed to make 600 acres campus of LPU safe & secure using the latest CCTV and access control technology. Under his leadership university has won various awards for technology deployment including an accolade for the deployment of one of Asia’s largest Wi-Fi networks.

Dr Amrita Vohra, Director Education – GEMS India, Executive Principal – GEMS International School, Gurgaon, is a passionate learner and educator who has over 25 years of transformative work in education. She has a PhD in English Literature and is a certified Program Leader for Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications for teachers and school leaders. Her experience as an educator cuts across various aspects of K-12 and Higher Education, from curriculum design to quality assurance, from very affordable to niche progressive schools and from green-field and at-risk to premium schools. Dr Vohra has been a faculty for under-graduate and post-graduate programs in Women’s Studies, Literature, Feminist Literary Criticism, Women and Child Psychology and Business Communication. She also led holistic school development planning as the Head of Education Quality Programme with Chicago-based global non-profit organization, Opportunity International. She has also contributed various articles and research papers to a wide variety of professional publications.