Our Team of Experts
Excellence meets Experience
Thomas Oommen
Managing Partner and Chief Consultant
Retd. Director - International Marketing, HMT (International)
Retd. Head - Business Development & Planning; Quality Evaluation and Systems Team (QUEST), Bangalore
Mr. Thomas Oommen retired from HMT (International) Limited as Director, International Marketing after 34 years of service in various other capacities from Engineer Trainee to General Manager. With a B. Tech degree from IIT Madras and the right combination of academic acumen and managerial skills, he had successfully revived the Projects Department during his tenure 2005- 2009 resulting in offers for Major Projects valued at over Rs.1200 million.
His significant contribution included addressing the challenges of the new millennium viz., proliferation of brands in international markets, shrinking barriers to exports and burgeoning e-business, leading the marketing team’s effort and leverage technology to score sustainable competitive advantage in marketing of products and projects.
Mr. Thomas Oommen was leading a team of talented Engineers and support staff who were instrumental in the marketing of Machine Tools valued over Rs 110 million annually to Middle East and other countries against international competition, implementing Machine Tool Revival project in Nigeria, Entrepreneur and Technical Development Project in Senegal, marketing the concept of integrated development of Small and Medium Enterprises along with Entrepreneur Development resulting in bagging order for Rs.250 million SME Development project in Zimbabwe.
Subsequent to his superannuation from HMT(I), he worked as Head- Business Development & Planning at Quality Evaluation and Systems Team Pvt Ltd QUEST), a quality management company, based at Bangalore with 15 branches across the country. During his tenure of over twelve years till March 2022, he has helped QUEST increase its turnover three-fold.
He is widely travelled and has visited more than 25 countries as part of his professional responsibility and personal interests. He has been pursuing photography as a hobby for many years.
Anu Thomas
Educational Consultant
Retd. Principal KVS,
Academic Consultant - JGI Schools
Academic Consultant - Arka Eduserve Pvt. Ltd.
With her rich experience in KVS as a teacher and as Principal, Ms. Anu Thomas is well versed in the current trends in school education and guides schools in all areas of academic administration. She has extensive experience in Teacher Training as a Resource Person and Director of In-service Training programmes organised by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan in various schools as well as in its Zonal Institute of Education and Training. She has also coordinated training programmes organised by IGNOU for KV teachers.
Ms. Anu Thomas has participated in International Projects sponsored by British Council and CBSE as part of the delegations of School Leaders visiting UK and China in 2007 and 2013 respectively. Her commitment in moulding her students as holistic personalities has been recognised through “KVS National Incentive Award for PGTs” in 1998 and as the National Winner of “EQFI Award for School Leaders” by Education Quality Foundation of India in 2008.
Ms. Anu Thomas is associated with Era foundation Bangalore as Marg Certified Counsellor in Career Guidance from April 2021. She is the founder Secretary of KVS Retired Employees Educational Academy (KVS REEDAC) which has been undertaking School Management Services from 2018.
Currently serving as a part-time Academic Consultant for JGI Schools under Arka Eduserve Pvt Ltd and Content developer for Era Foundation for competitive exams for professional colleges, universities and govt depts, Mrs. Anu Thomas has been serving in the educational field for the past forty-five years.
Dr. Narayan Gururao Kurahatti
Engineering Consultant
Retd. Professor, Sir MVIT Engineering College
Retd. Professor, East Point College of Engineering and Technology
Dr. N G Kurahatti obtained his Ph. D from IISc Bangalore in the year 1982 and he had an industrial experience of 16 years in HMT & HMT (International) in Business Planning in Watches and Project departments till March 2000. He had been involved with IISc Bangalore and CERI Kariakudi for the development of products and software for the manufacture of electronic watches by HMT. After opting out of service under Voluntary Retirement Scheme, he worked as General Manager in DUCOM from April 2000 to May 2001 and thereafter joined the Academia and served as Assistant Professor and Professor in EC Dept at Sir MVIT Bangalore and as Professor in the ECE dept of East Point College of Engineering and Technology. He has served as member of Inspection committee of The Institute of Engineers India, Member of BoE and LIC of VTU
.
Dr N G Kurahatti has served as Research guide under VTU for three Ph.D. scholars who have been awarded Ph. D. degree. His areas of specialization include VLSI (semiconductor devices, microelectronics etc.), Optical Fiber Communication, VHDL. He has to his credit more than 30 publications which include national and internationals journals/ conferences. He was involved in the preparation of scheme of subject and contents of syllabi for a 4-year degree course in Mechatronics of VTU, syllabus formation of MEMS course in association with IISc and writing some chapters of the book prescribed for an elective/core subject of the BE Course of VTU. He has been involved in submission of R&D project proposals and faculty development programs to AICTE.
Dr N G Kurahati completed his M Tech from Mysore University and his Ph. D from IISc Bangalore. He is credited with the establishment of VHDL lab at Sir MVIT, being an Internal guide for UG and PG projects. Internal guide for > 40 M.Tech. projects and external examiner for > 75 M.Tech. projects, External examiner for ten Pre-Ph D Comprehensive viva exams.
Prof. Sukesh Kumar B. R.
Management Consultant
Retd. Professor, ICFAI Business School (IBS) Bangalore
Adjunct Professor, GITAM School of Business
Prof. Sukesh Kumar have fifteen years of teaching experience at IBS-Business School, Bangalore as a full -time faculty from 2002-2017. During his Industry tenure, as a visiting faculty, he had taught at Christ College, IFIM, RJS Institute of Management and Alliance Business Academy, NMIMS, KIAMS, JAIN University. After his successful career as Professor at IBS, he is currently serving other Business Schools as
Visiting faculty at KIAMS, Harihar, currently handling Sales Management and Services Marketing, Visiting faculty at NMIMS- Executive PGDM program, Visiting faculty at CMS Business School. Bangalore
While serving at HMT from 1981-2002, he moved up the ladder from a Trainee Engineer to Joint General Manager, Marketing at HMT (International) Ltd and was heading Machine tool export; directly responsible for Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA with an additional responsibility for sales in other markets at the time of his voluntary retirement to pursue his passion of teaching in Business Schools. He was involved with the marketing of an array of Products like technologically advanced CNC machines, dedicated Special Purpose Machines, Universal Machines, Wrist Watches, Watch Movements, Tractors, Ball bearings, Lamp and Lamp Making Machines, Turn Key Projects (Feasibility to Implementation), Cutting Tools, Measuring Instruments, Refurbishing Services, Industrial consumables. He has visited Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Australia during his tenure in International Marketing. He was involved from Product Formulation Stage up to International marketing of Products. It is this experience and his analytical ability that has enabled me to successfully integrate Theory and Practice crucial in Management Education.
Prof Sukesh Kumar had been a resource person for a few Faculty Development Programs (FDP) conducted by Christ Institute of Management. Further, I have been a resource person in FDP’s conducted by IBS-B at Mysore, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Bangalore. He has published many articles in a few magazines like Marketing Mastermind, ICFAI Books- Industry Academia Interface -2009, Habitual Entrepreneurs 2007, Intelligences for Inspired workplaces- 2008, Commodity Branding- An internal branding perspective- Marketing Mastermind 2009.
He had won the Best Teacher award at IBS B twice in his tenure at IBS-B. He graduated in Mechanical Engg from BMS College of Engg and completed his MBA from Central College, Bangalore University.
M. S. Sudha
Educational Consultant
Retd. Principal, KVS
Former Principal, TJIS KGF, Kolar
Ms. M.S. Sudha, Retd. Principal, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is a postgraduate in Botany from Bangalore University, B.Ed. from Regional College of Education Mysore and a Diploma in Distance Education from IGNOU.
As a passionate teacher, she worked as Post Graduate Teacher with dedicated and fulfilling service of 27 years in Kendriya Vidyalayas and National English School Rajajinagar. In addition, she has served 11 years as principal in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Her competency as Resource Person for In-Service Training Programmes for teachers in science has been highly appreciated. She has prepared study materials in Science and Biology for Grades IX -XII.
Ms. M S Sudha continues to serve the cause of Education as an Education Consultant, Content Developer and a freelance Teacher Trainer by sharing the experience and expertise gained over the years and is currently engaged in training and empowering School Teachers. Her expertise include Activity Based Teaching- Learning, Time Management by Educators, Lesson Planning, Evaluation Techniques and Tools
Ms. M S Sudha is associated with Era foundation Bangalore as Marg Certified Counsellor in Career Guidance from April 2021. She has also been a Content Developer for competitive examinations conducted for professional colleges, universities, govt departments by Era Foundation Bangalore, Meta-I Technologies, Bangalore etc.
She is the founder Treasurer of KVS Retired Employees Educational Academy (KVS REEDAC). She is settled in Bangalore and is currently engaged as an honorary Consultant for AmZi Human Capital Consultancy
K. G. Sujaya
Educational Consultant
Retd. Principal, KVS
Former Principal, JPS, Ranebennur
Ms. K G Sujaya has a vast experience of over thirty-four years as a Post Graduate Teacher, Vice Principal and as a Principal in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan in various regions. She has a Master’s degree in Chemistry M.Sc. Ed from Regional College of Education and also a B. Ed degree. She has prepared study materials in Science and Chemistry for Grades IX-XII for many years. She is a great motivator for students and a guide for teachers. During her tenure in KVS, she was known to produce excellent results in Board Examinations for Class X and XII. She has been recognised for her dedicated services in KVS through “KVS Regional Incentive Awards for Principals from Ernakulam Region and also KVS National Incentive Awards for Principals”.
After retirement, she has served Jain Public School Ranebennur as Principal for two years and she has led the school commendably by producing excellent results in Board Classes as well as other classes by adopting Differentiated Instruction Strategies. She continues to serve in the field of Education as an online tutor in Chemistry for Grades IX – XII for students in India and abroad.
She has also been a much sought-after Content Developer for competitive examinations conducted for professional colleges, universities, govt departments by Era Foundation Bangalore, Meta-I Technologies, Bangalore etc. She is settled in Kerala and is currently engaged as an honorary Consultant for AmZi Human Capital Consultancy
Dr. Achint Thomas
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Specialist
Data Architect, Scribble Data Inc. Toronto, Canada
Former Principal Data Scientist, Indiavidual Learning Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India
Former Senior Scientist, Yahoo! Labs, Sunnyvale, USA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/achintthomas/
Dr. Achint Oommen Thomas is a data scientist with over 15 years of experience in both industry and academia with expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), data engineering, machine vision, and security and anti-abuse. Currently at Scribble Data Inc., he leads data strategy and develops the platform’s data science capabilities.
Previously, he was Principal Data Scientist at Embibe (Indiavidual Learning Pvt. Ltd.), a leading AI-driven online EdTech platform in India. As a core member of the leadership team, he was instrumental in the US$180 million acquisition of the company by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and was responsible for developing automated AI solutions to improve student learning outcomes at scale by building systems for mentor intelligence, personalised search, content classification, and recommendation systems. Additionally, he was key in-charge of driving a data-first culture at the growing company and patenting the educational solutions developed. Before that, he was a Senior Scientist at Yahoo! Labs in California, USA working on strategies for prevention, detection, and mitigation of internet-scale security issues and abuse-related threats, including hate speech detection, email spam, content spam, user account trust, and safety and network attacks.
He has over 20 publications and patents to his name. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and top-tier conferences in the field of computer science (Pattern Recognition Journal, Int’l Journal of Document Analysis and Recognition, Int’l Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition, ACM SIGKDD, ACM Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, Int’l World Wide Web Conference), and has been featured in the press (Wired UK, MIT Technology Review, FactorDaily). He has also spoken at various venues as an invited speaker (Feature Store Summit 2022, Valley ML AI Expo 2022, ICFHR 2010) on the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to real-world problems.
Dr. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, New York, United States.
Dr. Bincy Wilson
Social Science Researcher and Policy Expert
Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Children, Communities and Social Services, Ontario, Canada
Former Senior Research Associate, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Canada
Former Research Fellow and Program Head at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), India
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bincywilson/
Dr. Bincy Wilson has more than 15 years of field-based and academic experience in the social service sector working as a social worker, therapist, and researcher. She has expertise managing, monitoring and evaluating international development programs related to ending gender-based violence, human trafficking, child/women’s rights and creating an environment for equity-deserving groups. She is a strong proponent of gender equality and evidence-based practice to improve legislations, policies, and programs and contributing to developing an egalitarian society.
Dr. Wilson has worked in multiple countries including India, USA, Canada, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in diverse cultural settings using inclusive, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and intersectional lenses to conduct research and develop policies. Her experience with international NGOs (Terre des Hommes Netherlands, We World - Italy) includes managing, monitoring and evaluating programs totalling 3 million euros to stop exploitation of women and children across South Asia.
As a social science researcher, Dr. Wilson has led teams (NLSIU, TMU), developed manuals/reports/handbooks for stakeholders (UNICEF, World Vision, Tata Trusts, Women and Gender Equality - Government of Canada), published in high-impact factor peer-reviewed journals (Affilia, Women’s Studies Int’l Forum, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse), presented at international conferences and conducted training programs for Government of India functionaries, law enforcement officers, and graduate students. While at NLSIU, India she led research studies examining the legal dimensions of the Devadasi dedication phenomenon and access to legal aid among children in conflict with law in Karnataka, the findings of which were presented before a High Court judiciary panel advocating for changes in legislation and policies.
More recently, she has evaluated educational initiatives providing online tutoring support to K-12 students belonging to equity-deserving groups (Black / Racialized / 2SLGBTQ / Newcomer / Indigenous) in Ontario, Canada during COVID-19 and facilitated strategic planning efforts and action plans for program improvement.
Dr. Wilson has a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University at Buffalo, New York, United States and Masters in Social Work from Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore, India.
Dr. Abhay Thomas
Materials Research Scientist
Director of Research, Dickinson Corporation, California, USA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhay-thomas-baa89413
Dr. Abhay Varghese Thomas is an internationally recognized expert in the field of materials science, specializing in carbon nanomaterials including graphene and carbon nanotubes. Over the past 14 years Dr. Thomas has developed his expertise in the field dealing with both fundamental conceptual issues and complex practical challenges facing carbon nanomaterials. Today, as an expert in carbon nanomaterials and as the Director of Research at Dickinson Corporation, he is spearheading the development of the next generation nanoscale architected materials for highly engineered polymer composite systems.
During his doctoral studies at RPI, Dr. Thomas authored publications ranging from synthesis and characterization to applications of graphenic (nanoscale carbon) architectures. After his move to industry he has been integral in producing intellectual property in the form of multiple patents that display his zeal to continue to stay at the cutting edge of carbon nanomaterial research. He has over 20 publications and patents in high-impact top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Materials, Nature Communications, ACS Nano and Advanced Materials. He has maintained his connection with academic research by accepting peer-reviewing requests for articles for prestigious journals like Carbon after he moved to the industry. In addition to his published scholarly journals, Dr. Thomas was accepted to present oral presentations at conferences like New Diamond and Nano Carbons Conference (NDNC - 2014) and Materials Research Society (MRS - 2012).
Dr. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, New York, United States.
Shambhavi Prasade
Strategy Consultant
Strategy Consulting | Innovation & Product Management, California, USA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shambhaviprasade/
Shambhavi Prasade is a Global Management Consulting, Innovation and Product Management professional with diverse experience in strategy and technology consulting and core product management principles and processes. She has cultivated her diverse background having worked for more than a decade at Bain and Company, one of the global big three consulting companies. She has experience working with Global and Indian multinational clients across US, UK, Philippines and India.
She has deep and varied experience in Corporate Strategy, Consumer Brand strategy, Sales acceleration, Cost optimization and Customer Strategy and Marketing (NPS) and Program Management (Results Delivery) for clients in Technology, Consumer Goods, Insurance and Healthcare and more recently in core product management for client and internal Bain products. Currently serving as Senior Manager, Innovation and Product as part of Bain’s Innovation and Product Design team (part of Next Generation Software Solutions) she is working on special projects to bring Bain's most important IP to life with technology.
Her previous product experience includes running digital consulting engagements helping clients accelerate the transformation and bring their innovative ideas to the marketplace, anchored on design thinking and agile approaches. Prior to that, Shambhavi worked as a Manager at Bain’s Mumbai office with 5+ years of strategy consulting experience across India and the US.
Shambhavi has a strong educational background from premier institutes: Bachelors in Technology from NITK Surathkal and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. She stood out being part of the elite top 0.5% across India out of 180,000+ candidates in aptitude tests for admission to the programs.