Born in Bury in 1954, Cherie grew up and went to school on Merseyside. She won a place at the London School of Economics to study law, encouraged by the story of Rose Heilbron, who also came from Liverpool and was the first woman to be made a King\'s Counsel. 

Having come first in the country in her Bar Finals in 1975, Cherie joined Lincoln’s Inn where she is still based.  She has forged a successful career in employment, public and human rights law. In 1995, she was appointed a QC. Cherie continues to work as a barrister both in Britain and internationally and is an international arbitrator. She is also a Recorder, or part-time judge, in the County Court.

As well as fighting for human rights in her professional career, Cherie is an active campaigner on equality and human rights issues. She has spoken across the world on both issues and also on the need to improve the work/life balance for both women and men – an issue, as a working woman and mother, on which she feels passionately.  

Her fellow trainee at her first chambers was Tony Blair. The couple married in 1980 and now have four children – the youngest Leo being the first child born to a serving Prime Minister for over a century.

Through her professional work and her time at Downing Street, Cherie has become involved in the work of many charities with a strong bias towards those working with children and women or based on Merseyside. Among the charities with which she is linked are Barnados, the Loomba Trust, Scope, Refuge, Breast Cancer Care and the Howard League for Penal Reform. She is also Chancellor Emeritus of Liverpool John Moores University, Patron of the Asian University for Women, an ambassador for London 2012 and a member of the UNICEF Global Task Force on Water. In 2006, Cherie was given the Freedom of the City of London for her charity work.

To learn more about Cherie’s legal work and affiliations to other charities, visit www.cherieblair.org

Since retiring from active police duty, Kiran has also become an international activist on crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reform, women’s issues, and human welfare. She founded and runs two nonprofit organizations: Navjyoti and the India Vision Foundation, which provide education, vocational training, and treatment for drug addiction to women and children living in India’s slums, rural areas, and prisons.

For her work, Kiran has received dozens of international awards and commendations, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service (also known as the Asian Nobel Prize), the United Nation’s Serge Sotiroff Memorial Award for drug abuse prevention, the Joseph Beuys Award, and the Asia Region Award for Drug Prevention & Control by the International Organization of Good Templars. Kiran is probably the most decorated police officer in the world. She is consistently voted one of the most admired women in India.
 

Kiran’s activities straddle a staggering range of interests. She holds both a law degree and a doctorate, writes columns for leading newspapers and magazines, and anchors several radio and television shows. She has also been the subject of various books and films, including the 2009 film “Yes, Madam, Sir,” which has won accolades at several international film festivals. Kiran is an active public speaker, addressing social, professional, and leadership issues. She is also an Asian tennis champion.

Off-screen, she passionately advocates for the rights of women, minorities, and displaced slum-dwellers, both through activism and in her role as a Member of Parliament (1997-2003). She has also been involved with issues concerning development, reproductive health, housing for the economically weaker sections, public health and HIV AIDS. She has fought relentlessly against religious fundamentalism of all hues and is highly respected as a moderate, liberal Muslim voice.

Shabana was the first Indian to receive the Gandhi International Peace Prize 2006 by Gandhi Foundation London. She also received the prestigious Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum – Davos 2006 for achieving outstanding excellence in the field of culture and having used art to reach out to other cultures.

Ms. Shaw received a graduate honours degree in Zoology from Bangalore University (1973) and qualified as a Master Brewer from Ballarat University, Australia (1975). Ms Shaw also received an honorary Doctorate of Science in 2004, from her alma mater, Ballarat University,  in recognition of her pre-eminent contributions to the field of Biotechnology.  She has also been awarded honarary doctorates from University of Abertay, Dundee, U.K. (2007), University of Glasgow, U.K. (2008) and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. (2008).

Ms Shaw chairs Karnataka\'s Vision Group on Biotechnology and also served on the Board of Science Foundation, Ireland. She presently serves on the Advisory Council of the Government’s Department of Biotechnology where she has been instrumental in bringing government, industry and academia together, to chart a clear and progressive growth path for Biotechnology in India.  Most recently, she has been invited to join the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry in India and the US-India CEO Forum.

Ms. Shaw is the recipient of several prestigious awards including Ernst & Young\'s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare, World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer, etc. Her most cherished awards are the national awards, PADMASHRI (1989)  and PADMA BHUSHAN (2005) presented to her by the President of India, for her pioneering efforts in Industrial Biotechnology. Most recently she was awarded The 2009 Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth.

Under her stewardship, Biocon has evolved from its inception in 1978 as an industrial enzymes company to a fully integrated Bio-pharmaceutical enterprise encompassing a well balanced business portfolio of products and services with a research focus on Diabetes, Oncology and Auto-immune disease.  During this transition, Biocon has established 2 subsidiaries:  Syngene (1994) to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to services in clinical development. 

A leading US trade publication, Med Ad News, in its 2007 listings has ranked  Biocon 20th amongst the leading biotechnology companies in the world.

Coming from a business background, he found the subject of organizational behavior very intriguing for he could relate what he learned about motivation, leadership and negotiations to his business. Based in Singapore, he started a trading firm in 1998, and was enjoying the dividends of studying in the day and working in the evening.  Over the years, he has grown this company, which now enjoys an annual turnover of approximate USD 60 million. According to Professor Kamdar, the key attribute of this success lies in applying the right negotiation skills at the right time, and to fully understand the psychology behind decision making.

He is currently the Associate Dean (Academic Programmes) at the Indian School of Business.

Professor Kamdar has joined the faculty at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in 2004. He specializes in teaching Negotiation Analysis and Decision Making. Prior to teaching at the ISB, he has taught Organization Behavior at the National University of Singapore.  He extensively conducts negotiation training workshops to companies in India.

He has been rated as the “Best Professor of the Year – Electives for 2008-2009” at the Indian School of Business

In his earlier career Gordon worked as Counsellor Psychologist, managed a therapeutic residential centre for the children’s charity, Barnado’s before setting up his own business in community regeneration. Since 1993, he has devoted his time to converting his uncompleted doctorate - transferring its theoretical assumptions - into practical reality that is now known as Training for Life. 

Since its inception in 1995 Training for Life has returned over 13,000 people previously trapped in poverty and long term unemployment, back to work or full time education. They have pioneered successful social enterprises - such as the Michelin recommended Hoxton Apprentice restaurant. As an SME in its own right, Training for Life has created over 150 new jobs for local people. The charity’s turnover has increased from £150K (in its first full year of trading) to approaching £5m today. They have also developed capital assets with a book value of approximately £5M. These are previously owned community buildings that are acquired and restored for charitable purpose. As a committed social entrepreneur, Gordon re invests all social enterprise profit to Charity through legal mandate. They will soon be in a position to scale their business model through franchise.
 
Gordon has been twice named London Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003 & 2006 (sponsored by Ernst Young, Coutts Bank, Stock Exchange and the Times) and the 2004 National Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year-Highly Commended (sponsored by Orange). In 2006 he was inaugurated as Visiting Professor in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Northampton and in the following year was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Thames Valley University for his contribution to business. He was voted as one of the top seven social entrepreneurs in the country by the Guardian Newspaper in 2008.

Training for Life has also been the recipient of several prestigious Charity of the Year and Social Enterprise of the Year awards. In addition, they have won awards for their commitment to staff training, corporate partnership and more recently as environmentally friendly employers. Their social enterprise restaurant, Hoxton Apprentice is acknowledged as the first charity owned social enterprise to have won a Michelin rating three years running.

Nandita started her career at Wipro InfoTech as a software programmer and handled multiple technical responsibilities, in various functions like software coding and testing, program documentation and Quality.

Nandita joined Infosys Technologies, in December, 1999. She founded the Learning and Development wing with a vision to implement learning and training effectiveness and set benchmarks for growth and development. She successfully launched a number of initiatives in the organization: building a learning culture; creating and measuring the competency baseline and improving it year on year; introducing the concept of Client Enabling programs – training interventions designed and implemented for the high performing accounts in the organization; introducing assessment centers and creating individual development plans for high performers.

In October, 2003, Nandita joined Infosys BPO to Head the HR function. Here, Nandita was able to truly position HR as a strategic partner not just within the organization but also with the customers and other external stakeholders. She has been instrumental in the amazing growth path that the organization has experienced. Be it talent sourcing, talent development or talent retention, the organization won many accolades in recent years for conceptualizing, designing, and implementing best practices in people management.

In December 2007, Nandita took over as Group HR Head for Infosys. In her current role she handles the entire HR management function at Infosys Group. At present, Infosys group has over 100,000 employees. Leveraging on her experiences in the industry, Nandita’s endeavor has been to position HR at Infosys as a trusted advisor in strategy formulation and a strong partner in execution. Under her able guidance, the primary responsibility of HR will be to make every Infoscion feel valued, heard, and fully engaged with the company.

Over the years, Nandita has been invited to various national and international forums to share her experience in managing HR. Regarded as a thought leader and an influential speaker, her innovative ideas and ability to captivate  audiences has seen her getting nominated as the best speaker at many forums.

Nandita has a Bachelor’s degree in Literature (BA) from Nizam College, Hyderabad and Master’s degree in Psychology (MA) from Osmania University.

A truly champion of diversity, with hands on experience not only within business but assisting and mentoring young people, women and disadvantaged groups.

Nighat counts four highly successful and very diverse companies amongst her business achievements, encompassing fashion, floristry, food and most recently property and interior design. She is currently CEO of the Shere Khan Group of restaurants and curry products. Nighat is equally well known for her tireless charitable activities, she is also a council member of the CBI and chair of the Ethnic Minority Business Forum – North West, part of the North West Regional Development Agency.

In 2004 Nighat was awarded the O.B.E. in the Queen?s Birthday Honours in recognition of her services to export and to charity.

Other accolades include: Outstanding Contribution award at Manchester?s Food and Drink festival (2004), the Business Award in the Muslim News Awards for Excellence (2005) and the Entrepreneur Award in the Asian Women of Achievement Awards (2005). Nighat was a finalist in the Great Briton 2005 Awards, alongside such household names as Jamie Oliver and Dame Ellen MacArthur, and in July 2006 received an honorary doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Nighat has suffered over 15 years of ill health since 1991 from Cancer of the Thyroid, Motor Neurone Disease which left her paralysed for almost a year to Heart Surgery after being diagnosed with inflammation around the heart.

Despite all her illnesses Nighat has remained positive, focused and upbeat.

PP is the third of the four brothers. He is married to Kamal,  with two sons – Ajay and Ramakrishnan and a daughter, Renuka.

After University education, PP joined the family business in Teheran.  Later on he moved to Geneva and took charge of the Group’s European operations.   PP together with his elder brothers SP and GP, conceived and envisioned the major diversification and expansion of the Hinduja Group into a transnational conglomerate employing over 33000 people and operating in 35 different countries. Its diversified business interests include manufacturing, transport, industrial, infrastructure and real estate development, international banking and finance, hydrocarbons and lubricants, media, telecommunications and information technology, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, international trading and as well as philanthropic activities, primarily in education and healthcare.

Positions
Chairman :  Hinduja Group (Europe)
Chairman –Advisory Board : Hinduja Bank (Switzerland)
Board Member: Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce

Ritu Beri brought her label alive in 1990 when india was still awakening to the couture era. Swift as silk she forayed into France, a protégé of embroidery maestro Francoise Lesage.

The first Indian fashion ambassador to show on the catwalks of Paris she then traveled the globe showing her creations to critical acclaim. Her presentations gave the French fashion  connoisseurs a glimpse into mystical India. The Parisians were abuzz  with exclamations and praises of the rich display of luxurious silks, brocades and the prevalent use of Mogul motifs.

Former US president Mr. Bill Clinton, Hollywood celebrities, supermodels, a famous Parisian Socialite, the Swarovski family, to the prima donna of Indian Movies and a bevy of other VIPs have all worn the Ritu Beri label.

Extensively covered by media, Ritu Beri has had the most critical critics raise a toast to her signature style:

“Surprising as it might seem, Ritu Beri, from Delhi, gave a lesson in high fashion aesthetics and client-pleasing clothes the essence of couture.” SUZY MENKES (Fashion Editor, The International Herald Tribune)

“Ritu is one of the People to Watch in International Business”. TIME MAGAZINE

"By blending Indian and Western styles, designer Ritu Beri is fashioning her own successful international brand.” NEWSWEEK

“Ritu Beri is the Donatella Versace of India. She is the first lady of the fashion in her country.” SUNDAY OBSERVER, LONDON

"Indian fashion takes hold in the form of Ritu Beri.” BBC

“It’s beyond fashion, it’s art.” AFP

“Film stars shun Paris fashion for India, Ritu Beri designs for Nicole Kidman.” DAILY TELEGRAPH

Tejpreet’s 16 years of global management and finance experience was gained in various business roles held in France, England, Hong Kong, India and USA

Prior to assuming his current role, Tejpreet served as President & CEO of GE Commercial Finance in India.  During his tenure he successfully restructured and expanded the business thereby establishing GE Commercial Finance as one of the premier financial institutions in India. 
 
Since joining GE in 1996, he has held positions in marketing, structured finance and risk management, in Stamford and Hong Kong for GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS). In 2005, he moved from the unit's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to open GECAS’s office in Delhi.  As Senior Vice-President and Country Head-India for GECAS, Tejpreet arranged over US$1 billion in financing for India's growing airline industry.  

Tejpreet is involved in various industry associations.  He is a member of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM), the Board of Directors of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), the Young President’s Organization (YPO), and an active participant of the Aspen Global Leadership Network’s -  India Leadership Initiative.  Tejpreet has also spoken at a number of international conferences, including Asia Society’s CEO Forum Series in New York and LA, the Economist’s India Business Summit in London, the Wharton India Economic Forum, the Harvard Business School India Conference, the HT Leadership Summit, and a number of aviation conferences.  In 2008, he was named by Business Today as one of “India’s Hottest Young Executives”.
 
He graduated from The Lawrence School, Sanawar, and was awarded the Alumni award in 2007.  Tejpreet holds a MBA degree from Cornell University and a B.A. Honors degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.  Tejpreet resides in Delhi with his wife Itiva.  He enjoys golfing and used to swim at the national level in India.

He subsequently served as Executive Director in Central Bank and thereafter as Chairman, Bank of India.     He had the distinction of being appointed as the youngest ever Chairman in a public sector Bank.    His leadership for the Bank of India has left a lasting impact on the Bank.    He was instrumental in a major organizational restructure, restoring the motivation of the key management personnel and instituting several changes in the system, which subsequently became the benchmarks for the industry.   During this period he also played a very important role in the negotiations with the National Trade Unions on wage settlements.    He laid the foundation for the introduction of the computers in banking service, which was till then being strongly resisted by the Trade Unions.    He was also the Chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association during this time.  

He joined the ICICI, a public financial institution in 1985.   Under his leadership ICICI, which was then ranked No.3 in the hierarchy of public financial institutions became a leading financial house chalking out a compounded growth rate of close to 30%.    ICICI came to be known for its clean efficient, and prompt service to its industrial clients and the contribution ICICI made in the industrial development of the country came to be widely appreciated.      He pioneered the first Venture capital company in India by setting up the ICICI Ventures in 1987.   From a small beginning this has become a leading venture capital company in the country.    During his tenure in ICICI he was also instrumental in setting up ICICI Securities, (an Investment Bank).    When the banking licence was thrown open to the non state players he set up a Commercial Bank with which ICICI was to merge subsequently to become the first major universal financial institution catering to the diverse needs of all segments of customers.   He remained as the Chairman of the ICICI and the combined ICICI Bank for nearly 24 years till his retirement in 2009.

He pioneered the concept of credit rating in India by setting up CRISIL.   He was the founder Chairman of CRISIL for close to ten years and helped in evolving the best practices of credit rating in the country.    

Education :

Mr Vaghul was deeply interested in education particularly in the under privileged sections of the society.   He became Chairman of Pratham in 1995 in its formative years, and helped in this organization emerge as the largest NGO in the country with its focus on primary education for the under privileged.   Pratham has also offices across the globe to access contributions from the non-resident Indians who are committed to the development of the country.   He relinquished his Chairmanship in 2007  but continues to remain on the Board.     

Mr Vaghul is associated with Azim Premji Foundation as  a Member of its Governing Board.   Azim Premji Foundation has as its primary objective the improvement in the quality of primary education in collaboration with the State Governments and has been doing some outstanding work in the villages.

Mr Vaghul is also associated with Piramal Foundation, which is dedicated to several social causes.   One of the initiatives of the Piramal Foundation is the setting up of the first management training institution in Rajasthan to train the education administrators through out the country.    It has also instituted a very innovative scheme known as Gandhi Fellowships through which bright students from the well-known colleges are recruited and sent to the various villages for a period of two years to help the head teachers and the Principals. 

Mr Vaghul helped in setting up the LNM Institue of Technology in Jaipur, an institutions offering Under Graduate program in Electronics and Telecommunication.    He remains a member of the Governing Board of this Institution.   

Mr Vaghul became Chairman of the IFMR in Chennai in 1985, an Institutions primarily intended to run a part time course in finance to business executives in Chennai.     He was instrumental in transforming this institution into a major Business School offering general management programmes as well specialized programmes in advanced financial studies, sustainable development and development finance.    This Institution is also emerging as a major research center in various other fields such as micro finance, risk and insurance among other things.   

Mr Vaghul was Professor in the National Institute of Bank Management in 1975 and became its Director a year thereafter.       He also taught in the Stern Business School of the New York University for a period of four years from 1996 – 2000, a Fall course for the MBA students.   

Science & Technology

Mr Vaghul pioneered the first Science & Technology Park in the country by setting up the ICICI Knowledge Park in 1999 in which he continues to remain as Chairman.    The Knowledge Park has been set up in a 200 acre complex at Hyderabad given by the Andhra Pradesh Government and has helped the growth of innovation and research in bio-technology.   The scope of the Park has since been widened to include research in Life Sciences and agricultural practices.   The incubation center in the Park promotes new technology and entrepreneurship and an Innovation Fund is now in the process of being set up to help these entrepreneurs to implement their projects.