Speakers

Mindfulness Teacher & Author, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Ronald D. Siegel

Dr. Ronald D. Siegel is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance & University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he is teaching for over 30 years. He is Doctor of Clinical Psychology and has completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Siegel is an internationally acclaimed teacher on mindfulness, psychotherapy and mind–body treatment. A long-time practitioner of mindfulness practices and serves on the board of directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He teaches about mindfulness and its application to psychotherapy and other fields and maintains a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts

He has taught workshops for diverse organisations and institutions. His work has been featured on number of National television programs and National Radio.

Dr. Siegel authored number of internationally acclaimed books for professionals ‘The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems’ Mindfulness and Psychotherapy , Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, and coauthor of the new professional text, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy.

IKIGAI Expert & Author, Japanese Science of Mindfulness

Hector García

Hector Garcia is well known writer of ‘Ikigai’ . In Japanese ‘Ikigai’ can be translated as “a reason for being”. Hector Garcia, a software engineer  born in Spain and lived in Japan for over years, joined forces with Francesc Miralles, one of the most charismatic modern authors in Spain, to investigate and develop the concept of ‘Ikigai

The result was Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Performance and Happy Life — An ancient concept that’s practically changing lives by introducing people to this simple philosophy of happiness.

First Time ever he is coming to India to the share concept of ‘Ikigai’ and would also be running workshop on ‘Ikigai’ Sharing life-changing tools to uncover your personal Ikigai.

Hector will share Ikigai tools to find your purpose, nurture friendships and throw yourself into your passions. Bring meaning and joy to your every day with ikigai.

“Discovering your ‘Ikigai or passion’ can be one of the greatest journeys you will embark on” — Forbes

Vice President – Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence Coaching & Training Programs

Dr. Matthew Lippincott

He completed his Doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, where he investigated the relationship between Leadership Effectiveness, Emotional Intelligence (EI), and Mindfulness. In addition to being the author of a recent peer review article, Dr. Lippincott has authored 16 articles on the above topics. Dr. Lippincott also supports curriculum and training activity in his role as a VP and faculty member with Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence Coaching and Training Programs.

Mindfulness Network Leader Ernst & Young, America

Clif Smith

Clif Smith is EY’s Americas Mindfulness Network leader and has developed mindfulness training programs he’s personally delivered to over 20,000 personnel. His experience and insight successfully bringing mindfulness into the corporate setting and scaling across geographies are sought after by many organizations, including major universities, corporations, leadership conferences and non-profits where he’s been invited to speak on the topic of mindfulness in the workplace or to deliver his popular keynote, “Mindful Leadership in the Modern World.”

Before devoting his work nearly full-time to leading internal mindfulness initiatives, he was an account leader helping EY win multi-million dollar consulting engagements. He’s also held senior positions at JP Morgan Chase, Granahan McCourt Capital, and has served his country in various capacities. He’s a US Army veteran, Chinese linguist and former diplomat with over 25 years of experience successfully tackling defense, intelligence, and business-related challenges

Clif is a certified SIY teacher, a qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, and an ICF PCC certified executive coach.

Former Education Minister, Royal Government of Bhutan

Norbu Wangchuk

He majorly reformed the education system focusing on the curriculum, teacher development and school infrastructure. He is the Author of Gross National Happiness Philosophy (GNH) in schools – a training manual that helped train all the teachers in promoting happiness in the schools. One of his recent initiatives was training all 10000 teachers across the country on Neuroscience-based Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness Meditation. Presently, he runs a Research Center focused on promoting policy initiatives for Development and Well-being.

Mindfulness Expert & Trainer - UK

Neil Seligman

Neil Seligman is the Founder of The Conscious Professional, author of ‘Conscious Leadership’ and ’100 Mindfulness Meditations’, and one of the UK’s leading experts in Corporate Mindfulness, Wellbeing and Professional Resilience.

Since 2012 The Conscious Professional has brought mindful education to clients at the level of professional excellence and Neil now regularly works with global clients such as Netflix, Hogan Lovells, Accenture, Warner Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland, Linklaters and many more. Neil has been featured in titles ranging from the BBC, The Mirror, Psychologies Magazine, Yoga Magazine, OmYogaMagazine, Attitude, and Soul & Spirit Magazine.

He leads Luxury Mindfulness Retreats and Soul Ignition Workshops at Champneys in the UK. His highly-regarded Conscious Coaching has enabled many to step into their highest potential, finding alignment, excellence, and joy. His Fine Art Soul Portrait photography has been commissioned and exhibited internationally and is held in private collections around the world.

Mindfulness Expert, Kalapa Leadership Academy

Chris Tamdjidi

Teaches a Masterclass at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre on “Mindfulness in the workplace”

Co-founder and Director of the Kalapa Leadership Academy, he has spent the last decade focusing on Leadership development in the fields of Mindfulness, Authentic leadership and Personal Transformation. As Director of the Kalapa Academy, he is currently leading the world’s largest study on Mindfulness in working life, in which over 40 companies are taking part. He has a Degree in Physics from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and an MBA from UT in Austin. He has a Certificate in Contemplative Psychology and completed a systemic Organizational
development training.

Managing Director, Accenture, India

Lakshmi C

An experienced Human Resource leader with a history of working in the Information Technology and Services Industry,  driving organization transformation through deep functional expertise in Talent Management, Leadership Development, Organization Design, Employee Engagement and HR Delivery.

She enjoys mentoring young women in starting their careers.

Head, Central Archive of His Holiness Dalai Lama

Ven. Geshe Lhakdor

Ven. Geshe Lhakdor has served His Holiness the Dalai Lama as his translator and religious assistant since 1989. A distinguished Buddhist scholar, Geshe Lhakdor was the English and Spiritual translator for His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, since 1989. He has co-translated and co-produced several books by the Dalai Lama and he is trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility,established by His Holiness.

Geshe facilitates the Science for Monks program and shares his own expertise as a scholar of science and philosophy.

He is now the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala India and a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada.

He specialized Buddhist philosophy in the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamshala and received the Master of Prajnaparamita in 1982. He also received the Master of Madhyamika in 1989 and the Master of Philosophy from the University of Delhi. Vancouver, Canada. He is also conferred an Honorary Professorship by the University of Delhi, Department of Psychology. Geshe Lhakdor has been an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia,

Director - The Boston Consulting Group

Mukund Rajagopalan

Mukund leads BCG’s Leadership and Talent Enablement Centre in Asia Pacific. He works with leadership teams and organizations across multiple industries various countries and regions across Asia and globally. He has been especially focused on bringing greater rigor to the practice of leadership development so as to deliver practical and tangible impact on the ground. Mr. Mukund has been particularly focused on creating some of BCG’s cutting edge and proprietary technology solutions in this space. He has previously worked with BCG in New York and India in the financial services space.

Celebrity Chef and Television Host

Ranveer Brar

Ranveer Brar is a celebrity chef, TV show host, judge and food stylist. Career highlights include opening more than a dozen restaurants in India and overseas and also opening a five star hotel and completely renovating another.

Ranveer began cooking at seventeen as an apprentice to one of Lucknow’s legendary street kebab vendors, Ustad Munir Ahmed, before enrolling in a catering college. At twenty-five, he became the youngest executive chef of his time in India. He has more than 15 years of experience in the culinary field and over 10 years at kitchen management positions. The varied experience includes hotels, restaurants and hospitality groups as corporate chef, Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director.

He was a judge in the fourth season of MasterChef India, and was featured in the list of ‘Top10 Chefs of the Country’ by Hotelier magazine, and was covered in the book Celebrated Chefs of India by Marryam H. Reshii. Today, Ranveer describes himself as a food nomad who attempts to put his travels on to a menu.

TEDx Speaker, Well-known Bharatnatyam Dancer

Vidhya Subramanian

Vidhya Subramanian is an eminent Bharatanatyam artist, acclaimed for her refined elegance and “the total internalization of emotive energy”. Trained under gurus S.K.Rajarathnam and Kalanidhi Narayanan, her artistry has earned appreciation in India, Germany, France, UK, Russia, Afghanistan, Kenya and USA

A sought after artist to perform and teach, her dance, witnessed in prestigious centers such as World Music Institute in New York, Musee Guimet in Paris, is often described as an offering of mind, body and soul.

The New York Times honors her with the words, “…her portrayal of the love between Radha and Krishna had the internal glow of felt emotion”.

She is an A graded artist of Indian television and has been awarded the Nadanamamani, Yuva Kala Bharati, Natya Mani, and other awards. A sought after artist to perform and teach, her dance is often described as an offering of mind, body and soul.

She is the founder of Lasya Dance Company and Kala Vedika two organizations committed to the arts.

Group CFO & CIO, Mahindra Group

V S Parthasarathy

A leader who relishes his multiple roles straddling industries and geographies as he calls them his stairway to global mindset, and it challenges him to think fast and think new. As Group CFO & CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, he facilitates the Group in accomplishing its vision of being amongst the Top 50 most admired brands in the world. He is focused on Professional Excellence, Continuous Learning and Developing Young Talent within the Group. He is passionate about building team spirit and encouraging innovations. He enjoys public speaking and ensure he makes time for interactions in industry forums for Finance, M&A and IT.

Mindfulness Expert, Founder, Mindfulness India Summit

Manish Behl

Manish Behl, Founder – Mindfulness India Summit and Beyondmind India

Manish Behl is India’s leading Mindfulness expert, Spiritual thinker, Motivational Speaker and Author, Manish is founder of Mindfulness India Summit, Beyond Mind Centre for Leadership

Manish is an acclaimed expert in fostering ancient wisdom based mindful leadership. He brings 25 years of leadership experience coupled with latest knowledge to make change in society through experiential mindfulness workshops and leadership coaching.“Bringing Mindfulness practices backed by science to it’s birthplace”

With Mindfulness India Summit, he created Asia’s largest platform for dialogue between leading thinkers, leaders, practitioners and educators in the field of Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence and Neuroscience.

Teaching and developing leadership, team performance, igniting innovation and cultivating constructive decision making through Ancient Indian wisdom backed by Neuroscience and based practices of Social Emotional Intelligence, Compassion and Mindfulness.

He says, “Working at senior most positions in corporate and business world, I realised how organisations and professionals lose focus from the goal and how Anxiety, Anger, Fear, Worry, Stress are few other emotions ride them which eradicate their and organisation’s success and health. I comprehended that with support of simple knowledge, correct tools and self awareness how easy is it to change these adverse situations to your advantage.”

Director, UNESCO : MGIEP

Dr. Anantha Duraiappah

Director, UNESCO: MGIEP. Working towards improving our present education systems by building the emotional intelligence of our students in balance with their intellectual intelligence. Working on developing innovative digital pedagogies for social emotional learning.

Present job involves higher order executive function and as the inaugural director of a UNESCO Institute, responsible for positioning the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) as a primer educational research Institute. Believe in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a central tool for more effective learning environments.

Senior Director | The Garage - Microsoft India

Reena Dayal Yadav

Innovation Management Expert. Founding Member and Member of Governing Board – Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India(CCICI). Founding member of the formal Chevening Alumni Association of India (CAI). Past Chairperson for Storage Networking Industry Association of India (SNIA). Certified Corporate Director and Member Institute of Directors. Patents Holder. Author of Book “Innovation Magic- The Science and Art of Innovation Management.” Chevening Fellow for Rolls Royce – Science, Innovation and Policy Leadership Program, Oxford Alumni. Tata Group Executive Leadership Program, Ross School of Business Alumni.

Centre of Behavioural & Cognitive Sciences

Dr. Narayanan Srinivasan

Dr. Srinivasan, a scientist at Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS) joined the Doctoral Program in Cognitive Psychology at University of Georgia. In his Doctoral work, with Dr. James Brown, Dr. Srinivasan investigated the interaction between attention and spatial frequency processing mechanisms. He did his Post-Doctoral on Diagnostic algorithms for Glaucoma.

At Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS), Dr. Srinivasan uses multiple approaches to study mental processes. He has a wide range of interests in Cognitive Science.

Director - Centre for Mindfulness, Singapore

Kathirasan K

Kathirasan K teaches contemplative and mindfulness practices since 2008.

He is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher – Professional (CMT-P) and also a well-known Author. He is a Doctoral Researcher, researching on Yoga Philosophy and Meditation. He has been practising Mindfulness for more than 20 years (since 1999) and has been trained by the eminent Mindfulness teacher, Shamash Alidina. Kathir brings over 22 years of working experience as a Leader, Project Manager and Consultant. He has the ability to contextualise Mindfulness within any culture and in the areas of education, leadership, teaching, learning, personal development, coaching, counselling, career development and stress management. Being an OD Consultant, Kathir sees the relevance of Mindfulness in Organisational and Workplace settings.

Chief Mindfulness Officer, LinkedIn

Scott Shute

In a Special Appearance

Scott Shute is at the heart of LinkedIn’s quest to create a culture of compassionate leadership, serving as VP of Global Customer Operations and Head of Mindfulness Programs. In both of his roles, Scott is working every day to align himself, his co-workers, and the company with a deeper understanding of member needs—and human needs in general—through data analysis, intentional listening, and swift action, in order to elevate LinkedIn’s collective wisdom and impact in the world. As a mindful leader, he has cultivated his mastery of meditation and awareness from his early days.

Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust

Sanjay Bhatia

He is a preceptor of Heartfulness Meditation and has been practicing meditation for last eighteen years. He is Maharashtra Cadre IAS Officer in the rank of Chief Secretary with 33 years’ experience in serving at various senior levels in Government of India and Government of Maharashtra. He is a Mechanical Engineer and MBA from Southern Cross University, Australia. He has brought transparency reforms in management and HR Development with the help of meditation techniques. He has been awarded a number of awards like ‘Ananya’ Award for Fighting against corruption, E-Governance Awards, Rajiv Gandhi Gatiman Prashashan and Maha Shilpkar Award.

Vice President, Solution Engineering, Salesforce

Deepak Pargaonkar

Vice President for Solution Engineering at Salesforce. A part of the India Leadership Team at Salesforce. Has Industry experience of more than 25 years. In key leadership positions for more than 10 years. He is a strong proponent of culture, trust and equality. Firmly believes in Trust, Customer Success, Innovation and Equality – the core values of Salesforce. Stands by the fact that individual and community well-being is critical for an organizational and social development.

CEO, The Hindu

Navaneeth L V

Has over two decades experience in the Media Industry across the Publishing, Radio, Broadcasting and Media Agency verticals. Has gained varied and useful insights; thanks to working for traditional brands with heritage and enviable lineage, setting up a new business with an entrepreneurial outlook, working with entertainment brands that established market leadership positions in a reasonably short span of time and being part of businesses where the only constant is change. His work experience has been a good mix of left and right brain activity. While he is passionate about pursuing relevant, compelling and differentiated solutions; his learnings are from an ability to dispassionately engage with data and analytics to make relevant decisions.

General Manager, Thrive Global

Dr. Marcus Ranney

A champion of well-being, he is a big believer that sustainably improving the lives of billions of people the world over can only be brought about by enhancing the positive aspects of health rather than focusing solely on pathogenesis and disease. A Bachelors of Science and Medical degrees from University College Medical School in London, his passion for extreme physiology has stemmed for more a decade, conducting field research across the planet. Served as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force and at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte

Nathan S V

Serves on the Executive Leadership and is a member of Deloitte’s Global Talent Council.

Has over 30 years of experience in HR management, across diverse industries including Manufacturing, Hospitality, IT, Telecom, and Professional Services.

An industry leader, mentor and an advocate of ethical leadership, he has vast experience in building and leading high-performance teams in both multinational and Indian organizations.

Speaks regularly at several national and global forums. He was conferred the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ by XLRI. He was also recognized as one of the top three Power Profiles in HR by LinkedIn for 2017.

Musician

IP Singh

With the idea to not sticking to a genre, Faridkot has been making people dance to their tunes for over a decade now. With two albums, and a few singles under their belt, their music talks about living life to the fullest, staying true to self and keeping it real. Being channel V launch pad finalist and riding the early influence of ‘sufi rock’ music, Faridkot were the fire starters in the live band scene in India. Keeping just ‘the music’ as their driving force, Faridkot is still roaring and making new tunes.

Musician

Raj

With the idea to not sticking to a genre, Faridkot has been making people dance to their tunes for over a decade now. With two albums, and a few singles under their belt, their music talks about living life to the fullest, staying true to self and keeping it real. Being channel V launch pad finalist and riding the early influence of ‘sufi rock’ music, Faridkot were the fire starters in the live band scene in India. Keeping just ‘the music’ as their driving force, Faridkot is still roaring and making new tunes.

Professor and Mindfulness Researcher, University of Oxford

Dr. Ruth Baer

Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Kentucky and a Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy teacher, trainer, and researcher at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, University of Oxford. Her scholarly work focuses on assessment and conceptualization of Mindfulness, effects of Mindfulness-based interventions, mechanisms of change in Mindfulness training, and professional training and ethics in the field of Mindfulness.

Serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals and gives talks and workshops about Mindfulness internationally. Has extensive experience in teaching and supervision of several evidence-based Mindfulness programs.