SPJIMR Mumbai Alumni: Making a mark in the Business World

Established in 1981, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) is an AICTE-approved Tier 1 MBA institute. SPJIMR alumni are known for their high-impact leadership roles in multinational companies, family-managed businesses, entrepreneurial start-ups, and nonprofit organisations all around the world.

Some well-known SPJIMR alumni are Sunil Bhatia Board Member - Investor, Former CEO of Infogain; Madan Padaki, Founder & CEO, 1Bridge; Sujith Nair, CEO & Co-Founder at FIDE; Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM; Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director (Auto & Farm Sector), Mahindra Group; Sunil Lulla, Founder & Chief Evangelist, The Linus Adventures LLP and Mahesh Madhavan, CEO, Bacardi Limited. These SPJIMR alumni acquired their business and management skills at SPJIMR. After this quick introduction, let’s move on to the subject of the article: well-known SPJIMR alumni who are making their alma mater proud.

Sunil Bhatia - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM/ MMS 1989)

Mr Sunil Bhatia, Board Member - Investor. Former CEO of Infogain. He is a seasoned technology executive with a proven track record of building and scaling businesses, especially those owned by private equity. He has over 25 years of experience in the industry. Sunil has successfully built and sold a Unicorn business in Silicon Valley. Under his leadership, Infogain was recognised among the Global Top 50 Engineering digital transformation services firms by Everest and as a trusted partner to Fortune 100 companies. Sunil also led the turnaround of Blue Star Infotech Ltd and successfully took the business private and reversed merged with Infogain. His mantra - "Be a learning machine in a machine learning age".

Madan Padaki - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM 1999)

Mr Madan Padaki, Founder & CEO, 1Bridge with over 23 years of experience as an entrepreneur and a changemaker. 1Bridge is a company that delivers exceptional consumer experience to the 300 million rural-urban (Ruban) consumers in India. He is also a co-founder of G.A.M.E. India, an initiative that aims to create 100 million mass entrepreneurs who can generate jobs and make a positive difference in their communities. Madan Padaki is also managing trustee of Head Held High Foundation, a non-profit organization that empowers people and communities to live with dignity and eradicate poverty. He holds an MBA in International Business from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research and a BE in Mechanical Engineering from The National Institute Of Engineering, Mysore.

Sujith Nair - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM 2006)

Mr Sujith Nair is the CEO and Co-founder of FIDE - Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy. This not-for-profit organisation is the genesis author and angel donor to an open-source initiative called the Beckn Protocol. Sujith conceptualised and helped set up the world’s first decentralised open mobility network using the Beckn Protocol in Kochi called the Kochi Open Mobility Network (KOMN), which was launched in July 2021.

Sujith co-conceptualised the idea of ONDC and onboarded the first set of market participants on ONDC, co-authored the ONDC Strategy Paper and was instrumental in the setup of ONDC Ltd in December 2021. He continues volunteering for KOMN, ONDC and other open network initiatives and is a global advocate for interoperable and decentralised digital ecosystems. Before FIDE, Sujith headed Management Consulting practices and Internet businesses in urban mobility and digital payments. He has contributed to many key interventions in the Aadhaar program between 2010-2012. Sujith also designed India’s national transit open payments interoperability (One Nation, One Card) in 2014 to integrate ticketing and payments across public transport systems in the country.

Debjani Ghosh - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM/ MMS 1993)

Ms Debjani Ghosh, the President of the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) since April 2018. A veteran of the technology industry, she is the fifth president of NASSCOM and the first women at the helm in three-decade history. As the NASSCOM President, she actively works with the industry and Government to accelerate the growth of the Industry and strengthen India’s position as hub for Innovation and Digital Talent.

In January 2018, she was felicitated by the President of India under the auspices of the ‘First Ladies’ program, which honors exceptional women pioneers in their respective fields. In 2020, she was honored by Vogue as the Tech Leader of the year 2020. Before joining NASSCOM, she was the first woman to lead Intel India and the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), she was also a member of the executive council at NASSCOM. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, and an MBA degree in Marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, India.

Rajesh Jejurikar - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM/ MMS 1986)

Mr Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO (Auto and Farm Sector) at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd since 2020. He is a Director on the Board of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and serves on the boards of other Mahindra Group companies in India as well as overseas. Rajesh holds an MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and attended the Advanced Management Program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and was awarded the British Chevening Scholarship to study at the Manchester Business School, UK.

Rajesh serves on the Governing Council of S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research. He has represented the Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA) in India as its President on the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 2016 and 2017. He was also a Member of the CII National Council on Agriculture.

Sunil Lulla - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM/ MMS 1984)

Mr Sunil Lulla, Founder & Chief Evangelist, The Linus Adventures LLP. For close to 4 decades Sunil has been actively involved in building brands and growing business, start-ups and turnarounds, across Media, Digital, Music, Advertising, Audience Measurement and the FMCG space. Sunil has helmed the leadership role across many companies, which include: Broadcast Audience Research Council, Balaji Telefilms Ltd, GREY Group India, Times Television Network, Indya.com, SONY Entertainment, JWT, HMV and MTV. He also helped develop the Times Television Network (owned by the Times Group) which comprises successful and leading TV channels: ET NOW, MOVIES NOW, ROMEDY NOW, TIMES NOW and zoOm.Its TV channels are present in over 70 countries.

Mahesh Madhavan - SPJIMR Alumnus (PGDM/ MMS 1988)

Mr Mahesh Madhavan is an Indian businessman, and the CEO of Bacardi, the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world, since September 2017. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from SPJIMR in 1988. Mahesh began his career in engineering, "building warships for the navy", before earning a PGDM and entering the consumer goods sector, initially at International Distillers & Vintners (IDV). Later in 1997, Madhavan left IDV and joined Bacardi.

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