Board of Governors

Shri P.K. Khaitan

Senior Advocate & Senior Partner, Khaitan & Co.

Mr Pradip Kumar Khaitan son of Late Bhagwati Prasad Khaitan, aged 80 years is a B.Com, LL.B. and Attorney- at-law (Bell Chambers Gold Medalist). Mr. Khaitan is the Senior Partner of Khaitan & Co. and Senior Mentor of the Firm. He ranks amongst influential legal practitioners in India.

Shri Sunil Mitra

Independent Director of Public Companies

Sunil Mitra retired in June 2011 from the office of Revenue & Finance Secretary, Government of India. In his public service career spanning over three and a half decades, he successfully spearheaded important policy initiatives in public finance at the national level, including a new disinvestment policy and far-reaching taxation reforms. During his earlier appointments under the West Bengal Government, he is credited with the design and implementation of significant public policy reforms in the State-owned Public Sector Enterprises and in restructuring the State's power sector.

After completing his term of public service, Mr. Mitra chaired a Committee in the Planning Commission between October 2011 and August 2012 tasked with a comprehensive review of the different sectors of our economy and formulating recommendations that would foster a vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurship in the country. With the implementation of several of these by different agencies both public and private, India is now the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.

Till late-2016, Mr. Mitra was engaged in leading a team for a Consortium led by M/s IPE Global Limited, New Delhi that designed and managed a 'Knowledge Partnership Programme' for the Department of International Development of the Government of the United Kingdom. He also served as member of a Technical Advisory Panel set up by the Government of India, to review an Indian Power Sector Diagnostic Study Report prepared by the World Bank. Mr. Mitra presently serves as a Non-Executive & Independent Director on the Boards of a number of Public Companies.

Mr Mitra resides in Kolkata.

Smt. Savitri Kunadi

Former Indian Ambassador

Ambassador Savitri Kunadi holds a B.A (Hons.) degree from Bombay University in History and Political Science and a master’s Degree from University of Rajasthan. Shen then joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1967. During her 37 year career in the IFS, she held several important positions in Indian missions abroad and in the Ministry of External Affairs such as the first Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian embassy at Warsaw, Minister Counsellor in Permanent Mission of India, New York, Ambassador of India to Peru, Bolivia and France, Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO in Paris, Ambassador/PR of India to the UN and Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, among others. For her contribution to Indo-Frence relations, she was conferred the prestigious Award Commandeur de L’Ordre Nationale du Merite (ONM) by the French government. She has specialized in multilateral diplomacy and has handled several important UN Conferences, Non-Aligned Conferences, sessions of the Commission of Human Rights in Geneva and conferences of UNESCO, ILO, WHO, WIPO, UNCTAD, UNHCR etc.

Ms. Kunadi was appointed as Chairperson, Executive Committee Rajasthan Foundation, Government of Rajasthan (in an honorary capacity) during 2004-2008 by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and she assisted the Chief Minister at meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently, she serves on the Governing body of the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi. She also serves as Independent Director on the Board of Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd (HMVL).

Dr. Harsh Pati Singhania

Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, J K Paper Ltd.

Dr. Harsh Pati Singhania is an MBA from the University of Massachusetts and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, USA. He was conferred an honorary doctoral degree by the Board of Governors of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar at its convocation ceremony in August 2021. He belongs to one of India’s largest industrial groups – J.K. Organisation. The group’s businesses include Paper & Boards, Cement, Automobile Tyres, Engineering products (V-Belts, Oil Seals etc.), Hybrid Seeds, Dairy & Food products, Defence, Aerospace & Security, Textiles and operations in Clinical Research, Insurance Brokerage, Health Care, Education, etc with a turnover of around USD 4.0 billion. Dr. Singhania is responsible for the Paper, Dairy & Defence businesses.

Shri Harshavardhan Neotia

Chairman, Ambuja Realty

A Padma Shri awardee, an entrepreneur, a connoisseur of the arts, an enthusiast of Indian heritage — Harshavardhan Neotia is the Chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group, which operates across Real Estate, Hospitality,
Healthcare and Education. An alumnus of La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and Harvard Business School, USA, he is a pioneer in India’s social housing sector for which he was conferred with Padma Shri in 1999.

A Padma Shri awardee, an entrepreneur, a connoisseur of the arts, an enthusiast of Indian heritage — Harshavardhan Neotia is the Chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group, which operates across Real Estate, Hospitality,
Healthcare and Education. An alumnus of La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and Harvard Business School, USA, he is a pioneer in India’s social housing sector for which he was conferred with Padma Shri in 1999.

Shri V K Sharma

Executive Director (Retired), RBI

A career central banker and a former Member of the Markets Committee of the Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland, Mr. Sharma retired as Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on 31st December, 2012. As Executive Director, Mr. Sharma was responsible for 11 mission critical and sensitive Departments covering such diverse areas as Financial Markets, Foreign Exchange Reserves Management, Internal Debt Management, Human Resources, Administration, Currency Management, Rural Planning and Credit, Financial Inclusion, Customer Service, Premises and Regulation and Supervision of Urban Co-operative Banks.

Dr. Himadri Das

Director General, IMI

Dr. Himadri Das is the Director General of IMI since October 2018. Prior to that he spent six years in Business School Director roles at Great Lakes Institute of Management Gurgaon and MDI Gurgaon. He worked in the technology industry in the US and India for thirteen years before moving into academics in 2002. He has a B.Tech. and MBA from IIT Delhi and an M.S.and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, USA.

Dr. Pratap Chandra Biswal

Director, IMI Bhubaneswar

Director and Professor, International Management Institute Bhubaneswar. An academic with more than 22 years of experience in teaching, training, consulting, research, and academic administration. A passionate and highly effective academic administrator who demonstrated success in implementing innovative strategies to promote academic excellence and continuous improvements in institutional processes.