Pingali Venugopal, Associate Director, XLRI, Center for Global Management and Responsible Leadership, and Professor (Marketing), has teaching, industry, consulting, and research experience in the Marketing function in the Indian context for over 33 years. He has done his Post Graduate Programme and Doctorate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has been a Marketing Faculty at XLRI, Jamshedpur, since 1994 and the Dean of the Institute from 2004 to 2010. He has also been a Visiting Faculty to leading institutes in India including the Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Indore and international institutes including American University of Armenia and Educatis University Switzerland. He has taught courses such as Marketing Management, Sales and Distribution Management, Agricultural Input Management, and Marketing Research at these institutes. Prior to joining academics, he has worked in Marketing Department of Coromandel Fertilisers and Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd for a period of 10 years. While at Coromandel, he was also involved in the launch of their cement brand. Venugopal’s research and publication cover different marketing topics, and he has authored seven books covering the areas of marketing and Indian economy. His books Sales and Distribution Management: An Indian Perspective and Marketing Management: A Decision Making Approach have been adopted as texts in several business schools including the Indian Institutes of Management. On the invitation of Government of India, he prepared the report on Input Management, State of Indian Farmer—A Millennium study wherein he evaluated the impact of the policy measures on the Indian farmers from Independence to 2000. After the formation of Jharkhand, he was part of the steering committee of the Jharkhand Development Report prepared for the Planning Commission. As part of the report he also prepared the agricultural plan for the newly formed state. He is on the Board of Tata Metaliks, Advisor to Kerzon Consultants, and on the Academic Committee of National Institute like National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad and National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur. He has also been involved as an expert for programs conducted by some agri-business companies such as Zuari, UPL, and PI industries.Ram Kaundinya, Managing Director, Advanta India Ltd, and Chairman, Association of Biotech Led Enterprises—Agriculture Group (ABLE—AG), is a member of the Board of Directors of Axis Bank. He has 35 years of experience in the agrochemical and seed industries. This experience includes 22 years in the agrochemical industry with companies such as Hoechst and Cyanamid involving marketing, manufacturing, operations management, strategic planning, and business development throughout India. His last assignment in the agrochemical industry was as the Managing Director of Cyanamid Agro Limited. Subsequently, he has been in the seed industry for the last 13 years, out of which the first six years he served as a Managing Director of Emergent Genetics India Private Ltd, and for the last seven years, he was the Managing Director of Advanta India. He served as the Chairman of Crop Life India from 1998 to 2002 as well as the Director of the Association of Seed Industry, Mumbai, from 2002 to 2006. He was the Vice President of the All India Crop Biotechnology Association, New Delhi, from 2002 to 2006. He is a graduate in Agriculture from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hyderabad, and he is an Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where he did his Master’s in Business Management with a specialization in Agriculture.
