The never ending list of IIFT CXOs!

There is absolutely no iota of doubt that Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is one of the most sought after B-schools of India. Just like wine, IIFT gets better with age. IIFT has tremendously evolved over half a century to carve a indispensable niche for itself as a luminary in the field of International Business. While students are put through an incredible amount of rigour, they are shaped and molded to be the quintessential leaders of tomorrow as well as outstanding individuals.

A vast number of IIFT Alumni have distinguished themselves in almost every aspect of management across the world. When it comes to IIFT alumni and the association, it is rich and diverse and well-placed. More than 10,000 alums are spread across the world in places like the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Singapore, Korea, New York City, Laos to Tokyo and you could just go on. IIFT is accredited with producing innumerable leaders and the list of their alumni is literally never-ending! Here is a carefully curated list of IIFT pass outs who are surely going to impress you!

Aseem Puri (CEO Unilever, Korea and CMO Unilever International)

Aseem Puri, well-known alumni of IIFT is currently the CEO of Unilever, Korea and the CMO at Unilever International leading a large billion-dollar portfolio of global brands. He is responsible for brand innovation, digital marketing, digital content & brand communication with top line /bottom line responsibility for fabric cleaning brands across Asia.

He has 12 years of rich brand leadership experience across India, China and South-East Asia with a track record of doubling/tripling brands, high success rate in landing new brand innovations and delivering the top 2 category innovations in the last decade on sales and profitability.

He has also been the Winner of the Marketing Excellence Award, CMO Council Award and was selected by Times of India in 2007 as one of India's 24 leading emerging young leaders for the future in Lead India.

Mohit Malhotra (CEO of Dabur)

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dabur India Limited since 2018, Mr. Malhotra, an alumnus of IIFT served as the Chief Executive Officer of Dabur International Ltd., a subsidiary of Dabur India Ltd prior to this. He has an experience of 23 years in Dabur group in various capacities. He also serves as a Director of Dermoviva Skin Essentials Inc. and Weikfield International (UAE) LLC.

Kalyan Ram Madabhushi (COO at ABG)

An alumnus of the prestigious B-school IIFT, Delhi, Mr. Kalyan Ram Madabhushi is currently Chief Operations Officer (COO), Pulp and Fibre business, Aditya Birla Group.

Before joining the Group, he worked with Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands and Singapore for two decades. He last worked as Global General Manager in Shell Downstream Chemicals Business. He has been the President of the Board of Shell Chemicals North East Europe, Board member & Chairman of the Board - Industry bodies in Europe.

Mr. Madabhushi holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from NIT Warangal and an MBA specialised in international business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He continued his executive leadership learning at IMD Switzerland and University of Oxford.

With his rich industry experience he has developed aptitude for coaching/mentoring young entrepreneurs in Europe and Asia and delivers leadership lectures as visiting faculty for business schools and student communities in France, Singapore and the Netherlands.

Pratiman Kumar (Ex Global Head of Marketing & Communication at Nestle)

Pratiman Kumar an ex-IIFTian, is a Global marketing, communication and business leader specializing in the convergence of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Life Sciences and Digital. He is currently the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Verdify, Switzerland.

Prior to this, Mr. Kumar worked at Nestle for almost 12 years. He was the Global Head of Marketing & Communication and with a rich experience in driving change in complex, multi-layered organisations, he transformed Nestlé from a Food & Beverage Company to a global Nutrition, Health and Wellness powerhouse - as well as an innovative Start-up environment.

He has 25 years of international pioneering, cross category experience in driving innovative marketing strategies leveraging latest trends especially digital transformation.

Shashi Ranjan (Country Head, Sebamed India)

An IIT and IIFT graduate, Shashi Ranjan, is currently the Country Head of Sebamed India, and has been the Global Business Leader at Johnson & Johnson for almost 11 years prior to this. He has also been the Manager at IBM Consulting for 1 year, Area Manager at Indian Oil Corporation Ltd for 4 years, and Sales Engineer at Fleet Management for 1 year.

Viksita Singh Menon (Regional Marketing Director, APAC at Coty, Ex-L’Oreal)

Viksita Singh Menon, has worked at L’Oreal as the Chief Marketing Officer. She is an experienced Marketing and Sales professional having spent 17 years in the FMCG Industry. She comes with a rich South Asia exposure having worked in a multicultural environment with proven leadership abilities and outstanding organizational skills. She has managed an exhaustive portfolio of brands and categories that dealt with a diverse set of consumers both demographically and psychographically.

She is currently working at Coty as Regional Marketing Director and CMO.

Namita Mediratta (Global Dove Masterbrand - CMI Director at Unilever)

Namita Mediratta, a pass out from IIFT, is another well-placed alumnus on our list. She is currently the Global Dove Masterbrand - CMI Director at Unilever.

She creates beautiful, strong and purposeful brands for the new consumer by embracing artificial intelligence, technology and ancient cultural wisdom and is passionate about Brand Craftsmanship and creating Purposeful Brands.

Shubhranshu Singh (Global Head - Marketing at Royal Enfield)

A pass out from IIFT and a marketing professional, Shubhranshu Singh is Global Head of Marketing and Brand for Royal Enfield. Shubhranshu has international exposure to category and brand management, demand creation, sales and distribution, customer management, channel development and customer marketing in the consumer packaged goods industry.

As Marketing Director, India & South Asia at Visa, the world’s leading global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world he led marketing, communication development, research and activation /client marketing efforts for the entire Visa portfolio - debit, credit and prepaid.

His experience within HUL has included large-scale brand building and activation projects with some of the world’s leading consumer brands in emerging and mature categories in multicultural market settings. He worked as Marketing Manager Household Care (Vim Domex and Cif portfolio) , Marketing Manager Lakme (Color Cosmetics and Skincare), and Marketing Manager Deodorants (Axe and Rexona) . He has also worked on channel development and customer marketing.

Besides the Consumer Goods industry, Shubhranshu has significant experience in business development for IT services and solutions consulting in the United States of America.

Puneet Agarwal (Managing Director at Goldman Sachs)

Currently, the Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, Puneet Agarwal, is a proven leader with a rich experience in managing teams, building businesses and establishing synergies within the firm. His expertise includes quantitative and business analysis of market risks across complex global entity structures, developing commercial financing and risk management strategies to enhance returns.

Manveen Sandhu (Assistant Vice President at DBS Bank)

Manveen Sandhu, an IIFT alumni, is a seasoned private banker with 15 years of work experience in rendering advisory services to HNI clients across a wide range of financial products which include Equity, Debt, Insurance, Real Estates, Private Equity, Structured Products, PMS and Offshore Funds.

With a rich industry experience, she is a professional with deep understanding and impressive deal track record in providing customized wealth management solutions. Excellent relationship building and client servicing skills with a result driven approach. A sound academic background specializing in Finance, Economics & Law.

Prior to being the assistant Vice President at DBS Bank, Singapore she was working at HDFC Bank as a Director.

KV Rao (Resident Director - ASEAN, Tata Sons Pvt Ltd)

K.V Rao, Resident Director - ASEAN, Tata Sons Pvt Ltd; Chairman & Board Member, Tata Group Regional Subsidiaries - ASEAN, is a Senior Business Leader, a distinguished alumnus of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, India, specialized in International Business. He has led enterprises across industry sectors, worked with the Singapore Civil Service, and ran a Consulting Business. He has a wide global experience of working across cultures and networks in over 45 countries. He is also a distinguished speaker, blogger and columnist.

Soumyadeep Ganguly (Partner at McKinsey & Company)

Soumyadeep Ganguly, is currently a Partner at McKinsey & Company. A pass out from IIFT, he has more than a decade of experience with half of it working in Industry and half in the consulting space. As part of my Mckinsey career he has worked in Delhi, San-Francisco, Southern California and Perth offices. He co-leads Mckinsey's Manufacturing & SCM (MSC) service line in India, serving prominent organisations in auto & auto component, agro-chemicals, basic materials and pharma sector. He is working very closely with Government and Industry bodies to help Indian manufacturing and SCM operations to take the next 'S curve of productivity' using Industrial 4.0.

Viren Verma (Global Procurement Managing Director at The Coca-Cola Company)

With a dynamic and high performing career, spanning over 20 years, in International Trade & Business Development across various geographies with expertise in the field of Agri-commodities & Industrial products supply chain management & New SBU operations Start up, Viren Verma, is currently the Global Procurement Managing Director ( Sugar & Commodity Risk Management) at the Coca-Cola Company.

An IIFT alumni, Mr. Verma has been a consistent performer in achieving business targets under a dynamic work environment and has a global business perspective with extensive international exposure and travel.

Vinay Asdhir (Director, Global Marketing, Dell, Singapore)

“I am an inquisitive business leader with a track record for delivering exceptional results. My career progression from Operations and supply chain to product marketing has enabled me to develop a unique end-to-end view of the business.”

An ex IIFTian, Vinay Asdhir, is currently the Director, Global Marketing, Dell, Singapore. He has an enriching 16+ years of international assignment experience spanning Singapore, China, Taiwan and India, allowing him the opportunity to work in multicultural environments and to lead diverse teams to one common goal. At Dell, he has delivered outstanding results in a matrix environment. He has a passion for building high-performing teams and improving business processes.

Siddharth Mani (Finance & Control at Nestlé S.A.- Procurement Controlling)

Siddharth Mani, an IIFT graduate is in the Finance & Control at Nestlé S.A.- Procurement Controlling (Asian Procurement Hub).

He has over 15 years of international experience in the Food & Beverage industry with proven expertise in the areas of industrial strategy, valuation, financial analysis, supply management, and project and stakeholder management.

Srikanth Karnakota (Country Head for Microsoft Azure)

Country Head for Microsoft Azure and Server Business at Microsoft Corporation, India, Srikanth is responsible for P&L, Strategy and Marketing of Microsoft's Cloud and Server platform business. He was earlier the Director for Cloud Platform Strategy and ISV Partnerships at Microsoft India.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Srikanth was the early employee of a young Indian product start-up Pramati Technologies and established their business development activities in the US. He spent 5 years in the US establishing the business operations and winning customers with very early versions of the product. He led both business development and product marketing in a highly competitive infrastructure software market.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from JNTU University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade where he was an EXIM bank scholar for outstanding performance.

Prashant Mani (Executive Director, Asia Pacific and Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India)

Prashant Mani, is the Executive Director (Mobile Business Group), the Asia Pacific, and Managing Director at, Lenovo, Motorola India. He did his graduation from Delhi College of Engineering and later pursued a Master’s in International Business from the prestigious, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, India.

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