Conference Committee

Prof. Samir K. Srivastava

Director, IIM Amritsar

Prof. Srivastava is a distinguished academician and industry expert with over three decades of experience spanning research, teaching, consulting, and industry leadership. He earned his doctorate from IIM Lucknow in 2004 and holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (now IIT BHU), along with an MBA in Finance. Prof. Srivastava brings a unique blend of academic excellence and corporate expertise to IIM Amritsar. Before transitioning to academia, he held key technical and managerial positions at the Aditya Birla Group, where he played a pivotal role in implementing Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) at Indo Gulf Corporation. His efforts led to the company receiving the prestigious TPM Excellence Award from JIPM, Japan, in 2000.

Prof. Srivastava has held multiple academic and administrative roles at IIM Lucknow, including serving as Dean of Research. An esteemed faculty member, he has designed, developed, and taught cutting-edge courses at postgraduate and doctoral levels. Prof Srivastava also led executive education programs for government bodies, public sector enterprises, and corporate executives. A firm believer in research-driven policymaking, he has been at the forefront of high-impact projects, collaborating with global universities, research foundations, and multilateral organizations like The World Bank, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Prof Srivastava's scholarly contributions are widely recognized, with publications in top-tier academic journals and editorial board memberships in prestigious international journals. He has served as Chief Editor of Metamorphosis, an AJG-listed journal. His scholarly impact is underscored by his ranking among the top 2% of scientists in the world based on career-long impact in the "Author Databases of Standardized Citation Indicators" lists 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. His research has garnered 14,000+ citations on Google Scholar (g-Index: 119), 5,000+ on Scopus (H-Index: 21), and 3,500+ on Web of Science.

Michael Hoffmeyer

Managing Director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Michael Hoffmeyer's career in higher education has focused on promoting entrepreneurship on campus and supporting diverse entrepreneurs in their journey. Prior to his work in higher education, he held executive and founder roles in several financial technology startups. Before joining Dingman, Hoffmeyer founded the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at his alma mater, the University of Memphis, where he spent a decade championing entrepreneurship and delivering social and financial impact to ensure the center's long-term sustainability. He is a passionate thought leader in inclusive entrepreneurship and still enjoys personally helping diverse entrepreneurs develop confidence, self-efficacy, and competencies while also providing experienced insights into innovation, strategy, and leadership to help strengthen their business models. Hoffmeyer has served as a lead judge in the Memphis Business Journal's Small Business Awards for eight years, helped raise over $52M in venture capital for Memphis students, and was a recognized thought leader in the Memphis entrepreneurial ecosystem. He founded the ImagineU Summer Accelerator Program at Memphis, raising money to pay students a stipend to participate in the program, providing a level playing field for students regardless of socioeconomic status. Hoffmeyer was known for championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the entrepreneurship space and was frequently sought out to partner on DE&I initiatives across the campus and ecosystem. Prior to his higher education experience, Hoffmeyer served as executive or co-founder in five startups, two of which he successfully exited. Hoffmeyer holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies, a Master's of Public Administration, and a graduate certificate in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Memphis. He lives in College Park, enjoys spending time with family, watching lacrosse and soccer, and plays the occasional video game.

Dr. Riya Singla

Assistant Professor, Finance, Accounting, and Control, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Riya Singla is an Assistant Professor in the area of Finance, Accounting, and Control at the Indian Institute of Management Amritsar. She has completed her Ph.D. in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. Prior to her Ph.D., she had completed a Master's and a Bachelor's in Commerce from the University of Delhi. Her broad area of interest lies in Behavioral Finance. Her doctoral thesis was titled 'Essays on the Role of Analysts in Market Efficiency.' She has published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented her work at reputed national and international conferences.

Dr. Aswathy Asokan Ajitha

Assistant Professor, Marketing Management, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Aswathy Asokan Ajitha is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the IIM Amritsar. She holds a joint PhD in Marketing from IIT Madras and Curtin University, Australia. Her research spans services marketing, transformative service research, inclusive marketing, consumer well-being, and marketing communications, with publications in reputed ABDC-ranked journals and presentations at leading conferences. At IIM Amritsar, she teaches postgraduate courses in Business Research Methods, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Product Management, along with a doctoral course on Theory Construction. Dr. Aswathy has contributed significantly to institution-building. She initiated and chaired the International Conference on Management of MSMEs since 2022 and chaired it for two consecutive years. She represents academia on NIT Jalandhar's Startup Selection Committee and, as liaison officer with the Ministry of MSME, facilitated IIM Amritsar's Host Institute status. She also curates advanced executive programs for MSMEs in collaboration with the Ministry.

Dr. Sanket Vatavwala

Assistant Professor, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Sanket Vatavwala is a faculty in the marketing area and the Chairperson of International Relations at IIM Amritsar. His area of research interest includes business-to-business marketing, sustainability and marketing, and digital marketing.

Dr. Sunil Reddy Kunduru

Assistant Professor, Information Technology and Computational Systems Area, IIM Amritsar

Dr Kunduru holds a PhD in Management from IIM Bangalore. Prior to his PhD, he completed his MTech in Signal Processing from IIT Guwahati and worked in the industry as a Design Engineer. He currently works as an Assistant Professor at IIM Amritsar in the Information Technology and Computational Systems Area. Dr Kunduru teaches a wide range of courses in the domains of Information Systems and Data Analytics. He is credited with the development of courses such as Emerging Information Technologies, Managing Digital Transformation, Social Network Analysis and Social Media Analytics, and Natural Language Processing for the MBA programme of IIM Amritsar. In addition, he also teaches in the MSc and Executive MBA programmes at IIM Amritsar. Dr Kunduru's current research work includes research on digital ecosystems in India, social impact of digital technology, use of generative AI in education, and Bayesian probabilistic models.

Prof. Subra Tangirala

Area Chair, Management and Organization, Dean's Professor of Management, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Prof. Subra Tangirala is Dean's Professor of Management. He teaches the leadership course in the MBA program. In his research, he explores reasons why employees often remain silent despite having information, concerns, or suggestions to share, and what organizations can do to facilitate candid exchange of ideas at the workplace. His research has been published in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology. Tangirala received his PhD in organizational behavior and human resources from Purdue University. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for several years as a human resources manager.

Prof. David A. Kirsch

Affiliate Associate Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Prof. David A. Kirsch is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the College of Information Studies (by courtesy). His research focuses on the intersection of problems of innovation and entrepreneurship, technological and business failure, and industry emergence and evolution. Because of the particular challenges associated with documenting the history of emerging industries, Prof. Kirsch has a long-standing interest in the business records of failed companies, especially startups. With colleagues at the i-School and elsewhere, he has helped preserve the records of many such firms. In addition to essays and articles, he has written two books — Bubbles and Crashes: The Boom and Bust of Technological Innovation (Stanford, 2019, co-authored with Brent Goldfarb) and The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History (Rutgers, 2000) — that examine episodes of industry emergence.

Prof. Patrick Flood

Professor, DCU Business School, Dublin City University

Prof. Patrick C. Flood is a Full Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Dublin City University. He is an expert on organizational behaviour, leadership, and change management and teaches on executive programmes worldwide. He is the holder of both the DCU President's Overall Teaching Award and the DCU President's Research Award. Most recently, he served as an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research work focuses on the impact of leadership and human resource practices on organisational performance. He consults on top management team functioning and leadership development. He is a frequent industry conference speaker and media commentator. His advisory work is concerned with improving the effectiveness of organisations and top teams. Patrick received his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he was a British Council Scholar. He has held faculty and visiting appointments at a number of business schools, including London Business School, University of Limerick, University of Maryland, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Canterbury, NZ, CUEB, PRC, and the Australian Graduate School of Management. Patrick is a former Erskine, Fulbright, EU HUMCAP, and British Council FCO Scholar. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His articles appear in the Journal of Management, Human Relations, Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations, Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology, and the Strategic Management Journal. His 12 books include Outsider Leadership (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Change lessons from the CEO (Jossey Bass, 2013) (http://www.managers.org.uk/bookclub-book-prize-march-2014); Persuasive Leadership: Lessons from the Arts (Jossey Bass, 2010), Leadership in Ireland (Blackhall, 2010); Strategy Implementation (Blackwell, 2000), Effective Top Management Teams (Blackhall, 2000) and Managing Without Traditional Methods (Addison Wesley, 1996).