Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower (57 page)

RAJAT GUPTA joined McKinsey in 1992 and is a full-time director in McKinsey’s Mumbai office.

SHEKHAR GUPTA is editor-in-chief of the
Indian Express
, which is known for its investigative journalism. He writes the weekly column “National Interest” for the newspaper and hosts the interview-based television program
Walk the Talk.

YASHENG HUANG is a professor of political economy and international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and holds a special-term professorship at Fudan University’s School of Management. He founded and heads MIT’s China Lab and India Lab, which help entrepreneurs improve their management skills. He is the author of several books on globalization, emerging markets, and foreign direct investment, including
Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State
(2008), a history of economic reforms in China.

MANU JOSEPH is the editor of
OPEN
magazine. His novel
Serious Men
(2010) won
The Hindu
Literary Prize in 2010 and the PEN Open Book Award in 2011.

NOSHIR KAKA is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Mumbai office and managing director of McKinsey India.

MUHTAR KENT is chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. He answered a newspaper ad in 1978 and was hired to drive a truck selling
Coke. The rest is history. Kent is active in the global business community; he is cochair of the Consumer Goods Forum and a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and is on the boards of Special Olympics International, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Catalyst.

SALMAN KHAN, a former hedge fund analyst, is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that produces video lessons for viewing on YouTube. He has three degrees from MIT (mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science) and an MBA from Harvard. In 2012,
Time
named Khan one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He is the author
of The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined
(2012).

VINOD KHOSLA is an entrepreneur, investor, and technology fan. He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on clean technology and information technology investments. Khosla was a cofounder of Daisy systems and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. Khosla is mentor to many entrepreneurs seeking to build technology-based businesses. Khosla holds a bachelor of technology in electrical engineering from IIT, New Delhi, a master’s in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

ALOK KSHIRSAGAR is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Mumbai office.

GAUTAM KUMRA is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Delhi office.

RAJIV LALL is the executive chairman of Infrastructure Development Finance Company, which was founded in 1997 to promote private sector infrastructure finance in India. Lall chairs the Global Agenda Council on Infrastructure of the World Economic Forum and the Infrastructure Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry; he is also a former president of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Before
joining IDFC, Lall worked with Warburg Pincus, Morgan Stanley, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. He earned a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University and a PhD in economics from Columbia University.

EDWARD LUCE is Washington columnist for the
Financial Times
and former South Asia bureau chief based in New Delhi. He is the author of
In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India
(2007) and
Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent
(2012).

ANU MADGAVKAR is a senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute.

KISHORE MAHBUBANI is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. A diplomat for more than three decades, he was twice Singapore’s ambassador to the United Nations and president of the Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. Mahbubani is a regular contributor to
Foreign Affairs
, the
National Interest
, the
New York Times
, the
Financial Times
, and other publications. He is the author of
Can Asians Think?
(2001),
The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East
(2008), and
The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World
(2013).

ANAND MAHINDRA is chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based Indian multinational conglomerate with interests in diverse sectors, ranging from real estate and hotels to cars and aerospace components.

BARNIK C. MAITRA is a partner in McKinsey’s Mumbai office.

VICTOR MALLET is the South Asia bureau chief for the
Financial Times
and former Asia editor (2006–2008) and chief Asia correspondent (2003–2006). He is the author of
The Trouble with Tigers: The Rise and Fall of South-East Asia
(1999).

KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW is chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, India’s biggest biotechnology company. Mazumdar-Shaw serves on the government of India’s advisory council on biotechnology and is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry and the US-India CEO Forum. In 2005, the Indian government awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award. A graduate of Bangalore University, Mazumdar-Shaw qualified as a master brewer at the University of Ballarat, Australia, and was India’s first woman brewmaster.

SUKETU MEHTA is the author of
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
, which was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Born in Calcutta and raised in Mumbai and New York, he is a professor of journalism at New York University. He has written for many publications, including the
New Yorker
, the
New York Times Magazine
,
National Geographic
,
Granta
,
Harper’s
,
Time
, and
Newsweek.

VIKRAM SINGH MEHTA is chairman of Brookings India and former chairman of the Shell Group of Companies in India. He writes a monthly column for the
Indian Express.
He earned a master’s degree in economics from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as well as a master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL is the founder, chairman, and group CEO of Bharti Enterprises and chairman of Bharti Airtel, which operates in twenty countries in Africa and South Asia. By number of subscribers, Bharti Airtel is one of the world’s largest mobile operators and the largest in India. A former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mittal is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry and a recipient of the Padma Bhushan. He also serves on the boards of the International Telecommunication Union and Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, and is a member of the India-US, India-UK, and India-Japan CEO forums.

ZIA MODY is the founder and managing partner of AZB & Partners, one of India’s largest law firms, which specializes in mergers and acquisitions. She is a nonexecutive director of the HSBC Asia-Pacific Board, a member of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal, and a vice president of the London Court of International Arbitration. She studied law at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and has a master’s degree from Harvard Law School.

NANDAN NILEKANI is cofounder and former cochairman and CEO of Infosys. Since 2009, he has served as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, which seeks to give every resident of India a digital identification. He is the author of
Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation
(2009).

NITIN NOHRIA was named dean of the Harvard Business School in 2010, where he had been on the faculty for twenty-two years. His areas of interest include human motivation, leadership, and corporate transformation and accountability. Nohria has coauthored or coedited sixteen books, including
The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being
(2012),
Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership
(2006), and
Changing Fortunes: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Corporation
(2002). He earned a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and a doctorate in management from MIT.

VIVEK PANDIT is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Mumbai office.

JERRY PINTO is a journalist, poet, and novelist. He writes frequently on Indian cinema, including the books
Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb
(2006), about the actress Helen Jairag Richardson, and
Leela: A Patchwork Life
(2010), about Leela Naidu. He published his first novel,
Em and the big Hoom
, in 2012. Pinto is a guest lecturer in social communications media at the Sophia Polytechnic and is a committee member of
the Indian chapter of PEN and a member of the Poetry Circle, Mumbai. He has degrees from the University of Mumbai and the Government Law College, Mumbai.

AZIM PREMJI is chairman of Wipro Ltd., founded in 1945 by his father. Since the 1960s, Premji has led Wipro’s diversification from a hydrogenated cooking fat company into information technology, and Wipro is now one of the largest IT companies in India. Premji is nonexecutive director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India, a member of the Prime Minister’s Councils for National Integration and for Trade & Industry, as well as a member of the Indo-UK and the Indo-France CEO’s Forum. In 2011, he received the Padma Vibhushan from the government of India and the Legion of Honor from France.

SUKUMAR RANGANATHAN is the editor of
Mint
, a New Delhi–based business newspaper founded in 2007 as a collaboration with the
Wall Street Journal
, and
LiveMint.com
, its online counterpart. He is also the former managing editor of
Business Today
magazine.

AHMED RASHID has been the Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia correspondent for Britain’s
Daily Telegraph
for more than twenty years. He also writes for the
Wall Street Journal
, the
Nation
,
Daily Times
(Pakistan), and numerous academic journals. He appears regularly on international TV and radio networks, including CNN and BBC World. He is the author of
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
(2000),
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
(2008), and
Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
(2012). Rashid attended Government College in Lahore and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

K. SRINATH REDDY, MD, is a founding member of the Public Health Foundation of India, an independent foundation launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006, president of the World Heart Federation, and a consultant to the World Health Organization and the World
Bank. In recognition of his commitment to preventing heart disease and improving public health, he has received the prestigious Padma Bhushan, the Queen Elizabeth Medal from the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health in the United Kingdom, and the WHO Director General’s Award for Global Leadership in Tobacco Control.

BRUCE RIEDEL is a director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He also teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a senior adviser with the Albright Stonebridge Group. As a staff member of the National Security Council, he has advised the last four U.S. presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues, following a long career at the Central Intelligence Agency. Riedel is the author of
The Search for al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future
(2008),
The Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad
(2011), and
Avoiding Armageddon: America, India, and Pakistan to the Brink and Back
(2013).

SHIRISH SANKHE is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Mumbai office.

MALLIKA SARABHAI is a choreographer, Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer, and longtime codirector, with her mother, the acclaimed dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad. She played the role of Draupadi in Peter Brook’s play
The Mahabharata
for five years, performing in France, North America, Australia, Japan, and Scotland. Sarabhai earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and a doctorate in organizational behavior from Gujarat University. She received a Padma Bhushan in 2010.

ERIC SCHMIDT joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley start-up to a global leader in technology. He served as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Under his leadership Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. He is the coauthor, with Jared Cohen, of
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business
(2013).

HOWARD SCHULTZ is chairman, president, and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company. His inspiration for Starbucks came during a trip to Milan, where he noticed that there were coffee bars on almost every street. They sold not only excellent espresso, but also served as a local meeting place. Today there are Starbucks in all corners of the world—almost nineteen thousand of them.

SUHEL SETH, a writer and consultant on marketing and management, is managing partner of Counselage India, a strategic brand consultancy, and founder of the advertising and marketing agency Equus. He sits on the global advisory boards of British Airways and Cavendish and on the regional boards of Citibank India, Coca-Cola India, and STAR TV. Seth attended Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. His most recent book is
Get to the Top: The Ten Rules for Social Success.