Synopsis: The news cycle is filled with horror stories about the daily toll being extracted in India by the deadly second wave of the Covid pandemic. But an extraordinary thing is happening. A dedicated group of Indians, both from within India and across the world, are leading efforts to help India cope with this crisis.
In this short webinar, Professor Partha Mohanram talks with three amazing people who are all making a difference in the fight against Covid. Their contributions are helping to locate on-the-ground resources such as ICU beds, drugs and plasma. They are securing critical donations through warp speed fundraising. And, they are developing an innovative oxygen exchange to ensure that demand and supply are efficiently matched. We hope that attendees are inspired to lend a hand and will learn how they can help India in its time of need.
About Our Speakers:
Ashish Goel is founder and CEO of Urban Ladder, India’s first and largest online furniture retailer. Prior to this, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Amar Chitra Katha media and Managing director of India Book House. He started his corporate career as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and company. Ashish has a PGDM (MBA) from IIM-Bangalore and B.Tech from IIT-Bombay. Ashish is working with a team of volunteers as well as the government to develop an oxygen exchange to ensure that supply of oxygen and oxygen equipment can be efficiently matched to demand.
Sankar Krishnan is a former partner of McKinsey & Co where he served a variety of clients across Asia, Europe and North America. He steered McKinsey’s healthcare practice, and was the global Dean of McKinsey’s leadership training program. Since 2006, Sankar has served as an independent consultant in the development sector. His engagements include assessing the impact of the AIDS prevention programs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in India, working on the Kerala government’s Healthcare Working Group, advising a non-profit educational institution for the hearing-impaired, and establishing an international institute for social entrepreneurship. In 2017-18, Sankar was the Pro Vice Chancellor at Ashoka University. Sankar continues to serve as an external advisor to McKinsey, and serves on the boards of six fast growing enterprises in the healthcare and technology sectors. He is the Chairperson of Simprints, a non-profit tech startup from the University of Cambridge and Chief Strategic Advisor to the Ramco group. Sankar obtained his PGDM (MBA) from IIM-Ahmedabad and BTech in Computer Science from College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Sankar is actively involved with on-the-ground COVID relief efforts in India, especially around the current second wave.
Girish Muckai is the CEO and board member of IIT Madras Foundation (www.iitmfoundation.org) and previously served on the boards of Calico Center and Sankara Eye Foundation, USA and the Wharton Non-Profit Board Leadership Program. With over 25 years of experience in various leadership roles in the high-tech industry, Girish is HEAL Software Inc.’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, where he leads the global AI/ML software company's go to market team and initiatives. He is an active investor, advisor and mentor to a number of start-ups. He received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Boston University and a B.Tech from IIIT-Madras. With the COVID situation wreaking havoc across India, there is a clear need for oxygen equipment and Girish is working with IIT Madras affiliated and a number of other organizations to address this immediate need through active fundraising and deployment.
Partha Mohanram is Director of the India Innovation Institute, and John H. Watson Chair of Value Investing at the Rotman School of Management. His research has examined the valuation of Internet stocks, measurement of ex-ante cost of capital, the application of fundamental analysis for growth stocks, and the manipulation of earnings around large option exercises. He has published extensively in leading academic journals. He is a deputy editor-in-chief of Contemporary Accounting Research and is on the editorial board of the Accounting Review and the Review of Accounting Studies. He has a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard, an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT-Madras. Prior to joining Rotman, he was on the faculty of Columbia Business School and the Stern School at NYU. Since the beginning of the second wave, Partha has been working on the ground virtually on helping people find oxygen, drugs, ICU beds and other resources. Along with his classmates from IIM and IIT, he maintains a publicly available, searchable and constantly updated google sheet and data repository of resources related to COVID relief in India.
Hosted by: India Innovation Institute, University of Toronto
Questions: events@rotman.utoronto.ca, Megan Murphy