Strategies for Professional Growth

Sivakumar M Srinivasan, fondly called Anbudan Siva, is a Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mechanics at IIT Madras. He holds a B.Tech (1985) and an M.S. (1987) both from IIT Madras and a PhD (1993) from the Louisiana State University for his thesis in the area of plasticity. He has been with IIT Madras as a faculty since 1994. He also served as Dean (Students) and Advisor, Guidance and Counseling. He has been on a mission to nurture holistic leaders of tomorrow who combine competence, cooperation and empathy as their strengths. He has brought in several initiatives at IIT Madras such as MITR (Mentoring for Inner TRansformation), Wellness Center; LTAP (Leisure Time Activities Program); popular curricular courses such as Happiness, habits and success, Discovering Creativity, Biomimicry, Fostering Enriching Relationships and Life skills; National Cultural Appreciation (similar to NSS and NCC); ECDC: Early Career Development Center; Coach in the Court concept; to name a few.

Lt Col Jayakumar is a veteran of the Indian Army. He was an Instructor in Gunnery and a Certified Personality Assessment Professional from the Defence Institute of Psychological Research. He was a part of the Selection Committee of Services Selection Board from 1999 to 2003 as Technical Officer/ Psychologist in Bhopal. He took over the duties of Placement and Public Relations at IIT Madras in 2006 and superannuated in 2018. Since then, he is into coaching students in facing interviews, personality development, corporate training on leadership and teaching students of IIT Madras as a guest faculty.

Prasanna is a guest faculty in IIT Madras. She has been coaching professionals, women, parents, and students for 12+ years. She helps people discover what they truly want in life, eliminate the barriers and blocks getting in their way, re-claim their true selves and live a fuller and deeper life. She graduated as a Core Energy & Energy Leadership Coach from the Institute of Professional Empowerment Coaching (iPEC), USA. Prior to this, she worked with TCS and Wipro for 12 years. She worked in various roles as a Programmer/ Developer, Technical Architect & Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Solution Design Consultant; for different verticals. She graduated with a B.Tech in Electronics & Communications from IIT Madras in 1995.

Shiva Subramaniam is a life skills coach, consultant, and innovation evangelist. In his career spanning over three decades, he has worked with a multitude of organizations, teams, and individuals, helping them with new ways of thinking, exploring connections, expanding their vision and realizing their potential. He is a lawyer by training and was practising at the High Court in Chennai and also worked with TCS. He is now a guest faculty at IIT Madras and is the co-founder of the Biomimicry Compass.

Kartic Vaidyanathan is the founder of Let’s Play To Learn, an initiative that enables joyful learning through the power of play for corporates and educational institutions. The play-based solution offerings span industry segments, domains, and multiple levels of the organisation. He also conducts workshops for corporates and FDPs for educational institutions on tools and techniques for gamified interactive learning. He has been teaching multiple courses at IIT Madras for the last 3 years in the capacity of guest faculty. Prior to this, he had a 21-year corporate stint in IT Majors (Infosys/ Cognizant). He has authored the book “Power of Play in Audience Engagement.” He graduated from IIT Madras in 1996 and completed his Exec MBA in IIM Bangalore in 2009.

Senthil A V started his career in a consulting firm and then moved to TCS, where he was responsible for implementing Activity Based Costing. He did his M. S. from BITS Pilani and Ph. D. in Commerce (Wealth Management) from the University of Madras. Senthil is a seasoned Wealth & IT professional specialising in mentoring, wealth management, solution shaping, extensive deal structuring & working with cross-functional teams. He was heading wealth and mentoring verticals at Metis Family Office from March 2017 to June 2019.

Prathap Haridoss is currently the Dean (Academic Courses) and a Professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at IIT Madras. He did his B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Madras and got his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He worked as a Senior Scientist in Plug Power New York, before joining IIT Madras as a Faculty. His research interests include Fuel Cell and Carbon Nanomaterials. Prathap Haridoss was also one of the coordinators of NPTEL (National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning) and the IIT Madras B.S. Degree Program.