An Interview with Samina Bano, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RightWalk Foundation
Dr. John Hoffmire: Hello Samina. It’s good to be back in touch and I’m honored to get to ask you some questions about your work. I’ll start as I usually do by asking what inspired you to leave a successful career in management consulting and dedicate yourself to social change in education? Samina Bano: Thank you, John. You probably remember this, but [...]
An interview with Ravi Gadepalli, Consultant to The World Bank and Principal Consultant for Transit Intelligence LLP
Dr. John Hoffmire: Ravi, you’ve been actively involved in public transport and electric mobility reforms in India for over a decade now and you started working across South Asia in recent years. What inspired you to focus on this sector, particularly in a country as complex as India? Ravi Gadepalli: Hello John. My journey into urban mobility started during my time at [...]
An interview with Nrupal Das, Director, Product Management at Paysafe, a fintech company headquartered at London
Dr. John Hoffmire: Nrupal, it’s a delight to be back in touch with you. I want to start by talking about your work at Paysafe, which involves leading payment solutions for North and South America, along with anti-fraud initiatives. Could you tell us about the challenges you face in this space and how you navigate them? Nrupal Das: Certainly. The payments ecosystem is [...]
An Interview with Chalinda Abeykoon, Managing Partner at nVentures PTE LTD
Dr. John Hoffmire: Hello Chalinda! I’m excited to have this opportunity to chat with you and catch-up. I’m first going to site some impressive numbers. You have been working with startups for over 15 years now, mentoring over 3,000 entrepreneurs and have helped launch over 50 startups across South and Southeast Asia. You also played a pivotal role in launching the first [...]
An interview with Shashanka Rayadurga Huliraj, Manager at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (HAL)
Dr. John Hoffmire: Shashanka, I love talking with aerospace engineers. You are all so practical. It’s a pleasure to reconnect even though it’s only been a season since you were in Oxford. You have an impressive background in aerospace and digital transformation. Can you start by sharing what inspired you to pursue a career in this field? Shashanka Rayadurga Huliraj: Thank you [...]
An Interview with Jitesh Choudhary, Director/Center Head at the Center for Development of Advanced Computing in Silchar, Assam, India
Dr. John Hoffmire: In preparing for this interview, I reviewed your impressive CV. You have the resume and skill set that is very much in demand right now: years of technical expertise, AI training, as well as product management experience. When you started out as an Electronics engineer, did you have any idea of the trajectory your career would take – that [...]
An Interview with Dr. Kamal Gulati, Senior Scientist at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)
John Hoffmire: We share something in common, you and I. We both wrote doctoral dissertations on topics we feel passionate about and then centered our careers around that topic and passion. For you, the focus has been medical leadership development in a low- and middle-income country, i.e. India. I’d love to know how your interest in medicine, hospital administration and medical leadership [...]
Nirav Khambhati’s Journey to Blended Finance
One of the extraordinary attributes of Chevening fellows is the dynamic trajectory of their careers and the work they do. Their curiosity and passion compel them to expand their education, interests, and influence and pursue new opportunities and challenges. The arc of their work and interests is never static. They may start out as an engineer and years later end up running [...]
Chevening and Gurukul Programmes Alumni Reunion January 2024
Individuals from the Chevening Research, Science and Innovation Leadership Fellowship Programme (CRISP), in conjunction with the Gurukul Programme alums who studied at Oxford University held their first ever joint reunion, recently, in Kochi, India. Including Chevening administrators and staff from Oxford, we had 28 who came from all over to attend. Chevening is an organization established by the UK government that [...]
An interview with Shabd Mishra, Managing Director for Renaissance eServices Ltd and founder of Meducination and Psychology World®
John Hoffmire: Let me quote something I read about you online, “In 2005 Shabd Mishra quit his job as Head of International Sales for a leading US information publisher to start Renaissance eServices in 2005. The business, located in the UK, spans over 52 countries and caters to nearly 2 million students globally. Since 2005, the firm has developed over 48,000 eLearning [...]
An Interview with Suparna Kapoor, L&D Leader, Consultant, Happiness Coach, and Chevening CRISP Fellow, University of Oxford, 2022
John Hoffmire: I sometimes struggle with the notion of a “thought leader”. In some cases, it just sounds presumptuous for someone to claim they can or should influence the thinking of others. But in your case, it seems to me that you are a genuine thought leader in the best sense – you are someone who has a positive reputation for helping others [...]
Interview with Amita Dahiya, Project Lead (Entrepreneurship) Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusive Leadership, XLRI
John Hoffmire: I’m always interested to hear how someone’s career evolves and, in some ways, changes direction. I often refer to such a career path as “following the current” as in the current of a river. It seems like your career has been a bit like that, would you agree? Amita: Yes, I think I would agree that there has been [...]
