International Conference - Future of Aviation and Aerospace 2018 - Jointly organized by Aerospace MBA TBS & IIMB - Bangalore - Feb. 24, 2018

Toulouse Business School (TBS) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) hosted on February 24, 2018 in Bangalore an international conference on “Future of Aviation & Aerospace 2018”, a premier event for senior aviation and aerospace management professionals. This successful global meet witnessed the presence industry stalwarts and above 300 participants from major airline and aviation companies. Alumni from TBS Aerospace MBA from Toulouse and from India were attending (from the various batches!). Strategic insights on customer behavior, IOT and Big Data, as well as the role of start-ups in the Aerospace and Aviation industry, were some of the subjects discussed at the conference.

The conference was inaugurated by Prof. G Raghuram, Director IIM Bangalore, Dr. Dwarakanath, President, AIRBUS India; Vinay Dube, CEO, Jet Airways; Dr. Raghunath S, faculty and Conference Chair, IIM Bangalore and Dr. Christophe Bénaroya, Professor of Marketing and Director of the Aerospace MBA programs at TBS. “As much as policies are important for the sector, working with the right set of talent, managers and ability to incorporate the management culture in the industry plays a key role.”, stated professor Bénaroya, adding that the industry requires more start-up contribution, innovation and fresh talent, not limiting itself to engineers.

More about the conference

In the press#1 (India)
In the press#2 (India)
In the press#3 (France)
In the press#4 (International)
On IIMB website

Session -1 : Exploring The State Of The Aviation & Aerospace Industry

Welcome Remarks

Dr S Raghunath, IIM Bangalore

Professor Raghunath was engaged in the study of strategy-making in high-tech companies in USA such as Cypress

Semiconductors Inc., Intel, Motorola, MIPS. He has conducted studies on Business Process Initiatives in American Express Insurance and Investment Division, San Rafael, California. He has been a strategy implementation consultant to MNCs and Indian firms such as GE, Cisco, LG CNS, Weir India, METRO Cash and Carry, Mahindra FES, AFC.

Professor Raghunath is on the Board of Directors of National Venture Capital Fund, India Satcom, K Two Technologies, Weir India and HAL-Tata Joint venture and ex-officio member of the IIMB Board of Governors. He is a Registered Consultant with the Office of Project Services, UNDP, New York.

Raghunath is the India Chapter Chair of the Academy of International business and is on the Board of Directors of National Venture Capital Fund, Cloud Computing and Innovation Council of India,Spire Technologies, K Two Technologies, KIOCL and MECL.

Opening Remarks

Dr G Raghuram, Director – IIM Bangalore

He was the Vice-Chancellor of the Indian Maritime University from July 2012 to March 2013. He was the Indian Railways Chair Professor from January 2008 to August 2010. He specializes in infrastructure and transport systems, and logistics and supply chain management. He conducts research on the railway, port, shipping, aviation and road sectors. He has published over 35 refereed papers in journals and written over 155 case studies. He has published six co-authored books.

He was awarded (i)‘MC Puri Memorial Award’ for Contribution to Operational Research in India, 2016 (ii) ‘Academician of the Year’ by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in 2012 and (iii) ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for contribution to logistics and infrastructure by EXIM News in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Operational Research Society of India, and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He has teaching experience at universities in India, USA, Canada, Yugoslavia, Singapore, Tanzania and UAE.

He is a member of the Global Future Council on Mobility of the World Economic Forum, Executive Council of the National Aviation University, and of the Board of Directors of six companies in the fields of infrastructure, logistics and education. Overall, he has been on the Board of 12 companies. He has offered consultancy services to over 100 organizations including multilateral agencies. He has served on various government policy making and advisory committees for the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Shipping, Cabinet Secretariat, Comptroller and Auditor General, the Planning Commission and various State Governments

Dr. Srinivasan Dwarakanath, Airbus India

Managing Director and Vice President, International Cooperation, South-Asia

Dwaraka was nominated as the Managing Director of Airbus India, since 1st Oct 2013. Airbus India is a unit of Airbus Group India Pvt Ltd, and the single face of Airbus in the country towards Indian stakeholders including customers, Indian government and industrial partners. Airbus India consists of a fully owned Engineering Centre, Training Centre, Customer Services, Procurement, Strategy and functional leadership that supports Airbus Group India.

Before this, Dwaraka was part of the Airbus Strategy team and was Heading International Cooperation activities in Asia-Pacific & Middle-East. He is responsible for developing and help implementing international cooperation strategy including industrial development for Airbus in this region.

Dwaraka started his career at Airbus in the UK, in Engineering in 1997 and subsequently, he was part of Information Systems and Airbus Concurrent Engineering teams. In 2004, he was posted to Airbus in France to take a leadership role managing trans-national engineering software development teams across Airbus extended enterprise, in the areas of CAD/CAM, Product Data Management and Knowledge Based Engineering.

In 2006, Dwaraka moved to Airbus HQ in Toulouse where he became the Country Manager – India and was instrumental is kick-starting the industrial cooperation activities in India. He was responsible for setting up two fully owned Airbus subsidiaries namely, Airbus Engineering Centre India and Airbus Training India. Moreover, in 2011 he led strategic offshore engineering partnerships by setting up two Airbus dedicated design centres with two companies in India. He also spear headed Airbus Industrial Cooperation in Korea, making Korea one of the key industrial partner countries for Airbus across different aircraft programmes. Before joining Airbus, he worked in Automotive Industry and Information System consulting.

Dwaraka’s interests are in the fields of group decision-making, capturing experience, globalisation in engineering/aerospace industry (in particular reverse globalisation), and in cross-functional & multi-cultural team working.

Dwaraka, obtained his first degree in Mathematics, masters in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and received a Cambridge-Nehru scholarship to do PhD in Design Engineering from University of Cambridge, UK.

Mr Vinay Dube, Jet Airways

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Vinay Dube, joined Jet Airways in August 2017.He holds a Master’s degree in Operations Research from the University of North Carolina. Vinay, an accomplished aviation specialist has close to three decades of rich and varied experience in the International aviation canvas. He has a demonstrable track record of leadership in varied roles at Delta Airlines Inc., Sabre, Inc., and American Airlines in the USA, Europe and Asia. In addition to his strategic and leadership roles, Vinay has also held various Board-level positions in his diversified career. At Jet Airways, Vinay will lead the Executive Management Committee to deliver the airlines strategic objectives. Prior to Jet Airways, he was the Sr. Vice President-Asia Pacific for Delta Airlines Inc.

Dr Christophe Bénaroya, TBS France

Programme Director – TBS

Dr. Christophe BÉNAROYA, graduated from Toulouse Business School, hold a master degree (post-graduate) in Management Science from Toulouse University and a PhD in Marketing from Lyon University. Professor of Marketing, he’s the Director of the Aerospace MBA programs delivered in Toulouse (France) and co-director of the same program in Bangalore with IIMB (India). Grounded into his professional experience in B2B marketing consultancy (in the aerospace sector), his research activities gave birth to the publishing of articles in academic journals, and to several books (jointly with Philippe Malaval), both in France and abroad (Europe, USA, China, South America) for example “BtoB Marketing”, “Aerospace Marketing Management”, “BtoB branding”.

Session -2 : Looking to India: Next Growth opportunity

Chair: Dr S Raghunath, IIM Bangalore

Panelists:

Mr Amber Dubey

Partner & Head Aerospace and Defence – KPMG India

Amber has over 20 years of experience in the areas of business strategy, regulatory advice, process improvement and organization restructuring and currently leads the aviation and defense practice at KPMG India. Amber is Chairman-Aviation at CII (the largest industry organization in India), Co-Chairman of Aviation at AMCHAM and key member of several aviation committees including FICCI, ASSOCHAM and IACC. He is also a leading spokesperson in media on aviation matters. Amber works closely with industry associations connected to MRO, air-cargo, helicopters, ATC and business jets. Along with his team, Amber has carried out several engagements with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), Airports Authority of India (AAI), GMR, GVK, Cochin Airport, Reliance Airports, and Zurich Airport among many other. He and his team is also working with airlines like IndiGo, Jet, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir in different capacities.

Separate Content:

Amber is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad and has a professional experience of over 25 years.

He and his team have carried out several engagements with Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), Airports Authority of India (AAI), GMR, GVK and airports at Cochin, Changi, Zurich, Oman, Saudi Arabia etc. He and his team have and are assisting airlines like IndiGo, Jet, Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, Vistara, Saudia and Oman Air in multiple areas.

Amber has provided significant inputs to MoCA for the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP 2016). He had earlier assisted MoCA in drafting the 12^th Five Year Plan for aviation.

Amber’s team has closed four airport transactions in the last 12 months namely, Navi Mumbai, Mopa (Goa), Vizag and Dagadarthi (AP). Amber has assisted MoCA and AAI in several key engagements like the hive-off of AAI’s Air Navigation Services; feasibility analysis for Juhu and Rohtak Airports; business plan for satellite based air navigation (GAGAN) and establishment of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU).

Amber is Vice Chairman (Aviation) at US India Business Council (USIBC), American Chambers of Commerce (Amcham) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII); and a key member of the aviation committees of FICCI, ASSOCHAM and IACC. He works closely with industry associations connected to airlines, airports, MRO, air-cargo and general aviation. He is a regular speaker on aviation matters in the media.

Amber was honoured for ‘Valuable contribution to Indian aviation’ in October 2012 by Shri Ajit Singh, the then union aviation minister. He’s recently been nominated to the Defence Minister’s panel to expedite capital projects for the modernisation of the armed forces (RMCOMP).

Mr Awibhavan Dhakaria, LIEBHERR India

Business Head – Aerospace

20 years of experience in implementing longer-range complex program & established Global Development Center in India. Presently heading Sales and Business Development activities in India for Liebherr Aerospace and Transportation.

Amit Thakran

Team Leader, Consulting and Research, CAPA India

Amit Thakran leads a team of consultants, analysts and associates. In his current role, he has led consulting projects on developing a business plan for a commercial airline (160 aircraft operations), a business plan for an e-commerce startup and a global study to understand best practices in regional and remote air connectivity. Some recent research projects include a benchmarking study on global airports, a report on India’s air cargo industry and an assessment of the inbound leisure potential of India. Amit has more than five years of professional experience, and he holds an MBA in Finance from ICFAI Business School, Mumbai.

Shruti Porwal

Team Leader, Consulting and Research, CAPA India

Shruti Porwal leads a team of consultants, analysts and associates. In her current role, she has led consulting projects such as privatisation and restructuring of a South Asian flag carrier, and a business case and strategy for expansion of a European flag carrier into India, including assistance with bilateral air service negotiations. On the research side, she has led projects on prospects of long haul low cost operations from India, opportunity in India’s outbound market and the true cost of MRO for Indian airlines, as well as CAPA’s annual market outlook on Indian aviation. Prior to working with CAPA, she worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs for close to two and a half years. Shruti completed her MBA in Finance from Narsee Monjee, Mumbai, and she holds a Bachelors in Economics from Hansraj College, Delhi University.

SESSION -3 : Managing Talent In The Industry

Chair: Dr Christophe Bénaroya, TBS France

Panelists:

Mr Suraj Chetri, AIRBUS

Regional Director Human Resources

Mr. Suraj is a leading HR Professional with nearly 20 years of experience in a variety of industries spanning across specialist HR functions. He started his career with Bata India in IR and moved in 1996 to Bosch India and then to their HQ in Germany. NHRD Network – Bangalore Chapter recognized him as an achiever under the Young HR Manager category and was also a part of the HR Team that won the Best HR Practices Award from NHRD. In 2003 he joined General Motors Technical Centre as Head HR and was part of the Leadership Team responsible for setting up their operations in India, then in 2006 he joined Textron India as Director HR and in 2008 was given the additional responsibility of the operations of the Center at Bangalore as their Dy MD and Board Member. In 2011 Suraj joined Airbus Group India and is now their Regional Director HR. In 2013 Suraj was conferred with the HR Leadership Award and in 2015 the Top 100 influencing HR leaders in Asia both by the Asia Pacific HRM Congresss and in 2016 and 2017 with the most influential HR Leaders in India at the World HRD Congress. He was conferred with the Gold Karmaveer Chakra and the Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship for his contribution towards the Bio Diversity Program by iCongo in association with the UN during 2014-15.

Mr Rahul Taneja, Jet Airways

Chief People Officer

Mr. Rahul Taneja has been the Chief People Officer at Jet Airways (India) Ltd. since February 23, 2016. Mr. Taneja served as a Vice President of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. He headed corporate human resources (HR) at Essar Group where he led the strategic re-design and HR function for global operations across all business portfolios. Mr. Taneja served as President of Cons. India HR Service (P) Ltd. Taneja has quite a diverse profile and all-round experience in his career span of 26 years. He started as an engineer, and then moved to sales and marketing, and finally after 10 years, to human resources.

Lead the HR transformation agenda for a strategic and professional HR service organization, which drives ‘best practices’ in all aspects of the people value chain comprising of people management and development. Provide a strategic and operational interface between HR and other Department’s / Function’s across the company while considering their short, medium and long term goals. Deliver specialist knowledge and expertise on all aspects of people management including Statutory Compliance, HR Process Management, Talent Acquisition, HR Technology Development, Talent Management, Learning & Development, Organization Structure & Design and Rewards Management to deliver world class HR services. Assist the Chair and Directors of Nominations and Remunerations Committee (NRC) on all Strategic People Agenda of Jet Airways. Invited to board meetings and the audit committee meetings.

Dr Jérôme Bove, French Embassy in India

Scientific and academic attaché

Dr Jérôme Bove is the Scientific and Academic Attaché – Embassy of France – dedicated to the South of India. He started his career as a researcher in a plant biology: He obtained his PhD from the National Institute of Agronomy in Paris, worked at Pennsylvania State University, University of Montreal, and University of Angers (France) where he holds an associate professor position. Since the past five years, he has moved out of academic roles and was the scientific director of the High Council for Strategic Research, a research funding agency affiliated to the Prime Minister’s office. He joined the Bangalore office of the French Embassy in September 2016

Capt Sam Thomas, ALPA India

President

LINE TRAINING CAPTAIN – B777, JET AIRWAYS INDIA LTD
ASSOCIATION WITH IFALPA (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF AIRLINE PILOT’S ASSOCIATION)
Represented India at IFALPA in 2015.
Successfully re-established ALPA India as a member associate of IFALPA.
Represented ALPA India as chief delegate in the IFALPA regional and world conferences in Sri Lanka, Spain, Mongolia and Indonesia
Presently working to bring all aviation professional on a common platform and to promote a
collaborative decision-making model amongst all stake holders in the aviation industry.

SESSION 4 : Driving real insights through AM, IoT & Big Data

Chair: Prof S. Raghunath

Panelists:

Mr Kap Prabhakaran, Honeywell Aerospace

India Leader

Prabhakaran is currently leading the HTS Aero organization in India with a mix of diverse cross functional teams. In this role, Prabhakaran is responsible for driving flawless execution, improving productivity and enabling growth for Aerospace. HTS Aero team consists of engineers that are part of Engineering, ISC, Strategic & Product Marketing and C&PS areas working across all the major programs for Aerospace.

Prior to this role, Prabhakaran was the Sr. Director, SW V&V CoE for Aero leading teams spread across 5 countries for all major product lines. Prabhakaran joined HTS in 1995 and has held a variety of leadership roles in HTS for the last 23 years that includes Flight management & Electrical Power & Controllers, Flight management, HW, Flight management system(FMS), Communication, Navigation & Surveillance(CNS), A380 Secondary Electrical Power Distribution System, and Industrial Automation & Building controls. During the execution of A380 program, Prabhakaran & his family lived in Toronto, Canada for 3 years.

Prabhakaran holds a Master’s degree in Control Systems from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication, from Madras University. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and a recipient of numerous awards and recognition for his leadership including Honeywell Aero Leadership Award in 2018 and Premier Achievement Award in 2016.

Prabhakaran is interested in reading a wide variety of books in technology, mythology, historical and spiritual.

Venkat Sankar, GE Aviation Digital

Director – Software Engineering

He is responsible for building GE Aviation’s flagship analytics platform used to monitor all GE commercial engines in flight to alert on potential issues.

Venkat has more than 14 years of experience in building diverse software products across multiple GE businesses from RM&D platforms for turbo-machinery to probabilistic analysis tools. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Master’s in Quality Management. He has a passion for technology and has a patent in aircraft message routing system.

Dr Dheepa Srinivasan, GE India Technology Center

Former Principal Engineer

Dheepa Srinivasan was a Principal Engineer at General Electric, Bangalore. She has been a practicing engineer in GE for over 17.5 years, leading the research and development of high temperature materials and manufacturing technologies for gas turbines.

Dheepa has a PhD, in Metallurgical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She is the inventor of several new technologies having over 30 patents, and has developed more than 50 technologies / process applications that are now running in several gas turbines and steam turbines. Dheepa is a visiting faculty in Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore and a Research Professor at Vel Tech University, Chennai. She is also a certified Six Sigma, Black belt, in engineering quality management. She is a pioneer in the area of metal 3D printing or Additive manufacturing and has developed several applications for metal laser additive manufacturing as a unique technology enabler for gas turbine component repair and component life extension.

SESSION 5 : Start-ups and their role & contribution to Aerospace & Aviation Industry

Chair: Prof Christophe Bénaroya

Panelists:

Mr Mantha Venkataramana,

CEO – Assystem Technologies India

Professional Experience:

Presently, working as Chief Executive Officer of Assystem Technologies India Pvt Ltd taking care of the two delivery centers in Bangalore and Chennai comprising of about 300 plus engineers. The major aerospace engineering projects being delivered from India operations are related to structural design and analysis, avionics development and Systems Integration.
Possesses more than 32 years of experience in Aerospace engineering domain.
Successfully completed many system engineering projects. One of them is running an offshore development center with a team size of 400 engineers for more than 3 years performing high-end design and analysis of aero structures of a complete transport aircraft. Product design activities comprised of concept to design, full life cycle software development programs including DO 178 and DO 254 Certification, manufacturing engineering support and sustenance engineering activities.
Brings in strategic direction and change leadership through his diversified experience. He has been an active Flight Test Engineer on fixed wing aircraft with Indian Air Force during the first 18 years of his career. At HCL Technologies as a Business Unit Head, Mantha transformed the complete Engineering services portfolio with Aero structures design to be the most differentiating practice and built a 375 engineer team from scratch and doubled the net margin through accelerated innovation, enabling co-creation across employees, clients and the larger aerospace ecosystem. His previous other roles include senior management positions as Business Head, aerospace Engineering services with QuEST Global where he developed new service lines in Aerospace, Defense and Automotive sectors through conceiving a transformational relationship model with clients. He also had been the Senior Vice President at AXISCADES (prior to joining Assystem) where he was responsible for building some of the strategic OEM relationships in Aerospace and Automotive domain.

Academic Qualifications:

M-Tech in Materials Sciences – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai
MS in Software Systems – BITS, Pilani
B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering – Andhra University

Awards and Achievements:

Awarded Vishist Seva Medal by the President of India for excellence in flight testing in 2002.

Mr Siddharth Balachandran, AIRBUS BIZLAB

Siddharth Balachandran is the Airbus BizLab Leader in India. Airbus BizLab is an aerospace accelerator that works closely with startups (entrepreneurs) and Airbus’s own internal innovation projects (intrapreneurs) to speed up the transformation of innovative ideas into valuable businesses. Apart from the BizLab, Siddharth is also the Focal Point for Airbus Ventures in India. In his past roles, Siddharth has been instrumental in setting up the first bilingual (English and French) teams for HSBC in India. Later, he turned entrepreneur by starting a company in Pondicherry specializing in advisory and KPO services for French clients. During this time, he worked closely with the Govt. Of Pondicherry on promoting and developing it as a tier 2 city for IT companies. Just before joining the BizLab in India, he was a Trade Advisor to the government of France for bilateral trade and cooperation between France and India specifically for the IT and Start-up ecosystems.

Ms Cecilia SKRODER, NAVBLUE

Business Development and Partnership

President of the Aerospace MBA Alumni (TBS)

Cecilia SKRODER SAFIR holds an LL.M from Stockholm University, and an MBA in aerospace management from Toulouse Business School. After starting her career at a top tier law firm in Australia, Cecilia worked at an intellectual property consultancy start-up in Singapore before moving into aerospace with Thales Avionics. Based first in Singapore and later in France, she negotiated Avioincs and IFE contracts with Airlines and OEMs in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In 2017, Cecilia joined NAVBLUE to work with strategic business development and partnerships. She also leads the TBS’s Aerospace MBA Alumni Association.

SESSION-6 : The Strategic Insights On Customer Behaviour

Chair: Dr G Shainesh, IIM Bangalore

Prof. G. Shainesh has over two decades of research and teaching experience in India and abroad. He has conducted research and teaching assignments at the Goteborg University (Sweden), University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Audencia Nantes and IESEG (France), Vienna University and MCI Innsbruck (Austria), Bocconi University (Milan), Curtin University of Technology (Perth) and the American University of Armenia (Yerevan). His research and teaching focus on CRM, Services Marketing and Service Innovations. At IIMB, he leads the cross functional research initiative on consumer insights http://www.iimb.ac.in/initiatives/initiatives-consumer-insights His case study ‘Narayana Nethralaya: Expanding Affordable Eye Care’ was the 2nd place winner in the GlobaLens 2014 NextBillion Case Writing Competition http://www.globalens.com/ .

The ‘Best Professor in Marketing’ award was conferred on Prof. Shainesh by the CMO Asia Council during the ‘Best B-Schools in Asia Awards’, July 2011, Singapore. He is also the past winner of the Citibank Special Research Award (1994) and P D Agarwal TCI Award for Doctoral Research in Management (1995). He has worked for several organizations in the public, the non-profit and the corporate sector including telecom, software, engineering and service firms both as an advisor and as a seminar leader. His clients include ABB, Aventis Pharma, B2K Corp, Department of Pharmaceuticals, HECL, Caterpillar, Ericsson, Indian Oil, Manipal Universal, MICO, NCSM, Otto Bilz, Philips, SKF, Indian Railways, IFFCO, ICPB, Ministry of Tourism, Power Ministry, TRIFED, Sanskriti, and Pradan among others.

Prof. Shainesh’s book titled ‘Customer Relationship Management – A Strategic Perspective’ (Laxmi Publications) is a prescribed text book for CRM courses at several business schools. He is also the co-author of an edited book on CRM titled ‘Customer Relationship Management – Emerging Concepts, Tools and Applications’ (15th Reprint 2011, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi).

Shainesh is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Indian Business Research (JIBR), an Emerald (UK) publication. His papers on services and relationship marketing have been published in the ‘MIS Quarterly’, ‘Journal of Service Research’, ‘Journal of International Marketing’, ‘International Journal of Bank Marketing’, ‘International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management’, ‘International Journal of Technology Management’, ‘Journal of Relationship Marketing’, ‘International Marketing Review’, ‘Revue Française du Marketing’, ‘Journal on Marketing & Communication’ ‘Vikalpa’, and ‘IIMB Management Review’.

Panelists:

Mr Girish Rangareddy, ATR

Managing Director at ATR India

February 2016 – Present

Responsible for management of support center providing product support to airlines operating ATR aircraft in the region.

Technical Support Manager at ATR India

May 2011 – February 2016 (4 years 10 months)

Responsible for management of technical support team supporting ATR operators in the region.

Systems Support Engineer at ATR India

October 2008 – May 2011 (2 years 8 months)

Responsible for technical support pertaining to ATR aircraft systems. Customer liaison for airlines operating ATR aircrafts.

Manager, Technical Services at Kingfisher Airlines

March 2007 – October 2008 (1 year 8 months)

Responsible for the management of the technical services & technical publications department, ensuring continuous technical support to resolve aircraft maintenance related issues to have improved aircraft operational availability.

Sr.Technical Services Engineer at Air Deccan

June 2006 – March 2007 (10 months)

Responsible for supervising the work of the technical services team along with the role of a aircraft systems engineer.

Systems Engineer at Air Deccan

November 2005 – June 2006 (8 months)

Responsible for the entire fleet of A320, ATR42-320,ATR42-500 & ATR72-500 aircrafts technical accuracy and reliability related to aircraft systems involving air-conditioning, flight controls hydraulics, fuel system, ice & rain protection system, oxygen system, pneumatics and waste water system.

Technical Officer at Air Deccan

November 2004 – November 2005 (1 year 1 month)

Responsible for development of engineering orders, technical circulars and provide technical assistance to line maintenance personnel. Ensuring the compliance of the regulatory requirements of the aircraft fleet being operated.

Education

RMIT University : M.E, Aerospace Engineering, 2003 – 2004

Visvesvaraya Technological University : B.E, Mechanical Engineering, 1998 – 2002

Belson Coutinho, Jet Airways (India) Ltd.

Sr. Vice President – Marketing, eCommerce & Innovations

A highly accomplished marketing & eCommerce professional with over 20 years’ experience of which eighteen have been in airline management. Belson has managed key roles in loyalty marketing, product development and currently heads the global – marketing, digital, social, eBusiness and innovation strategy for Jet Airways and JetKonnect.

With innovation being a key driver in all his endeavours, he has been the architect of several global strategies leveraging technology, digital and social media platforms most of which have been a first in the Indian aviation industry.

Belson is an active speaker at various Digital Marketing, Social Media, Distribution & eCommerce events and has spoken at various summits across several countries. Belson was conferred the prestigious ‘Excellence In eCommerce & Innovation in Digital Marketing Award’ at the 5th Indira International Innovation Summit. He was awarded the ’20 Best Digital Marketing Professionals Award’ by the CMO Council at the World Brand Congress. He has also been recognized with the Marketing & IT Recognition Award by IBM and Paul Writer in 2011 & 2012.

Belson is a mentor at the Times TLabs for start-ups which aims at nurturing ideas and projects of Internet and Mobile entrepreneurs. He is also a member of the Internet and Mobile Association of India’s (IAMAI) ‘Digital Commerce Committee’ besides being an active participant in various common user & business leaders groups.

During his spare time, Belson delivers guest lectures at reputed B-schools with the aim of sharing his industry experience with students across the country.

Mr Christophe IMBERT, Milanamos

President & CEO – Milanamos

25 years experience with large airlines and startups in the area of commercial aviation. Expert in revenue management and pricing he worked for Air France, British Airways and Air TAHITI Nui. He was also part of RM Rocade a Swedish startup specialized in crew management and flight operations sold to Sabre. At Sabre he has been instrumental in launching a consortium with Airbus and Lufthansa to address the trajectory lifecycle concept in Sesar. In 2014, he launched Milanamos, a startup awarded at the world innovation challenge delivering a predictive analytics solution to 40 airports and airlines worldwide.

Christophe speaks 5 languages, hold an exec MBA from ESCEM business school and is a lecturer in airline economics at IIMB-TBS, école des Ponts & Chaussées.

Session -7 : How Does government aid Aerospace & Aviation Industry

Chair: Mr Anantha Agasthya, Former Executive Director – HAL Management Academy

Anantha Agasthya is an alumnus of IIM B from the 1981 Batch and also of IIT Chennai. He has a unique versatile blend of solid technical experience and management experience of four decades and is an effective communicator. He has a balanced experience in the Public Sector and Private Sector which also includes management education experience of over 15 years.

His association with the Aerospace industry comes from his tenure at HAL as Dean and later Executive Director of HAL Management Academy. There he brought in significant changes in the management development processes while also contributing to the Risk Management Policy and industry-academia collaboration. He also initiated structured processes for developing Project Management, Systems Engineering and Six Sigma, with which he has left a firm foot print.

After his superannuation from HAL in 2015, he has started a firm “ILIFESigmoid” through which he continues to shape the thinking of managers and future leaders in a variety of industries. He is an active visiting faculty at IIM B in GMAE program. He has also volunteered in co-facilitating lab “InsAniyat” based on Yoga and Folk theatre.

He is a keen learner and a uses the Online courses to keep adding to his insights.

Panelists:

Mr Damodaran Subramanian, IFCCI

Vice-Chairman

Damodaran currently holds the position of Managing Director in SAFRAN Engineering Services India, Leading 400 Engineering Experts in the areas of Aerospace & Defence Product Development, Engineering, control Software development, Manufacturing engineering & Product support engineering

He started his career in 1990 in Heavy Automobile Manufacturing Company Ashok Leyland, later he worked in a Detroit based Engineering company EASI managing the Offshore Engineering Services for US and European customers.

He joined Safran Engineering Services in Nov 2004. Over the years, he held various key positions and was responsible for developing offshore talents and services to global automotive, aerospace, railway majors and Indian defence industries. He started his SAFRAN career as Director – Systems Design and worked on several transnational projects including B787, A380 and A350 for Boeing and Airbus. He was responsible for Key account management for Safran Landing Systems (earlier MESSIER-BUGATTI-DOWTY) for the global SES business from 2012 – 2014. Before taking up the role of Managing Director, he held the position of Senior Vice President – Responsible for Business Development, Strategy and Delivery of Engineering Business at SES India. He is also well connected with SAE INTERNATIONAL and holds key position in SAEINDIA Aerospace Board and SAEINDIA Bangalore Section

Capt Amitabh Singh, Air India

Executive Director – Training

Designated Examiner on B787 fleet.
Incharge of all Training activities of Boeing fleet
Incharge of all Training activities of Airbus fleet
Incharge of Training activities on the ATR fleet.
Responsible for compliance of all Rules and Regulations related to DGCA / ICAO and other Aviation Regulatory authorities.
Accountable Manager for ATO (Aviation Training Orgn) – Air India Ltd.
Responsible for Quality Assurance / control over and updation of all Controlled documents.
Responsible for IOSA / ICAO Compliance, All Approvals, Inspections and Audits.

Mr Ravikiran Pothukuchi, Dassault System

Industry Leader at Dassault Systèmes

Mr Ravikiran Pothukuchi leads Dassault Systèmes’ (DS) Aerospace & Defense in India. His role is to jointly define the business strategy to expand Dassault Systèmes’ solution footprint in Indian Aerospace industry and ensure successful execution of key defence programs on Dassault Systèmes’ technology platform. Previously he worked in DS R&D team that was incepted to develop a disruptive digital manufacturing solution for Aerospace, Automotive & Shipbuilding industries, which is now extensively used by various customers globally. He was part of the team that worked in developing a new method to automate the input definition of manufacturing processes, which won a patent in 2010.

Ravikiran started his career with Dassault Systèmes’ in 2004, and worked in various roles within product development team, and developed solutions to the technical requirements of various industries – predominantly Aerospace & Shipbuilding. He moved into his current role in 2011, and is working with various Indian aerospace & defence organizations to assess their current processes, benchmark them against the industry best practices and define a solution roadmap offered on Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.

(Source: Thirunavukkarasu R. Alumni AeMBA India Batch1)