Academic Council

Dr. Raja Roy Choudhury Managing Trustee & Chief Mentor, 3rd Eye Knowledge Foundation Dr. Raja Roy Choudhury, MSc (Eco), MA (Psychology), MS (Counseling & Psychotherapy), MBA, Mphil (Counseling & Guidance), Phd (Psychology), Phd (Management), Certified Lead Auditor, is Director & Sr. Vice President Ops (SE Asia) for US technology consulting company, Athena Doyens LLC, & Ex-Head, Retail & Executive Education, Russell Square International College, Mumbai having over 22 years of rich experience in Strategic Planning, Sales & Marketing, Research, Training & Development in critical domain areas such as IT Education & Consulting, Business Process Redesign & Change Management, TQM & ISO 9000 QMS,

International Trade, Media, Office Automation and Retailing. He has served organizations such as Price Waterhouse, Datapro, Aptech,Zeba, AToZ, Times Group in senior management positions before embarking upon an international assignment as CEO, Fuji Xerox in South Pacific. He returned back to India in May, 2006 and since then has been working on research, training and development activities pertaining to the growth of retailing as a sunrise industry in India. He has received his doctorate in technology induced retailing for his pioneering work in converting a philatelic bureau called Post Fiji into a convergence retailing hub and the related technology & quality systems associated with such a change. Raja has recently been felicitated with an International Gold Star Award by the Honble Minister of Labour, Ministry of Thailand on November 13, 2009 in Bangkok & Jewel Of India Award by Indian Solidarity Council, New Delhi on March 03, 2010 for contribution to education.

Being inspired from his thesis, Raja has written a book on retail process mapping to develop robust & scalable retail software systems called RETAIL STORE’E which got published in May 2008. The book has relevance with his real life projects in retail technology in Times of India and Post Fiji. He has attempted to map the business of retail as per retail process specifications to help enrich understanding of the retail business and significantly benefit the student community, entrepreneurs, software engineers involved in designing retail systems architecture and retail professionals.

Raja runs 3rd eye knowledge foundation, an educational trust which strives to create a happy, healthy and secure childhood for the girl child by helping her avail formal education. The goal is to enable a Nanhi Kali blossom into a socially responsible adult who is aware of her rights and responsibilities. All the sales proceeds of his book, RETAIL STORE’e will go in strengthening the activities of the foundation.

Raja had successfully launched ReStore, a niche programme to develop and nurture retail store managers as part of the retail learning initiative of Russell Square International College and have so far trained in the capacity of a Principal Faculty, senior managers from Nokia, Vodafone, Hypercity, Suvidha, Sherwin Williams, Abbott Lab, R&P Gelato, Furtado, Welspun, Bombay Dyeing, NEXT & Crystal Mirage to name a few of them. He has been appointed as a Principal Faculty to conduct a retail seminar in Bahrain by Dr. N.J. Verghese Group of Coand in Kuala Lumpur by Ansa House. He has delivered lectures on technology induced retailing at Singapore Quality Circle and IIJ, Mumbai. Raja has been recently invited as a mentor in Self Management, Leadership & Retail Management by Europe Asia Business School, Pune. He is also a Visiting Professor (Family Managed Business) with SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Bhavan’s Centre for Inter Disciplinary Studies, Mumbai, Sommaiya, Indira Group of Institution & GIMSR in Navi Mumbai.

Raja’s major training and mentoring strength revolves round his ability to understand and focus on technology induced retail business solutions with clinical precision. He is an expert in taking sessions on Executive Coaching & Mentoring, Self Management, Professional Selling & Effective Customer Services, Motivation & Leadership, Soft Skills, Retail Buying, CPFR, SCM & Logistics, Retail IT, Store Operations, Footfall Management & Customer Loyalty Programmes.

Raja is currently involved with Institute for Psychotherapy & Management Sciences and Educational Guidance in the capacity of aDirector to promote UG/PG/Doctorate degree programmes in counseling & psychotherapy, psychology and management sciences.

Dr. R Parameswaran, Advisor, IPMS is one of the most qualified men on planet earth having not less than 40 degrees in various areas of specialization in the field of academics. He happens to be a proponent in the world of distance education and was instrumental in promoting counseling & psychotherapy as a much needed remedial study to help nurture and develop the society. He is a recipient of many a prestigious award such as Indira Gandhi Award for Excellence, Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence, Samajshri Award, Jewel of India Award and Pride of India Award for his contribution to academic excellence specially in the field of mental health and well being. He is ably supported by Dr Avinash D Souza and Prof Swati Deepak in designing, developing and rendering academic support in the field of counseling & psychotherapy.

Kiran Despande, BSC, BSC Tech, MFM is a techno-management specialist with vast knowledge in project management, strategic planning, management consulting and training having served organizations such as Bombay Dyeing, First Aid Medicines, Corn Products, Godrej Soaps before venturing on his own to set up Apna Bazaar Retail Stores and retail training cum consulting business practice. Kiran is a visiting faculty with NMIMS, Chetana Management Institute in Finance, Production, ERP and Retailing.

Makrand Rege, BE, MA, MBA has over 20 years of rich experience in the corporate as well as training sectors having worked with organizations such as Control Group, ABB and Mercury Goldman. He has been a Trainer cum Executive Coach with leading corporate for the past 7 years and is a specialist in Soft Skills and Self Management. Makrand runs his own consulting company called Siddharth Learning Systems.

Parag Bhise, BSC, ICWA has over 25 years of rich experience in standard costing, materials management, MIS, IT strategies and systems development and has served organizations like GKW, Shoppers Stop, AToZ Retail Group, Powernet Technologies before joining the Concept Jewelry Group as Retail Analyst. Parag has conceptualised and set up category and inventory management systems for retail companies both in the apparel and home furnishing marketplace as well as lifestyle jewelry sectors and has been writing retail related articles in national and international magazines for quite sometime. He brings with him immense knowledge in category, merchandising and inventory management systems in the retail business.

Dr. H. H. Mankad, is a reputed educator, an education administrator and a management professional. He is having a rare distinction of being a founder Vice Chancellor of two leading Deemed Universities; NMIMS, Mumbai, a top ranking management education institute and Mody Institute of Technology and Science, Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan, a renowned institute of professional education for women. With a Ph. D. in International Finance from University of Bombay followed by post-doctoral studies at Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Mankad was a Professor in the US in 1970s, a CEO of Technova group of companies in Bombay in 1980s, a Professor at NMIMS and an advisor to a group of finance companies in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1990s and has been an education administrator for last six years. He completed his last assignment as President of AICAR Business School, Neral, a residential, post-graduate management studies institute, before joining Russell Square International College as Dean Emiretus.

Mangalnath Ghorpade, has several years of work experience as a manager, organizer and business advisor in almost every phase of the management of business in food, hospitality, media and retail industry. He has lived and worked abroad for eight and a half years and has travelled the world extensively, studying retail customer service techniques and marketing as practiced by businesses world-wide.He is one of the pioneers of the modern retailing in the country. He was the lead consultant to AToZ retail group and was the first to create a planned, stand alone superstore to reposition the 70 year old retail brand in Mumbai. He is a visiting faculty at leading business schools of Mumbai and teaches Retail ERP, Retail management, Visual merchandising and Mall management, Public Relations and Corporate communication. He is also involved with MDP's for retail multiples. His inborn talent and natural gifts combined with richness of life experiences and wealth of character and wisdom make him little (bit of a) philosopher, teacher, guide and a friend or perhaps all of them. Though member of the professional community, this also makes him different and special.