Conference Committee

Prof. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy

Director, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy received his PhD in Business and Management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Ramamoorthy has taught a variety of courses in the management discipline at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He spent a semester at the University of National and World Economy in Bulgaria as a Fulbright Scholar in 2008 and a recipient of a second Fulbright grant to teach/research at the University of Applied Sciences, Valmiera, Latvia. He has lectured at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, the University of Applied Sciences in Austria, Burgas Free University, and University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria). He also received the University's Research and Scholarly Excellence Award in 2008, the Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and the Best Reviewer Award for European Management Review awarded by the European Academy of Management. He has served as the founding Chair of the Management & Marketing Department of the University of Houston-Victoria's School of Business (AACSB accredited), member of the President's Cabinet, and member of the Academic Council, Chair of the University Grievance Committee, Policy Review Committee, among others. He has published his research in leading journals including Human Relations, British Journal of Management, Journal of International Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Creativity and Innovation Management Journal, and has presented his research at several national and international conferences. He has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology in the UK, the Irish Journal of Management in Ireland, Current Issues of Business and Law in Lithuania, and the Fulbright Peer Review Board.

Michael Hoffmeyer

Managing Director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Michael Hoffmeyer's career in higher education has focused on promoting entrepreneurship on campus and supporting diverse entrepreneurs in their journey. Prior to his work in higher education, he held executive and founder roles in several financial technology startups. Before joining Dingman, Hoffmeyer founded the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at his alma mater, the University of Memphis, where he spent a decade championing entrepreneurship and delivering social and financial impact to ensure the center's long-term sustainability. He is a passionate thought leader in inclusive entrepreneurship and still enjoys personally helping diverse entrepreneurs develop confidence, self-efficacy, and competencies while also providing experienced insights into innovation, strategy, and leadership to help strengthen their business models. Hoffmeyer has served as a lead judge in the Memphis Business Journal's Small Business Awards for eight years, helped raise over $52M in venture capital for Memphis students, and was a recognized thought leader in the Memphis entrepreneurial ecosystem. He founded the ImagineU Summer Accelerator Program at Memphis, raising money to pay students a stipend to participate in the program, providing a level playing field for students regardless of socioeconomic status. Hoffmeyer was known for championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the entrepreneurship space and was frequently sought out to partner on DE&I initiatives across the campus and ecosystem. Prior to his higher education experience, Hoffmeyer served as executive or co-founder in five startups, two of which he successfully exited. Hoffmeyer holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies, a Master's of Public Administration, and a graduate certificate in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Memphis. He lives in College Park, enjoys spending time with family, watching lacrosse and soccer, and plays the occasional video game.

Dr. Sanket Vatavwala

Assistant Professor, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Sanket is a faculty in the area of marketing management at IIM Amritsar. He completed his Ph.D. in marketing management from IIM Indore. His research interest includes business-to-business/industrial marketing, sustainable marketing, digital marketing, and public-policy marketing. He has published research papers in Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing. He has published case studies with teaching notes and book chapters. He has presented his research papers in national and international conferences. He received scholarship for the 7th AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium in 2019. His corporate background encompasses roles within material handling industry (industrial services), weighing solutions-heavy industry, oil and gas, and event management industry in sales/marketing/business development divisions.

Dr. Santosh Kumar Tiwari

Assistant Professor, Strategic Management, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Santosh Kumar Tiwari is a fellow from Indian Institute of Management Indore. Before joining IIM Amritsar, he has worked with Jindal Global Business School and Institute of Public Enterprise as an Assistant Professor. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and a Bachelor of Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi. Before joining the doctoral programme at IIM Indore, he has worked with Infosys and Vestergaard Frandsen India Pvt. Ltd. His current research includes business groups, emerging markets and social networks.

Dr. Ravi Khadotra

Assistant Professor, Finance, Accounting, and Control, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Ravi Khadotra is an Assistant Professor in the area of Finance, Accounting, and Control at the Indian Institute of Management Amritsar. He has completed his PhD in Finance and Accounting area from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow under the guidance of Prof. Madhusudan Karmakar. The broad area of his research is in the Liquidity-adjusted value-at-risk models. His doctoral thesis was titled ‘Liquidity-Adjusted VaR Modeling and Risk Management’. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and also presented his work at conferences. His research interest lies in Volatility Modeling, Portfolio Optimization, Market Liquidity and Value at Risk.

Dr. Riya Singla

Assistant Professor, Finance, Accounting, and Control, IIM Amritsar

Dr. Riya Singla is an Assistant Professor in the area of Finance, Accounting, and Control at the Indian Institute of Management Amritsar. She has completed her Ph.D. in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. She has a Masters and Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Delhi. Her broad area of interest lies in Behavioral Finance. Her doctoral thesis was titled ‘Essays on the Role of Analysts in Market Efficiency.’ She has published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented her work at reputed national and international conferences.

Prof. Subra Tangirala

Area Chair, Management and Organization, Dean's Professor of Management, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Prof. Subra Tangirala is Dean's Professor of Management. He teaches the leadership course in the MBA program. In his research, he explores reasons why employees often remain silent despite having information, concerns, or suggestions to share, and what organizations can do to facilitate candid exchange of ideas at the workplace. His research has been published in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology. Tangirala received his PhD in organizational behavior and human resources from Purdue University. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for several years as a human resources manager.

Prof. David A. Kirsch

Associate Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Prof. David A. Kirsch is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the College of Information Studies (by courtesy). His research focuses on the intersection of problems of innovation and entrepreneurship, technological and business failure, and industry emergence and evolution. Because of the particular challenges associated with documenting the history of emerging industries, Prof. Kirsch has a long-standing interest in the business records of failed companies, especially startups. With colleagues at the i-School and elsewhere, he has helped preserve the records of many such firms. In addition to essays and articles, he has written two books — Bubbles and Crashes: The Boom and Bust of Technological Innovation (Stanford, 2019, co-authored with Brent Goldfarb) and The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History (Rutgers, 2000) — that examine episodes of industry emergence.

Prof. Patrick Flood

Professor, DCU Business School, Dublin City University

Prof. Patrick C. Flood is Full Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Dublin City University. He is an expert on organizational behaviour, leadership and change management and teaches on executive programmes worldwide. He is the holder of both the DCU Presidents Overall Teaching Award and the DCU Presidents Research Award. Most recently he served as Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research work focuses on the impact of leadership and human resource practices on organisational performance. He consults on top management team functioning and leadership development. He is a frequent industry conference speaker and media commentator. His advisory work is concerned with improving the effectiveness of organisations and top teams. Patrick received his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE) where he was a British Council Scholar. He has held faculty and visiting appointments at a number of business schools including London Business School, University of Limerick, University of Maryland, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Canterbury, NZ, CUEB, PRC and the Australian Graduate School of Management. Patrick is a former Erskine, Fulbright, EU HUMCAP and British Council FCO Scholar. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His articles appear in Journal of Management, Human Relations, Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations, Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology and the Strategic Management journal. His 12 books include Outsider Leadership (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Change lessons from the CEO (Jossey Bass, 2013) (http://www.managers.org.uk/bookclub-book-prize-march-2014); Persuasive Leadership: Lessons from the Arts (Jossey Bass, 2010), Leadership in Ireland (Blackhall, 2010); Strategy Implementation (Blackwell, 2000), Effective Top Management Teams (Blackhall, 2000) and Managing Without Traditional Methods (Addison Wesley, 1996).