GITAM welcomes three new academicians to its board of management

NEW DELHI: Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM) announces the addition of three members, Viswanathan Raghunathan, Meenakshi Gopinath and VSRK Prasad to its board of management as chancellor nominees. These academicians bring decades of experience in institution building, furthering the University’s goals to achieve international acclaim.

Viswanathan Raghunathan was formerly the director of Schulich School of Business Hyderabad, the president at ING Vysya bank, managing director at GMR Industries and the CEO of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation for almost two decades. He has also been a finance and accounting professor at IIM Ahmedabad. While showing his zeal of joining GITAM he said: “I am excited about joining GITAM, especially because I consider GITAM to be one of the earliest successful private initiatives in higher academia in India, presenting a high benchmark in the Indian academic space."

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Meenakshi Gopinath is currently the founder and honorary director of WISCOMP (women in security, conflict management and peace), an initiative that aims to promote the leadership of South Asian women in areas including reginal cooperation, security and peace. She also chairs the board of governors, centre for policy research (CPR) and has served as the principal and a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi.

Adding to her vast portfolio, she has also been a member of the university grants commission (UGC) in India and was the first woman nominated to the India's national security advisory board (NSAB). Gopinath is a member of multi-track peace initiatives and people-to-people dialogues in South Asia and has received several accolades including the Padma Shri award for her contribution to the field of women's education and empowerment.

VSRK Prasad has had a distinguished career in academia, he has served several roles in leading universities in his 38 years of teaching. He started his career with teaching at the Andhra University in 1979 in the chemical engineering department, he spent most of his early teaching career here. He recently completed a tenure as an advisor and founding director at the Indian Institute of petroleum and energy in Visakhapatnam, an institution of national importance.

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Prasad said: “I am thrilled to join GITAM University as a member of the board of management. It so happened that I was a member of the governing body of GITAM engineering college under the leadership of MVVS Murthy Garu. Now, as the new president is trying to lead the University towards global recognition, it's much more thrilling to be associated with GITAM after gaining more academic experience, including experience as the former and founding director of an institute of national importance. I'm confident that the positive vibrations of all the people at the helm of affairs will shape this institution into a highly reputed institute in national and international arenas.”