Speaker Bios

Yogesh Agarwal
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Ballarpur Industries Limited

Yogesh Agarwal, a Mechanical Engineer with Advance Management from Harvard Business School, started his career as a Management Trainee in Automobile Sector and then moved on to White goods sector and soon became General Manager for Sales. He joined the flagship company of Avantha Group – Ballarpur Industries Limited, the No.1 paper company in India, in 1999, for heading the paper business (sales & marketing) function. His modern way of thinking has made him a role model for young professionals based on sound values and uncompromising integrity. Today, he is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (BIGPH), directly responsible for EBITDA and ROCE for paper business in order to drive best in class systems in business and sustainable business growth.

He is also responsible for conceptualizing Stationery distribution business and Office Supplies Retail business. Both these businesses have been built from scratch.

His strength lies in bringing together and building charged teams of high potential-high performing people. His vision and pragmatism have helped Bilt to become a successful company in India and abroad.

Truly an outdoor person and a dynamic salesman at heart, he attributes his success to hard work, passion and unconventional thinking. His innovative, customer-centric and market-backed mindset has impacted not only the organization but the paper industry as well.

Sunil Sood
Director
April Fine Paper Trading Pte Ltd

Sunil Sood has over 20 years experience in the Pulp and Paper industry. He started his career in India with M/S Ballarpur Industries in 1981 and managed the export business for glass packaging and later the domestic market for the paper business as a Product Manager. He joined Asia Pulp and Paper in 1988 and managed various senior marketing and business development and executive functions till 2003. Since late 2004, he is leading the Paper business for April in Singapore; now moving to group strategy Head for pulp and paper.

He has wide experience setting up sales through channels in Asia, Middle East, Australia, Europe and USA covering coated and uncoated woodfree, converted scholastic and office products and packaging grades. He has wide knowledge of markets, equipment procurement and has helped by being on road shows to raise capital for new projects. He is well known in the paper industry circles and has been a speaker in many forums on subjects related to the paper business.

He now leads a growing team of professionals in APRIL running the fine paper division out of the Singapore global headquarters.

He is an avid reader, a budding audiophile with interests in listening to Indian and Western music and is happily married with two sons.

Sanjay Singh
Divisional Chief Executive
ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division

Sanjay Singh is Divisional Chief Executive, ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division. A chemical engineer from IIT Kanpur, Singh joined the erstwhile ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited as a management trainee in 1977 and rose to become a whole time director in 1999.

Consequent to the merger of ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited with ITC Limited in March 2002, he took charge of the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division as Executive Vice President (Manufacturing) with responsibility for Bhadrachalam, Tribeni, Kovai and Bollaram units. He has played a vital role in the implementation of TPM and Lean manufacturing in all the units.

Mr Singh is well known in the Paper Industry not only for his technical abilities, but also for his people oriented approach.

Mr Singh is an active member and office bearer on various Industry Bodies such as: Vice President of Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association, Member of the Apex Council of Indian Paper Manufacturers Association, Committee Member of the CII - Andhra Pradesh State Council, and Member of the A.P. State Advisory Board of WWF-India.

Usman Shaik
Senior Research Analyst, Containerboard
Beroe, Inc.

Usman works as Senior Research Analyst at Beroe Inc., a private procurement intelligence company headquartered at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Usman has been providing customized Market Intelligence expertise and best practices in procurement to the leading Fortune 500 pharma, packaging, consumer goods, FMCG clients among others.

He has written articles, white papers and pro-active advisories that focus majorly on the current prevailing issues and changing dynamics in the global paper and board industry.

Divya Kumar
Senior Research Analyst, Pulp & Cartonboard
Beroe, Inc.

Divya Kumar works as Senior Research Analyst at Beroe Inc., a private procurement intelligence company, headquartered at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. She has been tracking pulp and cartonboard, providing customized Market Intelligence and deep dive reports to the leading Fortune 500 clients across various industries.

She has also written articles, white papers and pro-active advisories that reflect the trend, challenges and changing market dynamics in the global pulp and cartonboard industry.

N Gopala Ratnam
Chairman & Managing Director
Seshasayee Paper and Boards

Gopala Ratnam is the Chairman and Managing Director of Seshasayee Paper and Boards Limited in Tamil Nadu, India – a pioneer in promoting the use of sugarcane bagasse as raw material for the Indian Paper Industry.

Gopala Ratnam is a leading Technocrat of the Indian Paper Industry with wide experience in the fields of design, setting-up and management of paper manufacturing units.

He is the past President of Indian Paper Manufacturers’ Association as well as Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association.

Gopala Ratnam is the Chairman of SPB-ESVIN Group which has interests in paper, sugar, and specialized batteries for defence applications and paper engineering consultancy services.

Ajay Srinivasan
Director
CRISIL Research

Ajay Srinivasan, Director – Industry Research, CRISIL Research, leads a team of analysts, tracking the Indian Paper industry. CRISIL Research regularly publishes its views on the demand-supply, prices, and profitability outlook for the Indian paper industry. In addition to paper, Ajay looks at the automobiles, banking and financial services, cement, telecom, media, information technology, education, and consumer durables sectors.

Ajay joined CRISIL in 2003. He is a specialist with over 10 years of experience in the area of industry research, financial analysis and forecasting. He has also worked closely with domestic and international clients in areas such as market assessment and demand forecasting.

Ajay holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Masters in Management from the Mumbai University. He has also passed all three levels of the CFA Program offered by the CFA Institute, USA.

Dr. T.R. Manoharan
International Representative
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Dr. T.R. Manoharan is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)’s National Representative in India. He holds a Masters Degree in Economics from University of Kerala and Ph.D in Forestry Economics from Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun. He has more than two decades of hands on experience in project development, management, research, teaching and policy analysis in the area of economics of forestry, environment conservation, trade and environment, environmental economics and forest certification. He has published 30 research papers and reports.

Dr. Manoharan is life member of Indian Society of Ecological Economics, Member of doctoral research committee and guest faculty of Department of Environmental Planning, School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi. He was instrumental in establishing Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) in India as Head of WWF-India's Forest Conservation Programme.

His areas of interest include forest certification, ecological footprint, economic valuation of forest goods and services, trade & environment, payments for ecosystem services, environmental economics and policy.

Bob Flynn
Director, International Timber
RISI

Robert (Bob) Flynn is Director, International Timber for RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. Bob has more than 30 years experience in the forest industry, including 9 years as a forester for Champion International in Oregon. He has spent the past 20+ years as a consultant to the industry, with a focus on analysis of timber supply and demand trends outside of North America; international trade of logs, woodchips, and biomass; and trends in international timberland investment. He joined RISI in April 2006, and has published two reports on China's timber supply and demand; a global comparison of planted forest economics and investment attractiveness for tree farm development; a profile of India's forest products industry; an analysis of the impact of Russia's log export tax on Asian log markets; annual reports on international trade in woodchips and biomass; and most recently he published a report on South American plantation forestry and bioenergy markets. He holds a BA degree in geography from the University of Texas, a BS degree in forest management from Northern Arizona University and an MS in economics from the University of Oregon.

Dr. C.N. Pandey
Director
Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI)

Dr. Pandey graduated from Banaras Hindu University and served at Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun for nearly 27 years in different capacities as Scientist in the Field of Forest Products Utilization.

He was awarded a Ph.D in Forest Products from FRI Deemed University in Dehra Dun.

Dr. Pandy published about 70 research papers in various national and international journals. Presently, he has been working as the Director of Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI) in Bangalore. IPIRTI is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Environment &a,p; Forests, Government of India.

Dr. Pandey has been the recipient of the "ICFRE Excellence Award" for outstanding contributions in the field of Wood Utilization Research. He also been conferred with the Karnataka State Intellectual Award “The Great Son of Karnataka” for recognition of his talents and distinguished services rendered to society with relation to Environment & Forests.

For the last 10 years, Mr. Pandey has been responsible for organising the Institute-Industry Meet, an event on the exchange of knowledge and dissemination of information on the latest advances and future opportunities for the development of the panel sector in India.

AVPS Chakravarthi
Managing Director
Ecobliss India Pvt Limited

AVPS Chakravarthi is the CEO, Managing Director of Ecobliss India Pvt Limited (a joint venture with Netherlands based company), which has world wide presence in innovative high visible and blister packaging.

Starting his career in 1984 at Andhra Pradesh paper mills, he's worked in several capacities in various organisations like Ballarpur Industries, where he was the works manager for one of the units of BILT special projects that manufactured compressed boards.

He was a Plant Manager of Akerlund & Raussing packaging, one of the pioneers in packaging started with Swedish collaboration which was owned later on by AP Rayons. Instrumental in setting up state of the art Rotogravure line at this place, he was also responsible for revival of Folding Cartons making unit. Being the founder director for one of the leading printing/packaging units in South India, he established Ecobliss JV in 2007 and has been running successfully till date.

AVPS Chakravarthi has won several packaging excellence awards worldwide for his works during the past two decades, including the highest recognition Worldstar Awards. He's instrumental in developing various packs for US and regulatory pharma markets and invented the new dose pack for child resistant and senior friendly applications, making use of paperboard with Eco friendly designs. He has toured extensively worldwide during the past two and half decades, and exhibited in several National and International Packaging shows. He has also spoke on various international packaging platforms.

He has been the Chairman of Indian Institute of Packaging, Hyderabad for the last three years, actively participating in packaging related programs across the globe for the past decade.

Li Meng
Economist, Asian Graphic Paper
RISI

Li joined RISI in 2011 as the Asian graphic paper economist, and her responsibilities are focused on collecting Asian graphic paper market information, and analyzing, modeling and forecasting market data with scientific methods such as statistics, macroeconomics, mathematical economics and microeconometrics.

She is the co-author of RISI's Asian Pulp & Paper Monitor as well as quarterly and long-term forecast on Asian graphic paper market, and is working with the project team on various multi and single client study on global and Asian graphic paper market. Li holds a Ph.D. of applied economics from Auburn University, USA.

Madhukar Mishra
President
Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA)

Madhukar Mishra has been Managing Director of Star Paper Mills Limited since 2001.

Star Paper is part of Duncan Goenka Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests in Tea Plantations, Manmade Fibres and Engineering besides Paper.

Prior to his appointment in Star, Madhukar was Sr. Vice President - Corporate affairs in the Duncan Goenka Group. His previous stints in different companies have provided him exposure to Pharmaceuticals, Petrochemicals, Engineering, Food Ingredients, Cement and Manmade Fibres Industries where he played key roles in Operations, Strategic Planning, M & A, International Trading, Procurement and Logistics functions.

Madhukar is currently President of the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA).

He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Science from University of Pune and Diploma in Management from University of Mumbai.

Pradeep Dhobale
Executive Director
ITC

Pradeep Dhobale is a Director on the Board of ITC. He holds responsibility for Paperboards & Specialty Papers and Packaging businesses of ITC and also represents the Finance and IT functions on the Board. A Chemical Engineer from IIT, Mumbai, he joined the erstwhile ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited (ITC Bhadrachalam) as a Management Trainee in 1977 and became its Managing Director in 2000. Following the amalgamation of ITC Bhadrachalam with ITC in March 2002, and subsequent merger of Bhadrachalam Paperboards Division with Tribeni Tissues Division, Dhobale took charge of the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Business as its Divisional Chief Executive.

Dhobale is credited with the successful turnaround of ITC Bhadrachalam in 2001, and exponential growth thereafter. He spearheaded the growth involving capital infusion of over US $500 million through brownfield organic growth as well as acquisitions.

Under his leadership, ITC's Bhadrachalam Mill has emerged as the largest single-location paper mill in the country producing more than 500,000 tonnes of papers & boards. Under his stewardship and in line with ITC’s sustainability strategy, 135,000 hectares of plantations were developed, the pioneering ECF and Ozone Bleaching Technology were introduced, ITC became a member of the Global Forest and Trade Network and successfully implemented a number of 'Clean Development Mechanism' Projects.

Dhobale is an active member of several industry bodies. He is the past President of Indian Paper Manufacturers Association, past Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Chairman, Energy Efficiency Council of CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad. Dhobale is also the Founder President of Indian School of Business - Centre for Executive Education Alumni Association, Hyderabad Chapter.

Amongst others, he is a member of the Development Council for Pulp, Paper & Allied Industries, the Council of Association of Central Pulp & Paper Research Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (India) - A.P. State Committee.

Rajeev Gupta
CEO
Blue Apple Tradelinks Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Rajeev Gupta has a rich experience of 19 years in the corporate world. He has worked in Trident Group for more than 14 years before starting his own venture as an entrepreneur. In his corporate career he has performed comprehensive roles in various functions like Business Strategy, Budgeting & Costing, Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing & Operations, before taking over the bottom line responsibility. He has steered the Yarn as well as Paper businesses to greater heights as a Chief Operating Officer for more than 5 years.

He is a level headed leader with firm belief in teamwork & empowerment. Rajeev enjoys challenges and loves learning new things.

Prof. Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath
Head
Heidelberg Print Media Academy

Professor Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath, head of the Print Media Academy, Heidelberg India, is an academician, researcher and consultant with more than two decades of experience in result-oriented research, consultancy and training in the global graphic arts industry.

Most recently, Dr. Anayath was honored with a 2011 Education Award of Excellence by Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF). Awarded to a distinguished teacher and industry trainer from the graphic communications field Dr. Anayath earned the award (also referred to as the "Oscar in Printing") amongst a vast group of global colleagues.

He is a visiting professor to Anna University, Chennai, Guru Jambeshwar University, Hissar, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Poona University, Pune and an Adjunct faculty at the Manipal University. He is an editorial board member of the IC (International Circle of Educational Institutes for Graphic Arts Technology and Management, Germany), 'ACTA GRAPHICA' (an indexed printing research journal from Croatia), Member of IARIGAI (The International Association of Research Organizations for the Information, Media and Graphic Arts Industries-Germany), Member of TAGA (Technical Association for Graphic Arts-USA).

He is a visiting scholar and "Lehrauftrages" at the Institute for Print and Media Technology at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. Dr.Rajendrakumar has also been conferred with the title "Friend" and "Visiting Professor" at Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Anayath is a member of TC: 130 (ISO) committee of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) which develops standards for the broad Indian media industry.

He started his association with Heidelberg India in 2007 as their Head of Print Media Academy, but has been given the freedom to operate as visiting/adjunct professor to different academic institutions.

Dr.Rajendrakumar belongs to a small village known as 'Thiruvegappura' in Pattambi from Palakkad district, Kerala. He has a strong attachment with his native place and is very proud of its rich heritage and values. He attributes his achievements in life to the humble beginnings from his small but beautiful village in Kerala. Even while globetrotting throughout the world engaging himself in the promotion and development of the print and graphic media, he remains deeply connected to his roots.

Jogarao Bhamidipati
Divisional Head - Commercial
ITC Limited - PSPD

Did Post Graduation in Management from MS University, Baroda. PG Diploma in Supply Chain Management from MS University.

Joined ITC in 1982 after a 2 year stint in ABB. Associate with ITC in Paperboards division from 1982 to 1989 and with ITC Global Holdings, international trading outfit of ITC, from 1989 to 1999, based at Singapore and Dubai.

Joined back ITC Paperboards business in 1999 as Head of Supply Chain handling complete procurement of all inputs, logistics, warehousing and Inventory Management for 4 units operating across India.

Pioneered ITC's WOW - Wealth out of Waste Initiative, to create awareness among general public on source segregation of recyclables, which are currently getting land filled. This will help to reduce import of recycled fiber by paper industry and generate enough raw materials from local sources.

In the process WOW will reduce dependence on Natural resources substantially, protecting environment and improving green cover and general health and hygiene.

SV Subrahmanyam
GM
Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Limited

Dr. Subrahmanyam has worked for Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd., Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute, Emami Paper Mills Ltd in various capacities and currently works for Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd for the past 5 years.

He has research experience in the areas of Fiber Morphology, Pulping and Bleaching and Refining. At TNPL he has drawn the road map for water and waste water management, setting the bench marks for the environmental standards in an integrated fine paper mill using virgin fiber from bagasse and mixed hardwood.

His areas of interest are improving the environment quality through process improvement, identification of issues impacting climate change and mitigation methodologies and improvement of paper’s print-room performance through R&D intervention. He is a finalist in Mill Manager Category of PPI Awards 2012.

K. Balaji
Director
Kasturi & Sons Ltd.

K. Balaji born on September 24, 1955, has a Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, University of Madras and a Master of Management Studies from University of Bombay.

From 1977 to 1991, he worked at Kasturi & Sons Ltd., publishers of The Hindu, with major responsibilities in the area of production of newspapers and magazines. He was responsible for setting up and running a modern printing ink manufacturing plant for The Hindu and its publications.

From 1991 to 2000, he was the Managing Director at Sanka Graphics Pvt. Ltd., a company in digital pre-press, digital printing and print consulting. He represented Buhler, Switzerland for sales of machinery for manufacturing printing ink. Since 2000, he has been the Director at Kasturi & Sons Ltd.

He is a member of Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA), WAN-IFRA Board, WAN-IFRA Advisory Council, and WAN-IFRA Technical Committee – Newspaper Production. He is also the Chairman of WAN-IFRA South Asia Committee.