Prof. Bharat Damani

Associate Professor – Entrepreneurship

Ph.D. – Nurturing Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurship | IIT - Bombay

Bharat has worked with start-ups and scaling businesses in manufacturing for their fund, non-fund and strategic needs since 1986. He has experience in lending, investing, turnarounds, acquisitions, investment banking and consulting roles. He has consulted Japanese companies like DIC Corporation, Nichimen Corporation, Nippon Kodo, NTT Data, Sakura Bank, Sumitomo Chemicals, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation for joint venture partner identification, evaluating market potential, business valuation and exits. He has also consulted companies like Aquapharm Chemicals, A.T.E. Enterprises, Cooper Foundry, EcoAxis Systems, Ernst & Young, Gera Developments, Pune Carbide, Sakal International Learning Centre, Tata Capital, Tata Chemicals and Union Batteries for their strategic and financial transactions.

Bharat has been a visiting faculty (since 1991) at institutions like Sydenham Institute of Management, FLAME University, Symbiosis, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT Bombay. He practices engagement oriented learning through simulation and practical work. His subjects include financial management, business plan preparation, new venture business strategy and social entrepreneurship.

With his vast experience, Bharat created ‘The CESS Framework’ to help nurture start-ups and social enterprises become cash-flow sustainable. He has also created a board game, Masti – A Life Simulation Game, to create awareness about social entrepreneurship. Masti has received the following recognition:
1. Learning Challenge Pacesetter by Ashoka Changemakers in 2014
2. Research and learning tool by IIT Bombay in 2016
3. Best Pedagogical Innovation Case Award 2017 by ET Cases

Bharat mentors students and professionals to become entrepreneurs with an emphasis on creating impact and giving back to society.

Prof. Umamahesvaram Srinivasan Mandi

Associate Professor of Practice - Entrepreneurship

PGDM (SPA) – IIM Ahmedabad
B.E. in Agricultural Engineering from College of Agricultural Engineering, Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University.

Professor Umamahesvaram Mandi, is an industry professional with 25+ years of professional experience, and has worked in the domains of rural marketing, education and edtech, retail, strategy and investments. In a team, he has invested in ventures and businesses in the domains of retail, education, customer engagement and emerging technologies domains in Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd. And in RIL, worked on location investment decisions for petroleum retailing stations and allied services that formed part of a retail-network apart from valuing retail assets of a potential investment in organizations and bidding for potential retailing sites for petroleum retailing. He holds a PGDM (SPA) from IIM, Ahmedabad and is an Agricultural Engineer by training.

His research interests include, multi-generational entrepreneurship and consumer preferences among Indian agriculturists in adopting weather index insurance to manage risk.

Prof. Love Sarin

Associate Professor – Entrepreneurship

Ph.D. – Chemical Engineering | Brown University

Prof. Love Sarin is Associate Professor – Entrepreneurship and he received his Doctorate Degree and Sc.M in Chemical Engineering from Brown University, USA and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Prof. Love Sarin has over twelve years of work experience in both industry & academia. He was associated with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Reliance Industries Ltd., Navi Mumbai and Banyan Environmental, Inc., Providence, RI, USA. He leverages his rich experience in techno-commercial development and organization building for mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and structuring the growth of their start-ups. He is an expert in the Customer Development and Customer Discovery process and is frequently invited by entrepreneurial courses, programs and incubators for invited talks on various topics and as a jury on their committees. He also advises on the structuring and management of entrepreneurship curriculum and programs to create meaningful impact. During his doctoral studies, he invented novel selenium formulations, using nanotechnology, for biomedical and environmental applications. He spun out a cleantech venture in the USA based on his innovative research work at Brown.

Prof. Kaushik Gopalan

Associate Professor – Computer Science

Ph.D. - Electrical Engineering (Satellite Remote Sensing) | University of Central Florida, USA

Prof. Kaushik Gopalan has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida and joined FLAME University in 2020. He has taught varied Math and Computer Science courses at FLAME, including a very well-received course on introductory Python. Prior to joining FLAME, he served as a scientist at the Space Applications Centre – ISRO at Ahmedabad from 2011-2020. He was a Researcher with the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park from 2008-2011. Prof. Kaushik’s research has involved applying statistical analysis and methods to solve a variety of problems in the field of Satellite Remote Sensing, with a focus on the retrieval of geophysical parameters from satellite data.

Prof. Swapnajit Chakraborti

Professor - Operations

Prof. Swapnajit Chakraborti is Professor - Operations at FLAME University. He has completed the Fellow Programme in Management (Industry) from The Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He holds Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University. He has also done a one-year Executive General Management Program from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Prof. Swapnajit has over twenty two years of both academic and industry work experience and was associated with Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd. (Noida), Synopsis (I) Pvt. Ltd. (Bengaluru), Motorola India Electronics Ltd. (Bengaluru), Jenson & Nicholson (I) Pvt. Ltd. (Ranchi), SPJIMR (Mumbai), Great Lakes Institute (Gurgaon), IILM (Greater Noida), Shiv Nadar University (Greater Noida).

Prof. Ruzbeh Bodhanwala

Professor - Finance

Ph.D. - Accountancy | Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University - Ajmer

Dr.Ruzbeh Bodhanwala’s last assignment was with NIIT University as Associate Dean-Academics.Prior to that at HSBC Equity research he was leading the training initiative and trained more than 500 equity analysts.

At GENPACT he was a certified trainer for Finance COE and Wachovia banking equity research team on business valuation.

Dr.Bodhanwala has also served at FORE School of Management and Banasthali Vidyapeeth.

Dr. Bodhanwala’s academic contribution includes research papers published in National & International refereed journals. He has also authored four text books for post graduate students, published by Taxman publishers and Prentice Hall of India. One of the textbook is also recommended by AICTE in their model curriculum.

Prof. Shernaz Bodhanwala

Associate Professor - Finance

Ph.D. - Finance | Banasthali University, Rajasthan

Shernaz Bodhanwala has over 12 years of experience in industry, teaching and training.

Prior to joining FLAME University, she was working as an Assistant Professor at NIIT University delivering courses in Advanced Accounting, Cost Accounting and Credit Evaluation and Analysis in the Masters of Business Administration (Finance & Banking) program. Prior to that, she was Senior Associate Vice President at Amba Research India (Pvt) Ltd, Bangalore, involved in credit research on High yield companies covering sectors like Marine transportation, Oilfield services, Real estate and Airlines. Her credit research work involved detailed credit modelling, covenant analysis and report writing for the clients of large Investment banks and broker houses. She is well-versed in applying S&P and Moody’s methodologies on credit rating. She has also been instrumental in team handling and delivering training. She began her career as a practicing chartered accountant; with extensive experience in the field of Audit and Direct tax.

She has been affiliated to various academic institutions like ICFAI Business School, M.J. College, etc. on visiting faculty assignments.

Prof. Amarpreet Singh Ghura

Associate Professor – Entrepreneurship

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow | IIM Calcutta

Prof. Ghura is a commerce graduate who has done his Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He completed his Ph.D. in Commerce and Management from JJT University, Rajasthan, and was associated with the Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. Dr. Ghura has over 11 years of experience in the education industry and was associated with institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta, the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad etc. at various capacities.

Prior to coming in academics he was associated as a 2nd generation in his Family managed business and is active in the start-up domain and was associated with two startups namely Indian Drivers Database Incorporation and MedChoice Pharmacy LLP. He is currently associated with Unicepts Technologies Pvt. Ltd. as Advisor.

Prof. Gitesh Chavan

Associate Professor - Marketing

Ph.D. - Marketing | NITIE - Mumbai

Prof. Gitesh Chavan is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at FLAME University. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from Vivekanand Engineering College, Mumbai. He has completed a MDP in Marketing and HR from IIT Mumbai, Shailesh J Mehta (SJMSOM) and has earned an Associate (ATCL) Diploma in Communication Skills from Trinity College London. He has worked for more than a decade in multiple geographies including Australia, USA, European Union and Middle East, in cross cultural and cross functional teams. His expertise includes Sales and Business Development of Automation Solutions and Services worldwide, Global Marketing of Automation Solutions and Services, Marketing Strategies, Branding, Project Engineering and Management in Industrial Automation – Safety Systems, PLC, SCADA, HMI, DCS, Automation, C&I Project Execution and MAC Project Pursuits. He has received numerous commendations and accolades for his outstanding performance at Emerson and Honeywell, Houston, Texas.He has successfully conducted MDP on Business to Business Marketing through Flame University. Gitesh was awarded NITIE Fellow in 2018. During his doctoral research tenure he has published many research papers in scholarly peer reviewed journals of repute (ABDC) with “A” category publications to his credit. He also has many international conferences, case study publications to his credit.

Prof. Rohit Tiwari

Academic Specialist - Digital Marketing

PGDM - Communications | FLAME - India

Prof. Rohit Tiwari is Adjunct Faculty at FLAME University. He has four years of work experience and was associated with Dentsu Webchutney, I Knowledge Factory Pvt. Ltd. and Bird Vision Consulting Pvt. Ltd. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Pune University, and Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Communication), FLAME School of Communication. He has worked in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing and has hands-on experience in web analytics and app attribution tools.