Matt Abrahams

Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Matt Abrahams is a lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford GSB. He has decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. Outside of the classroom, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communication consultant. He has helped countless presenters improve and hone their communication, including some who have delivered IPO road shows as well as Nobel Prize, TED, and World Economic Forum presentations. He also consults for the United Nations Secretary General’s Strategic Planning and Communication Group. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart The Podcast. His new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously, such as navigating Q&A sessions, shining in job interviews, providing effective feedback, making small talk, fixing faux pas, persuading others. His previous book Speaking Up without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting has helped thousands of people manage speaking anxiety and present more confidently and authentically.

Mukesh D. Ambani

Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited

Mukesh D. Ambani is the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). A chemical engineer from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, he also pursued an MBA at Stanford University. Since joining the Reliance Board in 1977, he has led the company's evolution into one of the world's leading integrated energy, retail, and digital services enterprises.

He spearheaded the development of the Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat, the world's largest integrated refining hub, and drove Reliance's expansion across petrochemicals, oil and gas, organised retail, and telecommunications. Under his leadership, Reliance Retail has become India's largest organised retailer, while Jio has built one of the world's largest 4G and 5G broadband networks, accelerating India's digital transformation.

Mukesh Ambani serves on several prominent global advisory bodies, including the World Economic Forum Foundation Board, and is a Foreign Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering. He also chairs the Board of Governors of Pandit Deendayal Energy University.

Nita M. Ambani

Founder-Chairperson, Reliance Foundation

Nita M. Ambani is the Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, one of India's largest corporate philanthropic organisations. An educationist, philanthropist, business leader, and advocate for women, children, sports, and the arts, she has led initiatives that have positively impacted millions of people across India through programmes in rural transformation, healthcare, education, sports, disaster response, and the preservation of arts, culture, and heritage.

She is the Founder and Chairperson of Dhirubhai Ambani International School and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation Institution of Education and Research, which established Jio Institute. She also launched Her Circle, a digital platform dedicated to empowering women.

A strong champion of sports development, Nita Ambani is the first Indian woman elected to the International Olympic Committee and played a key role in bringing the IOC Session back to India in 2023. She also leads Reliance Foundation's initiatives in healthcare and serves on the advisory boards of leading global medical institutions.

Nita Ambani serves on the Board of EIH Limited and has received numerous national and international honours for her leadership in philanthropy, education, sports, and social impact.

Isha M. Ambani

Director, Reliance Industries Limited

Isha M. Ambani is part of the executive leadership teams at Reliance Industries Limited, Reliance Retail, Reliance Jio, Reliance Foundation, Reliance Foundation Institution of Education and Research, and Dhirubhai Ambani International School. She is on the Advisory Board of the Yale Schwarzman Center, and on the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, the Dia Art Foundation, LACMA, and the International Volleyball Federation. 

Isha played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and launching Reliance’s digital services business, Jio, in India in 2016. A game-changer in the Indian telecom landscape, with over 425 million subscribers, Jio is currently India’s no. 1 digital service provider and amongst the largest in the world. 

Isha graduated from Yale University in 2013 with a double major in Psychology and South Asian Studies and completed her MBA from Stanford University in 2018. She has been named in TIME magazine’s TIME100 Next list of rising stars from across industries around the world and has been recognised with the prestigious GenNext Entrepreneur Award at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2023. She was awarded Lokmat's Indian Businesswoman Award and the Harper’s Bazaar Icon of the Year Award in 2024. In 2025, she was honored with the Newsmaker of the Year award at the Express Awards for Women Entrepreneurs (Express AWE).

Rajan Anandan

Managing Director, Peak XV

Rajan Anandan is a managing director at Peak XV, where he focuses on early-stage investing across AI, deeptech and next-generation technology platforms. He leads Surge, Peak XV's seed-stage platform, and partners with founders who aim to build global and national category leaders.

Rajan brings decades of experience scaling technology businesses and a founder-first, conviction-driven approach to investing and ecosystem building. He has been an advocate for deeptech as a generational opportunity for India, with emphasis on strong technical founders, patient capital, and collaborative ecosystems. His perspectives on AI, semiconductors, space tech, advanced manufacturing, and company building are widely sought by founders, industry leaders, and policymakers.

Prior to Peak XV, Rajan led Google across India and South-east Asia, expanding the region's digital economy while accelerating innovation and revenue growth. Previously, he led Microsoft in India, worked at Dell, and was a partner at McKinsey & Company. Earlier, Rajan backed over 200 startups as a prolific angel investor.

Kanika Bahl

Senior Advisor and CEO, AI Access Initiative

Kanika is Senior Advisor and CEO of the AI Access Initiative. She served as CEO of Evidence Action for nine years and has been on the Board since 2015. She is also a Founding Member of Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust. Previously she served as Managing Director at Results for Development (R4D), where she established and led the Market Dynamics practice. The practice has increased access to products such as childhood pneumonia treatments and malaria bed nets for millions of individuals in Africa and Asia. Prior to R4D, Kanika served as an Executive Vice President at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) where she established greenfield operations in 17 African countries. She launched and led a $400M, 33-country public-private facility focused on driving access to new HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostics. She received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and her BA in Mathematical Economics from Rice University.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin

I. James Quillen Dean of the Graduate School of Education

Jonathan Coslet

C&S Capital Partners, Founder; Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Jonathan Coslet retired as a Senior Partner of TPG in 2025 after a 32-year career with the firm. He joined TPG in 1993 as its first investment professional.  During his tenure, TPG invested more than $150 billion of capital across more than 1,000 private equity transactions.  Jonathan served as Vice Chairman of TPG from 2021 to 2025. He was Chief Investment Officer of TPG from 2008 to 2020 and Managing Partner of TPG Capital, the firm’s flagship private equity fund, from 2000 to 2015. From 1993 to 2007, he led TPG’s healthcare and consumer investing efforts.  During his TPG career, Jonathan served on the boards of TPG Inc. and over twenty portfolio companies.  Since 2016, Jonathan has invested personal capital through his family office, C&S Capital Partners, which focuses on direct private investments in Healthcare, Consumer Services, Business Services and Real Estate. Jonathan currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Hunter Point Capital, Red Iron Group and SaxeCap. Prior to joining TPG, Jonathan worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and, before that, at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he specialized in leveraged acquisitions.  Jonathan earned a B.S. in Economics and Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, where he was Valedictorian, a Steur Fellow, and a Gordon Fellow. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991, where he was a Baker Scholar and Loeb Scholar.  In his not-for-profit activities, Jonathan has served on the fiduciary or advisory boards of Eastside Prep East Palo Alto, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Hamilton Project, Harvard Business School, Menlo School, Stanford Children’s Hospital, Stanford Health Care, Stanford Medicine Fellows, and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He currently teaches at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Peter DeMarzo

John G. McDonald Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Founder & Director, LEAD Stanford Online Business Program

Peter DeMarzo is the John G. McDonald Professor of Finance, and founder and director of the LEAD Stanford Online Business Program. DeMarzo is an economist specializing in corporate investment and financing, asset securitization, financial contracting, and market regulation.

His recent research includes bank capital regulation, sovereign and corporate debt dynamics, the optimal design of securities and compensation mechanisms, peer effects in asset pricing, financial market regulation, and corporate disclosure and investment policies. He is co-author of Corporate Finance and Fundamentals of Corporate Finance and has served as president of the Western Finance Association and the American Finance Association. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Finance Association, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Before joining Stanford, DeMarzo was on the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a national fellow at the Hoover Institution. He received a PhD in economics and an MS in operations research from Stanford University, and a BA in cognitive science and in applied mathematics from UC San Diego.

Jamshyd N. Godrej

Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej Enterprises Group

Mr. Jamshyd N. Godrej is the Chairman and Managing Director of Godrej & Boyce, part of the Godrej Enterprises Group. He was appointed Director of Godrej & Boyce in 1974, Managing Director in 1990 and was elected Chairman in 2000. In recognition of his contributions to Indian industry and sustainability, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India on April 3, 2003. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, USA.

Beyond his leadership at Godrej & Boyce, Mr. Godrej plays an active role in advancing sustainability, energy efficiency, and corporate governance. He serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, India Resources Trust, and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Trustee of World Wide Fund for Nature – India. He is a Past President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA).

He is a Director at the World Resources Institute (USA), Global Trustee of Asia Society (USA) and Board Member of the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (Hong Kong).

He is a Member of the Advisory Board of London School of Economics – India, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University.

Mr. Godrej is an ardent yachting enthusiast and has done extensive cruising along the west coast of India, the Baltic & North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Jonathan Levin

President, Stanford University

Jonathan Levin, a distinguished economist and academic leader, is Stanford University’s thirteenth president. As president, Levin has articulated a vision of excellence, openness, and optimism. He has focused on strengthening Stanford’s culture of inquiry and advancing its research leadership in the era of data-driven discovery.

Levin previously served as the Philip H. Knight Dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and as chair of Stanford’s department of economics. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the John Bates Clark Medal as the leading American economist under the age of forty.

Hongbin Li

Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and Professor, by courtesy, of Economics

Hongbin obtained Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 2001 and joined the economics department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where he became full professor in 2007. He was also one of the two founding directors of the Institute of Economics and Finance at the CUHK. He taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing 2007-2016 and was C.V. Starr Chair Professor of Economics in the School of Economics and Management. He also founded and served as the Executive Associate Director of the China Social and Economic Data Center at Tsinghua University. He founded the Chinese College Student Survey (CCSS) in 2009 and the China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES) in 2014.

Hongbin’s research has been focused on the transition and development of the Chinese economy, and the evidence-based research results have been both widely covered by media outlets and well read by policy makers around the world. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Comparative Economics and co-author of the forthcoming book, “The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China” published by Harvard University Press.

Kishore Mahbubani

Distinguished Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Kishore Mahbubani has dedicated three decades of his life to public service. In his 33 years as a Singapore diplomat, Kishore took on many challenging assignments. He also served two stints as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN (1984-1989 and 1998-2004) and held the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1998.

Kishore had an equally illustrious career in academia. He was the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from August 2004 to December 2017. He has been a prolific author and has published ten books. His ninth book, The Asian 21st Century, is an open access volume which has been downloaded over 4.35 million times. His latest book, a memoir titled Living the Asian Century, was published in August 2024.

Kishore has also been listed among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines and among the Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism by the Financial Times. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2019.

Neale Mahoney

Trione Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR); TG Wijaya Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Neale Mahoney is an applied micro-economist with an interest in healthcare, consumer financial, and energy markets. He regularly advises policymakers in state and federal government and is Chair of California's Independent Consumer Fuels Advisory Committee (ICFAC). He received the ASHEcon Medal in 2021 (given to an economist age 40 or under who has made the most significant contributions to the field of health economics) and a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2016.

Before joining Stanford, Mahoney was Professor of Economics and David G. Booth Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow in health policy research at Harvard University and worked for the Obama Administration on healthcare reform. Mahoney received a PhD and MA in economics from Stanford University and an ScB in applied mathematics-economics from Brown University.

Arun Majumdar

Chester Naramore Dean of Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; Jay Precourt Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Energy Science and Engineering; Senior Fellow of Precourt Institute for Energy and Hoover Institution

Dr. Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and Engineering, a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and Senior Fellow (courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. He is also a faculty in the Department of Photon Science at SLAC.

Dr. Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. Dr. Majumdar is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Michael A. McFaul

Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Department of Political Science; Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. 

McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, a New York Times bestseller.

Masoom Minawala

Founder, MSF Ventures; Host of The Masoom Minawala Show; Content Creator

Masoom Minawala is the Founder of MSF Ventures - a media and ventures company built on a single conviction: the most powerful conversations for women are not just had, but heard, shared, and acted on. She began as a content creator - and built one of India's most recognisable personal brands through a decade of consistent, values-led content at the intersection of fashion, culture, and feminine ambition. That foundation, and the audience trust it earned, became the infrastructure for everything that followed. Today, Masoom hosts The Masoom Minawala Show - a long-form podcast, the most watched show by women in India. Featuring voices that shape culture across industries and continents, the show goes beyond inspiration into the territory women are rarely given permission to occupy: power, wealth, identity, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts. A Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 honouree, UN Women Ally, and pioneer of the #SupportIndianDesigners movement, Masoom has taken Indian craft, fashion, and women's stories to the world's most significant stages - from Cannes to Davos. MSF Ventures also operates an active investments vertical backing women-founded businesses across lifestyle, media, and digital.

Lloyd B. Minor, MD

Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine; Vice President for Medical Affairs; Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology, Stanford University

As Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Stanford University, Lloyd B. Minor, MD, plays an integral role in setting the strategic direction for Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center comprising Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. Dr. Minor is a professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and a professor of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology, by courtesy. With more than 160 published articles and chapters, Dr. Minor is an expert in balance and inner ear disorders. In 2012, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Neelkanth Mishra (Tentative)

Chief Economist, Axis Bank; Head of Global Research and Whole Time Director, Axis Capital; Executive Director (designate), World Bank

Neelkanth Mishra is the Chief Economist at Axis Bank, Head of Global Research and Whole Time Director at Axis Capital. He has recently been appointed as Executive Director at the World Bank, Washington DC. Consistently ranked as India’s top analyst, he is a renowned expert on macroeconomic trends.

Neelkanth joined Axis in May 2023 after a two-decade career at Credit Suisse, where he served as Co-Head of Asia Pacific Strategy and India Strategist. He is a part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, the part-time Chairman of UIDAI (Aadhaar), and a part-time member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). 

An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, he is a gold medalist and Distinguished Alumnus Awardee, having ranked fourth in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to the IITs.

Sridhar Narayanan

Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Narayanan is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2005 and has been at Stanford since July 2005. Before his PhD, he worked as a sales and marketing manager at Unilever, after receiving a BE in electrical engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Delhi, India.

Narayanan’s current research focuses on digital marketing, the role of AI in the firm-consumer interface, and marketing for startups and small businesses.  His work has been published in leading marketing journals, including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Journal of Marketing. He serves as an associate editor at Management Science and Quantitative Marketing and Economics.

Narayanan currently teaches an MBA course on monetization and growth, and a PhD course on Bayesian methods. Previously, he also taught MBA elective courses such as Go-To-Market Strategy, Marketing Analytics, Advanced Marketing Analytics, Digital Marketing, and Green Marketing, as well as two versions of the core Marketing Strategy course.

Joseph Piotroski

The Robert K. Jaedicke Professor of Accounting, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions

Professor Piotroski is The Robert K. Jaedicke Professor of Accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a senior fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER).  Professor Piotroski’s research has been published in scholarly journals in the areas of accounting, finance, and economics. His research on value investing has been widely cited in the popular press, used in practice, and highlighted on numerous investment-related websites. Professor Piotroski teaches sessions on value creation and managerial performance measurement to business leaders in India, East Africa, and West Africa as a part of Stanford’s Institution for Innovation in Developing Economies’ Transformation Programs.

Debra Satz

The Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences; Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society; Professor of Philosophy; Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, Stanford University

Debra Satz is the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University; the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society; Professor of Philosophy, and, by courtesy, of Political Science; and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Her research focuses on the ethical limits of markets, equality, theories of rational choice, feminist philosophy, and ethics and education. In 2004, Satz received the Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford’s highest teaching honor. Among her publications are Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets (Oxford University Press, 2010); Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2016) (with Dan Hausman and Michael McPherson); and Ideas That Matter: Democracy, Justice, Rights (Oxford University Press, 2019) (with Annabelle Lever). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Amit Seru

The Steven and Roberta Denning Professor of Finance; Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Professor Seru’s research focuses on corporate finance with an emphasis on financial intermediation and regulation, technological innovation and incentive provision, and financing in firms. His research in these areas has been published in American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and other peer-reviewed journals.

He has presented his research to U.S. and international regulatory agencies, including the Bank for International Settlement, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, European Central Bank, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the International Monetary Fund and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Most recently, he gave the Biennial Andrew Crockett lecture on regulation of banks in the era of fintechs to central bank governors around the world at the BIS. He has received various National Science Foundation grants and was named as one of the Top 25 Economists under 45 by the International Monetary Fund in 2014.

Raj Shamani

Founder, Figuring Out Media

Raj Shamani is an entrepreneur, investor, author and host of the fastest growing podcast in the world, Figuring Out with Raj Shamani. Raj is the founder of Figuring Out Media Pvt. Ltd., an education-first business with over 120 people that comprises multiple divisions across media, distribution, the Figuring Out Academy, and investments. He has also built a portfolio of businesses spanning consumer products, education and technology.

Figuring Out with Raj Shamani is the number 1 ranked podcast on Spotify in India and, with 19.8 million subscribers, is one of the biggest in the world on YouTube. As India emerges as one of the fastest-growing economic and cultural hubs in the world, Figuring Out has become the place for senior business figures, politicians and public figures - such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Bill Gates, Andrew Huberman, Michael Phelps and Sunita Williams - to engage with Indian audiences.

Raj has delivered over 200 keynote speeches across 26 countries, speaking at the United Nations Youth Assembly, the UK Houses of Parliament and the World Government Summit. He was named on Forbes India's 30 Under 30 and the Fortune 40 Under 40 lists. His book, Build, Don’t Talk, was published by Penguin Random House in 2022.

Devi Shetty

Chairman, Narayana Health

Dr. Shetty is the Founder and Chairman at Narayana Health Group of Hospitals. Under his stewardship, Narayana Health has recently ventured into a unique Health Insurance model – to be both a healthcare provider and a health insurer. The group now has 40 healthcare facilities with close to 6,000 beds. With a recent acquisition of a chain of surgical centres in the UK, Narayana Health operates in India, UK and Cayman Islands.

A cardiac surgeon of repute and a successful entrepreneur, Dr. Shetty is a highly respected luminary for his ingenious ideas for reforms in the healthcare sector.  His visionary leadership to make quality healthcare affordable for all has drawn global recognition.

Dr. Shetty is the recipient of several prestigious awards including The Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, The Economist Innovation Award, Financial Times Arcelor Mittal ‘Boldness in Business’ Award, Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic and Business Innovation. 

Ken Shotts

The David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Vélez Reyes Faculty Director, Stanford Leadership Institute

Kenneth W. Shotts is The David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He received his BA in political science from Stanford in 1993 and his PhD from Stanford GSB in 1999. In addition to his time at Stanford, he has taught at Northwestern and the University of Michigan, and has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Praveer Sinha

CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power Company Limited

A seasoned power professional, with an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades, Dr Sinha has held pivotal leadership roles across the power sector value chain.

Under his current leadership, Tata Power is undergoing a profound transformation, transitioning from a century old power utility into a new-age, sustainable, technology oriented and customer centric green energy solutions company. The company has made a substantial shift towards renewable energy with clean and green sources comprising more than 40% of its current generation portfolio as it aims to become carbon neutral by 2045.

A strong advocate of 'Sustainable Is Attainable', his vision aims to empower millions of Indians across urban and rural areas, facilitating the transition of enterprises, homes, mobility, and beyond towards a sustainable future, thus advancing the country’s energy transition agenda. Besides leading the growth in renewable energy, he has incubated and scaled several new-age energy solutions businesses such as solar rooftop, EV charging, micro grids and smart energy management solutions within the company, marking significant milestones in India’s energy landscape.

Currently chairing CII’s National Committee on Power, Dr Sinha is a qualified Electrical Engineer and has done his Master’s in business law. He received his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and completed his Advanced Management Programme from IIM Ahmedabad. He is Honorary Professor at University of Warwick, Visiting Research Associate at MIT and has been nominated to the External Advisory Board at MIT’s Energy Initiative. Dr Sinha has also been nominated as a founding member of the Advisory Group for the WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition.

Sarah A. Soule

Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business; Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior

Sarah A. Soule is the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior. Her major areas of interest are organizational theory, social movements, and political sociology. She has written two books, the first with Cambridge University Press, entitled Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility, and the second with Norton, called A Primer on Social Movements. She is a member of the founding team of Sociological Science, and serves on the editorial boards of Stanford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Her recent research has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, and the Administrative Science Quarterly. She has served on a number of boards of nonprofit organizations, is currently a member of the board of advisors to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the Stanford d.school), and the international advisory board to the president of the Stockholm School of Economics.

Rishi Sunak

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Rishi Sunak served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024. His tenure was marked by a return to economic stability, the UK taking a global leadership position in new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and increasing defence spending so the country was better equipped to stand up to the new axis of authoritarian states. The Windsor Framework he negotiated with the EU helped to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Sunak was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022. As Chancellor, he led the country’s economic response to Covid. His business support measures including, for the first time in the UK, a furlough scheme saved millions of jobs, preventing mass unemployment. He took measures to drive growth, including investment tax cuts and financial services deregulation.

Before entering politics, Sunak forged a distinguished career in finance. He worked at Goldman Sachs, The Children’s Investment Fund and co-founded an investment firm supporting British businesses.

Sunak was educated at Winchester College and Oxford University where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He also has an MBA from Stanford University where he was a Fulbright scholar.

Sunak is a member of the World Leader’s Circle at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and the William C. Edwards distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is a senior adviser to Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Anthropic and is a columnist for The Sunday Times.

Rishi Sunak is the MP for Richmond and Northallerton.

Shashi Tharoor  

Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha); Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

Dr Shashi Tharoor is a fourth-term Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Thiruvananthapuram and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. He is the bestselling author of twenty-nine books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of ‘English Non-Fiction’ for his book An Era of Darkness. He has previously chaired the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers as well as the Committee on Information Technology.

Shankar Vedantam  

Host and Executive Editor, Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam (Stanford MA, '93) is the host and executive editor of the Hidden Brain podcast and radio show. Hidden Brain receives millions of downloads per month, and is heard on more than 425 public radio stations across the United States. Vedantam has explored the science of human behavior for more than three decades. He was NPR’s social science correspondent between 2011 and 2020, and he spent 10 years as a reporter at The Washington Post. From 2007 to 2009, he was the Post's Department of Human Behavior columnist. Vedantam and Hidden Brain have been recognized with the Edward R Murrow Award, and honors from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Webby Awards, the American Public Health Association, and the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship. In 2009-2010, Vedantam served as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Vedantam is the author of The Hidden Brain: How our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives, published in 2010, and co-author of Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain published in 2021.

Jennifer Widom

Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering

Jennifer Widom is the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering and the Fletcher Jones Professor in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. She served as Computer Science Department Chair and School of Engineering Senior Associate Dean before being named Dean of Engineering in 2017. Dean Widom earned a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. She spent five years at the IBM Almaden Research Center before joining the Stanford faculty in 1993. Her research interests span many aspects of nontraditional data management. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; she is an ACM Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award. She is also known for innovation in educational outreach, introducing one of the first massive open online courses, now known as a “MOOC,” as well as traveling to more than 25 different low- and middle-income countries to offer in-person short courses on data science.