Speakers

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

On 1 October 2010 Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz became the 345th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

He was Chief Executive of the UK's Medical Research Council from 2007; from 2001 to 2007 he served as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine and later as Deputy Rector at Imperial College London.

Born in Wales, to Polish parents who settled there after the Second World War, he attended Cardiff High School and went on to the Welsh National School of Medicine, later taking up clinical and research posts in London. In 1988 he came to Cambridge as Lecturer in Medicine, and was a Fellow of Wolfson College (where he is now an Honorary Fellow). He went on to be Professor of Medicine at the University of Wales for the ten years until 2001.

As Deputy Rector of Imperial College, Sir Leszek was responsible for the overall academic and scientific direction of the institution, particularly the development of inter-disciplinary research between engineering, physical sciences and biomedicine.

Concurrently with his position at Imperial College, Sir Leszek was also Governor of the Wellcome Trust (2006-2007), Chairman of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration's Integrated Academic Training Awards Panel (2005-2007), and Chair of the HEFCE RAE Main Panel A Assessment Panel.

Professor Borysiewicz was knighted in the 2001 New Year's Honours List for his contribution to medical education and research into developing vaccines, including work towards a vaccine to combat cervical cancer.

He was a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1996 and a member of its Council from 1997 until 2002, Chairman of the NHS (Wales) R&D Grants Committee and acting Director of NHS (Wales) Research and Development (1994-1996), a member of the Council of Cancer Research UK (2002-2005), a Non-Executive Director of North Thames Regional Health Authority (2003-2004) and a member of the MRC Council from 1995 to 2000. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008.

Professor Ted Briscoe

Ted Briscoe is Professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Cambridge and the inaugural director of the Alta Institute, which conducts research into automated language teaching and assessment. He has published over 100 research articles and three books in the area of automated speech and language processing. He is co-founder and CEO of iLexIR Ltd, a consultancy and technology provider specialising in language processing applications. In 2009, iLexIR spun-out Swiftkey, maker of the world’s most popular predictive keyboard for smartphones. In 2015, he co-founded English Language iTutoring Ltd, a joint venture with Cambridge English to deploy cloud-based automated assessment and tutoring technology for English as a further language.

Saul Nassé

Saul is Chief Executive of Cambridge English Language Assessment. Saul studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and spent three years as a research scientist at Cranfield University, before joining the BBC. In a 23-year career at the corporation he was Editor of prime-time science show Tomorrow’s World, Head of Religion and Ethics, and General Manager of BBC Worldwide Productions in Mumbai, where he was responsible for the Indian version of Strictly Come Dancing.

His last job at the BBC before joining Cambridge English in March 2014 was as Controller of BBC Learning, where he ran the department that commissioned and produced the BBC’s education programmes and websites. These included Stargazing Live, BBC Food, Bitesize, and the innovative new learning online product, iWonder.

Dr Nick Saville

Nick Saville is a member of Cambridge English’s Senior Management Team and is responsible for directing the work of the Research and Thought Leadership Division. He is the elected Manager of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE), on the Board of Trustees for The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF), and is a Board member of Cambridge University’s Institute for Automated Learning and Assessment (ALTA). Before joining Cambridge he taught at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and worked in Japan. He has a PhD in Language Assessment, focusing on test impact, an MA in TEFL and a BA in Linguistics. Nick publishes widely in the field and has recently completed a volume on Learning Oriented Assessment with Neil Jones. He was a founding associate editor of Language Assessment Quarterly and is currently joint editor of the Studies in Language Testing series with Professor Cyril Weir.

Dr Hanan Khalifa

Hanan Khalifa heads International Education, leading a cross-divisional team of Cambridge English experts in the field of language learning, teaching and assessment working with ministries of education and developing strategic partnerships. Previously, Hanan has held ministerial roles as adviser to Minister of Education, and worked for international development agencies and educational firms (CfBT, AMIDEAST, AIR, AED). Hanan’s expertise lies in: language testing, educational assessment, monitoring and evaluation, standard setting, research (methodology, instrument design, data analysis), and institutional capacity-building. Her work experience includes: education reform, curriculum and syllabus design, materials development, teacher training, baseline and impact studies, internal auditing, and managing large surveys (TIMMS & PISA). Hanan is an expert member on Council of Europe CEFR panels and EAQUALS inspection committee. She has presented worldwide, with a track record of over 60 conference presentations and 30 publications including Examining Reading (used as course/key reference material by ALTE and master’s programmes in UK universities). She was the recipient of the 1989 Hornby Award for ELT and a joint winner with Burns and Brandon of the 2013 IEAA award for Innovation in International Education.

Angela ffrench

Based in Chennai, Angela ffrench co-ordinates the activity of Cambridge English Language Assessment within the South Asia region, providing quality assessment services to both the education and corporate sectors.

Angela has over 40 years’ experience of teaching and testing English. Having joined Cambridge English in 1991, she has been involved in all aspects of developing and administering tests and assessment criteria, in the training of item writers and examiners, in pretesting and analysing test material, in the grading of examinations, and in raising awareness of the CEFR.

Her work in the region involves raising awareness with Ministries of Education, Vice-Chancellors of Universities, and Principals of schools of the need to view English language as a skill. This gives learners of all ages the ability to communicate better, so providing them with freedom of movement in the world of work, and better understanding and closer co-operation with people from different language and cultural backgrounds.

Angela holds an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MEd in Language Testing from the University of Bristol. She has published and presented on a range of topics relating to assessment. Before moving to Chennai, Angela headed the teams responsible for producing the Cambridge English Young Learner tests and the IELTS exam.

Ratnesh Kumar Jha

Ratnesh heads the Cambridge University Press for its South Asia region. Since his appointment as Managing Director of Cambridge University Press India in December 2013, Ratnesh has focused his efforts towards investment in Cambridge India to leverage opportunities in the entire South Asian publishing region. His initiative of establishing ‘Centres of Excellence’ in India to facilitate increased research-based projects and creation of Intellectual Property in South Asia has been well received and appreciated.

With a management career spanning more than two decades, Ratnesh has held senior management posts for a number of global digital, technology and education firms, including Vodafone, Citibank GE Capital and Reliance Telecom. This experience has given him deep insight into the power of education technology and equipped him to unlock the wealth of Cambridge’s educational materials and develop them to be consumed by the next generation of students across both India and the South Asia region as a whole.

He is a qualified postgraduate from Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management. He additionally holds a second postgraduate degree in Humanities from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. His other interests include extensive reading, exchanging thoughts with visionaries and leaders across industries, following latest trends in technological advancements particularly in Education space, engaging with society upliftment programmes and challenging established lines of thinking.

Ben Knight

Ben Knight joined Cambridge University Press five years ago and is now their Director of Research and Consultancy. His responsibilities include ensuring that high-quality research underpins the learning materials, curriculum development and teacher support that CUP provides. He also works closely with Cambridge English Language Assessment to enable the two university departments to offer an integrated service to teachers and organisations around the world involved in educational reform. Ben has taught EFL in six countries, across three continents. He later became a specialist in assessment, working for Cambridge English Language Assessment (then UCLES) and City & Guilds. He holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics.

Mark O’Neil

Mark O’Neil is Executive Director at Cambridge University Press Australia and CEO of HOTmaths Pty Ltd. Mark has over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. He has a background in teaching, teacher development, sales and general management. He was Director of the Press’s operations in Japan, Korea and Taiwan before moving to Melbourne to head the Press’s businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

He has overseen the continuing digital transformation of the Cambridge Australia business and instigated the partnership with HOTmaths, an innovative cloud-based education resource provider, of which he is CEO. Syllabus-specific, cutting-edge HOTmaths products can be found in Australia, South Africa, and the UK, and are now being launched in India, where curriculum change and technology are having a positive impact on education.

Mark is a sought-after speaker at events and conferences wherever technology, school transformation and quality education meet.

Dr Loveleen Kacker

Dr Loveleen Kacker has worked with governments, institutions and organisations, in important roles that involved high stakes, large budgets and diverse teams. She brings in over three decades of planning and administrative experience, from a number of senior roles that she played in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), where she made impactful contributions in the areas of women and children, framing national policies on child welfare and drafting legislations for welfare schemes for the poor and disadvantaged sections of society. She has expertise in the areas of child education, child nutrition and child protection, and has worked for more than a decade in social sector ministries and departments.

Some of her notable career positions in the IAS include Director, Madhya Pradesh State Council of Educational Research and Training (MPSCERT); Director, Administrative Training Institute, Bhopal; Deputy Secretary and Director, Ministry of Food, Government of India; and Collector and District Magistrate, Betul.

She has authored several novels and stories for children, which won her national acclaim. She has been awarded the national-level Children’s Book Trust Award for children’s writers twice for her literary talents. Widely travelled, she is a member of numerous institutions and has spoken at several international forums.

Professor. M.M. Pant

Professor Pant has a PhD in Computational Physics (IIT, Roorkee), with a Professional Law degree (Kanpur University), and pursues pedagogy, technology, curricula and entrepreneurial models for disruptively transforming education. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi and on various committees of academic bodies such as CBSE, NIOS,NCERT, UGC, CEC, NUEPA, NCTE.

He believes that the purpose of using technology in education is to go beyond the initial phase of being a ‘broadcast’ tool to a ‘data driven learning model’ that helps every learner become a better self-directed autonomous learner, every teacher a transformational inspirational educator, and every parent an informed enlightened parent who can mould the cognitive and emotional development of their children.

He is also a promoter of mobile life-long learning with an initiative of ‘2nd Innings: learning opportunities for the 40+’, and a pool of 108 course units organised as 18 tracks that run as weekly programs run entirely on WhatsApp.

Mohandas Pai

Mohandas Pai is the Chairman, FICCI Skill Development Forum and the Chairman, Manipal Global Education. Earlier Mohandas was a Member of the Board of Directors of Infosys and Head – Administration, Education and Research, Financial, Human Resources, and Infosys Leadership Institute.

He was a key player in the development of the IT services industry in India and instituted several industry-firsts in the country. He is a Member of the Board of SEBI and Empowered Committee for setting up the Tax Information Network of the Government of India. He was a Trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and a Member of Dr Anil Kakodkar Committee on Autonomy for the IITs and the Karnataka Knowledge Commission.

He is currently a Member on the Boards of IIT, Hyderabad and IPE, Hyderabad.

Hariraj Vijayakumar

Hariraj Vijayakumar is the Global Head of Cognizant Academy that drives the continuous professional development of Cognizant’s 200,000+ global workforce. Present in 26 cities around the world, Cognizant Academy is powered by 600+ (as of June 2015) L&D practitioners, who aim to seamlessly weave continuous learning into the work life of associates at Cognizant. Hari’s focus is to deepen the Academy’s impact on Cognizant’s business performance through new approaches and sophisticated solutions, thereby making talent development a strategic differentiator for Cognizant’s success.

Hari has been with Cognizant for 19 years and has performed a wide range of delivery, operations and client-facing leadership roles. In the last seven years as a talent development leader, he has been instrumental in architecting and implementing a role-based professional development framework in Cognizant, significantly scaling up the reach and impact of L&D in America, building top-notch highly rated development programmes for our managers/emerging leaders while architecting a fully-fledged corporate learning ecosystem along with partners, institutions and industry experts.

Under Hari’s leadership, Cognizant was ranked #1 among the BEST Award winning learning organisations globally by Association for Talent Development (ATD, formerly ASTD-American Society of Training & Development) in both 2013 and 2014. Cognizant is the first organisation to be ranked at the top two years running in the 70-year history of ATD. Cognizant Academy won several prestigious awards such as Brandon Hall (5 awards in 2014), Training Top 125 from the Training Magazine, and Learning in Practice award from the Chief Learning Officer, CLO.

Professor Rajiva Wijesinha

Rajiva Wijesinha, Senior Professor of Languages at Sabaragamuwa University, was invited to head the government Peace Secretariat in 2007. He subsequently also became Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights. Previously, as Adviser to the Ministry of Education and Chair of the Academic Affairs Board of the National Institute of Education, he was responsible for the reintroduction of English-medium education in government schools and for far-reaching curricular reforms. He served briefly as State Minister of Higher Education last year, and now chairs the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission.

He has published widely, in political philosophy and history (Declining Sri Lanka, CUP), Literature (Mirrored Images, Sinhala and Tamil and English poetry from Sri Lanka, NBT India) and ELT material (A Handbook of English Grammar, CUP). Recent publications include Triumph and Disaster: The Rajapaksa Years, Poets and their Visions and English and Education: In Search of Equity and Excellence?

Professor Indira J Parikh

Professor Indira Parikh is the Co-Chair FICCI Higher Education Committee and the Founder President, FLAME. She was a faculty at IIM-A for over 30 years and Deans from 2002 to 2005. She has also taught at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (France) and Texas A&M University. She has specialised in organisation development and design, and institution building.

Professor Parikh has designed and offered management development programs for managerial role effectiveness, training for trainers, issues of roles and identity, and stress and self-renewal for men and women in organisations. She has been a consultant to various national and international organisations both in private and public sector.

She is also on the Board of several companies and has been honoured with three life-time achievement awards.

Sujata Stead

Sujata is the CEO of Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment (CBLA), the organisation that manages the Occupational English Test (OET). Sujata also leads Cambridge English Language Assessment's (part of Cambridge University) regional operations in Australia and New Zealand.

Sujata has a great deal of experience in managing international qualifications and played a leading role in the success of IELTS and the expansion of Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE). She previously worked as Assistant Director, Business Development leading Cambridge’s regional operations in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and managing global strategic development for key Cambridge English exams. Sujata has over 18 years' experience in marketing, business development and business transformation in the UK, India and Australia. Prior to joining Cambridge English, Sujata worked as IELTS Marketing Manager at the British Council. She holds a first degree from the University of Kolkata, an MSc in International Business from the University of London, an MA from University of Cambridge and a Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Professor B S Satyanarayana

Professor Satyanarayana is currently the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of BML Munjal University (BMU), India. He has over 30 years of experience working in Industry, R&D institutions, Academics and Government Policy in India, UK and Japan and with other international partners. This includes establishing new entrepreneurial ventures, setting up new labs in Academic, R&D & industrial environment, change management, defining new government policies and defining new pedagogy in academic environment.

He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University UK (a first in the area of Vacuum Nanoelectronics at Cambridge University, UK).

Nishan Fernando

Nishan has functioned as President (2008-09), Vice President (2006-07) and Council Member (2000-05) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. He has chaired the Education and Curriculum Development Committee and has been a member of the Examination Committee of the Institute. He functioned as a member of the International Accounting Education Standards Board and is now serving in its Consultative Advisory Group. He also has served on the Governing Boards of Postgraduate Institute of Management and National Institute of Business Management. Nishan has been actively involved in curriculum development and revision projects of the Institute. He chaired the Accounting Standards Committee when Sri Lanka Accounting Standards converged with IFRS. He has also served as a Commission Member of the Securities   Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, and as a member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board.

He is currently functioning as the Managing Director of BDO Consulting (Pvt) Limited. He is also functioning as an Independent Director of First Capital Holdings PLC and its subsidiaries. Nishan counts over 20 years of experience, holding senior positions in the fields of Accounting and Finance.

Amitava Ghosh

Amitava Ghosh, an industry veteran in the education and training sectors, is a Director in GEMS Skills (part of GEMS Education, which runs international schools that set a benchmark for quality education today and shape the future of learning for the next generation). GEMS Skills envisions to create a paradigm in skill development and corporate training, globally, under his leadership.

Amitava was with the Reliance Group where he spent over a decade with Reliance HR Services (RHRS) and NIS Sparta Ltd as Chief Operating Officer. While founding and conceptualizing RHRS, he provided vision and thrust, creating a world-class talent enterprise of immense scale. Before his association with the Reliance Group, Amitava was also Managing Director of Aptech Worldwide, in South East Asia, where under his leadership Aptech became an IT partner to various governments and evolved far beyond being a training company.

Amitava is a Bachelor of Engineering from Jadavpur University, Calcutta and a postgraduate from IIM Calcutta. He regularly contributes to print and electronic media and is an engaging speaker in various forums. As a connoisseur of culture, he was a correspondent for All India Radio and a trained Rabindrasangeet vocalist. He loves soccer too and supports his wife, who is a professional Odissi dancer in her cultural pursuit.

He resides in Navi Mumbai with his family – parents and wife, all postgraduates from the prestigious - Presidency College, Kolkata and his son, Neelak and daughter Roopkatha.

Dr Vandana Lulla

Dr Lulla has attained a doctorate degree in “Managing learning disabilities using Technology.” She has more than a decade long experience in the education industry. Under her astounding leadership and maintaining high institutional quality, her school has secured a hat-trick in terms of “Best School Award” by Digital Learning, Hindustan Times and Education World. Her students have topped in the world and in India in the Cambridge International Examinations. She has also been one of the very first pioneers to introduce i-Pad and 3D technology in the classrooms and thus, under her leadership, her school was awarded consecutively the E-India Public Choice Award 2011 and Best Use of Technology for Teaching and Learning 2012. Her school is a paperless digital school. She has also undertaken international projects on adding a global dimension into the curriculum using technology which led to the Podar International School being bestowed twice with the International School Award by the British Council.

Her prime aim is to give back to the society in the form of community service. She has used technology to train more than 100 students with learning disabilities and taught children who are suffering from cancer.

Her passion is never-ending and infinite. Her dream is to place Podar International School/ College on the global education map by transforming it into a world-class university.

Bijay Sahoo

With over 28 years of corporate leadership experience, Bijay is currently the President – HR responsible for RIL’s emerging consumer businesses including Reliance Retail, Jio Infocomm, Payment Bank, Media and E-commerce. Previously, he was the Global Head HR of Wipro Technologies. Prior to Wipro, Bijay was the Principal Consultant and the leader of the HRM consulting practice for India and South Asia at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Earlier, he played leading HR roles at IDBI Bank and Dena Bank.

Bijay is the Founder Chairman of RASCI i.e. Retail Skills Council of India. He is the Chairman of Skills Development committee of Indian Merchants’ Chamber, Core Team Member of FICCI Skills Development Forum (SDF), a member of CII National Committee of Sector Skill Councils and Mentor Council for Skills Development formed by Govt. of India. He is the Founder Chairman of Demographic Dividend Research Foundation focusing upon developing skills and facilitating global talent mobility.