meet the game
changers

Ms. Garima Prashad

Mustafa Ghouse (born 19 August 1980) is the Chief Executive Officer of JSW Sports, the sports vertical of The JSW Group. The JSW Group owns and operates Indian Super League club Bengaluru FC and Pro-Kabaddi League team Haryana Steelers. Ghouse is also the Director at JSW Sports’ Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals.

Prior to his involvement in Management of Sport, Ghouse was a professional tennis player who represented India at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea and the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, winning a bronze medal in the Men’s Doubles event at the 2002 edition with partner, Vishal Uppal.

Pullela Gopichand (born 16 November 1973) is a former Indian badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone.He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan – India’s third highest civilian award – in 2014

Rohan Bopanna is a global doubles phenomenon, ranked as high as no. 3 in the world. He has represented India in the Olympics, Davis Cup, and Hopman Cup. Rohan won the 2017 French Open Mixed Doubles title, 16 ATP Tour doubles titles, and has consistently ranked within the top 15 in the world.

Shikha Tandon (born 20 January 1985) is an Indian former swimmer from Bangalore, India. Tandon has won 146 national medals, and 36 medals in international competitions, including five gold medals. Currently, she is a member of USADA’s science team, assisting in the daily operation, development, and maintenance of the resources, reporting, and projects critical to USADA’s scientific initiatives.

Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad (born 5 August 1969), is a former Indian cricketer, Cricket Coach, Commentator who played Tests and ODIs. He made his debut in 1994. Primarily a right-arm medium-fast bowler, Prasad was noted for his bowling combination with Javagal Srinath.

He is the bowling coach for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, having formerly performed the same role for the Indian cricket team from 2007 to 2009.

He currently serves as Deputy General Manager for Canara Bank.

Vickram Kanth (born 11 April 1987) is an Indian field hockey player who plays as a defender. He was part of the Indian team that won gold at the 2007 Men’s Hockey Asia Cup, as well as the teams that won bronze at the 2007 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and silver at the 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

Dr. Vivek Jawali is Chief Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeon and as a Chairman, he heads the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore. Dr. Jawali has also been nominated as a council member to the newly constituted Medical Council of India (MCI), the premier statutory body that governs the standards of medical education and recognition of medical qualifications in the country. He is also on the MCI’s academic council.

He is a pioneer in minimally invasive cardiac surgery in India and has performed over 18,000 cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeries till date. He performed India’s first beating heart bypass surgery in 1992 and performed India’s first minimally invasive bypass surgery(MIDCAB)in Sept 1994. Dr. Jawali did India’s first Awake Cardiac surgery (Surgery without GA or ventilator, done under continuous high thoracic epidural) in June 1999. He also performed world’s 1st awake open heart surgery (a 74 yrs patient underwent triple bypass with aortic valve replacement without G.A. or a ventilator) in April 2002.

Dr. Jawali was the president of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS) in 2008. He is the founder member of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgeons (ISMICS) and is the only Indian on the editorial board of its journal – Innovations in Cardiac Surgery. He is also the council member of the Asian Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. He has been the Vice President of the Indian College of Cardiology. He is on the editorial board of the journal of Indian Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons (IACTS), journal of Cardiac Anaesthesia, CTSNET (a comprehensive global website of cardiac surgeons around the world).

Srinivas is the Co-Founder at The Sports School. He is also the founding partner at o3 Capital and co-heads the investment banking division. Srinivas has more than 19 years of investment banking experience and has been instrumental in development of o3 Capital’s investment banking practice.

Prior to o3 Capital, Srinivas was with TAIB Bank – Bahrain, where he focused on setting up their investment banking practice in India. Srinivas holds an M.Com degree from Bangalore University and is a CFA from ICFAI, Hyderabad.

Dr. Chenraj Roychand is the Founder Chairman of JGI Group. A visionary leader, educationist, social entrepreneur, and angel investor, he has been promoting the educational and entrepreneurship sectors in India for more than two decades. Dr. Chenraj Roychand incepted JGI Group in 1990 with the aim of providing quality educational and entrepreneurial opportunities to the masses.

Dr. Sankar UV is the Director of The Sports School and has worked as a Sports Director in one of the leading Universities- Jain University.

He began his over 25 years long career with a stint in Sainik School in Bijapur, where he spent his formative years in an atmosphere charged with the duty, dedication, and physical perseverance.
These formative years stood with him in good stead, during his PUC (XI and XIIth Std) at KCP Science College, Bijapur, through a BA Degree at St. Joseph’s Arts and Science College, Bangalore. Always a fitness enthusiast, Dr. Sankar UV focussed his attention towards a Bachelor’s Degree followed by a Masters in Physical Education at Rama Krishna Vidyalay, Maruthi College of Physical Education, Coimbatore in the year 1991 to 1993. He acquired a Diploma in Athletics from Nethaji Subhaschandra National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), South Centre, Bangalore, in 1994.

Dr. Sankar UV joined Sri Baghwan Mahaveer Jain College (SBMJC) in 1995 with all the determination of a dedicated teacher and endurance of a marathon runner to set his vision of molding students in high achievers.

A simple glance at the row of accomplishments of his students is enough proof of his impact on his students. The list below is a narration of the achievements of his proteges at the National Level in sports like Cricket, Basketball, Swimming, Hockey, Badminton, Tennis, Shooting, Volleyball, to name a few. Olympians like Gagan Ullalmath, Sharath Gayekwad appears at the beginning of the endless list, followed by stars like Rehaan Poncha, Varun Aaron, Adithya Prakash, Khalin Joshi, Rakesh Manpath, Prakash Jolly, Surabhi Tipre, Karun Nayar, Shankar Patil, Abrar Kazi, H S Sharath, Aaron D’Souza, K.L.Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Poorvisha Ram, Jacquelina Rose Kunnath, Fariha Zaman, Diya, Shreya Gopal, Poorva Kiran Shetye, Trishul Chinnappa, K.V. Siddharth, Samarth Ravikumar. Other names include stars like Pankaj Advani, Robin Uthappa, Shikha Tandon, Anup Shridhar, Sheetal Gautam, Rohan Bopanna, Hari Prasad, Rohith Havaldar, Kaushal, Ravikumar, Manish Pandey, Ajay R.M., Sanjay Raj, Gautam Dhiman, Asha Nandakumar, Anit Verma, Abhishek Bakshmi, Bharath B Raj, Aswini Jayram, etc.

His belief is to impart training and mentorship of the highest standards to build confidence, while also enabling and empowering each sportsperson to achieve higher degrees of mental and physical composure. He supports and encourages athletes that want to pursue their training without letting go of their education.

With over 40 years of experience in Industrial and Project Management, Gopal Anand is known as a turnaround specialist. He is the Indian Representative of DCD London and Mutual PLC, specialized in Trade finance and Properties. He was the
Project and Regional Manager of the largest Diary Project “Operations Flood” which led India to be self-sufficient and become the world’s largest milk producer and exporter.

Anand has graduated in Bsc (Hons) Mathematics from Delhi University and received an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Mr. Mahadeva.T, is an Engineering Graduate having over 25 years of industry experience in project management of software and infrastructure development companies. During Initial stages of his career, he has worked in Software Companies in India and United States. Since, year 2000, he has been associated with ‘Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd’, in the execution of the prestigious ‘Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project’.

Presently, he is the Vice-President of the Company in-charge of acquisition, managing, development of lands and infrastructural facilities, and a key strategist for improvement of Toll Management System. He is also a Board member in many other notable Infrastructure Projects and Project Management Firms.

With over 18+ years of experience in investment banking and agri business, Priyatham leads the business diversification initiatives of Sam Agri Group while handling finance and international marketing.

Priyatham completed his graduation from BITS Pilani and his masters from IIM-B.

Mr. KR Choudary is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with strong expertise in Project Consultancy and management Consultancy. He commenced his career with his own firm M/s. KR Choudary & Co, Chartered Accountants and has a rich experience of more than 20 years.

During his career, he has handled various assignments which include statutory audits of large PSUs, statutory and internal audits of Public & Private limited companies engaged in various field from manufacturing to chit funds, as well as Management Audits. He is a specialist in project financing with several successful fund raising cases under his belt.

He is an active member of FKCCI (Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and sits on the Committee on Corporate Affairs & CSR.

Meena N is a Director at The Sports School. She also serves on the board of Inventus Financials Pvt Ltd, a boutique financial advisory firm. She is a a post graduate in commerce from Bangalore University and has over 10 years of teaching experience.

A renowned Professor of Electronics with a passion for academic and student development and history of success in developing effective strategies to overreach curriculum goals. 21 years of teaching experience has established him as an accomplished teacher, excellent guide and effective leader. Presently, working in conjunction with professionals, paraprofessionals, management and administrative staff to enrich and maintain high reaching standards at The Sports School – a perfect place to nurture talents of sports and pursue academic goals.

Prof. A.S Venkatesan has authored a text book named “A Text Book of Electronics for II PUC.” He has designed and developed curriculum based online video classes for II PUC students in Electronics, in collaboration with makemelearn.com.