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| Great Minds Think Alike |
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| AIDI enjoys the patronage of four distinguished gentlemen who have dedicated their careers to spreading the mantra of design as a tool to change lives. |
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Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee
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 Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee’s career spans half a century, including positions with The Metal Box Co. of India, the International Monetary Fund, India Tourism Development Corporation, the National Institute of Design, and several developmental institutions.
In 1985, he was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award of the Royal Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (UK). He has also received recognition as a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Designers, Mexico.
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| Over the years, he has been associated with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (Geneva), the Water Supply and Sanitation Board (Govt. of Gujarat), the Gujarat AIDS Awareness & Prevention Unit (GAP), the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), the Gujarat Ecology Commission, the Government of Rajasthan Department of Health, and other national, state and international bodies. |
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| He currently lives in Ahmedabad, where he continues to pursue his interest in the areas of developmental communication, craft regeneration, and ecological conservation. |
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Xerxes Desai
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 Xerxes Desai has spent most of his working life in positions which gave him a strong exposure to aesthetics and design: first as projects chief for the Taj Group of hotels, next as a member of the team that planned New Bombay, thereafter as the managing director of Tata Press, and finally as the managing director of Titan Industries from 1986 to 2002. |
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| He was rated as India’s fifth best CEO in a 1997 survey carried out by Business World. |
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| Apart from his business career, he has been associated with institutions like the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the National Institute of Advanced Studies, the Indian Institute of Science, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and the International Institute for Populations Studies. He was also a member of the National Commission on Urbanisation. |
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| He currently lives in Bangalore and has turned his focus to the social sector. His interests include art and architecture, urban planning, international affairs, school education, western classical and jazz music, and dogs. |
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Kishore Biyani
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Kishore Biyani is the Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Future Group.
Kishore Biyani is often referred to as the new face of Indian retail. He launched the first ready-made branded trouser called Pantaloon. Pantaloon entered modern retail in 1997, with the opening of a chain of department stores, Pantaloons. Biyani then went on to launch multiple retail formats that now cater to a large section of the India consumer.
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The other landmarks include the launch of Big Bazaar in 2001, a uniquely Indian hypermarket chain that has led to the democratisation of shopping in India. From this experiment mushroomed Food Bazaar, the supermarket chain, which blended the look of an Indian market and followed western standards of hygiene. The company also launched Central, a first of its kind, seamless mall located in the heart of major Indian cities. Home Town is another addition to this format.
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Biyani now leads his group of companies to take multiple initiatives in the areas of retail, brands, space, capital, logistics and media. He was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 in the Services Sector and the Lakshmipat Singhania - IIM Lucknow Young Business Leader Award by Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006. He was also awarded the CNBC First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year 2006.
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Headquatered in Mumbai, he claims that the core of his retail strategy is ‘Indianess’. He recently put down his entrepreneurial journey in his book ‘It happened in India’.
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Shantanu Khosla
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Shantanu Khosla is the Managing Director of Procter & Gamble, India. He has had a prominent innings in Procter & Gamble for over twenty-five years. He has spearheaded the growth of several units including those in the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
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He is an alumnus from IIT Mumbai, where he did his Mechanical Engineering. He also acquired an MBA from IIM Calcutta.
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