People Behind ASPIRE

People Behind ASPIRE

Meet Our Team

Industry-led professionals who gained experience to make the next generation lead the industry. 

Our Board of Directors

Prof. Shireesh Kedare

Director, IIT Bombay

Prof. K.V.K. Rao

Deputy Director (Finance & External Affairs), IIT Bombay

Prof. Milind Atrey​

Deputy Director (Academics, Research and Translation), IIT Bombay

Prof. Sachin Patwardhan

Dean (Research & Development), IIT Bombay

Prof. Shireesh Kedare

Director, IIT Bombay

Prof. K.V.K. Rao

Deputy Director (Finance & External Affairs), IIT Bombay

Prof. Milind Atrey

Deputy Director (Academics, Research and Translation), IIT Bombay

Prof. Sachin Patwardhan

Dean (Research & Development), IIT Bombay

Prof. Vikram Vishal​​

Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay

Prof. Devang Khakhar

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Mr. Sharad Sanghi

Chief Executive Officer, Neysa

Dr. Nitin Kareer

Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Forest Department, Government of Maharashtra

Ms. Rekha Koita

Co-Founder, Koita Foundation

Shri. Aseemkumar Gupta

Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Maharashtra

Prof. Devang Khakhar

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Dr. Nitin Kareer

Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Forest Department, Government of Maharashtra

Prof. Vikram Vishal

Professor-in-charge

Mr. Sharad Sanghi

Chief Executive Officer, Neysa​

Ms. Rekha Koita​

Co-Founder, Koita Foundation

Shri. Aseemkumar Gupta

Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Maharashtra

Prime Movers

Prof. Vikram Vishal

Professor-in-charge

Dr. Rajappa Tadepalli

Chief Executive Officer

Executive Office

Ms. Prerana Yadav

Senior Manager (HR & Executive Office)

Ms. Roshina Momin

Associate

Industry-Academia Engagement

Dr. Sneha Ranade

Senior Manager

Dr. Meera Vasudevan

Assistant Manager

Dr. Shatarupa Sinha

Assistant Manager

Mr. Gaurav Shetty

Associate

Information Technology

Ms. Nidhi Goel

Manager

Mr. Vishnu Velukutty

Associate

Mr. Sagar Sutar

Associate

Infrastructure

Mr. Shahid Khan

Senior Manager

Ms. Sheetal Thakur

Manager

Ms. Jefeena Sali

Assistant Manager

Finance and Accounts

Ms. Renu Gandhi

Manager

Mr. Satyawan Morajkar

Associate

Ms. Pooja Chavan

Associate

Marketing & Communications

Ms. Deepabali Dasgupta

Assistant Manager

Ms. Sakshi Dudani

Associate

Legal

Ms. Faiza Pirani

Associate (Legal)

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Prof. Shireesh Kedare

Director, IIT Bombay

Prof. Shireesh Kedare officially took charge as the Director at IIT Bombay on May 6, 2024. He is a Professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay, having earned his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1985 and completing his Ph.D. in 1992.      

Prof. Kedare has held several administrative roles at IIT Bombay and beyond, including serving as Professor-in-Charge of the Centre of Excellence in Oil, Gas, and Energy. With extensive industry experience, he has led initiatives in solar technology commercialization and rural technology development. He has contributed significantly to academia and industry collaborations, including as a board member of ONGC and IIT Madras.

Prof. K.V.K. Rao

Deputy Director (Finance & External Affairs), IIT Bombay

Dr. K V Krishna Rao is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and has over 30 years of experience in teaching, R&D and consultation in the area of Transportation Systems Engineering. He is presently the Deputy Director – Finance & External Affairs. He has a PhD in Urban Transportation Planning and a Masters in Transportation Engineering, both from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. His research interests include sustainable urban transportation planning, travel survey design and analysis, and urban land use transport modeling, among others. His contribution in preparing master plans for metro rail systems in the cities of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune and MMR in general is noteworthy. He has served as Dean and Associate Dean of Infrastructure Planning at IIT Bombay from 2006 to 2012 and was the Head of the Civil Engineering department from 2012 to 2017. He was conferred with the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008, 2012 and 2016 by IIT Bombay. He is a member of professional bodies like ASCE, IRC, WCTRS, IUT and is represented on several technical committees of IRC and government agencies.

Prof. Milind Atrey

Deputy Director (Academics, Research and Translation), IIT Bombay

Prof. Milind Atrey is currently the Deputy Director – ART(Academics, Research and Translation) of IIT Bombay, INOX chair Professor of Cryogenics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay. He served as the Dean (R&D) of the IIT Bombay for over 4 years and as Professor-in-Charge of SINE (Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship), a business incubator at IIT Bombay for over 6 years.

Prof. Sachin Patwardhan

Dean (Research & Development), IIT Bombay

Prof. Sachin C. Patwardhan received the B.Tech. degree in chemical engineering from I.I.T. (B.H.U.), Varanasi, India in 1986, the M.Tech. degree in process control from I.I.T. Madras, India, in 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in systems and control engineering from I.I.T. Bombay in 1994 respectively. During 2000–2001 and 2008–2009, he held visiting positions at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, respectively. In 1995, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at I.I.T. Madras, India, as a Faculty Member and moved to I.I.T. Bombay, India, in 2001. He is currently a Core Faculty Professor of Chemical engineering at I.I.T Bombay and Dean (Research & Development), IIT Bombay. His research interests include nonlinear model predictive control, nonlinear Bayesian state estimation, fault tolerant control systems, and nonlinear system identification.

 

Prof. Vikram Vishal

Professor-in-charge, IITB Research Park Foundation

Prof. Vikram Vishal serves as a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, and the Centre for Climate Studies, at IIT Bombay. His academic journey includes various roles at MIT, Stanford University, Monash University, IIT Roorkee, IIT Bhubaneswar, along with professional stints at Tata Steel and Shell. He is the Convener of the DST-National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), and is also the founder and CEO of UrjanovaC Private Limited – a clean energy and net-zero solutions company. He took over as the Professor in charge of ASPIRE, the IIT Bombay Research Park in June 2025.
 
Prof. Vishal specialises in decarbonization, energy transition and enhanced energy recovery. He engages as a CCUS Expert and a Knowledge Partner to lead Indian industries, multiple ministries and chairs the Committee on CCUS at the Bureau of Indian Standards. He also serves as the key National Expert on CCUS and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) for intergovernmental negotiations at the IPCC.

Prof. Vishal holds recognition from all major science academies in India. A university gold medallist, three-time national award and two-time Fulbright fellowship recipient, he has authored over a hundred scientific research publications, a dozen national and international S&T roadmaps, over a dozen national and international policy and research roadmaps, and has received five patents.
 

Prof. Devang Khakhar

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor Devang Khakhar is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Professor Khakhar did his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi in 1981 and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1986. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay in January 1987, and has been with the Institute since then. Prof. Khakhar’s research interests include mechanics of granular materials and polymer processing. He has been recognised for his research by the Bhatnagar Prize and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Science, India. Professor Khakhar serves as a member of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. He has served as Head, Chemical Engineering, Dean (Faculty Affairs) and Director at IIT Bombay.

Dr. Nitin Kareer

Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Forest Department, Government of Maharashtra

Dr. Nitin Kareer joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1988 with the objective of serving the public and positively impacting the lives of people. Working in several sectors across the State of Maharashtra, primarily in Revenue administration, Urban Development, Taxation, and Development administration have provided this opportunity in ample measure. He has been a recipient of the Satyen Mitra Award for the Best Adult Literacy Programme in the country in 1998 for the Sangli district. He has also been instrumental in full computerisation of the land transaction in the Registration Department in 2002 and has won the first prize at National e-Governance. He has been recognised internationally for his automated building plan approval system developed at Pune Municipal Corporation. He is also closely involved in the promotion of sports activities in the state of Maharashtra. Dr Nitin is continuously focused on ensuring the proper implementation of social sector schemes for empowerment of the public.

Ms. Rekha Koita

Co-Founder, Koita Foundation

Rekha is the co-founder of Koita Foundation, an organization which works with NGOs to build scale and enhance impact through process improvements and technology enhancements.  She has also been a corporate trainer for the past 10 years and specializes in business process consulting. Rekha was a management consultant at Accenture for over 8 years where her key focus areas included operations (business process re-engineering, ERP design and implementation, performance/profitability enhancement), and human resources (corporate governance, recruitment and training). Based on her experience in management consulting, Rekha conducts corporate training for leading Indian and multinational organizations. She also conducts training workshops for start-ups and NGOs in niche areas like problem solving and presentation skills. Rekha has done her B.Tech from IIT Mumbai in 1992, after she completed her Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (USA) in 1994.

Sharad Sanghi

Founder and CEO of Neysa

Sharad Sanghi is the Founder and CEO of Neysa, an AI-native converged hyperscale cloud company. A pioneer in India’s digital transformation, he has spent over three decades building foundational digital and data center infrastructure and executing large-scale technology projects from the ground up.

 

At Neysa, Sharad is leading the development of next-generation AI infrastructure, including hyperscale HPC clusters for advanced model training and fine-tuning, and AI cloud platforms built for enterprise and sovereign requirements. These capabilities position Neysa as a critical enabler for global AI leaders seeking scalable, compliant infrastructure in India.

 

Sharad founded Netmagic in 1998 and grew it into India’s leading data center company before its acquisition by NTT. At NTT, he expanded the India data center footprint to 19 facilities, totalling 4 million sq ft and 300MW of IT load, including purpose-built high-density AI data centers with direct-to-chip and liquid immersion cooling. His clients included global hyperscalers—Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Tencent, Alibaba—and major financial institutions.

 

In 2022, he was appointed to lead NTT’s Global Data Center and Submarine Cable business, a $2.1B division spanning the US, Europe, India, and Asia. He now serves as Non-Executive Chairman of NTT Global Data Centres & Cloud Infrastructure India Pvt. Ltd.

 

A TiE Mumbai Hall of Fame (2019) inductee, Sharad serves on the APNIC Foundation board and co-chairs the CII Data Centre Council. Earlier, he worked at AT&T Bell Labs, NSFNET (ANS), and IBM Global Network. He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from IIT Bombay (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2021) and a Master’s from Columbia University.

Dr Rajappa Tadepalli

Chief Executive Officer​ - IITB Research Park Foundation

Dr Rajappa Tadepalli is the CEO of ASPIRE IIT Bombay Research Park Foundation. He holds a B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Madras, and MS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge.

 

Bringing over 18 years of industry experience, Dr Tadepalli has led innovation and technology programs, built high-performing teams, and driven initiatives that create lasting business impact. He is the inventor of 24+ patents spanning materials, IoT platforms, and integrated system solutions.

 

Before joining ASPIRE, he spent more than 12 years with Saint-Gobain, where he led R&D for three business units, including serving as the founding R&D Head for Saint-Gobain Glass India. His leadership contributed to a two- to threefold increase in new product sales across businesses with revenues ranging from $100 million to $600 million.

 

Deeply passionate about innovation at the intersection of technology and market needs, Dr Tadepalli is committed to mentoring technologists and nurturing the creation of world-class products from India.