Bipul Parekh, Raghabendra Rao, Apruva Purohit and Saugat Gupta are the four alumni who will be welcomed at the pre-convocation day function.
The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is pleased to announce the recipients of the IIMB Distinguished Alumni Award for 2022. Established in 2007, the Distinguished Alumni Awards are given to alumni in recognition of their exceptional merit and excellence in their chosen field. Efforts – be it industry, management, entrepreneurship, research, academia or social work. The DAA award will be presented during the Pre-Convocation Day celebrations. Each DAA awardee receives a quote and his or her name is engraved on the institute’s reputation wall.
We have four alumni who have been awarded the DAA this year: Bipul Parekh, PGP 1988, co-founder of Bigbasket.com; Raghabendra Rao, PGP 1989, Professor, Department of Finance, University of Cambridge; Apurba Purohit, PGP 1989, co-founder, Ajal and Saugat Gupta, PGP 1991, Managing Director and CEO of Marico Limited.
IIMB Director Prof. Rishikesh T. Krishnan congratulated the DAA recipients.
Bipul Parekh (PGP 1986-88)
Bipul Parekh is the co-founder of Innovative Retail Concept Pvt. Ltd., better known as Bigbasket.com, and serves as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. After spending a decade in marketing roles at TVS Electronics Limited and Wipro Limited, he became an entrepreneur when he co-founded Fabmart India Pvt Ltd in 1999.
His entry into ecommerce in early 1999 marked him as an innovator and pioneer. With the online store Fabmart.com, he demonstrated the horizontal e-commerce business potential that has inspired many such Internet start-ups and laid the foundation for a strong Internet ecosystem in India. Through the offline store Fabmall, he has created a modern layout of the traditional grocery business, made it from scratch, and engineered a zero-inventory warehousing model. Fabmall became the fourth largest grocer in a short period of time and finally established itself under the brand name ‘More’ through a transfer of ownership in 2007.
After a brief stint at a private equity firm, he returned as an entrepreneur and co-founded his next venture, Bigbasket.com, in 2011. Conducting marketing and financial operations from the beginning, it has transformed BigBasket into the third largest retailer in the country, with more than 10 million customers and 30,000 employees, accumulating credit for many industry-first innovations in the supply chain. One of the pioneers in online commerce, Bipul Parekh is brilliant as a serial entrepreneur.
Raghabendra Rao (PGP 1987-89)
Raghabendra Rau is Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Professor of Finance at Cambridge University. His research papers on corporate finance, behavioral finance and corporate governance have been published in top journals. He is also the editor of a prestigious academic journal.
An outstanding scholar, teacher, mentor and role model for young scholars, Raghabendra Rao has taught at several management schools in North America, Europe and India. These include: Carnart School of Management at Purdue University, Anderson School of Management at UCLA, Has School of Business at UC Berkeley and Indian School of Business at Hyderabad.
Raghabendra Rao is the co-founder of the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. He is also the past president of the European Finance Association (EFA).
Apurba Purohit (PGP 1987-89)
Apurba Purohit has made a brilliant career in the field of media and advertising. He was the President of Jagran Prakashan Limited. As the founder of Lodestar, he is credited with bringing the idea of buying media to the country and making Lodestar one of the top five media houses in the country. After leading the transformation effort at Zee Telefilms, he led the strategy of entering the Times of India television. Thanks to its decade-long grassroots leadership at Radio City, the company has been ranked in the ‘Great Place to Work’ survey for nine consecutive years and was among the ‘Best Places to Work in Asia’ in 2019. Publishing as president of Jagran, he focused on this group to focus on the emerging business of the new era.
His commitment to social causes is exemplary, especially in educating disadvantaged children. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are also his favorite reasons. Her influential books ‘Lady, You’re Not a Man’ and ‘Lady, You’re the Boss’ demonstrate her influence and contribution to this larger cause in encouraging and empowering women professionals. She has been listed as ‘the most powerful woman in business’ for many years by both Business Today and Fortune India.
Saugat Gupta (PGP 1989-91)
Saugat Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of Marico Limited, has been working in the marketing role of Cadbury India Limited (now Mondelez) – in India and abroad – for almost a decade. After a four-year stint at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, he joined Marico Limited in 2004 as Head of Marketing, where he was finally promoted to Managing Director and CEO in 2014.
Saugat Gupta is the recipient of several awards related to corporate leadership and influential achievements. He has been listed in India’s Top 100 CEOs year after year by many business publications like BusinessWorld, Business Today and Forbes India. His leadership has also earned him a reputation for his company Marico Limited, which ranked highest among FMCG companies in the CRISIL ESG Performance Score ESGauge in 2021 and one of the top ten companies in the S&P BSE 100 Index, with the best corporate governance.
Saugat Gupta has made a visible contribution to society by being involved with many organizations involved in a wide range of social causes, such as children’s education and cultural entrepreneurship. He has been a jury member for many corporate awards and has been active in industry bodies like FICCI, Indian Society of Advertisers, Advertising Standards Council of India etc.