I’m here at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum on an invitation from Ford and NASSCOM to conduct an unconference for digital influencers in the automotive space. I decided to take this opportunity to fix an appointment for a podcast interview with Mr.K.V.Prasad.
K. Venkatesh Prasad is Ford’s “What’s Next” guy, responsible for fostering global cross-functional innovation at Ford. He is the founding leader of Ford Motor Company’s Infotronics Technologies Group – a globally distributed activity the company established in 1998.
In this capacity, he oversees Ford Motor Company’s engagement in global multimedia standards and the related development of vehicle communications & computing technologies. Earlier, Dr. Prasad led research in the area of computer vision, electronic imaging and pattern recognition.
He imagined the vehicle as a software platform where features and services could be beamed in from the outside – without incremental built-in hardware. That revolutionary mind-set led to the development of Ford SYNC. Software-based, the voice-activated SYNC system allows Ford and Lincoln vehicle owners to seamlessly connect to their cell phones, MP3 players and a host of other features and services in and through their vehicle – hands-free.
Prasad was born in Chennai and attended schools there and in Bengaluru, Pune and New Delhi. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from NIT-Trichy in 1980, and holds double Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Madras and Washington State University, Pullman. He completed his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering in 1990 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ in USA.
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Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal, is visiting India in November. This will be his first ever visit to India. Prior to his visit, we thought it would be hear from him about his visit, his passion for technology and more about him in particular.
I’m really excited at hosting Dries on Kiruba.TV. The interview will take place on Thursday, 27th October. He will be joining an illustrious list of achievers that include Jimmy Wales, Sir Martin Sorrell, Anand Mahindra and Guy Kawasaki.
Dries Buytaert is the original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform. Buytaert serves as president of the Drupal Association, a non-profit organization formed to help Drupal flourish.
He is also co-founder and CTO of Acquia, a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for Drupal. Dries is also a co-founder of Mollom, a web service that helps you identify content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop website spam.
A native of Belgium, Buytaert holds a PhD in computer science and engineering from Ghent University and a Licentiate Computer Science (MsC) from the University of Antwerp.
BusinessWeek selected Dries as the Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and MIT Tech Review picked him amongst the top 35 Young Innovators.
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This week’s guest on Kiruba.TV is Manish Sharma, Panasonic India’s Marketing Head. Kiruba.TV, is my podcast show where I interview achievers and top management professionals. This is a collaborative, crowd-sourced podcast show where you get to actively participate. If you have any questions for Manish, please leave them in the comment box below or mail them to me at Kiruba @ Kiruba.com. Alternatively, you can sms your question to 09841597744 or tweet it @Kiruba.
Here’s info about Manish Sharma.
As Director of Marketing, Manish Sharma has been formulating and implementing Panasonic’s marketing initiatives in India. He joined Panasonic in August 2008 as Product Head for VIERA range of Flat Panel Televisions and was subsequently elevated to Director of Marketing in April 2010. Manish comes with a rich 14 year experience and industry knowledge, having worked previously with electronic majors like LG Hotline, Samsung India & Haier India.
He has been instrumental in celebrity associations with Panasonic and endorsement of sporting events. With his understanding of Panasonic and the India market, he has helped the Panasonic brand to make it high on local flavor with a major youth connect.
Following the success of Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor’s association with Viera brand of Panasonic Televisions, Manish introduced another Bollywood star Katrina Kaif to be the face of Panasonic’s Home Appliances range. Panasonic becoming the Official Electronics Partner for the Delhi Daredevils Team and the Indian National football team has marked Panasonic’s foray into sporting events. Also Panasonic signed Dia Mirza as the face for Eco ideas – CSR initiative. These initiatives have been instrumental in channel penetration and consumer excitement for Panasonic products.
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Next week, I’m bringing in the founder of one of India’s better known PR firms, Prema Sagar, to Kiruba.TV. Offlate, we have been having some amazing line up of people on the show.
I would like to make it even better by making sure we ask the right questions. I have said this many times that the best questions have always come from the viewers. So please continue to send in your questions and I’ll collate them all together. You can either leave it in the comment section below or mail them to me at Kiruba@Kiruba.com .
Here’s info about Prema Sagar.
Pic from Dell’s Official Flickr Page
Prema Sagar is the Principal and Founder of Genesis Burson-Marsteller.
Intrigued by emerging business opportunities in India, Prema established Genesis Public Relations in November 1992.
Prema launched the firm with just one client and one colleague, which today has grown into one of India’s most trusted communications firms in the country. In 2005, Genesis merged with Burson-Marsteller, the gold standard in public relations, to become Genesis Burson-Marsteller. In 2008, the firm was ranked the ‘India Consultancy of the Year’ by The Holmes Report.
Prior to setting up Genesis PR, Prema was the Editor-Publisher of Genesis – The City Guide, a travel magazine, and co-founder of Genesis Printers.
An alumna of the Frank Jefkins Institute, UK, Prema has played a leadership role in the industry as the Founding President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India.
In recognition of her contribution to global public relations, Prema was invited as the only Indian on the global jury for the first ever PR Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. She was earlier inducted into the ‘ICCO Hall of Fame’, the first Asian to receive this rare honour.
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I was dusting up my Couchsurfing profile today when I chanced upon these photos of Jimbo Wales, Wikipedia Founder, at our home in Chennai.
This was taken way back in February 2007 when we organized WikiCamp in Chennai. Jimmy Wales had come down to Chennai to keynote at this event. I hosted him for two days at my home when he was in the city. By then, I was already fascinated with the concept of couchsurfing. Infact, I briefly ran a site called ExtraBed, which was on the same lines as Couchsurfing but much more low tech. It ran on a mediawiki.
It was a wonderful experience hosting Jimbo. I was already fascinated with open knowledge and sharing and this experience only make a deeper impact on me. You should read this blog post about my experience.
I also did an audio podcast interview with him when he was at my home. An Interesting listen.
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
Phone :+91-44-42733619
Mobile : 98415 97744
Snail Mail :(Home)
Virugambakkam,
Chennai, INDIA
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