Monika Ardelt is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida and the 2008 Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professor. She is a Founding Faculty Member and Member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Florida Center for Spirituality and Health. Dr. Ardelt received her Diploma (M.A.) in Sociology from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Aging Studies, Research in Human Development, Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. and Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences and as a deputy editor for the Journal of Family Issues. She is co-editor of the book Faith and Well-Being in Late Life: Linking Theories with Evidence in an Interdisciplinary Inquiry (2009).
Dr. Ardelt is the developer of the widely used Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS; Ardelt, 2003). In 1999, she was elected as a Brookdale National Fellow to study the similarities and differences between aging and dying well. As a Positive Psychology Templeton Senior Fellow in 2005, she examined the association between spirituality and aging well. In 2010, Dr. Ardelt was awarded Fellowship status of the Gerontological Society of America.
Dr. Ardelt has published numerous journal articles and book chapters in the area of successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, spirituality, aging well, and dying well.
Monika Ardelt’s research focuses on successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, purpose and meaning in life, spirituality, aging well, and dying well. Her overall goal is to identify factors that lead to both aging and dying well and that might help families and institutions to facilitate well-being and psychological growth for the elderly until the very end of life under conditions that are more cost-effective and humane than customary practice.
Howard C. Nusbaum is currently the Director of the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom and Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He has recently returned from serving as the Division Director for the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in the Directorate of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
His research is on the psychology, neurobiology, and comparative biology of language use, the role of sleep-in learning, attention and working memory, and the neurobiology of economic decisions. He is the director of the APEX Lab (Attention, Perception, and Experience lab) where they study speech perception and music perception as auditory skills, perception as a cognitive system interconnected with other psychological systems, and how wiser decisions arise from experiences supporting an interaction of intellectual virtues such as epistemic humility, reflection, curiosity, and perseverance with moral virtues.
David Rooney is Honorary Professor of Management and Organisation Studies at Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He has researched, taught, and published widely in the areas of the wisdom, leadership, the knowledge-based economy, and creative industries.
His books include Wisdom and Management in the Knowledge Economy, Public Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy, the Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, and Knowledge Policy: Challenges for the Twenty First Century.
Professor Rooney has published in major academic journals including the Leadership Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Human Relations, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and the Journal of Business Ethics.
Snehal Shah is a Professor of Organisation Behaviour, Chairperson of the Fellow Program (Ph.D.) and Head of Research at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, India. Her research interests are in the field of Diversity and Inclusion with specific focus on corporate governance and career choices. Her emerging research interests include eastern wisdom traditions and intersectionality of OB concepts in other management domains.
Snehal has published papers in journals like Journal of Management Information System, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organisation Behaviour and Journal of Management Development. She has also been invited to present papers at international conferences and to write book chapters. Snehal has served as a reviewer for highly ranked academic journals in Organisation Behaviour.
Laurent Ledoux is founder, partner and Chairman of the Board of Phusis, a team of experienced managers specializing in collaborative governance. https://www.phusis-partners.com/
Phusis Partners, who have typically implemented a collaborative governance (teal, liberated, agile, sociocratic,…) in the organizations they have managed, now share their experiences with and accompany organizations which also want to implement collaborative governance.
Laurent Ledoux has a varied experience both in the private and the public sector and specialized in restructuring and modernizing business units and administrations.
He was previously Interim CEO for EurActiv; President of the Belgian Ministry for Mobility & Transports; Head of the Public Banking department and a member of the Executive Committee of Corporate & Public Banking for BNP Paribas Fortis; Chief of Staff of a Minister; Director for Personal & Administration of the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs; Partner for Arthur D. Little – a management consulting firm; Restructuration Project Manager in Eastern Europe for the European Commission; Merger & Acquisitions officer for ING and HR Director in Mozambique for Médecins Sans Frontières.
He holds a Master in Economics from the Universities of Namur, Bologna & Madrid and a Post-graduate in Business Administration from Solvay (Belgium).
He lectures on Business Ethics, CSR and Leadership in various universities. He speaks fluently 7 languages.
He is also director, on a voluntary basis, of PhiloMa, of Face2faith, one of the founding members of Teach For Belgium and member of the boards of various associations and social businesses.
He has contributed articles on his own spiritual path in various books on spirituality & management.
S Padmanabhan is the Executive Chairman of Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG), and the Head of Tata Sustainability and Ethics. As Executive Chairman of TBExG, he is responsible for enabling the Business Excellence journey of Tata companies globally. This role is integral to Group initiatives in enhancing the performance of Tata companies through diagnostics, benchmarking and sharing of best practices. Under his leadership, TBExG helps companies leverage data and process excellence.
His career with Tata group companies began with Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) in 1982 and spans over 35 years. During his 26-year stint in TCS, he held roles such as Executive Director of Human Resources, Head of Application Development and Maintenance, Head of Airlines Practice and Country Manager, TCS Switzerland.
Mr. Padmanabhan was also the Executive Director-Operations of Tata Power from 6th February 2008 to 30th June 2014, and was responsible for the profitable and sustainable operations of all thermal and hydro generation plants across India and transmission and distribution systems in Mumbai. He was also on the boards of the operating subsidiaries of the company.
Mr. Padmanabhan has a distinguished academic record in the technical and management domain from reputable institutions. He is a Glaxo Marketing Scholar Medallist, a Distinguished Alumnus from IIM Bangalore, and a Gold Medallist and a Distinguished Alumnus from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He has completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He is also a life member of CSI, Senior Member of IEEE.
Mr. Padmanabhan is a Director on the Board of Tata Chemicals Limited, Infiniti Retail Limited, Air Vistara and The Associated Building Company Limited.
Dr. Varun Nagaraj has had a 30-year career in product innovation in Boston and Silicon Valley, during which he held CEO and other executive leadership roles at several venture-funded start-ups and public companies developing communications, computing, IoT, and AI products. He was also a partner at PRTM Management Consulting (now part of PwC), working with Fortune 1000 companies on their organizational innovation initiatives.
He holds a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, a Masters in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, an MBA from Boston University, and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.
Dr. Nagaraj's research on how teams learn and innovate in unfamiliar contexts has been published in the Academy of Management (AOM) proceedings and in the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), and is featured in the upcoming 2021 Handbook of Digital Entrepreneurship.
As a teacher, Dr. Nagaraj brings a lively mix of practice and theory to the classroom, and has developed and taught MBA, masters, and undergraduate classes on digital transformation and product management at Boston University (on the edX MOOC platform), Pepperdine University, and the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Nagaraj has recently been elected to serve as the Practitioner-at-large for the Academy of Management's Organizational Communications and Information Systems (OCIS) division.
Nitin Seth is a highly accomplished technology industry leader with a unique combination of experiences as a Global Manager, Innovative Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, and Best Selling Author. He is passionate about building and transforming businesses, driving innovation, coaching leaders, and building high-performance teams.
He is the Chief Executive Officer of Incedo Inc, a high growth technology services firm focused on Digital, Data and Analytics. Prior to Incedo, Nitin held top management positions at globally recognized enterprises. He was Chief Operating Officer of Flipkart, India’s largest ECommerce company; Managing Director and Country Head for Fidelity International in India, where he also led Global Offshore Operations and Business Strategy for Fidelity’s International business; and Director of McKinsey’s Global Knowledge Centre in India, where he conceptualized, developed and led many new knowledge and analytics based capabilities that have had far reaching industry impact.
Nitin has been elected twice to the NASSCOM Executive Council, was a Founder and Chairperson of NASSCOM’s GCC Council, and was the Chairperson of the NASSCOM Regional Council (NRC) in Haryana, India. He recently authored the book “Winning In The Digital Age,” a Penguin Random House published National Bestseller. In the book, Nitin brings clarity to the digital transformation process, breaking it down into seven building blocks and presenting how best to master them. The book is also a practitioner’s guide for professionals and students alike on how they can realize the amazing opportunities the Digital Age offers and achieve their true potential.
Nitin is passionate about mentoring and nurturing current and future leaders. He is a Co-Founder of Plaksha University - India’s largest collective philanthropy effort to build a new model of engineering education and research. He is deeply influenced by India’s Spiritual philosophy and traditions and believes they can provide the inspiration for a social and cultural renaissance not just of India, but the world. As an avid speaker in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship, business transformation, and spirituality, he regularly speaks at industry conferences and colleges, and writes a blog called “Nitin’s Fundas” at nseth71.blogspot.com. .
Nitin holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, where he was awarded Chairman’s Gold Medal for standing first in the MBA program and a degree in engineering (B. Tech) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. A devoted family man, he currently lives in New Jersey, near Incedo’s global headquarters, with his wife, three children and dog.
