AGK Menon is an architect from IIT Kharagpur and has two masters from Illinois Institute and Columbia University respectively. He was part of the GREHA team that founded the TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi, and was its Director from 1994 – 2007, when it became the University School of Architecture and Planning, under GGSIP University, Delhi. He was a founder member INTACH and is the convener of its Delhi chapter now. Currently he is also an Expert Member of the Doctoral Research Committee in the Departments of Architecture, Urban Design and Conservation Studies, SPA. He now writes critical articles and give key note presentations on architecture and urbanism worldwide.

A historian, author, LGBT activist, hotelier, and architectural restorer, Aman Nath is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Neemrana Hotels chain. Along with Francis Wacziarg, he has pioneered the heritage hotels movement in India, having acquired, restored & converted over 25 heritage properties intohotels after restoration. Nath has co-written and authored thirteen large format illustrated books on art, history, architecture, corporate biography and photography, two of which have won national awards. He is the youngest founder member of INTACH and was also the curator of Art Today, the contemporary art gallery of India Today for seven years where he had earlier looked after the arts pages of the magazine. Aman has won awards for his work from UNESCO as well as National Awards from the Government of India. He is also an inveterate traveller, contributes to travel writing for which he has received the Condé Nast Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017.

An exhibition designer by qualification, Amardeep Behl has found expression and deeper meaning in working with space by merging various media like architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and audio-visual and digital multimedia, into a common language to be able to create emotive, storytelling experiences. A graduate of NID, Amar and his firm Design Habit's area of professional practice has been in this design domain of visual communication and expressions in space. He is well known for designing Virasat-e-Khalsa museum in Anandpur Sahib, that has drawn 70 lakh visitors since its inception in 2011; 'Darshan', the museum dedicated to Sadhu Vaswani, the Sindhi saint in Pune; and 'The Journey' - the DS Group's corporate museum in their offices in Noida.

An industrial designer, researcher and professor at School of Design, Politecnico di Milano; Prof Arianna is Co-founder and Co-Director of Creative Industries Lab; Director of the Observatory Kids & Toys; and Director of Specializing master’s in design for Kids & Toys at Polimi. She is expert in design thinking, strategic design and human centered design applied to the management of innovation processes in various fields: service innovation in the field of creative and cultural industries, product service system innovation in SMEs and big companies, business model generation in start-up companies.She’s been mentor for several start-up companies, and she was also evaluator expert in the panel of InvestOrizon project. She works with PoliHub, the Incubator of Politecnico di Milano and with business angels and investors for the scouting of innovative start-ups in the field of creative industries.

An alumnus of NID, co-founder of Elephant - India's largest independent integrated design consultancy, part of the core group that steers the Design Alliance Asia consortium, Ashwini is also an active founding member of the Association of Designers of India.She has done award-winning work for global brands in automobile, engineering, FMCG, food service, healthcare & personal care segments. Some of the awards include Global ReBrand 100 (USA), Asiastar for Packaging Excellence (Singapore), A’Design Awards (Italy), Best of the Bestat CII Design Excellence, Designomics, The India Storyaward etc Ashwini was invited by Rockefeller Foundation to participate in a global Social Impact summit and by Danish Design Foundation to partner with CopenhagenCo-creation Agenda. She has lectured across more than 20 countries including icograda Design week in Vancouver & Istanbul, Business of Design weekin Hong Kong and International Design Congress at Mexico as well as in South Korea more recently.She has been a jury member for many design awards. Most recently, she was accorded a place among 50 Most Influential Women in Media in Indiaby Impact magazine for the fifth consecutive year. She also received Amrutwel Foundation’s SuperWoman 2017 Award at the hands of Mayor of Pune city and Leader of the Decade Award by All Ladies League at the Women Economic Forum in Delhi.She mentors start-up teams as Charter Member of TiE Pune and from The Advisory Board of IIM-CIIE programme.

Indian actress and costume designer, an alumnus of 1979 National School of Drama, Dolly Ahluwalia is an awardee of Sangeet NatakAkademi Award, 2001 for costume design.She has won three Filmfare Awards, three National Film Awards, and three IIFA Awards for Best Costume Designwith Bandit Queen (1993), Omkara (2007), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2014) and Haider (2015) being the most awarded. She has acted in fifteen fbollywood films and got theBest Supporting ActressAward for her role in Vicky Donor (2012).

Padma Shri Geeta Chandran is an Indian Bharatanatyamdancer and vocalist.She has worked in television, video, film, theatre, choreography, dance education, dance activism, and dance-issue journalism. She is founder and president of Natya-Vriksha and the artistic director of the NatyaVriksha Dance Company. Chandran is celebrated for her understanding of the art of Bharatanatyam and for her Carnatic music. She writes a dance column in The New Indian Express / Sunday Standard. She has been awarded with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, in 2007; and the prestigious Sangeet NatakAkademi Puruskar for Bharatanatyam in 2016 besides a hot of other awards, felicitations, nominations etc. She guides reputed national cultural institutions and prestigious universities as their Board member. She is an advocate for incremental arts education supporting both government and private initiatives to achieve a higher level of arts learning as part of formal education.

Mr. Hari Nallan is an alumnus of NID. After working with Anchor Panasonic for a year, you started a new venture “Think Design Collaborative” in 2004, which is currently among the top companies in experience design, creating benchmarks in the verticals of UX, CX, Data and Research. You have been awarded with several awards, mentioning a few recent ones here: India's Best Design Studio Awards, 2016 & 2017 by POOL Magazine, India; People's choice awards, Creativepool Annual, 2017 by Application design, A'Design award for Public Volunteerism and Society Design, Good Design Award 2017 and iF Design Award 2018 in Service Design/ UX. You have conducted several courses in various institutions like a course on “Research Methodologies” in NID, Ahmedabad and “Design Thinking and Product Innovation” course, Arthur Lok jack Graduate School of Business, Trinidad and Tobago. You have also conducted a “Design Thinking Workshop at NASSCOM, India.'

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) at University of Reading, Paul leads global engagement and strategies to strengthen the University’s international profile and global connections. Prior to this Paul was the Pro VC at Oxford Brookes Universityand Dean of the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. He has held senior management positions at Falmouth University and Bournemouth University and outside of academia, enjoyed success as a political campaigner, filmmaker, and television producer. Alongside broadcast work, he produced cinema commercials, films and educational videos for leading mental health charities, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the Youth Justice Board. He managed Storylines, a filmmaking project in West Africa and the UK for the British Council and The Mental Health Testimony Project – a filmed oral history of long-term psychiatric patients for the British Library.Paul retains a keen interest in the promotion of interdisciplinary work within the arts, humanities, and technology fields. In 2016, he led the initiative to establish a Confucius Institute in Oxford, is Chair of Photography Oxford, an international photography festival, and was a founding director and chair of the governing board of University Technical College Swindon. He also served as a member of council at Ruskin College, Oxford and as a board member of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

Recognized as one of the leading fashion designers of the country, a member of Board of Governors of FDCI, Payal Jain graduated summa-cum-lauda from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, California in 1993. She ventured back to India to start Atelier Payal Jain and her ensembles have found a market all over the world as she sells from some of the best stores across India, U.S.A., Europe, U.A.E. and South East Asia. Payal has been actively involved in revival of handicrafts and has worked tirelessly in tiny villages across Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar. Payal is particularly known in the corporate design space where she combines functionality with style to create uniforms for prestigious hotels, hospitals and schools across the globe such as Hyatt, Four Seasons, Shangrila, Aman Resorts, Leela, Radisson etc. Payal has also written a book on fashion studies that serve as a reference for XI standard students for the CBSE curriculum.

Shailesh Chaturvedi isMD and CEO of Arvind Brands - a portfolio of international brands like U.S. POLO ASSN., Gant, Arrow, Nautica, Elle, Ed Hardy, Cherokee, Sephora, GAP; and 12 of its own brands across Value and premium segments. He was earlier the MD and CEO at PVH-Arvind brands, a joint venture that sells brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. He also led the Arrow brand for Arvind Fashions. He manages over 1.3 million sq.ft. of retail space available pan-India, across 1100 retail stores spread over 192 towns in India, Middle East and South Africa.