Advisory Board

Dr. Sheikha Abdulla Al-Misnad has over thirty years of leadership experience in Qatar’s public space. Qatar University’s former and first female President, Professor Al-Misnad is one of Qatar’s leading public figures and is a partner in many initiatives geared towards the fulfillment of national development strategies.

At the international level, Professor Al-Misnad is a member of several prestigious bodies and delegations such as the UNESCO, United Nations University Council, and others.

During her graduate studies at Durham University, Al-Misnad was active in research related to education in the Persian Gulf region, particularly education pertaining to women. Her thesis on “The Development of Modern Education in the Gulf States with Special Reference to Women’s Education” was published by London-based Ithaca Press in 1985.

She has authored more than 50 articles published in various specialist journals during the span of her career.

Al-Misnad was an active member of the Steering Committee of the Symposium at the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education Applicability to the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, which was held in Doha from December 5 to December 7, 1999.

She has been a member of the United Nations University Council (UNU) since June 2004. Her distinguished career in education has gained her a wide and esteemed reputation not only in Qatar, but also in the broader region and in international arena. In January 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in Civil Law by Durham University in acknowledgement of her achievements in education.

Mohan has over two and half decades of experience in marketing, research, analytics and consulting industry. He has advised both private and public sector organizations in diverse sectors such as ICT, Energy, Environment, Logistics, Steel, Automotive, FMCG, IT and financial services markets.

Mohan started his career at Development Alternatives, a sustainable technology NGO after graduating with a Bachelor degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. At Development Alternatives, he worked on appropriate technology working with a team that built the TARA semi-automatic loom. He was involved in project involving adaption of Khadi weaving on TARA loom setting up income generation centres in Datia, Madhya Pradesh.

Later, after completing his MBA for the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, he joined IMRB International, a WPP Plc., owned market research firm. He has worked in IMRB for nearly two and half decades heading verticals including B2B & Technology, Consumer quantitative research, Social research and quality management functions.

At IMRB, he was instrumental in setting up the eTechnology practice Group, a recognized authority on IT and internet databases in India.  Between 1998-2001, he advised Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in formulating and implementing the measurement process for Quality for Telecommunication Services (QOTS) in India. He has been a member of the national telecom and broadband committee of Confederation of Indian Industry for over five years. He has also presented papers at the International Telecom Union (ITU) Conference.

In Financial services sector, he has advised major Banks, NBFCs, Insurance and others on emerging marketing issues. He chaired an Indian Banks Association (IBA) initiated conference on consumer centricity in banking sector. In 2012, he helped a Microfinance company with its long term strategic plan post the Andhra Pradesh debacle in the sector.

In logistics sector, Mohan is an expert advisor to Ministry of Commerce, Government of India in the development of indicator, a national framework developed to rank states of India on their logistics efficiency. This framework is an ongoing endeavor of Govt of India.

Mohan is also a certified quality professional. He continues to advice and help IMRB international in streamlining its work processes. He has enabled IMRB obtain ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 20252:2012 certification with the help of a core team of quality auditors. This experience enables him to help sales and marketing organization’s streamline their sales operations.

Mohan is actively involved in education focused NGOs and has also founded NGO focused on teacher training in semi urban and rural India to improve primary education quality.  Here again, plans are afoot to use sophisticated analytical tools.

Mohan is a visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Delhi and Kolkata Campus, IIT Bombay and TERI University, IMI, National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) and Apeejay University.  He’s also a Founding Member of Centre for Marketing in Emerging Economies (CMEE) at IIM Lucknow. More recent interest includes working on sales analytical models for running businesses. Recently, he has spoken in two data analytics seminars on new developments (Data driven marketing as well as Data Visualization methods). He’s a regular speaker in conferences on Big Data analytics. He has been involved in research & publication activities as well.