UPDATE FOR NOV-DEC 2019

GYAAN NIGHT, 28 NOV 2019

2019 was a busy and exciting year for the Singapore chapter which saw several events including the Evening with Experts series (session on EB5 and US Education), Synchrony, the successful one million SGD ‘1’M for IIMA’ fundraiser and Gala Dinner, playing a leading role in IIMPACT 2019, and the Batch champions get together.

To close the year with a bang, we introduced a new series called ‘Gyaan Night’ which was extremely positively received. ‘Gyaan Night’ aims to leverage our amazing network of Alumni from various fields to share insights and learnings amongst each other and especially be a resource to younger Alumni.

The format was informal, with a facilitator and about 8 ‘Gyanis’ with different career paths in Banking & Finance, FMCG, Entrepreneurship, Health and Wellness sharing their personal stories and giving their varied perspectives on questions posed by younger alumni.

Topics and questions included – If you could relive your careers, what is the one key thing you would change for sure; How to network effectively; How have things changed for people who started working after 2000? Career reinvention; Tips to build a successful start-up based in Singapore? Is it possible to keep the start-up going while continuing in your corporate job? How to get on to a Board member seat? – Questions on advisory roles and engagement models; How to continuously learn and stay relevant; How to adapt to the rapid pace of technological changes taking place and of course the age-old discussion on Work life balance.

The session CP was intense, energizing, and went on for over 3 hours, and would probably have gone on into the night had we not been required to give up the room! Thanks to our Gyaanis – Atul Garg (PGP84), Alok Sharma (PGP90), Anu Sahai (PGP92), Arun Khanna (PGP88), Deepika Deshpande (PGP93, who also facilitated the session), Nayantara Bali (PGP88), Sumeet Vohra (PGP92), Vatsala Pant (PGP 92) and Vikrant Kanyal (PGP95). Feedback from all was positive with calls to make Gyaan Night a regular feature on the IIMAAAS calendar.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM), 13 FEBRUARY 2020

The 24^th Annual General Meeting of the IIMAAAS for 2019 was scheduled for 13 February 2020.  With the Government of Singapore changing the ‘Disease Outbreak Response System Condition’ (DORSCON) status to Orange, due to the evolving COVID-19 virus situation and the accompanying advisory/restrictions placed on large gatherings of people in public places, the Executive Committee decided to turn the physical meeting to virtual one, hosted on Zoom (a teleconferencing facility).  The online meeting helped to meet the compliance requirements for the IIMAAAS while ensuring safety for its members.

The meeting started promptly with c. 42 members dialling in from various locations and quickly reached the quorum too.  The meeting started with a presentation by the President Vidya Vasania (PGP 1994) of the IIMAAAS of the activities conducted in the past year.  The IIMAAAS had supported a full calendar of activities in 2019 with something for everyone across batches, including i) An evening with Experts – LCR Hale (April), ii) Synchrony (May) iii) Batch Champions event (May), iv) Fundraising gala dinner at India House (Oct) and v) Gyaan Night (Nov).  2019 was a milestone year with a successful fundraiser supported by the IIMAAAS that raised SGD 1 million for the institute, the first by any alumni association. There were some pan-IIM events too. The audited accounts for the year were also presented by the Treasurer Sudipta Dhar (PGP 1997).

The new Executive Committee and auditors for 2020 were appointed at the AGM.  The ExCo included the following 7 members: President: Deepika Deshpande (PGP 1993), Secretary: Rahul Phondke (PGP 1995), Treasurer: Suraj Shetty (PGP 2005), Nayantara Bali (PGP 1988), Latika Ahuja (PGP 1986), Anand Nandakumar (PGP 1996) and Saurab Nair (PGP 2011). There was also a lot of interest from members who volunteered their support to the Executive Committee. The incoming President of the IIMAAAS Deepika shared a few thoughts and expressed enthusiasm in continuing to support an interesting mix of activities and events for the members.  The meeting concluded with comments and feedback from members on the continued operations of the alumni association. This was the first ever virtual AGM held by the association and that it was a success overall with all agenda items discussed and lively participation by attendees.