2022 Speaker

Professor Kamalini Ramdas is an expert in the innovation arena. Her current research examines new ways to create value through innovation, including: service innovation, operational innovation and business model innovation. She has also examined the amount of product variety and component-level variety that firms should offer, and how variety can be managed effectively through design.

She has served as co-principal investigator on a $1.2M grant to model and implement profitable cardiac preventive care via delivery innovation. She has also examined delivery innovation in an array of service industries supported by a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

Professor Ramdas’s work has been published in Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Harvard Business Review, and other journals. She has served as Departmental Editor, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Department, Management Science.

Her expertise has seen her consult on innovation and operations management in a variety of industries, including healthcare, telecoms, consumer packaged goods and assembled products.

She teaches a course on Business Model Innovation, as well as courses on Entrepreneurship, Operations Management, and Empirical Research Methods. She has taught at the University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, The Wharton School, and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Carlos has an established track record in Business Development and Strategy roles, currently leading Konfront.mx, a fast-growing technology start-up in Mexico. Before stepping up as CEO at Konfront, Carlos worked as a Consultant at McKinsey & Company serving global players in the US and Latin America. Carlos is an MBA Candidate at London Business School and holds a double major in Political Science and International Affairs from the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics, with a specialisation in Econometrics.

Rufus Loveridge is a 29-year-old MBA 2023 student at London Business School. British citizen born in London, he read Russian at the University of Bristol and lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 2012/13. Prior to LBS, he worked in M&A for Lazard in London, covering consumer goods and industrial companies. He is also a partner in a family-owned property, education and investment company. His interests lie within entrepreneurship, EdTech, VC investing.

Sri Sridhar earned her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Rice University, Houston TX in 2015. After graduation, she worked in the oil and gas industry in project management and engineering roles. She is currently pursuing her full-time MBA at the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business as a Siebel Scholar and Forte Foundation scholarship recipient. As an exchange student at London Business School, she had the opportunity to spend time in a different culture and business setting which has been an extremely rewarding experience. Outside of academic settings, she actively performs Indian classical dance and has travelled the world for various live performances. She is a recipient of a National award from the Government of India for achievement in the field of dance and enjoys teaching and mentoring young dancers across the globe.

Dr. Helena Wright is Policy Director at the FAIRR Initiative and Jeremy Coller Foundation, where she focuses on policy solutions related to the risks and opportunities surrounding intensive animal agriculture. Helena’s work focuses on engaging with governments, regulators, industry bodies and investors to build increased engagement around sustainable policies and business practices in agriculture. Her previous experience includes working as a Vice President at WWF, as well as working as a climate change negotiator for the UK Government. She holds a PhD from Imperial College London.

Dr Owase Jeelani is a world-renowned paediatric neurosurgeon, inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Time Magazine ranked him as among the top 100 surgeons in the UK in 2011. He specializes in craniofacial reconstructive surgery, craniopagus separation surgery, and surgery for brain tumours, being Head of the Department of Neurosurgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children from 2012 to 2018. He is also the founder of Gemini Untwined, a global charity dedicated to the research and treatment of complex craniofacial and neurosurgical conditions. He received international recognition for separating craniopagus twins Safa and Marwa in 2019 (BBC News coverage of Safa and Marwa ranked as the 6th most read news item globally in 2019).

Julian Birkinshaw is Professor at London Business School. Read his thoughts:

“Our attention is drawn to the narrative of technological change, fast-growing digital firms etc, and we often lose sight of what’s really happening. Talk about the strategies firms have used to adapt to potentially-disruptive new technologies, emphasizing that the most successful firms double down on their existing strengths rather than acting quickly to respond to whatever new technology is coming along. What should we do as leaders of others, as we chart a way forward through a fast-changing and uncertain landscape?”