Executive Council

Chirag Baijal is the Managing Director of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Airconditioning), India Region & Chairman of the board of Carrier in India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrier Global Corporation. In this role at Carrier, Chirag is responsible for managing, growing & providing strategic steer to the business with brands like Carrier & Toshiba for India region & other SAARC countries besides being a part of the Asia Leadership Council of Carrier.

He carries over 21 years of diverse experience & has worked with Carrier for over 15 years of which last 7 years have been in leadership roles.

A believer & advocate of Sustainability, Chirag is currently a member of the IGBC Executive Board in India, Chairperson of the Executive Council of AEEE (Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy). He is also Co-chair of the Energy Council for promoting sustainability in India at AMCHAM & Co Chairman of the National Council on Manufacturing & Capital goods of ASSOCHAM.

He espouses the cause of Ethical Leadership & Profits with Purpose.

A prolific business leader with 25 years of experience in running and managing businesses across domains & customer segments, is currently working with Schneider Electric as “Vice President – S&A, EE, A2E & CSR International Operations

Venkat has a proven track record in leading and turning around businesses to consistently drive revenue and profitable growth through General Management, Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Business development, etc. A versatile leader blending strategic & tactical thinking, dexterity to manage change and care for customers & employees alike.

He has also played an instrumental role in launching ‘Innovation at the Edge’ Program in India wherein new ideas are incubated, piloted & scaled up. He is winner of several prestigious awards like CII-ITC Sustainability Award, Golden Peacock award for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability, Frost & Sullivan Best practices award for Emerging Energy Management Solutions Provider, etc.

Venkat was also awarded as India’s most influential Sustainability leaders of India in 2018 by world CSR & Sustainability organization

Venkat is passionate about Social impact initiatives like Skill development, Rural Electrification, Education, etc., currently the board member of Schneider Electric India Foundation (SEIF), committed towards social-economic inclusion of communities by providing universal access to electricity combining Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Skill Development.

An Electrical Engineer with a Masters in Business Management specializing in Marketing. Having worked with start-ups, Venkat is very excited about the potential of the tech start-ups & spends his free time supporting & mentoring them. Venkat likes long distance running, music & leadership coaching.

Sanjiv is the president of the Governing Council of STENUM Asia and a founder Director of SUSTENT Consulting Private Limited. Both entities help enterprises embed sustainability in their strategy and operations with a special emphasis on resource efficiency and transitioning to circular business models and facilitating net zero GHG emissions. Prior to leading STENUM Asia and SUSTENT Consulting, Sanjiv has two decades of International business experience servicing a customer base of leading international brands, retailers and factories across the apparel, footwear and luggage value chains spanning several markets in Europe and Asia. He has held senior leadership roles with a British MNC including a global role based at London in marketing and strategy formulation for a US$ 600m business segment and a General Management role based at Hong Kong. Sanjiv holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a MBA from XLRI, is a Chevening Scholar and has completed the General Management Program from Harvard Business School.

Upendra Bhatt leads cKinetics, a Sustainability Insight, Innovation and Capital Advisory Firm. He has over 25 years of industry and consulting experience and through the past decade, has led the development and launch of several resource sustainability /ESG oriented initiatives across 10+ countries. Upendra has been a Past Chair of the Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) as also the Sustainable Business Leadership Forum, an Industry practitioners group focused on resource sustainability and ESG issues. He is a member of several task forces constituted by Govt / Industry bodies. He is a frequent speaker at global industry events and adviser to several multi-lateral agencies.

Anil Rawal is the MD & CEO of IntelliSmart Infrastructure Private Limited. He is an ex-Civil services officer of 1996 Batch and has more than 23 years of leadership experience, across both Corporate and Government organizations. He is an IIM, Ahmadabad alumnus of 2007 batch and since then has been working with corporates particularly in Power sector. In Government stint, Mr. Rawal has held various leadership positions in various capacities in Financial, Contractual and Commercial domains. He has also been actively involved in the evolution of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework for power infrastructure projects in the Country.

Arjun P. Gupta is on a mission to eliminate India’s need for fossil fuels. He started Smart Joules in 2014 to drive energy efficiency improvements across India’s businesses and factories, since efficiency is the most scalable way to tackle climate and economic injustice. Smart Joules makes continuous energy management systems leveraging the latest IoT and cloud technologies, and offers guaranteed reductions in energy consumption under a unique Pay-As-You-Save business model. Under Arjun’s leadership, Smart Joules has grown to a team of twenty-seven young engineers and has eliminated energy waste equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 3,000 households. It has won national and international recognition including first prize in the 2016 National Energy Conservation Awards from the Ministry of Power, two National Awards for Excellence in Energy Management from CII, and numerous other prizes and media mentions. Arjun is also on the Executive Council of AEEE.

Arjun was recognized in 2014 as the Economic Times Young Leader by India’s top CEOs, in 2015 as an Echoing Green Climate Fellow, in 2016 as Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Business Standard and as a Climate Strategies Accelerator Fellow by Packard Foundation, and in 2017 as a Young Disrupter by UNYCC. In recognition of his innovative zeal, he was recently invited to a special interaction with the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.

Arjun got his Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and graduated from the University of California – Berkeley with Bachelor’s degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Economics.

Mahesh has over 29 years of extensive experience in energy and environmental fields along with resource conservation projects spanning energy, water, transportation sectors and is the Founder and Managing Director at MP Ensystems Advisory Private Limited. He is an international energy policy expert with direct experience with The World Bank, USAID, USDoE, ADB, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mahesh holds a PhD degree from IIT Bombay, Masters in Financial Management from Mumbai University and a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from Shivaji University. He is also a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP)

With over two decades of experience in management, Prabal Bose is presently working with Siemens Bangladesh as its Managing Director and Country CEO. He has been associated with the Siemens family for the last 14 years and has served at multiple roles. His expertise lies in areas of integrated building management systems, power generation, transmission, distribution, industry automation, and healthcare. Prior to working with Siemens, he has been associated with other renowned brands including Tata Honeywell and Eureka Forbes. He holds an MBA in marketing and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.

Rajan Rawal is a CRDF Professor at CEPT University and Senior Advisor of “Centre for Advanced Studies in Building Science and Energy” (CARBSE) at CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). He teaches energy-efficient built habitat, energy modelling, energy policy at the postgraduate level. His work emphasis is on ‘Energy Performance of Human Habitat’ and ‘Architectural and Building Science Edu-cation’. His current focus of the work is on Passive Design Strategies, Net Zero Energy Buildings and Com-munities, Personal Thermal Comfort Systems and Practices of Adaptive Thermal Comfort Models.

Prof Rawal. is the first Indian architect to receive the status of ASHRAE Fellow. He is also IBPSA Fellow and ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer. Prof Rawal led Indo-US Joint Clean Energy R & D Centre – Building Energy Efficiency Sector, and presently leading one of the projects under Indo-UK project on Energy De-mand Reduction and Mission Innovation challenge on heating and cooling in buildings from India side. He serves on organizing the council of Global Cooling Prize an innovation competition that developed a cli-mate-friendly residential cooling solution that can provide cooling for all without warming the planet. He is an active member of the International Energy Agency’s various EBC Annexes and Chair Education at the International Building Performance Association (IBPSA). He represents India at Mission Innovation IC 7. Prof. Rawal has delivered a Keynote address at international conferences and has been recognised as a spirited speaker He has delivered more than 300 lecture presentations in 29 countries in the last few years.

Prof Rajan Rawal has made remarkable contributions in the field of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), occupant thermal comfort and building energy efficiency. His contribution to the development of thermal comfort standards in India based on ASHRAE 55, design and construction of NZEB, development of thermal – optical properties database of building construction, hugely impacted educational pro-grams within university and at the national level, that is unparallel in India. He serves on various executive committees and technical committees at the national and international levels, such as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Bureau of Energy Efficiency India (BEE), Global Building Performance Network (GBPN) and Alliance for Energy-Efficient Economy (AEEE). He is part of the editorial board of three leading journals and has several research papers, book chapters, and projects to his credit.

In his current role, Sudheer is responsible for leading Tabreed’s growth in India. Through developing private sector partnerships with appropriate government or public sector engagement, he is leading Tabreed’s effort to invest, own and operate cooling assets as a cooling utility to provide more sustainable long term services in meeting the country’s growing cooling demand.

Having commenced his stint with Tabreed in 2009 leading its corporate finance function, he played a key role in implementing the company’s USD1.7 billion balance sheet recapitalization plan in 2011. Prior to his appointment as the Country Manager for India, Sudheer worked in a variety of roles leading regional asset management and business development functions. During this period, he successfully established the business and sustainability case for real estate developers to adopt district cooling resulting in Tabreed investing 0 million, either acquiring or developing greenfield assets to provide long term cooling services.

An Oxford University management graduate and a chartered accountant by profession, his previous roles include with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and Infosys in India as well as in financial restructuring roles with a boutique investment bank- Chescor Capital in the UAE. During his sabbatical in 2016-17, Sudheer co-founded JetSetGo, now amongst India’s largest private aviation companies managing 17 private jets across the country. Through a non-executive board role, he continues help set the vision and guide JetSetGo’s strategy in navigating emerging Covid-19 trends, in developing an urban air mobility market in India and in moving towards carbon neutrality by 2025.

Sudheer is a member of Oxbridge Society, GRI Club, Singularity University Global Community, Friend of Auroville and is spiritually connected to Self-Realisation Fellowship. As part of Tabreed’s core business team, he is also actively involved with initiatives like UNEP & UNESCAP Integrated Urban Systems Partnership, Cool Coalition and Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy(AEEE).

Sudheer balances an active lifestyle of yoga and dance with his daily meditation regime. In his spare time, he enjoys reading metaphysics and quantum physics. With preference for immersive travel to more off-beat locations he now also increasingly volunteers at Auroville.

Umesh Bhutoria is Founder & CEO of Xempla (EnergyTech ventures), Asset Performance Management Analytics software for Facilities.  Umesh has 12+ years of experience at the intersection of Energy, Operations and Data. Passionate to get the blue collar workforce on the right side of technology which in turn can help us fight some of the biggest sustainability challenges of our times. Awarded as Energy Manager of the year by AEE – US (Through India Chapter), Umesh is member of Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy, India and Former FEL-100 member, World Energy Council.

Dr. Vishal Garg is Professor at Plaksha University. His current research interests are in the areas of smart energy homes, building energy simulation, and cool roofs. He holds a B.E. (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering from MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur and a Ph.D. from the IIT Delhi. He was the founding president of the Indian chapter of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). He is a fellow of IBPSA and recipient of the inaugural Arthur H. Rosenfeld Urban Cooling Achievement Award.

Dr. Satish Kumar serves as the President and Executive Director of the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). Apart from the super exciting journey of developing AEEE into a policy think tank and a credible industry platform through a combination of strategic planning and leadership, deep research and analysis and organisation building, I am most proud of my following contributions:

a) Development of the India Cooling Action Plan
b) Development of State Energy Efficiency Index
c) Leading Energy Management business at a Fortune 200 company
d) Launch and implement India’s Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC)
e) Coordinating with world’s leading M&V professionals to develop IPMVP
f) Advocating a data-driven energy efficiency policy culture
g) Planting the seeds for a robust building science stream evolving into the Solar Decathlon Initiative at the Indian universities.

Prior to AEEE, he was the Energy Efficiency Ambassador and led the Energy Management business at the Schneider Electric India, a Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Chief of Party for a USAID-supported bilateral energy efficiency technical assistance program (ECO-III) between US and India Government and has been a Co-founder of Efficiency Valuation Organisation (developer or IMPVP) and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy. He combines formal education (Ph.D. from CMU and B. Arch from IIT Roorkee), international recognition (member on the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel’s Energy Efficiency Task Force under the Montreal Protocol), executive leadership courses at AEEE and Schneider Electric (Harvard Business School and University of North Carolina) with industry certifications (LEED Fellow from USGBC, Certified Energy Manager and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional from Association of Energy Engineers) and an ASHRAE member to be a lifelong learner and doer.