Maxell Foundation

Awards - 2012

It gives us great pleasure in announcing the MAXELL corporate excellence awards for the inaugural year 2012. It was undoubtedly a colossal task to identify the first among equals from the scores of achievers across sectors and spheres, more so, given the proven fact that Maharashtrians are best known for their knowledge-driven pursuit way ahead of other priorities in life. Thanks to the collective acumen of our esteemed advisory board, we selected our winners based on criteria following profound deliberation and articulation. The judicious blend of subjective and objective factors included decisive elements like the achiever's commitment to cause, conviction and purpose, depth of entrepreneurship or business leadership, quality of innovation, collaboration and co-creation as also the larger impact of achievements and accomplishments. From the creative churn of the selection criteria, we have established the following categories of awards for the inaugural year:

Excellence in Business Leadership

Dinesh Keskar
VP., Boeing International & President, Boeing India
In a momentous career spanning more than three decades, this visionary intrapreneur has notched up several exemplary feats across strategic functions like Engineering, R & D, Marketing and Sales. No wonder, his rise within the company has been meteoric. From International director to President of Boeing India to Vice President, Boeing International, his big leap is enthralling and inspiring in the same breath. In his current position, he is responsible for leading Boeing-wide efforts focused on expanding the company's local presence and pursuing new growth and productivity initiatives in India. Today, he serves on several boards and organizations, including the national board of directors of the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin; chairman of Amcham India, and chairman of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's civil aviation committee. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Hemant Nerurkar
MD, Tata Steel Ltd.
As the Managing director of Tata Steel, he's come a long way and seen it all - from the scarce business opportunities of the early seventies to the dynamic market scenario in today's information age. But more important, he's kept pace with the evolving paradigms at every stage, thanks to his astute leadership in quickly adapting to change as also enabling his people to tread on the chosen path. No wonder, Tata Steel continues to be the lowest-cost steel producing organization in the world. A unique motivational leader, he has a natural flair for out of box thinking. During his illustrious career, he has been conferred with several prestigious awards such as the 'Tata Gold Medal 2004', 'SMS Demag Excellence Award 2002', Steel 80s Award - 1990', 'SAIL Gold Medal - 1989' Visveswaraya Award - 1988' and 'NMD Award 1987'. Currently he is on the Board of a number of Companies in positions of pre-eminence.

Excellence in Entrepreneurship

Ram Bhogale,
Mukund Bhogale
Nityanand Bhogale
Nirlep Group

Their brainchild Nirlep revolutionized Indian cooking with the unique concept of non-stick cookware. A phenomenal story of trials and triumphs, the group's humungous growth has been the consistently ground-breaking effort of the Bhogale family. What began as an entity with a sole distributor in Mumbai is today blessed with more than 85 distributors and 9000 retail outlets across the country. No wonder, Nirlep is an established market leader with a share of 35 % in the non-stick cookware segment with exports to countries like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Maldives & Sri Lanka. Armed with a host of technical collaborations with overseas giants, the mammoth group runs six manufacturing plants - three for cookware business and three devoted to auto components and steel fabrication.

Vikram (Raj) Rajadhyaksha
Chairman, DLZ Corporation US.
DLZ a truly American Success Story that commenced from just two employees in the year 1978, today has become one of the premiere architectural, engineering, and environmental firms with 600 employees and offices throughout Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio, DLZ has been protecting country's natural resources and improving our nation's infrastructure for nearly a century. DLZ is widely respected for bringing excellence and execution to planning and design on an entire spectrum of facilities. Rajadhyaksha also operates in India through India Hydropower Development Company (IHDC) specializes in developing hydropower projects in India on a design, build, and operate basis. IHDC has rehabilitated two hydropower plants totaling 48 MW and developed one 2 MW greenfield project. Currently IHDC has three hydropower projects under construction.

Excellence in Innovation

Kailash Katkar
CEO, Quick Heal Technologies
The duo founded Quick Heal Technologies in the year 1994 that gradually developed into a robust R & D hub blessed with a strong ground support team spanning over 30 cities in India. What began as a tiny computer maintenance and repair hub gradually expanded into a mammoth security solutions provider.

Sanjay Katkar
MD, Quick Heal Technologies
Today, the Quick Heal product family is an established industry benchmark of worldwide repute. Quick heal products are used by consumers, small business, government establishments and corporate houses alike for protecting their computers from viruses and other vulnerable threats.

Emerging Excellence

Arundhati Joshi
Managing Director, Plazma Technologies
Her vision has built enviable intellectual property value for her company in the form of numerous homegrown technologies. That Plazma has filed in for patents, copyrights and trademarks every two years in the last two decades reflects the company's phenomenal tryst with imagination and ingenuity. Powered by the conviction that the unique recognition of an original idea is an integral part of our national heritage, she has won worldwide IPRs from countries like USA, South Africa, Europe, Canada, UK and India, not only for Plasma cutting, but homegrown software and engineering development as well. Today, the company's value chain comprises over 1000 users and customers including mega PSUs, Giant Indian Corporates, MNC as well as SME players across India, USA, Africa, Kuwait, Mauritius, Oman, Dubai and Sri Lanka. She is now grooming students of schools and colleges in the fascinating field of Robotics. Among the plans on the anvil include a state of art “RoboPlazma Technology Training school” devoted to a better appreciation and application of physics, software and robotics.

Maxell Life Time Achievement

Eknath Thakur
Chairman, Saraswat Bank

He began his illustrious career with the State Bank of India in variouscapacities. Post nationalization, he took initiative in forming the All India Confederation of all Bank Officers in India and rose to become its All India President. In 1973, he was elected the National Secretary General of All India Coordination Committee of Officers Organizations representing as many as six and half lakh officers and executives of public and private organizations across Banking, Insurance, Aviation, Coal, Steel, Mines, Fertilizer, Pharmaceuticals and Plantations. The first global milestone in this offbeat journey of grit and gumption came in 1977 when he was unanimously chosen as the sole Indian representative to attend the International Labour Organization's (ILO) first ever World Conference of over 30 lakh officers from 127 countries across the globe. In a short span of time post his return from Geneva, he conceived the National School of Banking (NSB) - one of its kind training & orientation body for banking professionals and aspirants. What began with a modest batch of 32 students is today a mammoth organization with branches all over India. NSB has trained over three lakh fifty thousand students over the years and secured jobs for as many as 73,000 students.

In 2011, for the first time in the 93-year old history of Saraswat Bank, his panel of sixteen members was elected unopposed by the bank's 1,68,000 shareholders while he was unanimously re-elected as Chairman. This gesture was a phenomenal token of appreciation for his pivotal role in making Saraswat Bank the largest Urban Co-operative Bank in the country. While his professional strides are truly awe-inspiring, his commitment to the social cause is equally incredible. He has helped countless educational and social entities find their own feet. His fight with cancer is a story of exceptional courage and conviction comprising several surgeries and radiation since the past 42 years. He is actively associated with several trusts and institutions, having won numerous awards including the Samaj Ratna Award, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Award, Sane Guruji Award and Cancer Vijeta Award.

Going forward, we would like to invite corporate achievers desirous of Maxell recognition to visit our website www.maxellfoundation.org and enrich our pursuit of excellence through their nominations. They are most welcome to send in their CVs and other typical documents of credentials anytime during the whole year. This year, all our awardees happen to be Maharashtrians but going forward, we would be more than happy to honour the best among the non-Maharashtrians who have chosen the state of Maharashtra as their 'karmabhoomi'. Needless to say, MAXELL is a movement devoted to the pursuit for excellence defying the boundaries of caste, creed, religion or region.