Month: August 2021

After completing his graduation in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1975,  Mr. Sameer Katdare joined the Process Department of  Uhde India Ltd., where he spent more than 12 years designing and commissioning  various chemical plants.  At present, Mr. Katdare is Vice President (Technical) with Alkyl Amines Chemicals Ltd. and in-charge of the R&D/ Technology Development and Project Engineering departments, focusing on commercializing new manufacturing processes  for a range of organic chemicals .nnMr. Katdare has lots of memories to share from his student days at IIT Bombay. Right from organizing the first two Mood Indigo’s to winning the annual treasure hunt twice in a row, co-producing the famous play ‘Evam Indrajit’, to representing his hostel in a number of sporting activities and the institute in hockey for several years, he vividly remembers his life at the campus.nnEven today, he is an active participant in the various activities of the Institute as well as those involving the alumni. He has been an integral part of the Pune Chapter of the IIT Bombay Alumni Association since last eight years and has been holding the post of treasurer for the last five years.nnMr Katdare moreover, played a major role in organizing the Silver Jubilee reunion of the batch of ’75 and their legacy project on campus. “Right from the students days at IIT Bombay, I was heavily involved in gymkhana activities both in the cultural field as well as in sports. This joy of being part of a group working towards the betterment of the institute continues even today,” he summarized.

Mr. Ruyintan E. Mehta, has been a serial entrepreneur in the plastics industry, who recently sold his last plastics manufacturing business in California in 2012. Over a period of 24 year, Mr. Mehta started, bought, merged and sold several plastic blow molding companies in New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Canada that ranged in size from $ 5 million to $ 34 million in sales.nnPrior to starting Crystal Clear Inc. in New Jersey, his first start up in plastic blow molding in 1990, Mr. Mehta was a General Manager at Combustion Engineering Environmental (now ABB) and was President of an engineering services company in Flemington, NJ, called Andersen Engineering Services.nnMr. Mehta is a licensed Professional Chemical Engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Post IIT Bombay, he received his Master’s Degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and in Engineering Administration from the University of Utah.nnMr. Mehta fondly recalls the time spent at IIT Bombay, from 1965-1970, as the best years of his life. The friends made during his college days are close to his heart even after 43 long years. “I was very fond of swimming and often went for a swim along with my friends at a particular spot of Virar Lake, after walking down the pipeline for about half a mile, behind Hostel No. 3 & 4,” he reminisces.nnMr. Mehta is a Certified Volunteer Mentor of SCORE Central Jersey, a non-profit resource arm of the US Small Business Administration that provides free counseling and mentoring to small businesses and entrepreneurs, who want to start or grow their business. Besides guiding the young minds, he enjoys swimming and reading.

Mr. Paresh Vora is currently working with TeamLease, one of the largest Indian Staffing and HR companies to set up a private vocational university in Gujarat. His previously held senior level responsibilities include – Managing Director of the Indian subsidiary of Dover Corporation, a US Fortune 500 Publicly listed Engineering conglomerate; Managing Director of the Indian subsidiary of Bridgeline (a US software company); Country Manager for Epson India, a unit of Seiko Epson Corporation, Japan; and General Manager, Business Development, Sasken Communications Tech Ltd. Mr. Vora is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and a postgraduate in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.nnAfter his recent migration to Ahmedabad from Bangalore, Mr. Vora has worked on the revival of the Gujarat Chapter. His hard work paid rich dividends and resulted in the formation of an active alumni group that has held successful events in the recent past. In the process, he also managed to collect and update data of over 180 alumni for the Institute’s database. According to him, “IIT Bombay has played a crucial role in my career. Volunteering my time and services to the Institute enables me to give back a little and also provides me an opportunity to interact with some great alumni and faculty members.”nnMr. Vora enjoys reading, jogging and teaching in his leisure time. Interestingly, his elder son Ashish is also a Mechanical Engineering (2011) graduate of the Institute.