Author: iitb_admin

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.

Mr. Dhananjay Saheba is a Founder and Managing director of iJunxion, a company focused on value added telecom services.nnAfter graduating In Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in the year 1977, Mr. Saheba completed his MSEE from Columbia University in 1979 and an additional qualification in Electrical Engineering from the same University in 1980.nnOut of several wonderful memories of IIT Bombay, Mr. Saheba particularly recollects the day when he appeared for the final exam on Fluid Mechanics in the Convocation Hall. After reading the entire question paper, he realized that he had probably studied from the wrong text book! The average class score in that particular exam was 4 out of 50. Another amazing experience, he fondly remembers was hitch-hiking from Borivali to Daman with fellow classmate Kiran, after having missed the train they were supposed to catch. The impact of IIT Bombay on his life was felt even years later when Mr. Saheba appeared for his first job interview with a company called RCA for a hardware designer position. “The only time I had studied this particular subject in design, was in the third year of IIT and acing that interview nearly five years later made me realize that I had infact learnt a lot at IIT Bombay,” he informed.nnMr. Saheba takes keen interest in IIT Bombay and has been an active participant in the alumni activities of the Class of ’77. He was one of the key leaders of the team that successfully organized 25th reunion of their batch. The team in fact initiated a donation drive during the reunion and carried it on for the next few years. He moreover, played a vital role in organizing the 35th reunion of his batch in 2012.  “The IITs are amazing institutions funded by the people of India. Contributing to the alumni activities of my alma mater, is a way of saying thank you to my fellow citizens for their incredible generosity. Hopefully, I am also contributing in some ways to make IIT Bombay a greater institution,” he added. Mr. Saheba continues to be at the forefront of donation programs for the Institute as well as other alumni activities such as students mentoring and Fundamatics.nnLot of people are aware that Mr. Saheba is an accomplished photographer, but not many know that he also tried his hand at acting in a Hindi movie, which was being made for television. “In my debut movie, one of the first scenes I had to do was a song and dance sequence, which was one of the toughest things I have ever done. After the third retake the director walked up to me and said – Saheba, you have no rhythm!,” he shared.