Chennai Meet. Final Details

Dear all,

As repeatedly shared in many posts, the alumni get-together is planned at

BOAT CLUB
Raja Annamalaipuram, 2, 3rd Avenue, Boat Club Road, Chennai

TIMING: 7:00 PM

DRESS CODE: Collared T-shirt / Shirt

We had expected some sponsorship for this event but thanks to the current economic slump, we could not get anything worthy. Hence we will have to charge Rs.400 per person for this meet. This includes snacks, soft drinks, unlimited booze and food.

Hoping to meet you people there.

Please pass on this message to others not hooked onto this group and get them as last minute additions.

Cheers,
Karthik

Chennai Alumni Meet 20 Feb

Please confirm your participation ASAP

We need to confirm numbers for catering

Venue: Boat Club

Time: 700 PM

Date: 20th Feb 2009, Friday

Cost aspects will be shared soon

Looking forward to meeting you

PNS

Rajesh Saxena (87batch) New CEO of American Express, India

From Money Control

Published on Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 15:37 , Updated at Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 16:26
Source : Moneycontrol.com

American Express today announced the appointment of Rajesh Saxena as Chief Executive Officer for American Express Banking Corp. (AEBC), India. Rajesh will head the Country Executive Team and directly manage the International Consumer Card and Small Business Services, leading the company’s marketing, acquisition, product development and insurance areas.

In this role, Rajesh will also spearhead several strategic and business development initiatives for the company while steering smooth collaboration across its diverse businesses in India. His position will be key to advancing and strengthening the company’s strategic focus in India.

Rajesh will be based in Gurgaon and will report to John Steward, Executive Vice President, ICSS, World Markets.

“I am delighted to welcome Rajesh to American Express. He represents the ideal combination of vast international experience and an in-depth understanding of diverse markets coupled with a natural knack for leading from the front. We are confident that his commitment to excel in everything he does, his strong values and work ethic will further strengthen the brand’s leadership in the Indian market,” said Mr. Steward.

India’s dynamic market has served as the launch pad for American Express’ several industry-leading initiatives including the launch of The Platinum Club, American Express Kingfisher First Card in strategic partnership with Kingfisher and Airtel and the Ultimate Platinum Experiences for its affluent Cardmembers.

Detailing his appointment, Rajesh said, “India is undoubtedly one of the most important financial services markets in the world, characterized by its ever expanding consumer base, evolving lifestyle and spending needs. As a premium payment solutions brand, AXP has a definitive competitive edge in providing high-quality service. My role will be to further enhance quality and service culture though innovative products and solutions to meet the ever growing needs of affluent population in India. I am extremely happy to take on this new role with American Express - one of the world’s most trusted and respected service brands.”

An 18-year veteran of consumer and retail banking, Rajesh joins from Citibank where he held several senior management positions in Operations, Business Development, Merchant Network, Consumer Credit, Sales, Marketing and general management functions across five geographies including India, Israel, UAE, Turkey and Japan.

Most recently he served as Sales and Marketing Head, Citi Cards in Japan where he had diverse responsibilities in all front office units including sales, marketing, partnership, merchants, corporate business and merchandising. Rajesh earned a Bachelors of Engineering degree from BITS, Pilani and an MBA from XLRI in Jamshedpur.

American Express Company is a leading global payments and travel company founded in 1850.

Sourced From: Text 100 Public Relations Consultancy

Social Entrepreneurship Conference@XLRI - Day1 pics

Pictures and more details about the conference here:

http://social-entrepreneurship-at-xlri.blogspot.com/2009/01/social-entrepreneurship-conference-day.html

and here:
http://xlri.blogspot.com/2009/02/coverage-1st-national-social.html


Coverage in Financial Express

Coverage in The Telegraph

Bahrain Get together - 27 Feb

Folks,

It has been a long time, but we have finally got around to Organising the next meeting of the XL Bahrain Gang.

We are proposing to meet on Friday, the 27th of February at the Party Hall in Golden Sands I - Hoora (Opp. Ashraf's)

Please confirm attendance back to either me or Udit Mishra (XL 1992) or Sunil Zacharia (XL 1999).

Let's aim to meet at 7:30 pm on the 27th of February.

Please bring Spouses and Children also along.

Look forward to seeing all of you on the 27th.

Cheers,
Saji Zacharia (XL 1990)

Getogether in Bangalore

Here are some enthu reactions to last nights meet in Bangalore.

Hi,
One always has to look to the East for good things in life and apparently they come in small packages.The advantage of this venue was that we hardly bumped into any outsider.
Three Cheers to the Honourable Sebastian Chandy for organising this meet where old stories were indeep swapped. Look forward to more such efforts from you, Saji!!! It would of course be easier for him if people who confirmed didn't drop out without notice. Many must have had a genuine reason. But that is what cell phones and SMS are for.
The numbers are a major headache for any organiser.
Warm regards
Gayatri



Hi All,
Gayatri, I couldn't agree with you more!
The effort from Sebastian was very good, and another 10 more people turning up would have made it a lot more worthwhile. Good interaction, some interesting thoughts thrown up for future meetings, a good venue, no parking issues, and a very short commute for us folks.
George Olapally


Good job Saji.
Good venue, good arrangements, and good food. I may be rationalising but the total turnout is not important for these dos. The important thing is for each person to be able to connect/reconnect with a few people in a meaningful way.
Thanks much for the initiative. Thanks to David for organising the venue.
We would encourage others from different areas in Bangalore, like Indra Nagar, Koramangala, Jayanagar to organise similar local event in their areas. You can contact me or anyone else on the committee for any kind of assistance that you may require, including arranging a venue.
Kuru


Smaller local meets to beat the traffic, so we can meet more often and interact in smaller batches throughout the year seems to be a good idea. Hope more people take the initiative to organise these little do's around town across the metro's where distance seems to be a major deterrent to meeting more often.

Bay Area Winter Alumni Potluck

For some reason, this report slipped though the cracks.

Alumni in the Bay area met for a Potluck on the 27th of December at Tipu (IR 96)'s home.

Here is Tipu's write up on the meet:

Warm & sunny new year greetings to all US XLers from the Bay Area. We had a well-attended potluck last Saturday. 30 XLers & their spouses attended, many with kids in tow (list below). Much beer was drunk (imported only, like the XLers) & anecdotes & emails exchanged. Everyone brought wonderful food which magically worked well together, with the piece-de-resistance for me being the chocolate fountain that Kieran Gonsalves so carefully set up. This was the first alumni get together for some of the folks since leaving XL. That & the look of happy surprise on faces of batchmates meeting after many years (like the final reels of a familiar Manmohan Desai saga), was well-worth the time to organize this. Shailley & Sheela took some photos, which are available here and at http://shailleysingh.posterous.com/. Feel free to leave comments. I have also been asked to put a disclaimer that due to the image cropping & similar technical constraints some people may look wider than they actually are. Unfortunately, camera batteries drained out & so not everyone who attended had their pictures taken. But that is a good reason to have another one of these & count everyone in for a group photo. We had a summer picnic & a winter potluck last year & hope to continue the tradition this year too.

Name	Batch	Name	Batch
Aashish Bhargava	BM89	KP Naidu	IR81
Amita Shekhar	XP05	Mahesh Singh	BM86
Indu Unnamatla (Chachra)	IR96	Pal Luthra	BME72
Kieran Gonsalves	BM87	Pooja Arora	IR01

Name	Batch	Name	Batch
Purnima Srivastava	IR96	Shailley	IR98
Ravi Narayanan	BM86	Sheela Sukumaran	IR95
Reema Vijay	IR97	Tipu Purkayastha	IR96
Sandeep Harpalani	BM92	Vivek	BM86

Best regards,

Tipu Purkayastha, SPHR

IR96

Saratoga, CA

PS: Post-millenials, please show enthu – we would love to have more of you. We know you are out there somewhere…