Mr. K C Mehra joined Tata Steel in 1962 and has held several positions of importance in his long career of almost 48 years. In 1975, he left Plant Operations and was appointed Resident Director, Tata Industries in Delhi which position he held with distinction upto 1981, when he was appointed Deputy Managing Director of Tata Steel.

In Tata Steel, at various times he was directly in charge of all plant operations, engineering divisions, R & D, raw materials and coal and helped to shape and execute the modernization and expansion plans of the Tata Steel Group of Companies. He was Chairman of Tata Robbins Frazer, Tata Davy / Tata Construction and projects, The Indian Tube Company, Tata Stewarts and Llyods, Tata Projects and several other companies. He represented India at the ILO meetings on Steel and technology and was a member of the joint consultative committee on steel and the joint bi-partite committee on coal (JBCCI). He was also a Director of the UP State Minerals Development Corporation.

In 1997, he took charge of the Forbes Group of companies and was the Dy Chairman and Managing Director of Forbes Gokak Ltd, and also a Director of several companies.

Mr. Mehra is a keen sportsman and has held positions of eminence on several State and national bodies. Before he left Mumbai, he was the Hon Council General of Sweden for many years. He is on the executive committees of ASSOCHAM, CII and several other professional organizations. He has been appointed by the Govt of India on the Government Council of VV Giri, National Labour Institute.

In addition to being the Resident Director (Corporate) of the Shapoorji Pallnji Group, he continues as Chairman of S K F India, P T Gokak Indonesia, Forvol travels and is a Director on several boards including Telcon – a joint venture between Tata Motors and Hitach.

Pradip Kanakia – Executive Director, KPMG

Pradip’s career at KPMG spans 23 years, across UK, UAE and India. During this period, he transioned from being an Audit Partner to head the Risk Advisory function before moving to the firm’s Leadership Team and KPMG India Board as National Head of Markets. In his current role, Pradip focuses on growing the firm’s business through large, strategic and emerging multinational and Indian companies by offering value propositions through multi-disciplinary solutions.

Pradip has been studying and advocating the various models of public private partnership in infrastructure verticals that have worked in various parts of the world and that can be applied in the Indian context. For example, under aegis’s of CII Healthcare Sub Committee on PPP, Pradip has prepared a white paper on the PPP models that can be implemented in India. He has written several thought leadership press articles on PPP and is a regular speaker on this subject in various events and conferences.

Pradip represents KPMG in several industry forums such as CII, Young India and TiE.

Mr. Norman Solovay, Chair-ADR Practice, McLaughlin & Stern, USA

Norman Solovay heads the Alternative Dispute Resolution practice of an "old line" law firm. Although his firm, McLaughlin & Stern, is one of New York City’s longest established ones (1898), its concept of a separate department like this dedicated to first trying to settle cases out of court is a completely new and cutting edge one.

Mr. Solovay came to this practice after having for many years headed the Litigation Department of the now dissolved Holtzmann, Wise & Shepard firm, counsel to Allen & Company, the Onassis interests, and many other well known individual and corporate clients. Despite many success stories, he came to realize over the years that his clients all too often paid an unacceptably high price for being in court even when they won.

This awakening led to his present practice which includes not only mediation and arbitration, on which he has authored several books, but also settlement techniques, including Collaborative Law, Med-arb, Cooperative Law, the use of Settlement Counsel, neutral evaluation and others that are increasingly popular and utilized in situations where arbitration and mediation may not be appropriate.

In addition to arranging for the most appropriate form of dispute resolution for clients and participating as a neutral or counsel when necessary, Mr. Solovay now also views his role as including involvement in drafting dispute resolution contract clauses for clients prior to any dispute to assure their access to the most appropriate form of out of court resolution should a dispute later arise.

Further details of this practice, including other publications and programs Mr. Solovay has authored and arranged, can be viewed at the website Mclaughlinsternadr.com.