First time women office bearers lead charge as IIM Kozhikode welcomes new leadership of Alumni Association
iim The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) welcomed their new 7-member Executive Committee of the IIM Kozhikode Alumni Association (IIMKAA) here recently. Shattering the stereotypes the newly elected team has chosen through an electoral process their first Woman President and Vice President. The incoming seven member team comprises Dipika Raikwar (President), Aswathy Rakesh (Vice President), Anchit Gupta (Secretary), Nitin Nair (Treasurer), Namith Najeeb, Nitin Gupta and Vinod Sankaranarayanan.
The IIMKAA is responsible for the alumni engagement for the 8,000+ alumni globally through a network of 14 city chapters globally by organising year-round alumni programming with innovation grounded event formats like poker events, food walks, various sports events, etc.
Announcing the results of the historic election for the Alumni Association, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director IIM Kozhikode, said, “The Association will immensely benefit from the expertise of the two women office bearers at the helm of its affairs. This is consistent with IIMK’s mission to empower women and encourage diversity. Over the years, the IIMKAA has rolled out several initiatives around its themes of diversity, entrepreneurship, social impact and leadership development. The bonds our alumni create through their shared experiences as students are truly unique and we are confident that the newly elected members will further drive the initiatives forward in the right direction. ”
On the diversity front, the IIMKAA built a women’s alumni network with meets across city chapters including virtual learning sessions on cutting edge topics to enable leadership development and continuous learning. Under the entrepreneurship theme, the IIMKAA launched the IIM Kozhikode Alumni Fund, the first alumni angel fund in India, which has already made its first investments in startups alongside marquee investors. Alumni also funded fellowships for IIMK students to try launching their own ventures.
On the social impact front, several city chapters organized volunteering events and raised funding for Kerala flood relief to rebuild a Government Primary School in Alleppey district. Alumni also funded the travel of five girls securing first place in competition organised by TYE, from Nadakavu Government School and qualifies to participate in the Global TYE competition to be held at Seattle, USA. Over the last two years, alumni support for placements grew across all offers and Nostalgia-the annual alumni meet on campus organized by the Students Alumni Cell (SAC) has seen record alumni attendance with a popular alumni-student buddy program, great networking, and an ‘IIMK’s Got Talent’ show.
Incoming President Dipika Raikwar said ‘We look forward to working with the Institute and our global alumni community to drive even greater alumni engagement and impact’.
Outgoing President of the IIMKAA Ronald Philip commented ‘We are deeply grateful to the Director, Alumni Relations Chairperson – Prof. Omkumar Krishnan and all Institute stakeholders for their support and partnership in strengthening alumni engagement as well as to all our alumni volunteers who have built an unprecedented level of alumni engagement globally.’
About Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
Started in 1997 with its Postgraduate Programme (PGP), the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) is on a high growth trajectory today, offering widest range of academic programmes in the field of management education. These include Fellow Programme in Management, Executive PG Programmes, Management Development Programmes and Faculty Development Programmes. IIMK set up a Satellite campus at Infopark, Kochi, in 2013 dedicated to Executive Education. IIMK has also the unique distinction of launching a PhD (Practice Track) programme for working professionals besides bringing in new dynamic courses in Women Leadership, MBA in Business Leadership (2019) MS-Finance and MBA in Liberal Studies & Management (2020). The institute is also home to IIMK LIVE a first-of-its-kind startup incubation programme and the Indian Business Museum.