Hitendra Wadhwa
Hitendra Wadhwa (born January 25, 1967) is an Indian-American entrepreneur, educator and speaker who is currently a Professor of Practice at Columbia Business School where he teaches Columbia’s most popular leadership course, the award-winning “Personal Leadership & Success.” Wadhwa received widespread attention in the early 2010s for his teachings on “inner mastery” as a foundation for “outer impact.” He is the founder of the "Mentora Institute", an organization that has trained executives at companies such as Ericsson, Accenture, Lululemon, SAP, Siemens, Kraft Heinz, and Morgan Stanley. Early life and education. Wadhwa was born in Chandigarh, India , to Puran Chand Wadhwa and Nirmal (née Sarup). His father studied Mathematics at Punjab University where he was a Gold Medalist and received his Bachelors degree. He later earned his LLB (India’s Juris Doctor) at the same institution. His father became the Director General of Police for the State of Haryana in India. Puran notably filed, argued and won legal cases in India’s Supreme Court to advance equity in the treatment of Indian Police Service officers. His mother was a homemaker to Hitendra and his 3 siblings. Wadhwa received his Bachelors with Honors in Mathematics from St. Stephens  College, University of Delhi where he was an elected member of the student union, Chair of the Mathematics Society, and writer for the university journal, "The Stephanian". Upon graduation from University of Delhi in 1988, Hitendra received a Gold Medal, standing first in his class. He then enrolled at Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning both his M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Management Science by 1996. Wadhwa’s doctoral research focused on optimizing price decisions for retail products with seasonal demand patterns. Early career. Wadhwa became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm , in 1996, and counseled Fortune 500 executives on strategy and marketing. In 1999, after raising $10 million in venture capital, he founded Paramark, a marketing optimization technology startup in Silicon Valley that earned top-rating from Forrester Research. Prior to its acquisition by NewWorldIQ in 2002, Paramark was recognized twice as a Top-100 Internet Technology Company by Technologic Partners/Venture Wire. Wadhwa also founded innovation consulting firm Delphinity in 2002, which through a series of mergers became "Mentora Institute". Between 2003-2010, Wadhwa and his team at Delphinity consulted with real estate, technology, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies in the  United States. Section::::"Columbia Business School". Wadhwa first began teaching as a PhD. student at MIT in the 1990s. From 2004-2006, he served as an Adjunct Professor in Marketing at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Wadhwa became a Professor at Columbia Business School in 2006. His course, "Personal Leadership & Success", is one of the most popular courses by enrollment in the history of Columbia Business School, and by 2021 this class had been taken by over 6,000 students and executives. His teachings have been featured in CNN, Self-Realization Magazine, BBC, Fortune, Psychology Today, Inc. Magazine and Fast  Company. In 2007, Wadhwa oversaw Columbia Business School’s alliance with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India’s top business school. In 2012, he launched the university’s first online leadership executive education program. Section::::"Mentora Institute". In 2011, Wadhwa launched the "Institute for Personal Leadership" (later named "Mentora Institute") to provide in-person and online leadership training and coaching for corporate executives. Teachings at "Mentora Institute" are largely based on Wadhwa’s “Inner Mastery, Outer Impact” model originally developed at Columbia Business School. "Mentora Institute" has advised organizations on their leadership and cultural aspirations, including Accenture, Ericsson, Kraft Heinz , National Geographic Society, Lululemon, SAP, Siemens and Morgan Stanley. In an interview with the BBC World Service, Wadhwa states that personal leadership “"is not only about how to make a living, but about how to live."” In November 2021, it was announced in announced that Wadhwa would release his first book, "Inner Mastery, Outer Impact" in 2022. Awards and nominations. Wadhwa’s teachings and research have earned him recognition among his peers. In 2015, he received the "Executive-MBA Commitment to Excellence Award" from Columbia Business School. In 2012, the University awarded him the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence  for his class "Personal Leadership and Success". In 2007, he received the Lear Award, established by the Graduate Business Association in 1982 for service to students and named in honor of executive in residence Robert W. Lear. In 2007, Wadhwa was awarded the Columbia Marketing Association Award for the Most Dynamic and Engaging Professor.