MICA AI Advisory Board
The MICA AI Advisory Board is a distinguished panel of experts from academia, technology, startups, creative industries, public policy, and business. This diverse group will guide MICA’s strategic direction in artificial intelligence, ensuring we remain at the forefront of nurturing creative leadership in the age of imagination.
Appointed for an initial three-year term, the Board will work closely with the Director & CEO and the Executive Leadership Team to:
- Shape MICA’s overarching AI strategy
- Integrate AI across curriculum and pedagogy
- Develop thought leadership on AI’s intersection with creativity, customers, and storytelling
- Drive research and foster global collaborations
Ramkumar Ramamoorthy
Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy is a seasoned business leader and academician with over 35 years of experience across IT services, technology consulting, and higher education. Formerly the Chairman and Managing Director of Cognizant India, he played a pivotal role in scaling the company’s operations in India during his 22-year tenure, holding leadership positions in strategy, marketing and knowledge management. Post Cognizant, he was the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Professional Learning at Krea University, giving shape to interwoven learning across liberal arts and management disciplines.
Currently, he serves as a Partner at Catalincs, advising high-growth tech companies and is a member of the MICA Governing Council. A former President of the 189-year-old Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) and Vice Chairman of AMCHAM India, he has been actively engaged in shaping India’s digital economy and the educational ecosystem through his leadership roles at NASSCOM, AICTE, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Xavier Institute of Management, among others.
Ramamoorthy brings a unique blend of corporate insight, academic innovation, and ecosystem foresight, making him a respected voice in India’s knowledge economy.
Dr. Maya Indira Ganesh
Maya Indira Ganesh is Associate Director (Research Partnerships) and Assistant Research Professor at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at the University of Cambridge, UK.
She is a cultural theorist who studies the transformations that occur in society, culture, and in technology, through adoption and application across expert and niche publics. From 2021-2024, Maya was an Assistant Teaching Professor co-developing and co-directing LCFI’s master’s program (Mst) in AI, Ethics & Society.
Prior to academia, she spent a decade as a researcher working with civil society organisations in India, SE Asia, and Europe on the promises and perils of freedom of speech and expression online from an intersectional and gendered perspective.
She also works as a curatorial advisor and essayist through commissions to write about art, technology, and society. Maya is the author of Auto-correct: The fantasies and failures of AI, ethics, and the driverless car drawn from her doctoral thesis and was published in March 2025 by ArtEZ Press. An up-to-date list of her academic publications, talks, and other non-ficti0n writing are here
Mr. Himanshu Vashishtha
Himanshu Vashishtha – AI & Market Research Leader | CEO, SixthFactor Consulting
Himanshu Vashishtha is a distinguished market research expert, AI strategist, and behavioral economics thought leader with over two decades of experience in guiding Fortune 500 companies and global brands. As the CEO & Founder of SixthFactor Consulting, he specializes in AI-driven consumer insights, neuromarketing, and behavioral science, helping businesses decode human behavior and make data-driven, profitable decisions.
His expertise extends to corporate AI adoption, where he collaborates with the MICA Centre of Excellence in AI at Dubai Knowledge City to drive AI-led innovation. This initiative fosters sandbox environments, proof-of-concept (PoC) development, and cross-disciplinary AI applications tailored for business transformation across industries.
Previously, Himanshu held leadership roles at Nielsen MENA and has worked extensively with Google, Visa, Almarai, and UAE’s Prime Minister’s Office. A respected speaker, educator, and author of AI Enabled Business: A Smart Decision Kit, he continues to shape the future of AI, consumer insights, and strategic decision-making.
Mr. Niraj Nirmal
Niraj is a technical management leader with over 8 years of experience delivering value to end users as part of companies like Microsoft and Amazon.
Currently, he is a senior technical program manager with Amazon Artificial General Intelligence, where he collaborates with teams building frontier machine learning technology for speech and audio generation – powering voices for products like Alexa used by millions daily.
Previously, as a product manager at Microsoft Azure Supply Chain and Procurement, Niraj led the development of ‘Circular Center’, a reverse supply chain solution central to Microsoft’s zero waste and sustainability initiatives, optimizing the disposal of datacenter assets. In parallel, Niraj is pursuing post graduate studies in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the participatory and ethical development of AI as well as the equitable allocation of resources in an AI driven world.
Mr. Shekhar Kapur
Mr. Shekhar Kapur is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, storyteller, and AI philosopher whose contributions have left an indelible mark on global cinema. He made his directorial debut with the cult classic Masoom in 1983, followed by the commercially and critically successful Mr. India in 1987. Widely regarded as the only Indian director to have successfully crossed over into Western cinema, Mr. Kapur achieved international renown with Bandit Queen in 1994, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.
His work reached new heights with Elizabeth (1998), a period drama that garnered seven Academy Award nominations and established him as a visionary voice in historical storytelling. He later directed its sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), which received two Academy Award nominations. His cinematic excellence has been recognized through numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe nomination, a National Film Award, and three Filmfare Awards.
In the realm of theatre, Mr. Kapur co-produced the highly successful West End and Broadway musical Bombay Dreams alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as Matterhorn, a collaboration with Swiss Theatre. Through the musical Why?, he also played a pivotal role in introducing the work of A.R. Rahman to international audiences.
Beyond the arts, Mr. Kapur has significantly contributed to commerce, innovation, and academia. He has served on the boards of the Singapore Media Development Authority and the Dubai Expo. In 2020, he was appointed President of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) society and Chairman of its Governing Council. His academic engagements include guest lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he taught “Storytelling for Modern Technology.”
Mr. Kapur is a vocal advocate of the power of AI and of the view that in future, one can create entire characters and even stars using AI, potentially changing the landscape of the film industry, and winning over audiences. He is convinced that technology is evolving fast enough to change the way we think about acting, stardom, and storytelling. He believes AI will democratize filmmaking, allowing independent creators to produce high-quality content and challenge traditional gatekeepers. More importantly, Mr Kapur believes that AI is an existential change and will change the way we live, work and relate with each other.
In recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the arts and innovation, Mr. Kapur was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2000 and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honor, in 2025.
Mr. Suhaan Mukerji
Suhaan Mukerji is the Managing partner of PLR Chambers, a law firm specialising in public policy and regulatory affairs pan-India, awarded the best Policy and Regulatory Law Firm of the Year by IBLJ from 2014 till date, and received Legal Era Awards in 2017, 2016 and 2015. It was Social Impact Firm of the Year in the Thomson Reuters Foundation Awards, 2018, and Suhaan was recognised as one of eight GenNext lawyers by Economic Times.
Suhaan has extensive experience in crisis management, policy formulation, drafting and monitoring of legislative agendas as well as Regulatory Compliance. He consistently advises clients on corporate affairs, market entry and public policy strategy in India, primarily involving sectors of information and communications technology, gaming, privacy and data protection, internet and e-commerce, cyber security, artificial intelligence, public procurement, food agriculture and pharma law, medical devices, defence, education, nuclear & renewable energy, transport, fintech, international trade and investment law.
Suhaan regularly advises the government at federal and state level on policy and legislative reform, serving on a number of government and industry committees, and regularly appearing as an expert witness before parliamentary standing committees. Legislative drafting assignments include, Amendments to the Information Technology Act, Maritime Act, Merchant Shipping Act, The Major Ports Bill, Road Transport Safety Act and Rules, Goa Tourism Bill, and Sex Offender Registration Bill, 2022.
He is a passionate supporter of development initiatives and serves on the board of a number of leading global not-for-profit organisations.
Mr. Vivek Ganotra
Vivek Ganotra is Co-founder of Sentisum, a leading AI company that is reshaping the industry in the ‘Voice of Customer’ space. Vivek is an active angel investor in the UK & India across multiple sectors. He also holds Non-Exec roles at a few leading educational institutions in the UK.
Vivek has held several executive roles over the last 30 years, most recently as CEO of a leading global Ecommerce & logistics business based in the UK, as Chief Customer Officer at Salesforce UK&I and Global CIO at BAT.
Ms. Dawn Bloxwich
Dawn Bloxwich is the Senior Director of Responsible Development & Innovation, a team focused on operationalising ethics and safety within Google DeepMind. Having worked at leading tech companies, such as IBM and Salesforce, she has driven the set up of Google DeepMind’s internal governance around ethics and safety, including operationalising responsibility and safety into the day to day work of the organisation. This covers areas such as impact assessments, evaluations, mitigations and deployment monitoring across a range of frontier risks.
Ms. Ganga Ganapathi
Ganga combines experiences in advertising with DDB Mudra, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Analytics with HP, and Martech & Adtech with Epsilon. Before moving to her current job at Publicis Sapient, Ganga served as VP and Head of Marketing – APAC, MEA, EU, Epsilon.
With much time spent in traditional advertising and now a passion for data and technology, she has worked in local as well as global delivery models, selling and executing ideas that drive modern marketing across regions. Her experience with consumer brands and B2B technology-driven brands helps craft compelling reasons for marketers to adopt methods to help driver deeper consumer connections that will help them win in a platform world.
When not at work, Ganga mentors women in middle management to build sustainable careers. She is also a river warrior, seeking to protect the river Cauvery from development-led destruction by tapping into behaviours and culture codes that can influence the way people perceive and engage with this critical natural resource.
As a member of the MICA Governing Council of MICA, Ganga is grateful to return to yet another important part of her roots, where the language really began.
Together, they will help embed AI into the core of MICA’s creative and academic mission.