The 25th CII Global Design Summit and Exposition 2025, held in Bengaluru on 26-27 November, brings together an extraordinary assembly of design leaders who have fundamentally shaped how India approaches design, engineering, and innovation. The summit showcases how design leadership within major corporations is redefining products, experiences, and business strategies across automotive, luxury goods, aviation, and manufacturing sectors.
Automotive Design Visionaries
Mr Rajesh Gogu, Vice President of Design at Maruti Suzuki India Limited, brings over 20 years of experience in automotive design. His role involves leading the company’s design department while actively engaging in industry discussions, design education, and showcasing design projects. He speaks at industry events such as the India Design Summit and engages with design schools to interact with students and share industry insights.
Mr Saurabh Singh (Maruti Suzuki), Senior VP Design & Modelling, is a distinguished alumnus of the (CP)DM department at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, where he earned his Master’s degree in Product Design in 1999. His professional journey began as an Automobile Designer at Swaraj Mazda before his pivotal move to Maruti Suzuki in early 2003. His early assignments involved rejuvenating iconic models such as the Esteem, Omni, Estilo, WagonR, and Alto through strategic facelifts. In 2008, his exceptional work on the Concept A-Star, Maruti Suzuki’s first concept car, earned him the prestigious “Young Achiever of the Year” award from Auto Monitor. His creative guidance has been crucial in designing Brezza generations, New WagonR, and New Alto—all solidifying their positions as India’s best-selling cars.
Mr Amol Satpute, Creative Head at Hyundai Advanced Design, brings five years of experience working on projects for EU and APAC regions in passenger and commercial vehicle design, concept car exteriors, light rail, industrial design, and product design. He specialises in sketching, CAD (Alias), and CGI (Vred, Blender).
Mr Shashwath Bolar, Head of Design at Greaves Electric Mobility, is a distinguished automotive design leader with over 18 years of experience in shaping mobility solutions for mass markets. His career includes work with global brands such as Tata Motors, Bajaj, and Nissan-Ashok Leyland, refined through international assignments across Austria, UK, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland. A firm believer in design’s power to drive societal change, he champions a holistic approach to product development. His strategic and technical background is anchored by a Masters in Automotive Design from Coventry University, UK, and a Mechanical Engineering degree from RV College, Bengaluru.
Mr Snehal Pawar, Head of Design for Advanced & Creative Design in Asia at Alstom, leads the design department for the region with a focus on innovative and sustainable mobility solutions. He has a background from the National Institute of Design and actively participates in industry discussions.
Luxury, Consumer, and Industrial Design Leaders
Ms Revathi Kant, Chief Design Officer at Titan Company Limited, is a Design & Innovation strategist with over 20 years of experience in applying Design Thinking across diverse domains. She heads the Design Excellence Center, which caters to the design needs of the entire organisation across categories. With a team of over 90 talented designers across the globe, DEC is reputed for creating differentiated products and has set a benchmark in the world of jewellery and watches. She was featured in the “W-Power Trailblazers 2019 List” by Forbes India, was a finalist in the Innovation category of the WeQual Awards Asia Pacific 2023, was awarded the ‘Hall of Fame’ by the Gem & Jewellery Industry in 2024, and received the ‘Visionary Women Leader of the Year 2025’ by Designers of India.
Ms Pooja Tandon, Chief Design Officer at Pidilite, leads design operations based in Maharashtra. Her robust skill set encompasses graphics, corporate identity, packaging, product development, and retail design.
Mr Amod Gijare, Principal Designer at Forbes Marshall, has over a decade of experience shaping industrial innovations at the intersection of engineering, design, and human-centred problem-solving. He heads the in-house design function and drives the organisation’s design vision for products, experiences, and future-ready capabilities. His body of work spans industrial design, experience design, spatial design, and advanced prototyping, including establishing Forbes Marshall’s 3D printing and rapid prototyping competency within R&D. His design leadership has been recognised through multiple national accolades, including India Design Mark and CII Design Excellence Awards.
Engineering and Technology Design
Ms Megha Navalgund, Senior Engineering Manager for Advanced Design Tools at GE Aerospace India, leads the organisation responsible for developing physics-enriched software products and digital solutions that explore next-generation engine designs. Prior to this role, she led the ‘Additive Analytics’ team, which developed commercial software products for monitoring additive machines and processes. With more than 19 years of experience at GE, she holds 10 patents and has received several prestigious leadership recognitions including the Engineering Excellence Award and the South Asia President’s Award. A certified Black Belt, she holds a Master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iowa and has served as a Women’s Network leader at GE for over a decade.
Mr Michele Straniero, Vice President of Blue Engineering, holds an MSc in Automation Engineering and brings a global career spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. He specialises in Product and Process Engineering, Design Thinking, and cross-cultural New Business Development. He has held strategic leadership roles at Pininfarina, SAET Group (AJAX-TOCCO), ICONA Design, and COMAU. He was instrumental in establishing and managing Asian operations, becoming the first Managing Director of COMAU China in 2000, the first General Manager of Pininfarina Shanghai in 2009, CEO of SAET Shanghai in 2012, and later General Manager of Pininfarina California in 2018.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
