XLRI’s highly active alumni network spans the length and breadth of the corporate world, not only in India but also in different parts of the globe. Alumni Meets, as part of the annual itinerary of XLRI, are hosted across the globe. This year, Meets have been scheduled in six Indian Metros – viz. Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The Meets will be attended by XLers, who hold key positions such as CEOs, Managing Directors, Country Managers, Heads of HR, Marketing and Finance, not to mention the plethora of highly successful middle-level managers across Corporate Organisations. Another pool of XLers who shine in fields that are unconventional for Managers – such as writing, the creative arts, and teaching at renowned Universities – will also be part of the Meets. The event is consciously set in an informal atmosphere of fun – which coincidentally, also represents an important brand attribute of XLRI – giving ample time for the alumni to interact and network, while at the same time renewing ties with the Institute that has played a crucial part in their success.
The Meet also serves as a platform, where XLRI tradition gets debated, recalled, savoured and endlessly enjoyed by batches cutting across the young and the old. (Every XLer, be he from the 1960s or the 2000s, passes through a fixed set of unique traditions and traditional events during every calendar year). The Meet also sets the agenda for the year ahead, albeit through informal one-to-ones, on how these traditions could be spearheaded better in the year ahead and what would lie in store for the future.
The meet is a huge inspiration to the current batch of XLers. Famous alumni of XLRI include B. Muthuraman, MD, Tata Steel; Bhushen Raina, MD, Tata Tinplate: Jaspal Bindra, CEO (Indian Region), Standard Chartered Bank; Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group; Manet Paes, MD, Alliance Air; Rakesh Das, Head, Consumer Business Risk Review (Asia Pacific), ABN Amro Bank; C. V. L. Srinivas, MD, Maximize Asia Pacific; Shantonu Aditya, President, Discovery – SET India; N. Ankhouri, VP – HR, Hero Honda; Gopi Nambiar, VP – HR, Seagrams; Gurveen Singh, VP – HR, Reckitt Benckiser; Bernard Martyr, Senior VP – HR, Indian hotels (Taj).
The stage for the Meet is being set by the students of the batch of 2007, who are currently placed in different parts of the Country, engrossed in their Summer Internships in Corporate India. The Alumni Meet, in itself, has now become a part of XLRI’s tradition in addition to the 25th and 10th Jubilarian Alumni Reunions, which are a regular feature at Jamshedpur every year.
Among the Sponsors and Partners for this year’s events across the Country are Seagrams, Pepsi, SAB Miller, Frito-Lays, Spicejet, Mercer Consulting, ITC, GSK, Nokia, Hindustan Levers Ltd, Tata AIG, Cognizant Technology Solutions, ICICI Prudential, Kanexa Consulting, Essar, Standard Chartered Bank, Reckitt Benckiser and many others.