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Mr. Manohar D Chatlani

Managing Director, Soch Apparels Private Limited

Managing Director, Soch Apparels Private Limited

Manohar D Chatlani (Manu) is the man behind the revolution of the ethnic fast fashion category in the retail market in India. Manohar Chatlani is the founder and MD of Soch.

He started his career with ‘Favourite Shop’ an iconic shop in Commercial Street, Bangalore which was established in 1950 by his Father and Uncle.

Manohar Chatlani comes from a family with retail background and has been a retail enthusiast all his life. With immense passion for retail and experience of more than 50 years in retail sector, business development, leadership roles, Manohar brings strong commercial experience and in-depth knowledge of the Indian retail market. His sons Vinay & Sandeep joined the business in 2003 & 2006 and the family started the first Soch store in 2005. The 2^nd & 3^rd stores were stared in 2008 & 2009. Since then Soch has grown to a Nationwide chain with 150 stores

Apart from being an avid retailer, Manohar Chatlani is a man of many firsts– he was the first to have a Department Store in Bangalore catering to the full family, first to have Half Price Sales where customers queued up to get into the store and first to manufacture Fibre Glass Mannequins in India.

Manohar Chatlani is not only a businessman but also spends a great deal of his personal time doing philanthropic work, sponsoring over 100 lifesaving heart surgeries a month for the poor and needy through ‘Have A Heart Foundation’. Till date, the Foundation has supported 15,000 such heart surgeries with a sponsorship of above 45 crores in the last seventeen years. Not only is he fervent about his business of retail and manufacturing, he always believes in extending a helping hand or a compassionate word.

His current passion is ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). This is a problem which affects the vision of premature babies and some of them will go blind for life. He is trying to prevent this from happening to as many as he can.

He was a Director in Narayana Hrudayalaya for 5 years and Dr. Devi Shetty (who is his idol) supported HAH by extending huge discounts for the patients sponsored by HAH. HAH has influenced other likeminded organizations in Mumbai, Ludhiana, Kolkata & Cayman Islands to follow the same model and do similar works

His hobbies include listening to old Hindi songs and spends quite a lot of his time devoted in social work. Manohar works with a vision of firmly establishing the brand – ‘Soch’ as one of the preferred choices of women ethnic wear for Indian consumers.

Today with their retail and garment manufacturing business employing over 1300 employees, Manohar Chatlani is a retail legend to track.

O P Khanna brief profile:

Philanthropy

Having returned from a UN assignment in 2001, when Mr. Khanna underwent an angioplasty, his encounter in the hospital made him realize the many children and adults in India die due to lack of access to healthcare. That is when he decided to become a full-fledged philanthropist and set up Need Heart Foundation. In the last 20 years, Mr. Khanna has donated over seven hundred thousand US Dollars for heart surgeries. Even today at the age of 85, he works for over 12 hours a day, striving how to better the community and society he lives in.

With over 61 years of corporate experience, Mr. Khanna was the Chairman, MD and CEO of various large corporations for over 16 years. He has had the opportunity to be associated with some of the top industrialists – like JRD Tata, S Moolgaonkar, C K Birla, L M Thapar, Ratan Tata, Hrishikesh Mafatlal, during his work tenure.

He has extensively traveled across the world (49 countries), and he has been instrumental in the turnaround of three large manufacturing Companies.

Board membership and affiliation

Mr. Khanna was actively involved in many national and state-level professional bodies. He was the national chairman of the Indian Institution of Production Engineers (2003-2005); chairman of CII, western region-central Gujarat (1992-1994); on the managing committees of Indo German Chamber; Indo American Chamber; Joint Business Councils; -Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry; Bangalore Management Association; Institute of Engineering Technology (UK); etc.

OP Khanna, The Author

A voracious reader, Mr. Khanna has authored books on health and various life experiences. He has authored the following:

Common Ailments & Home Remedies
Foods & Herbs that heal
Amazing World Festivals
Extraordinary Indians

Honours and Awards

He has been bestowed with prestigious awards like Sir Visvesvaraya, Inspiring Leader from Indian Express, and RBI Lifetime Achievement Award among many others.

Early Life and Education

Mr. Khanna’s father was in Railways, a transferable job where they moved around a lot. The family was stationed at Lahore during partition, one of the toughest times of Indian History. They witnessed struggle at a very young age. Having deep-rooted values for the country, Mr. Khanna comes from a family of patriots that took part in the freedom struggle as well. He graduated from the prestigious IIT Kharagpur and completed his postgraduate from Halle, Germany.

Vishal Bali

Executive Chairman, Asia Healthcare Holdings

Vishal Bali has over 30 years of experience in building global healthcare delivery organizations which includes managing an integrated healthcare delivery system comprising hospitals, diagnostics, primary care and daycare.

Prior to this, he was the Group CEO for Fortis Healthcare Limited. Vishal was also the CEO and MD of Wockhardt Hospitals, where he spearheaded its development from a single branch to one of the largest specialty hospital chains.

His keenness in making critical healthcare accessible to all drives his philanthropic activities.

Mr. Vijayrathna Venkatraman

As the CEO of Motherhood Hospitals Group, Vijayrathna Venkatraman has an experience spanning over 23 years.He has worked with leading healthcare organizations during this tenure. His holistic work has been instrumental in making the brand synonymous with being the one stop solution for women’s health.

His career started as a Management Trainee with Apollo Group of Hospitals in Hyderabad. Later, he held the position of the Center Manager of Wockhardt Hospitals,Bangalore. In October 2009, he took charge of the Fortis Hospitals, Mulund where he played a vital role in the brand transitioning of Wockhardt Hospitals to Fortis Hospitals. The coveted accreditation of Joint Commission International quality Gold Standards was also received by him for the 3rd time. His learnings have given him an enormous experience to handle every situation. His leadership quality helps him develop his team and strengthen the brand recall, amongst all the stakeholders.

Dr Devananda N S

Dr. Devananda N S is the Head of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at Manipal Hospitals Airport Road, Bangalore, and has more than 28 years of vast experience. His area of expertise lies in performing several surgeries like Aortic Aneurysm Surgery, Complex Valve Surgery and Repair, Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, Beating Heart CABG, Neonatal/Infant/Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, Heart Transplants, and Ventricular Assist Devices. Dr. Devananda N S is often referred to as one of the best Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgeons in Bangalore. He has carried out more than 7000 paediatric and adult surgeries and over 10000 open heart surgeries throughout the years of his career. His track record includes successfully operating complex open heart surgery on a wide range of advanced and complicated patients, including 90-year-old patients and infants as little as 29 weeks old. Additionally, he is credited with successfully removing a PNET tumour from the heart. He was rewarded with The Rotary Centenary Award for Vocational Excellence. He has 12 publications in journals from around the world and the country. He is renowned for paying attention to detail, making precise diagnoses, and treating patients with sensitivity.

Surumy Mammootty

Surumy Mammootty is a Bengaluru- based artist whose works draw inspiration from nature and celebrates its intricacies. She explores the vast and varied terrains of nature in her works which often endow the beholder with a therapeutic experience.

Trained in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai and later from Chelsea College College of Art and Design, London, she loves to initiate kids to the world of art and has been working as guest teacher at an institution on a voluntary basis. She also actively participates in philanthropic activities focusing mainly on children's health and education.