Director General- KIIT

Prof. (Dr) Padmakali Banerjee FRSA is an astute academic, visionary leader, institutional builder and a celebrated author whose path-breaking contributions to academic administration, flexible curriculum design, and skill development in India have earned her international acclaim. A behavioural scientist and management expert, she brings over three decades of transformative experience in higher education to her role strategic leadership role as Director General- KIIT, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Deemed to be University.

Dr Banerjee holds a Doctorate in Human Resource Development from the University of Delhi, she is a Fellow of the Somatic Inkblot Society, USA, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London and a member of the Foundation for Organisational Research and Education- FORE Society, New Delhi. She has severed as the governing body member at Medanta Institute of Education and Research Her distinguished academic career in the past 2 decades has served as Vice Chancellor of IILM University Gurugram, President & Vice Chancellor of SPSU – J K Cement Udaipur, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean Academics Amity University Gurugram, Founder Dean of IILM Gurugram. In her early career she served as faculty in University of Delhi and Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education, CIE University of Delhi and as a researcher fellow at Centre for Science Education and Communication, a centre of excellence, University of Delhi and as a key member of the founding team of the Bradford UK- India Programme.

As a thought leader and institution builder, she has consistently championed ingenuity, perseverance, and a steadfast commitment to shaping the future of youth through education and mentoring. Her expansive professional network — spanning creative artists, corporate leaders, and policymakers — reflects the breadth of her influence and the depth of her human engagement.

She serves as Executive Editor of the SIS Journal of Projective Psychology & Mental Health and is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Hinduism and Philosophy and the Bhagavad Geeta Research Foundation, United Kingdom. She chairperson of the GoLF -Global leadership forum, a leadership capacity building, research forum. Her extensive research portfolio includes books, research papers in national and international journals. Dr Padmakali is the creator of several widely used psychometric tools, including the Optimism Index — a predictive tool for success deployed in selection and training and the LEAPS Wellbeing Scale. Her internationally acclaimed book, The Power of Positivity: Optimism and the 7th Sense, continues to resonate with readers across the globe.

Her contributions to leadership and sustainability have been recognised with numerous prestigious honours, including the Innovative Leaders in Higher Education Award by FICCI YFLO 2024, the ET Business Leader Award 2023, and the Green Building Leadership Award by USGBC 2018. She has also been featured in Outlook Spotlight Magazine’s ‘India at 75 – The Change Makers of Modern India’ as an inspirational leader and role model. As a life coach and social entrepreneur, Dr Banerjee founded Triarup Foundation, a social enterprise dedicated to the upliftment and holistic development of society — with a particular focus on empowering women and marginalised communities. Her work is deeply aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), driving social change, through education, sustainable development, and long-term equality. Her ultimate goal is to transform the world into a happier place by instilling the right skills and optimism in today’s youth.