It’s Puthandu today and Hindus worldwide celebrate the Tamil New Year with early morning visits to the temple. This divine festival is observed every year on April 14 as it is the first day of the Tamil calendar. The Tamil year calendar has 12 months and it has specific Tamil names starting with the Chithirai month. This day is also a time for celebrating new and prosperous beginnings.
Today we are excited to list 21 inspiring Indian icons on LinkedIn Malaysia, in no particular order, whom you need to follow today.
Nehsan Selvaraj
At the age of 20, Nehsan who is a journalist and newsreader with Bernama was awarded the ‘Award of Honour’ by the Government of India at the Vision For Future 2019 held in New Delhi, India. The award was conferred by the BRICS International Forum and the International Federation of Indo-Russian Youth Club to Nehsan as an International Digital Leader for the socio-political efforts he has made. He is also the Director of Yayasan Aspirasi Rakyat Amalan Malaysia (ARAM), Nehsan has helped to report on social statuses of minorities in Malaysia and has organized many charitable projects under his NGO. In one such initiative in 2017, he managed to gather almost 4000 youth volunteers to rebuild 15 welfare homes and orphanages throughout the country.
Bavani Periasamy
The first female President of the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers (MAPS) and also known as Gratitude Advocate on LinkedIn. Her work is mostly with young adults, unemployed graduates, youth and children as she believes that if they are inspired to believe in their dreams and to believe in the power of their mind, they can all work towards capitalising on their true potential and strength and in return to pay this forward to the others in the society. A firm believer in the power of gratitude, she is always encouraging people to find blessings in life. She is also a founding member of Top Voices Malaysia.
Kuhanesapathy T
Fondly known as Kuhan, he is the Co-Founder of Masala Wheels, a social entrepreneurship project to help single mothers, youth and urban poor to earn a living. Masala Wheels is not only about serving food but for the staff to also learn life skills. To date, Masala Wheels has assisted a number of troubled youth turning their life around. Besides Masala Wheels, Kuhan is also active in Purpose, a hub to grow social enterprises in Malaysia and is currently serves the team under the Business Development & Strategic Planning Unit.
Sashikala Devi Gopallan
A strong and determined lady who has various experience in many industries and now in the human capital arena to champion talents and growth for the nation. She is also known to be LinkedIn’s 3rd Most Engaged Marketer in Malaysia and has a large following from many countries. She has also worked with other prominent MNC in the country and established herself well in the area of Public Relations.
Major Dr. Prebagaran Jayaraman (R)
Fondly known as Dr. Praba, he has more than 30 years of experience in the Learning & Development industry and is passionate about building people up. He is currently leading SMC Trainers Malaysia, focusing on helping folks who did not have the opportunity to finish tertiary education by inspiring them to pursue it while working and then to motivate them to move up in their respective career. He has helped many people to upgrade their life by providing them opportunities to excel. He strongly believes in changing people’s life through the formalisation of the knowledge. He is also a founding member of Top Voices Malaysia.
Sugunah Verumandy
Sugunah is very passionate about Human Resources’ strategies aligned to business needs, market dynamics and developing capabilities required for businesses and corporate Malaysia to be successful. She strongly believes in internal and external communications and champions a lot on employees having positive experiences. She also plays a role in the community to advocate diversity and talent strategies.
Valens Subramaniam
Valens is the Founder and CEO of Rodeo. Rodeo is an OOH and digital advertising firm that has created an interactive external and in-vehicle advertising platform, making it the first of its kind in Malaysia. Valen’s work through Rodeo is helping many drivers to utilize the system and to be able to earn incentives as additional income. Valens is also a Founding Member of Top Voices Malaysia
Roshan Thiran
A name that is familiar to many, Roshan is the Founder and CEO of Leaderonomics. Leaderonomics is a social enterprise dedicated democratise and provide access to leadership development for everyone, including those in rural areas and in poverty. Leaderonomics is also known for its digital pullout and many youth programs during the school breaks. Roshan spends a fair bit of time interviewing top leaders and role models in the industry both locally and internationally.
Shamini Manikam
An iron lady who founded TinkTank, a Singapore-based company whose vision is to empower humans through tech training. She believes that ‘the purpose of our existence is to live it and to unleash the best in us by learning and sharing our experiences. As we live in a transformation era, equipping ourselves with future skills and technology is imperative to our existence‘.
Jegatheeswaran Manoharan
The first Malaysian and Asian to sit in the Board of North American Simulation & Gaming Association (NASAGA). Fondly known as Jega to his peers, his vision is to assist educators and trainers to utilise game-based learning and gamification for a more immersive classroom experience. Alongside his business partner, they now hold yearly Conference in Malaysia called Malaysian Simulation and Gaming Conference (MASAGA) which is an interactive experience on the use of active learning methods to increase engagement, enhance retention, and improve performance.
Malar Villi
Malar is a simple and humble person who is enthusiastic about emotional intelligence and spends many hours contributing to the community, especially for women and children. She champions resilience in women and does many events and programs to help them. Her noble wish is for individuals to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life. She says, ‘This journey, opens the door of discovering one’s authentic self and bring about positive results in their life while making the world a better place for all of us. I can’t imagine a better way to live my life‘.
Lingesh Lechamanan
Also known as Big Guru to those close to him, Lingesh is currently based in Muscat as the Head of Marketing for Shell Oman. Feels very strongly about community work, on the side he runs a self-funded social enterprise named Blindsight Inc, with his parents who are visually impaired. Coming from a poor background, Big Guru also spends a lot of time reaching out to children from the urban community. He quotes ‘I would like to measure my success by what others have been able to achieve through me‘.
Dr. Mahendhiran Nair
Dr. Mahendhiran is currently the Vice President (R&D) at Monash University Malaysia and also the Professor of Econometrics of the same university. He is well known in the community for his role in economic policy modelling for government agencies and many of his research has been used in both national and state economic plans and blueprints. A man who is deeply passionate about developing strategies to enhance translational R&D and educational innovations and has contributed a lot to the growth of diverse communities in Malaysia.
Gopi Ganesalingam
A name that most technopreneurs are familiar with, Gopi is the Vice President of the Enterprise Development for the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). He contributes a lot in the area of developing Malaysian tech companies into regional and global players. His experience and background in holding many key positions have enabled him to play such a significant role in MDEC. His epic article ‘Why ASEAN companies need to be Storytellers‘ that was an eye opener for many.
K Nantha Kumar
A cybersecurity, IR 4.0 and digital revolution enthusiast, he founded Pulsy Technology to forefront the ‘Smart Workspace Solution’ industry in Malaysia and ASEAN. Nantha also works a lot with universities and colleges to bring across real-time experience and knowledge to students and ultimately preparing them to the cyber world and creating awareness on how crucial cybersecurity is.
Saravanan Karumanan
Known to most people as SK, he is currently with Malaysia Airlines. Bringing with him a vast and diverse experience of 20 years in the HR industry, he now is now championing the change in the Malaysia Airline. Very much known to the folks in the industry especially in the area of learning and development, SK places great emphasis on sustained high performance through well-developed productive teams. His motto is ‘Building a Winning Team’.
Vimala Suppiah
Vimala is well known in the industry as an ICF Global Professional Certified Professional Coach – PCC and works with top leaders on team alignment and improved cross-functional business performance. Vimala also champions Diversity and Inclusiveness at the workplace and has many programs and talks on this area.
Vyasa Kandasamy
Vyasa is the Founder of two companies – CAD Training Centre and Animagix Videos. At the CAD Training Centre, he has created an online course for free at the website for folks who don’t have the time to attend classes during the day. Animagix, on the other hand, is all about animated marketing videos or explainer videos that helps one to sell a product or service easily, multiple times. Occasionally he is known to be a philosopher too!
Ramya Balakrishnan
Ramya is now an entrepreneur and experimentalist after working in the corporate world for 10 years. She is also known for working on topics like Open Talent Economy, Future of Work models and cutting-edge research in HR labs. She is always creating awareness and sharing a lot on human capital and educating the public on these matters that mean a lot to her.
Vigneswaran Sivalingam
Known as Vig on LinkedIn, Vigneswaran is the Globee GBS County Head for Malaysia. Vig is familiar to everyone in the area of Customer Experience and some of the other areas that he is known for are CX Continuous Improvement, CX Design & Innovations, Quality Assurance, Service Operations, Learning & Development, Retail Modernization, Channel Marketing, and Digital Transformation. He has well established himself in the community as subject matter expert is sought after often to speak in these areas.
Dr. Malar Velii Segarmurthy
Dr. Malar is the Principal Assistant Director at the Health Policy Planning Unit, Planning Division of the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Coming from a strong medical background, being a Doctor herself, she is always raising awareness online especially on the challenges that many faces such as autism, cancer, palliative care, and human well being itself. She is also a speaker.
