Chennai : Great Lakes Institute of Management today held its ninth Convocation (2013) wherein students of PGPM (1 year flagship program),

PGXPM (2 year Executive MBA) and PGWPM (2 year Weekend MBA program) graduated in the august presence of Renowned industrialists Mr. Vellayan, Executive Chairman, Murugappa Group and Mr. Ramesh Vangal, Founder and Chairman, Katra Group; and Dr. Bala V. Balachandaran, Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management. This year marks the entry of Great Lakes Institute of Management into its tenth successful year since its inception in 2004.

The event commenced with Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, declaring open the ceremony at the Chennai Trade Centre. The auditorium was high on spirit and there was excitement in the air, marked with sense of enthusiasm and pride as the students waited to receive the graduation certificates. In an enlightening speech, Dr. Bala V. Balachandran expressed his happiness and wished the graduating students all success in their professional careers. Keeping up with the philosophy of Great Lakes, he added that the sole purpose of attaining the best education is to give back to the society and create opportunity for all. In his speech the Chief Guest Mr. Vellayan emphasized the importance of facing challenges in the real world with the right spirit. Delivering the Presidential speech Mr. Ramesh Vangal advised the students to follow ethical practices and create the right impact in society.

Prof. Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management,

reported that this year 429 students graduated of which 362 students were from PGPM Class 2013, 30 PGXPM students of class 2013 and 37 students were from PGWPM class 2012. Excitement and joy flowed as families and friends cheered for the graduating students who received the degree certificates from the chief guest. A special moment of pride and accomplishment grew among the graduating mothers, who went on to set new levels for their counterparts.

PGPM Class of 2012:

Apart from academic rigor some of the highlights of the graduating class were –

Guest Lectures – Over hundred guest Lectures were delivered by eminent industrialist and academicians in the academic year April 2012-13

Some of the notable lectures were delivered by :

Dr. Philip Kotler, Marketing Guru

Dr. Shyam Sunder, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics & Finance at Yale School of Management

Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Director, Tata Sons

Dr. Carlos Arruda, FDC, Brazil

Mr. Ramachandra Sundaralingam, International Drugs Expert – Interpol

Best outgoing male  – T A Anandvishnu, female – Abirami M

Entrepreneurs  – Mr. Satish Rajagopalan, Founder Director, Spearhead EduOnline, an online education portal to provide quality education anywhere, anytime and to anyone

Great Lakes’ students won accolades in several management competitions conducted by institutions such as IIMs, XLRI, IITs, etc and won 17 first prizes, 13 second prizes and 8 third prizes overall

International Competition: 2 students represented Great Lakes and India in the Hyundai Global Youth Marketing Camp in South Korea between February 23rd and 28th, 2013. And a team comprising a Great Laker and 4 Korean students, 4 Indian students and 1 Chinese student won a competition with the Best BTL Marketing Strategy

Top three empirical research work

Servant leadership and follower’s organizational commitment: Role of leader’s charisma was adjudged best research by Abirami Muthi

Analysis of bankruptcy prediction models and their effectiveness: An Indian perspective was by Gokhul A and Manu Shankar

Effectiveness and efficiency of event sponsorship in brand building by Ashutosh Naik and Chandni Gupta’s

Karmayoga a philosophy driven concept of learning played an integral part of the study programme. Through Karmayoga students participated in several social projects in order to uplift the standards of the society which also foresaw nurturing of leadership qualities in students. 20 villages around Great Lakes have been adopted for the Karma Yoga program and the students visit these villages every week.

PGXPM Class of 2013:

The seventh batch of Executive MBA program graduated this year. Some of the highlights of the batch were:

Mr. Rajagopalan T.S, CFO, WABCO is a Gold Medalist, awarded Best Outgoing Participant

Mr. Arun Kumar Associate Director, Product Management, Roamware Inc. awarded Gold Medal, Academic Topper

Mr. Muthukumaran J. promoted to AGM, Production, Sundaram Clayton with his span of control being doubled from what he initially handled

PGWPM Class of 2012:

The batch took pride in being the first graduating batch of Working professional program in management from Great Lakes and some of the highlights of the program are:

Meenakshi  L is a working mother and Senior Executive – Finance, Renault Nissan. A Double Gold Medalist in the PGWPM program awarded for Academic Topper and Best Outgoing Participant

Lavanya Saraswathi is working mother and Manager, Sabari Investigation Agency. A Gold Medalist awardee for academic topper in PGWPM program