Ajinder Singh
Pierre Cardin
Managing Director

Bhai Ajinder Singh used to run M&B Footwear, which marketed Lee Cooper footwear in India for 25 years. In 2019 he launched the respected fashion brand Pierre Cardin. He is an alumnus of Northeastern University, Boston USA and has 30 plus years of experience in the footwear trade.

Ambud Sharma
Ligo brands
Managing Director

Mr Ambud Sharma is a senior professional and serial entrepreneur with rich experience in direct to consumer brand development, eCommerce, video technology, retail and brand development. He is interested in business strategy, strategic planning and leadership. He loves to build awesome teams. He consults SMEs on growth hacking & business management.

Amit Chopra
Shoes & Accessories Magazine
Managing Director and Founder

Managing Director and Founder of SHOES & ACCESSORIES magazine, India’s top trade magazine on Footwear Retail and fashion. A professional & lifestyle specialist with 30 years of experience in management, sourcing and consulting in Retail industry. Also, the convenor of India Shoes & Accessories forum and is associated with Images Fashion Forum, India Retail Forum (which host India’s leading industry conferences) and is also linked with, Council for Footwear Leather and accessories, Council for Leather Exports, Agra footwear manufacturers & exporters chambers and All India Footwear Manufacturers & Retailers Association.

Dr Andrew Hudson
Buckman International
Global Market Development Manager

Andrew has been Buckman’s Global Market Development Manager since January 2018 with a focus on growing Buckman’s leather business through customer relationships and collaborative problem-solving. In addition, he liaises with brands, professional organisations, trade organisations and several NGOs to ensure that Buckman continues to be best positioned to be their customer’s trusted advisor. As part of his role, Andrew is actively involved in the Leather Working Group (LWG), serving as a chemical industry representative on the LWG Technical Sub-Group (TSG) and LWG Tannery of the Future Sub-Group.

Anika Passi
PDS Multinational, HK
Executive Director – (Business Operations )

Ms Anika Passi is a seasoned business leader with more than 25 years of experience in Global Sourcing of Lifestyle Products. She has set up and led Sourcing offices of leading ANZAC and Scandinavian Brands like The Warehouse Group, NZ , Ahlens AB, Sweden, Lagerhaus, Sweden, Designtorget, Sweden and more.

She has also managed large brands like Ann Taylor ( US), Ralph Lauren ( US), Kmart Australia as a Team Lead.

She is expertise in opening offices, scaling businesses exponentially, startups and Sustainability.

She started her career with Raymonds as a Management Trainee, so she is also expertise over fabrics and make-ups plus Staples on the product side and the Sourcing geography side. She has been managing South Asia Sourcing regions – India, Pak, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia.

Aqeel Ahmed
Council for Leather Exports
Chairman
(Sponsored by Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India)

Mr Aqeel Ahmed graduated in Business Management from Loyola, College Chennai and joined his family business in 1984, then established Florence Shoe Company Pvt. Ltd., in 1995​

He is the chairman & managing director of Florence Shoe Co. Pvt. Ltd.; a member of Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), USA and an executive committee member in following trade organisations:

• All India Hide and Skin Tanners and Merchants Association (AISHTMA)​
• Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters Association (IFLMEA) ​
• Indian Shoe Federation (ISF) ​
• South India Shoe Manufacturers Association (SISMA)

Ashish Jain
Von Wellx
Director

Alumni of Indian Institute of Management, Ashish is the CEO of Iatric Industries Pvt Ltd – Von Wellx Germany. The company has decided to shift its entire manufacturing production to India and has a considerable presence in the retail.

Caterina Cecconi
Stahl
Fashion Designer

Caterina is a Fashion Designer from Italy based in Florence.

She studied in fashion design at Polimoda in Florence. After her graduation, she moved to London to start her career working in an English fashion brand.

After 2 years, she went back to Tuscany, where she has been in contact with the fashion leather world.

Since then, she has been working in Stahl for 3 years right now, and now she is responsible for Stahl Design Studio and anything to do with fashion leather collections.

She is good at matching colours and predic­ting future trends, and this is one of my passions.

Chen Zhanguang
Secretary General, CLIA
Master of Leather Engineering
Senior engineer

He worked as a tanning technician for 4 years after graduating from Leather Engineering department of Sichuan University in 1994, and gained his Master degree in 2001. Since then, Chen worked in CLIA.

Mr Chen is now the Deputy Secretary General of CLIA, and responsible for industry coordination, science and technology and EHS. He has accomplished over 20 policy studies and standards such as Discharge Standard of Water Pollutants for Leather and Fur Making Industry, Entry Criteria of Tanning Industry, Guideline for Export of Leather and Leather Products, to name a few.

Gautam Mehra
Vanilla Moon
Managing Director

Founder of Leiner Shoes Pvt Ltd and the brand Vanilla Moon. Leiner is a shoe manufacture and sells quality women’s leather footwear for lifestyle brands across the world. Vanilla Moon retails quality shoes in India, and the brand is also available in boutique stores in Europe and Japan.

Hanks Lei
SATRA Technology
Factory Services Manager

Mr. Hanks Lei is a SATRA Factory Services Manager. Mr. Lei started his career in the footwear industry in the 90’s. Having worked at different footwear companies for more than 25 years including a major footwear brand in the UK, Mr. Lei has developed his expertise in footwear product development, production and most importantly, process and quality control. Prior to joining SATRA, Mr. Lei was a Quality Control and Production Manager.

Mr. Lei joined SATRA in 2020 and he is responsible for serving SATRA members for process re-engineering and quality control.

Ishaan Sachdeva
Alberto Torresi
Marketing Director

Ishaan is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the import and export industry. Strong professional with a Master’s degree focused in FMB from SP Jain School of Global Management – Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore & Sydney. His company is one of the largest footwear manufacturer and exporter in north India and runs the Brand: Alberto Torresi.

Lu Hua
CLIA
Director of Footwear Committee

Lu Hua is a senior engineer and has a Doctor degree. Lu is currently the Director of both the footwear and footwear materials committees of the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA). He is also a member of the National Technical Committee and a member of the Leather Shoe Branch. As one of the authors of these committees, he participated in many research reports which were submitted to the government.

Madhu Sanon
QC International
Director

Ms Madhu Sanon is an entrepreneur and buying Agent with a specialisation in shoes and Fashion Accessories. She has 32 years long experience in the field of Sourcing, Merchandising and Supply Chain Management.

Manoj Taneja
Crocs India
Marketing Head

Enterprising and dynamic retail and e-commerce professional with 11 years of cumulative experience, having powered success stories for lifestyle and fashion brands like Adidas, Royal Enfield and Crocs.

He is currently working with one of the most unique and fastest-growing global footwear brand, “crocs” as head of e-commerce for India.

Manoj Tuli
P&G Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.
Managing Director

With the determination to achieve the goal of a growing leather industry:
– Established a manufacturing & export unit of leather garments in 1993.
– In 2015, reached the top 5 manufacturing units of India in leather apparel.
– Currently elected as North India’s representative on the board of Council for Leather Exports (Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India) as COA.

Michael Duck
APLF
Director

Michael Duck is the EVP Commercial Development for Informa Markets. He works across the global
Informa Markets business, acting as the main point of contact for building relationships and a pipeline of
growth activity in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, through M&A and the internationalisation
of our products and brands.

In the leather vertical, Michael played a pivotal role in the last 30 years establishing Asia Pacific Leather
Fair (APLF) and All China Leather Exhibition (ACLE) to become the number 1 and number 3 exhibitions in
the leather industry. Under Michael’s leadership, and with the support of the co-organiser CLIA, the
launch of ACLE in 1998 has helped transform China to become the biggest leather export country.

Michael is one of the driving forces behind the founding of Leather Naturally! – an industry initiative to
defend the unwarranted attacks to the leather and to promote the beauty, durability and versatility of
this sustainable material.

Michael holds important contacts with industry partners, government bodies and our venue partners.
He is a member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of UFI, and a member of the Executive
Committee of the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Industry Association.

Michael Schumpp
Leather and Hide Council of America
Associate Director International Programs

Michael Schumpp serves as associate director of international programs for the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA), where he provides trade policy, programming, and communications guidance and expertise. Schumpp is also the international trade policy specialist for the North American Meat Institute (NAMI). He most recently served as director of public affairs and member communications for NAMI.

Mukhtarul Amin
Superhouse Group
Chairman & Managing Director

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin, is the Promoter of SUPERHOUSE, an export oriented group having annual turnover of around USD 200 Million. He is the Chairman & Managing Director of Superhouse Group.

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin was Vice-Chairman of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE) from 2003 to 2005 and Chairman from 2007 to 2009, an export promotional body for leather industry under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. He is Former Chairman of Footwear Design & Development Institute which is the largest footwear training institution in the world under the Ministry of Commerce, and has recently been re-elected as the Chairman of the Council for Leather Export.

Prof. (Dr.) Mwinyikione Mwinyihija
Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute
Executive Director

Prof. Mwinyikione Mwinyihija is a titan of the leather industry in Africa. He is currently serving as Executive Director of Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI), formerly called COMESA/LLPI, where he has been since 2013.

Before devoting his work full time to ALLPI, Prof. Mwinyihija served Kenya Leather Development Council (KLDC) as Chief Executive Officer whose mandates were promoting, regulating, directing, harmonizing and coordinating all activities in the leather sector in Kenya. Part of Prof. Mwinyihaj’s motivation to join ALLPI was to bring his over 20 years working experience to regional level, where he is now registering tangible results with visible advances in the development the leather sector in the region.

Dr. N MOHAN
Clarks India
Executive Director & CEO

N. Mohan has over 35 years of International experience, with 12 years of extensive work experience in Europe, one of the most challenging markets globally. He is currently working as the Executive Director & CEO of Clarks Future Footwear, India. Prior to this, he has had more than 25 years of association with the TATA Group. As the Global Business Head – Leather products at TATA Group, he successfully managed the entire value chain, from concept building to delivering products to the customers around the world. Dr. Mohan has a wide exposure working in more than 30 countries around the world including some of the key manufacturing bases like China, Italy, Portugal and markets like Europe and USA.

Dr. Mohan has been recognized as one of the ‘Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia 2020-21’ by The Economic Times at The ET Asian Business Leaders Conclave 2020 on December 15, 2020.

Rajiv Bhatia
D2 international
Managing Director

Managing Director at D2 International, a leather goods export house based in Kolkata, India. Established in 1994, D2 International has deeply embedded principles of kaizen and excellence to serve high-end leather goods to its customers around the world. As a result of these principles, for the past few fiscal years, D2 International’s sales have surpassed 100 crores annually. Customers include brands such as Emporio Armani (Italy), Piquadro (Italy), Adolfo Dominguez (Spain), Radley (UK), Marks and Spencer (UK), Debenhams (UK), House of Fraser (UK) and Myer (Australia).

Ralph Arbeid

Ralph has been working in the leather value chain for almost 50 years and did business in more than 100 countries. He has traded hides and skins all over the world. He is a leather value chain consultant for various governments and UN agencies. He is expert in modern tannery wet-end machines and has recently focussed on tannery ERP and the application of Industry 4.0 to tanneries.

R.Selvam
Council of Leather Exports
Executive Director

R.Selvam joined IAS in 2001 and has been allotted to Himachal Pradesh cadre. Before joining IAS, he served as Agricultural Officer in the Govt of Tamil Nadu from 1996 to 1999. Since 1999 to 2001 he completed his training in Indian Railway Traffic Service. He graduated from Agricultural College & Research Institute-Killikulam in 1993 and completed post-graduation in Plant Pathology in 1995 from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University-Coimbatore. He completed his post-graduation in Master in Public Administration (MPA) in 2016 from Harvard University-USA. Recently he joined as Executive Director-Council for Leather Exports-Chennai in the month of April-2018.

Sandhya Samuels
Francis Wacziarg
Vice President

Sandhya Samuel is leading the Home Textiles Business at FIND AGENCIES PVT.LTD. which is a part of the Francis Wacziarg Group. They are a leading Buying Agent with Pan India presence. She has 30 years long experience in the field of Sourcing, Merchandising and Supply Chain Management.  She hand holds the European Brands to discover the Brand “India” and tap the huge potential that India has to offer.

Sanjay Leekha
Alpine Group
Founder and Chairman-cum-Managing Director

Mr. Sanjay Leekha is the Founder and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Alpine Group. A veteran in the Indian leather goods manufacturing industry, he leads the company with his demonstrated business acumen, vision, profound domain knowledge and experience of over three decades. The business structure of Alpine Apparels Pvt. Ltd. is based on manufacture and export of a complete range of fashion goods from leather handbags, belts, small leather products and lifestyle accessories at its production facilities based in Faridabad in Haryana. Its client repertoire includes some of the most celebrated luxury labels, fashion retail stores, high street and premium brands across the world.

Sumit Jain
BIRKENSTOCK
Head of Digital

Mr Sumit Jain is a young, dynamic and passionate retail professional with more than 13 years of experience and proven track record in Indian and South-East Asian Markets, including Benetton India, Crocs India, Crocs South- East Asia, and Birkenstock India.

He is known for his core expertise in brand management, setting and scaling E-commerce business, retail operations and wholesale business/distributor management. Working with top brands in apparel and footwear segments and different markets in Asia has helped him to gain an edge and stay ahead in the game. He is currently working with German footwear brand – BIRKENSTOCK as Head of Digital to set up sustainable digital business in India through Brand website and online marketplaces.

Sunil Harjai
COA, CLE Footwear panel North
Managing Director – Siddharth Footwear Exports Pvt. Ltd.
Hats Off Accessories Pvt. Ltd.

Sunil is a technical-minded and results-driven shoemaker since 1978. He has learnt the art of quality shoemaking under the guidance of the world best comfort brand in Denmark – ECCO. Since then, his main objective was to make high-quality footwear with the full value of money.

Rodrigo Henriquez
Leather Naturally
Member of Management Board

Rodrigo Henriquez is since 2017 member of the Management Board of Leather Naturally
He started his career in the Bayer Group for which he worked in various positions in the Marketing/Sales and Communications in Chile, Spain and Germany. He has subsequently held different positions within the LANXESS Group.

Vikas Bagga
Business Strategy Consultant & Mentor for Start-Ups

An enterprising Brand Consultant and a committed professional with 29 years of experience having powered success stories for scores of lifestyle brands in a leadership role with culturally and structurally diverse business entities.

The Start-up brand centric ventures directly led by Vikas during his past tenures include successful international and national brands, such as Woodland, Lotto, ID, Lee Cooper, Merrell, Geox. In key Consultative Role, Vikas has spearheaded business development initiatives for brands such as Crocs, FitFlop,13 Reasons, Sparx, Campus, Skechers, Nike, Asics.

Vikas contributes by way of sharing his sharp insights in publications of eminence as well participates / moderates panel discussions on varied business centric activations.

Vincent Xu
Elkem
Regional Marketing Manager
EMLYON MBA

Vincent has a master degree in Polymer materials, graduated from Emlyon Business School, France. He is now the regional marketing manager in Elkem Silicones. With more than 10 years experiences in the silicones industries, he is focus on the performance textile application, including automotive airbag, car interiors, medical textile, outdoor sports, glass fiber coating and more.

Vivian Xu
Diction
Trend Researcher/Illustrator

Vivian is an illustrator with more than 10 years experience in handbags design and development. She is also a slash youth who is good at making short videos, served international brands such as THE SAK ALDO, and as a designer of CITYLIFE women’s bags in Shanghai.

She is familiar with the leather product planning processes and R&D, and has a unique insight into the Chinese market’s consumer groups. She is currently working in Diction.

Xueqing Li, Jane
Leather & Hide Council of America (LHCA)
Vice President, Asia/China program

Xueqing (Jane) Li is responsible for trade policy, market access, trade show management, market development and promotional activities in China and other Asian markets at Leather & Hide Council of America (LHCA). In addition, Li works with allied trade associations, USDA and other entities to formulate trade policy on a number of issues, to facilitate trade and to implement marketing activities. Previously, she worked as the director of Promar Consulting’s China office, managing and overseeing the company’s China projects. Prior to Promar, Li was an Agricultural Marketing Specialist serving as the principal advisor on Chinese marketing and trade possibilities to the US Agricultural Tarde Office at the US embassy in Beijing, China.

A native of Wuhan, China, Li received a Master of Agriculture Business from the University of Florida.

Yavar Dhala
Forward Shoes Ltd.
CEO

Graduation at Nene College , Leicester University, Northampton, UK-B Tech Leather [Gold Medallist]

Joined the Leather Business in 1986 at the Forward Leather Tannery

Commenced Manufacturing and Exporting of Stitched Shoe Uppers in 1990

Commenced Manufacturing and Export of Footwear in 1996

India’s first Supplier to Marks and Spenser of Fully Made Shoes produced in Chennai

Vertically integrated the business by Settling Up the First Outsole Manufacturing Facility with Italian Collaboration in 2000.

Set up India’s First Joint Venture State of the Bovine Tannery with Italian Investment in 2005.

Set up India’s Single largest manufacturing plant in 2008 over 250,000 Sft in a 10 acres site outside Chennai.