Thomas Bachmann, Chairman of the Board, Executive Director
After his successful apprenticeship at a German bank, Thomas Bachmann graduated at business school (Dipl.-Kfm) with focus on business management, human resources management and finance in 1995. He started his career as personnel officer at Karcher Baustoffe GmbH. Prior to joining Schnabel group, he had been responsible for management of human resources at an international middle-sized engineering company since 2001, where he gained long term experience. Since April 2007 he has been head of Human Resources, Organisation and IT at SCHNABEL AG. After having been directly involved in the start up process since 2007, he finally overtook responsibility as Managing Director at SCHNABEL DC Consultants India in July 2009. Additionally, he is also Managing Director at Schnabel Academy, another Schnabel subsidiary focused on education and training, where he is taking care of international activities in India and the Mid East region.

Kiran Karnik, Non-Executive Director
Kiran Karnik was President of NASSCOM, the premiere trade body and the “chamber of commerce” for the IT software and services industry in India, till January 2008. During his 6 years at NASSCOM, Mr. Karnik was widely recognized as a thought-leader and guiding force for the Indian IT industry, and for promoting “Brand India”, especially by show-casing India’s technological strength to the world.

Prior to joining NASSCOM in 2001, Mr. Karnik was the Managing Director and CEO of Discovery Networks in India where he spearheaded the launch of Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet (a Discovery – BBC joint venture) in 1999. >From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Karnik was Founder-Director of the Consortium for Educational Communication, which was responsible for UGC’s Countrywide Classroom broadcasts and other ICT initiatives.

Earlier, Mr. Karnik worked for over 20 years at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), where he held various positions including that of Founder-Director of ISRO’s Development and Educational Communicational Unit. His work in ISRO involved conceptualizing and managing applications of space technology. He was a key player in the pioneering India-USA Satellite Instructional TV Experiment (SITE) and the Kheda Communication Project, which won wide international acclaim.

Mr. Karnik has served as Special Assistant to the Secretary-General of UNISPACE 82 in the United Nations. He has done consulting assignments for WHO, The World Bank, UN Institute for Disarmament Research, Ford Foundation, and an extended one for UNESCO in Afghanistan.

He has been a member of many key government committees, and is presently a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to Prime Minister. He has a deep involvement with a number of NGOs in the areas of education and environment, and currently is honorary Chairman of the National Foundation of India, Chairman of Vigyan Prasar and President of India Habitat Centre. He is currently Chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth Connects programme.

In a career of almost four decades, Mr. Karnik has been conferred many awards and accolades. He has been awarded the Padma Shri in 2007 and the ‘DATAQUEST IT Person of the Year – 2005’. Business Week named Mr. Karnik as one of the ‘Stars of Asia’ in 2004 and he was selected as Forbes magazine’s ‘Face of the Year 2003’, for being a driving force behind India’s off-shoring wave. In 1998, International Astronautical Federation awarded Mr. Karnik with the Frank Malina medal for Space Education. His deep involvement in the Kheda Communications Project, earned wide national and international acclaim, and it won the first UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication.

Mr. Karnik regularly contributes to various publications and has authored/edited a large number of publications. He occasionally lectures at major national institutes.

A post-graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Mr. Karnik holds an Honours degree in Physics from Bombay University.

Shaheen Meeran, Executive Director
Shaheen Meeran has been Managing Director at SCHNABEL DC Consultants India, the Indian subsidiary of SCHNABEL AG, since March 2008. Prior to joining SCHNABEL, Shaheen was with Infosys BPO. She has served in various leadership roles related to Solution Design, Program Management, Consulting and Sales in previous organisations. She is responsible for SCHNABEL's India operations, and continues to be involved in various standard- defining industry initiatives in the country. She chairs an Expert Group on Energy Efficient Data Centers under the Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals. Shaheen is also a Steering Committee Member for the development of Design Code and Best Practice Manual for Energy Efficiency in Indian Data Centers, a program under the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in the Ministry of Power, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.