Dr. Mysore Venkatesan Ravikumar (73) graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering with distinction, further did his PG Diploma in Industrial Management securing First Rank, MBA in Marketing, Post-Graduate Diploma in Software Engineering from Indian Institute of Science and PhD in Management Studies.

Having worked in a premier Public Sector Undertaking for ten years, Dr. Ravikumar co-founded three companies in the area of electronics and retired from all the businesses in 2001. For the last 22 years he has been advising and mentoring SMEs and Higher Education Institutions. He was a consultant to N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, IIM-B and Advisor to Indo Korea Science and Technology Centre. In 2014 he established IMPACT Foundation which supports Business Incubation facility to promote Start-ups that can make Social impact.

Having joined Rotary International in 1988, Dr. Ravikumar has served in various positions at the Club level and District level. Since 2002 he has been spearheading Avoidable Blindness Projects at the Rotary District level. Ravikumar has delivered talks in Rotary Avoidable Blindness Conferences held at Malaysia, Singapore and has spoken to clubs in France, Germany and Portugal. With the support of clubs in Europe and USA he had developed and implemented several Matching Grant / Global Grant projects of the Rotary Foundation to prevent blindness. In 2020 he co-founded Rotary Avoidable Blindness Foundation, a charitable trust with three more Rotarians to support eye-care related projects for the economically downtrodden.

Rtn. Dr.Ravikumar has won several awards throughout his academic and professional career including Sir M.V Memorial Award on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Sir. M.Visveswaraya for his contribution to industry, AIMO – T.Rameshi Pai Memorial Award for his contributions to SME sector and ‘Service above Self’ award, the highest bestowed by Rotary International to a Rotarian for his Community service.

Dr.Ravikumar has written six books including his Autobiography, Doing Well, Feeling Happy and co-authored with Dr. Ramesh Eye Opener, a book chronicling evolution of Community Ophthalmology in India over the last 200 years, apart from publishing several research papers and case studies in the area of entrepreneurship. He has founded Kaveri Trust with his wife Hema in 1992 mainly to support education of economically weaker girl children.