Season II · New Delhi · 24 April 2027
Composure is a governance skill.
The Ivory Chair is an executive pageant judged on presence, poise and purpose — seated, unhurried and in the company of India’s most considered leaders.
Nominations close 20 January 2027. Forty-eight nominees, twelve finalists, one Chair.
Composure, crowned
From the Chair
A pageant built for a table, not a stage.
Most pageants for executives are built for a stage. Ours is built for a table. The Ivory Chair is judged in salons of twelve, over two afternoons and one dinner, by a jury who sit across from the nominee rather than below a podium. Nobody walks anywhere. Nobody is introduced by a voice from the ceiling.
We score five things: presence, poise, purpose, discipline and discourse. None of them is a quarterly number. Each is visible within the first ten minutes of a conversation, and together they decide whether a company is followed or merely obeyed. We publish the weights, and they do not change once the season has begun.
Forty-eight executives will be invited to the salons. Twelve will come to New Delhi on 24 April 2027. One will be asked to take the Chair. The other eleven will have dined well and been seen clearly by people whose opinion they respect, which seems to us a fair exchange for two afternoons.
Rukmini Sethna
Chair of the Pageant
The criteria
Five measures. One hundred points.
Hover or focus a row to read the jury’s working note. The weights are fixed for the season.
| Criterion | Weight | Share of the total score | Jury note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | 25 | Does the room reorganise itself when they sit down, without being asked to. | |
| Poise | 20 | Judged under one deliberately hostile question in the second salon, and in the hour after it. | |
| Purpose | 25 | What the company is for, said in one sentence the jury can repeat a week later. | |
| Discipline | 15 | Calendar, sleep, training and the testimony of whoever keeps the diary. | |
| Discourse | 15 | Twelve minutes on a subject outside their industry. No slides, no notes. | |
| Total | 100 | Scores are sealed independently before the jury confers. Ties are settled by Presence. |
Who may be nominated
Forty-eight nominees. Twelve finalists. One Chair.
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CEOs and managing directors
Of companies with ₹300 crore or more in annual revenue, listed or private, with eighteen months or more in the role by 20 January 2027.
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Founders with institutional backing
At least one round led by a venture or private-equity fund, and an executive role in the company today. A board seat alone does not qualify.
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CXOs with board exposure
CFO, COO, CHRO, CTO or an equivalent, presenting to the board at least once a quarter, at a listed company or a family-held group.
- Nominations received, Season I
- 0
- Invited to the salons
- 0
- Seated at the Gala
- 0
By invitation or nomination. Self-nomination is accepted with a written endorsement from a board member, which the secretariat asks for at screening.
The titles
Six titles. One is never nominated for.
Five titles follow the five criteria. The Ivory Chair itself is conferred on one of the twelve finalists at the end of dinner.
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The Ivory Chair
The principal titleConferred from the twelve finalists at 22:00 on 24 April 2027, after the jury has seen them at the table. It cannot be nominated for, and it has been declined once.
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Presence
25 of 100 pointsFor the executive whose arrival changes a room’s posture. Scored across both salons and confirmed at the Gala, where the jury sits one table away.
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Poise
20 of 100 pointsFor composure under the second salon’s hostile question, and for the hour afterwards, when most people explain themselves a second time.
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Purpose
25 of 100 pointsFor the clearest account of what a company is for, and a five-year record of acting on it that the jury can check in the annual reports.
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Discipline
15 of 100 pointsFor routines kept for a decade and verified by the people who keep the diary: the chief of staff, the physician, the driver.
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Discourse
15 of 100 pointsFor twelve minutes, without slides, on a subject outside the nominee’s industry, delivered to a table that is permitted to interrupt.
The season
From a nomination in January to a chair in April.
Six stages across four cities. The line fills as you read.
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Nominations
Open now · Close 20 January 2027, 23:59 IST. Free, confidential, and accepted from boards, colleagues, investors and the nominee.
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Screening and the first salons
February 2027 · Mumbai and Bengaluru · The secretariat verifies eligibility and references; forty-eight nominees are invited to afternoon salons of twelve.
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Boardroom Round
Early March 2027 · Gurugram · Twenty-four proceed to a closed room with the full jury and the hostile question.
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Masterclass Week
Late March 2027 · Hyderabad · Twelve finalists; four days in residence on discourse, dress and the dinner table.
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The Gala
Saturday, 24 April 2027, 19:30 · The Marigold Ballroom, Aerocity, New Delhi · Two hundred and forty guests at twenty-four tables.
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The Chair is conferred
24 April 2027, 22:00 · Five titles are read, then one finalist is asked to take the Chair. Coffee follows in the gallery.
The jury
Five jurors. Two at every table.
Jurors serve for one season, declare their holdings before screening and recuse from any company they hold, advise or compete with. Turn a cameo for the working note.
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Farida Contractor
Presiding Juror. Former Group CHRO, a listed FMCG house
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Meher Irani
Former Managing Director, a private-sector bank
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Gautam Pillai
Professor of Rhetoric, a Delhi university
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Shalini Mahajan
Founder, a Bengaluru design house, Series C
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Tenzin Lhamo
Editor-at-large, a fashion monthly
The Gala and the table plan
Saturday, 24 April 2027. Seated at 19:30.
The Marigold Ballroom, Aerocity, New Delhi. Two hundred and forty guests at twenty-four round tables. No runway, no podium, one Chair.
Counting the days until the twelve are seated.
The table plan
Hover or focus a tier to see its tables. The stage is at the top; the Chair’s table is table 2.
Patrons
Three tiers. Tables, not banners.
Patrons are present at dinner and named in the programme. They hold no seat on the jury and see no scores.
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Patron of the Chair
Three patrons · tables 5 to 10
₹2 crore
- Two tables of ten, in the row behind the finalists
- Presenting credit in the form The Ivory Chair, with the patron
- One seat at the Chair’s table for the patron’s principal
- Host of one salon afternoon, Mumbai or Bengaluru
- Category exclusivity for the season
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Benefactor
Eight benefactors · tables 11 to 18
₹75 lakh
- One table of ten at the Gala
- Name in the programme and on the gallery wall
- One session during Masterclass Week, Hyderabad
- Six invitations to the Boardroom Round reception, Gurugram
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Friend of the Season
Twelve friends · tables 19 to 24
₹25 lakh
- Five seats at a shared table of ten
- Name in the programme
- Two invitations to the Boardroom Round reception
The note and rate card are sent within two working days. Terms: 50 per cent on signature, the balance by 31 March 2027. All amounts exclusive of GST.
Hall of Chairs
Season I, 2026.
Six titleholders from forty-eight nominees. The Chair was conferred at The Marigold Ballroom on 18 April 2026.
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Ishani Deshpande
The Ivory Chair, Season I
Managing Director, a listed paints company
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Varun Iyengar
Presence
CEO, a hospital chain across six cities
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Nandini Palekar
Poise
Founder, a Pune education company, Series B
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Abhimanyu Sinha
Purpose
Group CEO, a renewable-energy developer
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Aarushi Tandon
Discipline
Co-founder, a Mumbai nutrition brand, Series C
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Dhruv Kapadia
Discourse
Group CFO, a listed logistics group
Nominate
Put a name forward.
Nomination is free and confidential. The nominee is told only on invitation to the first salon; the nominator is never named. Nominations close 20 January 2027, 23:59 IST.
Questions
Before you nominate.
Nothing, for nominees. Nomination is free, finalists pay no entry fee, and travel and stay for the salons, the Boardroom Round and Masterclass Week are covered by the secretariat. Gala tables are sold to patrons; finalists and their nominators dine as guests.
Each juror declares shareholdings, advisory roles, board seats and family ties before screening begins. A juror recuses from any nominee whose company they hold, advise, compete with or have worked for in the past five years. Scores are submitted independently and sealed before the jury confers. The number of recusals, not the names, is published after the Gala.
Yes. A nominee learns of the nomination only on invitation to the first salon, and the nominator’s name is never disclosed to the nominee. Submissions are held by the secretariat for the season, are not shared with patrons or used for marketing, and are deleted by 31 July 2027.
Yes, with a written endorsement from a board member, supplied at screening. Self-nominations are screened to the same thresholds as any other and are not identified as such to the jury. Nineteen of Season I’s forty-eight nominees arrived this way.
Black tie or bandhgala; sarees and sherwanis are equally welcome. Dinner is served with vegetarian, Jain, vegan and halal menus; write to secretariat@theivorychair.in by 10 April 2027. The Marigold Ballroom is step-free from the porch to the gallery, with reserved seating, a quiet room and sign-language interpretation available on request.
There is no broadcast and no runway. One photographer records the dinner; finalists approve their own portraits before anything is published, and nothing is licensed to third parties. Titleholders may use the title and the cameo in their own communications for two years from the Gala.
Because the qualities we score are visible at a table and invisible on a catwalk. A seated dinner lets the jury watch a finalist listen, which no stage allows, and it lets two hundred and forty guests see the same thing at the same time, without a screen.