Ms. Archana Surana is the founder and director of Arch College of Design and Business, a renowned design institution that has offered holistic design education to 6000 graduates in the 20 years since its inception. Founded in 2000 in her apartment – formerly named Arch Academy of Design – it now boasts a world-class campus that houses cutting-edge labs and equipment to create the best environment possible for its students to learn and practice design innovation in.

As the Director of the institution, she shapes the vision of the institution, oversees implementation of a curricula carefully crafted to perfection over the years, and represents the institution at international design bodies such as Cumulus, International Federation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) and World Design Organization (WDO) among others. In addition to fulfilling her duties as a veteran educator, she also presides over the team of Backstitch, Arch’s design magazine, as the editor-in-chief and directs the work of Archive, an incubator she set up to help start-ups scale their design innovation with valuable mentoring, resources and networks.

The Women Mentors Forum (WMF) was founded by Ms. Surana to provide mentorship, guidance and support to a network women professionals and entrepreneurs. The forum is driven by inclusive growth where Ms. Surana and its members leverage their experience and networks to help women co-create success in their professional and personal lives. Conversations during its weekly activities and meets center not only around their professional goals but also their lives outside their workplaces.

The Forum aims to create leaders not only at work but also at home – women who can generate value and find economic independence even while being full-time homemakers and mothers. At the Women Mentors Forum, economic empowerment for women and paying it forward are the primary guiding principles. It is with much pride that today the Forum can boast of having 200-odd mentors which have changed the lives of more than 700 women for the better and continue to touch more and more lives every day.