Dr. Koshy Conferred International Holden Medal Award of TI, UK

· The prestigious Holden Medal for Education is given bi-annually by The Textile Institute, Manchester, UK.

· Dr. Koshy is the second Indian to win this prestigious International Award.

· Dr. Koshy, DG & CEO, ATDC and IAM was the Founding Head of Fashion Management at NIFT, New Delhi (1987-2000) and was at the helm of NID, Ahmedabad as the Director (and Governing Council Member) for almost a decade (2000-2009), rewriting the fortunes of Indian Design and creating National Design Policy (2007) and authorizing a Path Breaking tome “Indian Design Edge”, which has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike.

· Dr. Darlie Koshy has been working as DG & CEO of ATDC with over 200 Centres on Pan-India and IAM with its Campus in Gurgaon since January 2009 until now having trained over 2, 00,000 candidates under ISDS since 2010 and over 50,000 candidates in other programmes. He has been the ideator of the ‘SMART’ brand ATDC had launched in October 2010 and the initiator of the TOT Academies apart from the inspiring slogan “Imparting Skills, Improving Lives”. Adoption of technology through Digital Contents, ERP synchronize learning and training for faculty members

· A visionary educator par excellence, he has a Doctorate from IIT Delhi in Management. He is a rank holder in MBA from CUSAT, Kochi.

· Dr. Darlie Koshy undertook specialized training at FIT, New York in the area of International Fashion Marketing and has been recipient of UNDP research grant for conducting International research in 9 importing centres i.e. USA Europe and Japan which led to the publication of successful book “Effecting export marketing of Apparel to the USA, UK & Japan”

Amid much fervour and gaiety, the prestigious International ‘Holden Medal Award’ for Education, by the Textile Institute, Manchester, UK was conferred on December 12, 2016 to Dr. Darlie Koshy, DG and CEO ATDC (Apparel Training & Design and Centre ) and IAM (Institute of Apparel Management), for his outstanding contributions in “Technology based education at the levels”. Ms Stephanie Dick (CEO, TI) presented the award to Dr Koshy.

The Textile Institute was founded in the year 1910 and was chartered by the British Government in 1925. The Institute has Individual and Corporate members in upto 80 countries; membership covers all sectors and all disciplines in textiles say management, art, design, fashion, economics, science, engineering, research, production, marketing, selling, retailing, education and training etc. The award is made to an institute’s member only.

Expressing his pleasure on the selection for the prestigious Holden Medal for Education. Dr. Darlie Koshy, DG and CEO ATDC & IAMsaid, “I am delighted to be conferred the Holden Medal for Education by The Textile Institute, UK which is a much valued International recognition for educators. No single individual can claim the ownership of ideas and transformation of Institutions like NID or NIFT or ATDC or IAM where I have spent by now nearly 3 decades.

The Institutions are bigger than the people. Yes, I feel happy and honoured that I have got the right opportunities mostly at the right time to make contributions I have made in Education especially focused on Textile-Apparel Value Chain. It was a great pleasure heading NID for nearly a decade and being part of the founding team of NIFT during its formative years. But the most heart-warming stay has been now with ATDC especially which gave an opportunity to touch the masses across India and bring light to the eyes of nearly 2.5 lakhs youngsters thus helping 1 million family members. “In 21-22 years at NIFT & NID my leadership and ideas may have benefitted 2000 students and indirectly impacted several more but here in 8 years I could extend my reach to over 2.5 lakhs students through 200 ATDCs making this period most rewarding”.

Dr Koshy has been an educationist par excellence and has been a recipient of many prestigious awards and accolades including IIT Alumni award for contribution to Nation development and the Indian Star of solidarity and the OGTC Path Breaker Award, 2014 etc. From the beginning of his stint at ATDC he has focused on the idea skilling to reach the youth and disadvantaged section of society and scaling up quality Vocational Skill based education has been a passion for him. Dr. Koshy hails from Chengannur near Kottayam in Kerala; Dr. Darlie Koshy had completed his formal education in Kerala.

After completing his schooling he did his graduation in University College, Thiruvananthapuram and MBA at CUSAT, Kochi. After initially working with Karnataka State Handlooms and later at Hantex (the Kerala State Apex Handloom Cooperative) as its Chief Marketing Manager, he became the MD of the Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation during the late 80s. He moved to the National level as the General Manager of National Handloom Development Corporation in Lucknow and then to NIFT, New Delhi to expand his horizons and to optimize his potential and creative ideas.

He was the Director of the icon National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad for two terms in office. He was also the Founding Head of Fashion Management at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). Ever since he undertook the stewardship of ATDC the institute has grown in size and scale tremendously across India with number of centres crossing over 200 in 125 Cities and 23 States having trained 2,50,000 Candidates in about 7 years. ATDC not only offers 300 hrs entry level courses but offers upto 3000 hrs of B.Voc courses thus being the most comprehensive Vocational Training Provider for Textile Apparel sector.

Earlier, the function started with two leadership professional development workshops presided over by Sri Ashok G Rajani, Chairman, AEPC, ATDC and IAM. While in the first half of the function, a ‘Leadership workshop’ on competing, managing and leading people, for members of NISTI, AEPC, ATDC, IAM, Textile-Apparel Owners & Professional Managers, was addressed by international speaker Mr Ben Pandya (USA), in the second half – Professional Development Workshop was led by Ms Stephanie Dick and Ms Rebecca Unsworth of Ti, Manchester, UK.