And who am I to talk to you about communication and soft skills?

 The author of this blog is Dr. Ranee Kaur Banerjee, Managing Partner at Expressions@Work, a training and mentoring studio for the development of communication and soft skills across all age groups and profiles. Her credentials and profile follow.

Professional Certificate in Management, AIMA, New Delhi, 2014

Ph.D. Comparative Literature; University of Georgia, 1992

M. A. English; Calcutta University, 1986

B.A. English Honours; St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, 1983

Diplome de Langue Francaise; Alliance Francaise de Calcutta, 1980-83

Certificat de Francais Commercial; Chambre de Commerce, Paris, 1984

Training and Consultancy:

Over the years, Ranee has developed and delivered training modules in communication and soft-skills to corporate groups across the spectrum—from financial institutions to FMCG manufacturers; from engineering firms to newspaper publishers; from real estate developers to schools.

Before conceiving of and founding Expressions@Work, Ranee designed and delivered training programs to many well-known corporate houses as consultant with Value Analytics. Some noteworthy clients included the UB Group, Tata Steel, Usha Telehoist (UT Ltd), The Ambuja Group, Haldia Petrochemicals, Stanchart Bank, ABP Ltd, CATCG, ICICI Bank, The VCK Group, Quotient Engineering.

Ranee has also provided teacher’s training and consultancy services to academic institutions such as Delhi Public School, Rajarhat; Birla High School for Boys; St. Paul’s School, Scott Lane, Kolkata; Disha Foundation and Birla School of Management. Recently, she conducted a three week training program in core competencies in Dubai for one of the biggest multinationals in the Middle East.

She is an expert voice coach for CEOs and industry leaders who seek her mentoring services for public speaking and persuasive communication requirements. She is herself a regular public speaker at debates and panel discussions and other public speaking events and is often asked to judge and chair school and college events.

Writing and Editing:

Ranee Kaur Banerjee began her communication career as a copywriter at the iconic Clarion Advertising Services Ltd.—now Bates India—and in three years, became Copy Chief at Sobhagya Advertising Services Ltd. With two children, she gave up fixed working hours and began her years as a freelancer.

Ranee’s body of published work includes academic articles in international publications, book reviews, newspaper articles, poetry, short plays and notably, children’s fiction. She is the author of the popular children’s book series The Gilly-Gilly Stories and the narrative poem Niti, Green of Heart. Her short plays have been performed at several Kolkata schools and also at the Calcutta School of Music

She often takes on all types of commercial writing and web content assignments and has recently edited and proof-read a book on architecture.

Teaching and Academic Administration:

Ranee helped develop the Language and Business Communication syllabus for the Jadavpur University BBA (Honours) course. She taught this course, delivered at JD Birla Institute, Department of Management, since its inception in 2002 and up to 2014, she has been the only paper-setter and examiner for Jadavpur University for the BBA (Hons) Language and Business Communication paper. In addition, she has been commissioned by a well-known academic publisher to write a textbook on communication.

She took on administrative duties as the Learning Resource Coordinator and Communications Coordinator for the institute in conjunction with her teaching assignments. She was also Visiting Faculty at Birla School of Management, where she conducted a self-designed Corporate Skills Development Programme for the WBUT Master in Management Administration (MMA) degree and taught AIMA PGDM courses.

Honours and Awards:

·           two awards for outstanding teaching and research at the University of Georgia, Athens

·           induction into the Tau Chapter of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars

·           mention and biography in Who’s Who Among International Students in American Universities and Colleges

·           the Saeeda Peermohammed Memorial Creative Writing Award

·           an invitation to join the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for an outstanding scholastic career

For more information on Dr. Banerjee, please visit www.ranee.in