Rajesh Balasubramanian is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore (PGDM) and IIT-Madras (Electrical Engineering). Rajesh had a 6-year career in the banking industry, which he found soul-destroying! He loves teaching, so to fulfill his passion (and heal his soul), he switched to teaching Quant (another of his passions) to CAT students in 2010. He later founded 2IIM and has been helming it since then.

Although his days are full (to say the least) playing CEO at 2IIM, he continues to teach Quant to this day and will always do so! He was, is, and always will remain a true teacher at heart. True to 2IIM’s pedagogy, he is extremely particular about teaching from first principles and ensuring that students have fun while learning. He ensures that each and every teacher at 2IIM follows this pedagogy to the letter.

Rajesh takes the CAT annually and has scored a 100th percentile five times, in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, and 2023!(found here - 2023 scorecard)

Baskar founded 2IIM and continues to head the parent company. He is a Mechanical Engineer from College of Engineering, Guindy, Class of 1991 and completed his PGDM from IIM Calcutta in 1994.

Post his Mechanical Engineering, Baskar joined the venerable Larsen and Toubro in Mumbai. Once in the job, he realized that for all its strengths, L&T was going to be a tough place to make a mark and threw everything into his CAT preparation. He cracked CAT 1991 and joined IIM Calcutta. Upon completing his PGDM from IIM-C, Baskar spent two years at Kotak Mahindra Finance living it up in an Investment Banking career. He soon got bored, and decided to take up the entrepreneurial route.

He started a number of ventures, with the most notable being a CAT coaching institute in Pune, a medical transcription company in Madurai and then a dotcom Company in Chennai (He has seen it all).

Among all this, the dotcom company is really the one that got away (the other two have helped in laying the foundation for future successes). He started the Company pre-boom, managed to keep external funding at bay for a short while; then finally consented to having investors bring in funds into the firm. As luck would have it, just as investors were preparing to go headlong, the dotcom bust happened, and things ground to a halt.

In many ways, this was a good result. If he had become one of those heady dotcom start-up success stories, 2IIM would never have happened. In hindsight, it is great for the rest of the world that the bust happened when it did. And knowing Baskar, I think he would have never been able to live it down if the bust had happened after he had collected his gazillions.

In any event, Baskar started Ascent Education in 2001. Ascent Education has been training students for the CAT exam ever since (although Baskar's teaching experience predates this). The brand 2IIM came into being a few years later. In the first few years, it was practically a one-man show, with Baskar the counselor, marketer, teacher, web-developer doing everything. Slowly, Ascent Education expanded, the company now has spread to two centers in Chennai, across five product categories.

Baskar has taken CAT more than 10 times and cracked it a number of times. He is probably one of the most experienced trainers in the country. In spite of all this experience, he retains his curiosity and his desire to spend maximum time with students. He probably clocks in the maximum hours in classrooms at Ascent Education even in 2020. In every calendar year since 2001, Baskar has spent at least 500 hours in classroom training students for aptitude-based examinations.

He has coached many of the faculty members at 2IIM and therefore has the license to take many liberties with them. I (Rajesh Balasubramanian) joined as 2IIM's first part-time faculty in 2003, and have learnt a lot about teaching from Baskar ever since.

Bharathwaj is a Mechanical engineer from St.Peters Engineering College. After working as a design engineer in Research & Development of Commercial Vehicle Brakes for 4 years, he decided that he had enough of the corporate sector and joined the Marketing and Sales Department in an EdTech startup (2IIM). Luckily for 2IIM, he is also a great teacher !! He takes Quants, Verbal and Logical Reasoning Classes for TANCET, CAT, XAT, and GMAT whenever he gets a chance. He went on to do his MBA from IIT Madras, batch of 2016-2018 and came back to join us post MBA and currently runs Operations, Media, Marketing & Sales.

Although he started out as a Quants Faculty, he is quickly making inroads as a Verbal Faculty. His reading list, dubbed "Bharath's Reading List for CAT" is a huge hit among CAT aspirants.

Ranjeetha is an engineer from SRM Engineering College - Class of 2001. Post 2 years in the Software industry, Ranjeetha completed her MBA from Great Lakes, Chennai in 2005 (the first batch at Great Lakes, Chennai). She worked for a few years in London as a pre-sales manager at assorted Tech Companies. Fortunately for us, she returned to Chennai soon after and decided to stay away from the Corporate Sector. When we see a decent teacher, we do our bit to force them to handle batches for us. Ranjeetha handles verbal reasoning.

Srivatsan is an Engineer from St. Peters College of Engineering; he completed his PGDM from NITIE after his engineering. He is a very enthusiastic problem solver and has been keen on solving non-routine problems right from his school days in the mid 90s. Rajesh and Srivatsan were classmates in school competing against each other in Math Olympiads and so have a very good rapport.

Hitesh currently serves as the Head of Business Development and Centre Head of the 2IIM, Anna Nagar branch. With a strong academic background in Mathematics, he has dedicated himself to assisting and counseling students in their CAT preparation, enabling them to achieve remarkable results. Prior to his tenure at 2IIM, Hitesh held a position at the Royal Bank of Scotland, showcasing his versatility and expertise in the corporate domain. However, fueled by his passion for mentoring students and making a positive impact on their lives, he made a conscientious decision to pursue his true calling. Apart from his core responsibilities, Hitesh actively contributes to the college outreach initiatives undertaken by 2IIM, further solidifying his commitment to education and nurturing talent. His remarkable aptitude for student counseling is complemented by his exceptional public speaking skills, making him an excellent communicator and motivator.

Hitesh's unwavering dedication to his profession and his students has earned him a reputation as a highly effective student counselor, earning the trust and admiration of those he interacts with. With a vision for educational excellence and a passion for empowering students, Hitesh continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of aspiring CAT candidates.

Arvind is a Computer Science Engineer from Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida. He handles Quants, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning classes for CAT and has been taking classes for the past 4 years. He likes solving all kind of Math questions and puzzles (well almost all :)) and firmly believes that Maths if learnt well can be fun.