About Me

Syed Sultan Ahmed

MD & Chief Learner @LXL Ideas
Educator
Entrepreneur
Film Maker
Publisher
Biker
Sultan is a 1st Gen social entrepreneur and winner of 6 President of India’s National Film Award. He is the MD & Chief Learner @LXL ideas, an organisation that enables learning for life by creating experiences through its research, events, films and publications for students, parents & educators. For 2 decades it has been transforming education through its brands: School Cinema makes meaningful films; Krayon conceptualizes & organises large-impact events; Mentor creates platforms for sharing educational ideas and delivers holistic research & training & IKFF the world’s largest children’s film festival.

Sultan is a passionate educator, an amazing speaker, film producer, publisher, motivational speaker, admired event manager and a prolific educational blogger. He holds a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship from MIT-Boston. An alumnus of St. Germain High School Bangalore, he is a Chemical Engineering from Bangalore University, certified NLP practitioner and Master Trainer from Dale Carnegie USA.

And you are determined to make your life be what you want it to be!
Sultan believes in living life to the fullest, his interests include long distance rides on his Harley, exploring the world through his travels, horse riding and trying different cuisines.

Sultan rose to fame by creating Horlicks Wizkids, an event that has given generations of school students across Asia a platform to express their talents. He introduced the concept of Film Pedagogy to the world by creating School Cinema a first its kind learning methodology in the world that utilizes the power of films to teach life skills.

The International Kids Film Festival (IKFF) is a project that is keeping Sultan busy these days. IKFF is a unique international film festival for kids hosted by schools across 20 countries that provides an opportunity for students to Watch the best of international children’s films, Learn from film-making master classes and Make Cinema to participate in the World’s Largest film-making competition.

In addition to leading LXL Ideas, Sultan is an advisor to MHRD, CIET-NCERT, Member of FICCI School Education Committee and the Mentorship Chair for Entrepreneur Organisation South Asia. He serves as an advisor to several children’s brands, educational institutions, social organisations & entrepreneurial ventures. He has published several research papers in international journals on Psychosocial Development of Children and Media Pedagogy.

Awards & Recognitions

  • President of India’s 64thNational Film Awards 2016 – Best Educational Film
  • President of India’s 64thNational Film Awards 2016 – Best Film on Family Values
  • President of India’s 63rdNational Film Awards 2015 – Best Film on Family Values
  • President of India’s 61stNational Film Awards 2014 – Best Promotional
  • President of India’s 59thNational Film Awards 2012 – Best Film on Family Values Sports
  • President of India’s 59thNational Film Awards 2012 – Best Film on Sports
  • ACEF Asian Awards 2017 (4 awards) 2018 (6 awards)
  • CMO Asia Event Industry Excellence Awards 2016 – Most Admired Event for Youth
  • India Education Award 2016 – Best Education Sector Magazine
  • Best Magazine in Education – World DIDAC Association IDA Awards 2013
  • Research papers published in International Educational Journals – EDULEARN 2013, WASET 2012 & Learner 2010
  • Brand Leadership Award at the World Brand Congress – CMO Awards 2010 & 2011
  • EEMAX Awards 2009 (5 awards) 2010 (4 awards) 2011 (5 awards) 2012 (6 awards) 2013 (3 Awards) 2014 (3 awards) 2015 (3 awards) 2016 (2 awards) 2017 (2 awards) 2018 (2 awards)
  • WOW Awards 2009 (2 awards) 2010 (2 awards) 2012 (4 awards) 2013 (3 awards) 2017 (2 awards)
  • Promo Power Award 2008
  • School Cinema films nominated in over 300 other International Film festivals including Toronto, San Diego, Australia, Los Angeles, Australia, Chicago, Mexico

My Story

“As a student academics did not interest me and I found education very boring and irrelevant. I enjoyed public speaking and participated and won every speaking competition I heard of. While studying engineering I got an opportunity to teach public speaking in a school. I loved teaching and very early in my career I realized that I had a flair for inspiring students. That’s how I set out to change the way education happens in our schools by starting and organisation called ‘Activity’ which was later called EduMedia and now its rebranded as LXL Ideas.

After having worked with millions of students over 2 decades I have learned that you cannot Teach students, but interestingly they Learn – they learn from their environment and experiences. So my life journey is about creating experiences for children to learn lessons of life.

I love life and believe that mere exploration of one’s own potential is not enough; living one’s life `Fully’ is extremely important. I love challenges, travel, food, cars, bikes, horses, adventure and making a difference to the lives of people.

The world around me changes at a dramatic pace and I keep pace with it by innovating the educational experiences I work with. This is the reason behind the evolution of my work from teaching to training to events to publications to films to digital. A question that I have always asked myself in this career journey is - How can I make education more relevant and real? Finding the answer keeps me alive and I am always looking for a better way to do things.”

- Syed Sultan Ahmed