Gaurav Keerthi
Gaurav Keerthi (born 2 April 1979, in India) is the former President of Debate Association Singapore. He is probably best known to the public in Singapore as one of the permanent judges on Season 2 of the International Emmy Award-nominated TV show The Arena, which began broadcasting on Mediacorp Channel 5 in March 2008.[1] He also appeared as a guest judge for one of the semi-finals of Season 1 of the show in 2007.
Keerthi was born in India, and grew up in Nigeria and Germany, before his family moved to Singapore when he was aged ten. He later took up Singapore citizenship. He was educated at Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College in Singapore, before going on to Stanford University in the United States on a Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship.[2] After returning to Singapore, he became a helicopter pilot in the Republic of Singapore Air Force.
Keerthi served as the President of Debate Association Singapore from 2006 to 2010, having previously served as the organisation's Vice-President from 2005 to 2006. In 2011, he published a book titled "Think Speak Win: Discover the art of debate" (ISBN:978-981-4328-84-5) with a foreword written by then-Minister for Community Development, Youth & Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.