When we refer to someone as a man with faith and confidence, the reference is to his faith in the superpower and confidence that he has in himself. Our DG Gopal too is a man with faith & confidence, but with a difference. He has faith in himself and has confidence in his fellow members & colleagues. This rare quality made him travel hundreds of miles away from his home town to a place that he has converted into his home town. Today he is set to become the head of 4000 dedicated Rotarians of RID 3030. 
Gopal Shiralkar, a Charter member of Rotary Club of Nagpur West & our Leader for the Rotary year 2011-12, is a strong believer of "When you fail to plan, you actually plan to fail". May it be a theme for flower decoration or Governorship, he always has a winning plan ready and he executes it meticulously. 
Inducted into Rotary in 1986, he became President of the club in the year 1995-96. Later, he handled various District responsibilities as member DGNC, District Secretary, member of GSE   team selection committee, Chairman of Election committee to conduct the elections of DG & DGNC, Assistant Governor & led District Grant Sub Committee for two years, His tenure as President of the club is well remembered & decorated with many activities & projects.
Gopal was instrumental in starting two Interact clubs, a Rotract club & sponsored two Rotary clubs. He pioneered two ongoing projects which are still serving the community viz. Ortho Appliance Library & Inter College Debate Competition in the memory of Late PP Dr. P. R. Dharmadhikari.
He has successfully completed six matching grant projects for the club as project-in-charge. Gopal is an admirer of TRF is Level 5 MPHF & a PHF Society Member, while his better half Usha is also PHF.   
Tolerance & sacrifice are inculcated in him since childhood as he was born in large joint the family on 16 May 1944 in Sangli. He completed his schooling there & later went on to obtain a Degree in Civil Engineering from Walchand College of Engineering. He completed most of his education on merit scholarships. His interest, participation & promotion in the sports define his all-round personality.
He shifted to Nagpur in 1977 & started a Spun pipe manufacturing unit in the name & style of Nagpur Cement Products (Pvt.) Ltd. Today he is the Chairman cum Managing Director of this Empire. "Gopal" as he would like to be addressed, was Chairman of Spun Pipe Manufacturers Association of Maharashtra (Vidarbha Region) & Vice President at state level. He was conferred upon prestigious "Kohinoor Ratna" by A.I.E.F New Delhi, as recognition for individual contribution to the nation growth and for outstanding achievement in the chosen field of activity in 1991. In February 2010, he was felicitated at the hands of former Lok Sabha Speaker and Maharashtra CM Manohar Joshi, by "Jagtik Marathi Chambers of Commerce and Industries", for his 30 years achievements as an Entrepreneur.   
He is serving for last eight years as the Vice President of NGO “Shubh Chintak” which offers financial support to meritorious students from low socio economic class, coming from rural areas. He is also closely associated with “BAL JAGAT”, an NGO working for all round development of children from 4 -14 years of age, in Central India. 

Reading & understanding words through reading is his hobby. He has an impressive collection of books on variety of subjects but his special field of interest is "Corporate Governance based on spirituality". 
He has traveled across the globe to keep abreast with the latest technology & to study technology in manufacturing of RCC & Pre-stressed pipes.
Value addition to fellow members by identifying their talent and giving them opportunity, support & guidance thy name is Gopal. Adding one more zero to a figure is known way of value addition but writing 1 in front of zeros is his way of value addition.
Functional literacy is his master stroke that converts even difficult situations into favorable ones. He believes in the maxim - Understand the work before beginning rather than doing and learning it the hard way.
Making friends is easy but keeping them is difficult! With his caring nature and quality of tolerance, once he makes a friend he remains a friend forever. His leadership & talent to make friends would certainly take our district to newer heights.
Gopal is married to Usha who is a Doctorate in Marathi from Pune University. The couple is blessed with two sons, Abhay, who is successfully taking care of the family Business & Nitin, who is a software Engineer at Pune. Gopal enjoys playing with his sweet & naughty grandchildren Aditya, Amol & Adwait.       
Rotary year 2011-12 is truly going to be a historic year with a lot of big achievements. As Gopal takes over the charge of RID 3030, Rtn. Kalyan Banerjee, would be the third Indian Rotarian to take charge as the President of Rotary International. Gopal has aptly named the District Conference 2011-12, as “KALYANOTSAV  A Celebration of Service”. By a pleasant coincidence this name was unfurled by Kalyanda himself when he was in Nagpur on 25th December, 2010, during the meet “Koffee with Kalyan”- RIPE Kalyan's meeting with President 11-12 of Rotary clubs of RID 3030. Now he looks forward to be installed as District Governor in the august presence of RI President Kalyan Banerjee himself.