Srivatsan Rajan

Chair                             Partner, Cota Capital

Ashish Dhawan

Philanthropist & Founder, Central Square Foundation

Ashish Dhawan is Founder and Chairman of Central Square Foundation (CSF) and a Founding Member of Ashoka University. Prior to this, he worked for twenty years in the investment management business and ran one of India’s leading private equity funds, ChrysCapital. In June 2012, he left his full-time role at Chrys Capital to start CSF to pursue evidence driven and innovation led system reform in school education. Ashoka University is a not for profit university that aims to offer an Ivy League-quality undergraduate programme in India, based on the US liberal education system. Ashish is also the founder of two new organisations to address the talent gap in the social sector –
ISDM: A development management institute and ILSS: A program to transition experienced corporate talent into the development sector. More recently, Ashish has also created the Foundation for Economic Development (FED) to focus on policy reform in the agriculture sector. He also serves on the board of several non-profits including 3.2.1 Education Foundation, Teach For India, Centre for Civil Society, Bharti Foundation and India School Leadership Institute, Network for Quality Education, Khan Academy India, and Social Finance India. He is an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a dual bachelor’s (BS/BA) holder with Magna Cum Laude honours from Yale University. He is on the Chair of India Advisory Board of Harvard Business School and a member of Yale’s Development Council.

Pritha Venkatachalam

Partner, The Bridgespan Group

Pritha is a Partner in Bridgespan’s Mumbai office. Pritha has been a Research Scholar at the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics. Prior to joining Bridgespan, Pritha established and led the New Delhi office of Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she co-led the Global Health and Nutrition practice area. Previously, Pritha was a Director at Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) UK, where she worked for almost a decade. She set up CEPA’s first international office in New Delhi and directed development mandates in Asia and Africa across public health, agriculture and infrastructure sectors. Pritha’s earlier responsibilities include being a financial specialist at the World Bank on urban infrastructure projects, and a Senior Consultant at Accenture in London and New Delhi. Pritha holds a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore including an exchange program at Melbourne Business School. She is a recipient of the Citibank Leadership Award.

Rati Forbes

Director, Forbes Marshall Group

“Rati Forbes has been a director of the Forbes Marshall group since 1992, where she headed the human resources function till 2011, together with learning and development. During her tenure, Great Place to Work ranked Forbes Marshall — not once but thrice — as a top-25 company to work for in India, the highest rank being six.

At present, Rati heads the Forbes Foundation and is responsible for its CSR and foundation activities. She is recognized for her social initiatives, both within the company and beyond. She chaired the western region cell of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for six years, working on social development. The cell’s main objective is to sensitize corporate entities to their social responsibilities.

Rati has served on the boards of two international foundations, and continues to serve as an independent director on the boards of several listed companies, foundations and non-profits across India.

Rati graduated with psychology (honours) and sociology from the University of Mumbai, and has also undergone executive courses on human resources, organizational behaviour, and strategic philanthropy. She holds a master’s degree in sustainability management and leadership from Cambridge University, UK.”

Shankar Maruwada

CEO, EkStep Foundation

Shankar Maruwada is the CEO of EkStep Foundation, a philanthropic mission he co-founded with Nandan Nilekani and Rohini Nilekani in 2015, to improve basic education for 200 million children in India.

He is a member of the National Steering Committee set up by the Government of India for reshaping the country’s curriculum in line with the 2020 National Education Policy.  More than 25 years of experience across corporate, entrepreneurial, nonprofit and government sectors enables Shankar to see through different lenses, an ability that he has effectively leveraged in shaping EkStep’s mission, using technology strategically to achieve population-scale impact in learning.

Shankar is deeply passionate about data, research, and leveraging technology for creating large-scale transformation in society. He was part of the startup team at Aadhaar; he was also responsible for naming it. He set up one of India’s first data analytics companies, Marketics. This combination of cross-sectoral experience and interdisciplinary approach has been the driving force in pursuing innovative solutions at scale, together with strategic collaborations, in achieving EkStep’s education mission. He is a mentor to startups, social entrepreneurs, and not-for-profits.

The motto of his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam’ (Yoga is excellence at work), and its message of ‘Dedicated to the service of the Nation’, together represent his chosen path of life. He deems it a privilege that he received the best possible higher education in India, and that it was subsidised by the Indian taxpayers. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Shankar values the diversity generated by his experience of having lived, and grown up, in the north, south, east, and west of India. Being a proud husband and a playful father, he considers, are his greatest achievements.

Shaveta Sharma Kukreja

Managing Director Central Square Foundation

Shaveta, Managing Director at Central Square Foundation (CSF), leads CSF’s efforts to improve capacity building and development of educators- teachers, principals and administrators. She also oversees CSF’s organisational development. She brings to the team more than a decade of professional experience in management and education. Her corporate background includes work at The Boston Consulting Group, Global Vantage (a business process outsourcing start-up) and Citibank. She has also been a visiting faculty member in the Human Resources and Organisational Behavior disciplines at various business schools in Delhi NCR. Her primary areas of interest are teaching and research of organisational behaviour and leadership styles. 

Sonny Iqbal

Egon Zehnder

Sonny Iqbal helped found Egon Zehnder’s offices in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. He advises family businesses on succession, founder transition, governance, and the development of family charters across markets. Sonny co-founded, and until recently co-led, the firm’s global family business advisory practice.

Sonny is a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching, McLean, an affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. While actively coaching senior professionals, he frequently speaks and writes on topics related to family businesses. He has published papers in various international journals, including the Harvard Business Review.

Sonny plays an active role in Egon Zehnder’s health, consumer, board, and leadership advisory practices. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Sonny worked with the Oberoi Group in the U.K., India, and the Middle East. He also managed the financial and travel service businesses of American Express in India.