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IIC Member Convention, The Habitat Centre, New Delhi
28th January 2015
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Mona Kachhwaha
Director
Investments, Caspian Investments

Mona is an Investment Director at Caspian Impact Investment Advisors. As the fund manager for the India Financial Inclusion Fund, she has spearheaded the fund’s investments in financial inclusion and affordable housing. She works closely with Caspian's portfolio companies and serves on the boards of various portfolio companies. 
​
Mona has over 22 years of financial services industry experience – prior to her current role at Caspian (since 2007) she was with Citibank (1994-2007) where she worked in a variety of roles in consumer banking, including as the risk head for mortgage business and business head of microfinance business in India. She was instrumental in striking large asset relationships, which led to significant growth in Citibank's microfinance asset base in subsequent years.
​
Mona graduated in Mathematics from Delhi University (1992) and holds a Post Graduation Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur (1994).
 
 
Mukesh is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Menterra. Till recently, he was a Chief Investment Officer at Villgro, India’s oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator. He has over 10 years of experience in impact investing, private equity and investment banking space. He has worked on over 50 buy-side and sell-side transactions across Asia, Middle-East and Europe.
 
Mukesh is also a non-executive director on the board of Biosense Technologies, a company that produces low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic solutions for the developing world.

​He is a Chartered Accountant and has passed all three levels of CFA from CFA Institute, USA.

Vishal Mehta
Co-founder & Managing Director
Lok Capital
Founding Director IIC

 
Vishal is co-founder of Lok Capital that started its impact investment
operations in India in late 2004. Since then, apart from building Lok Capital
as a premier venture capital fund, he has played a key role in fostering Impact
Investing space in India including as founding director of Impact investing
Council (IIC).
 
Lok Capital is one of the first India focused impact investor, backed by
institutional investors and is currently investing through it 3rd fund. It has
profitably liquidated its first fund, raised about $170m over the three funds
and invested close to $100m in over 25 enterprises.
 
Prior to Lok, Vishal worked for about a decade in marketing and business
development in the financial services and telecom sector, both in developed as
well as developing economies. Vishal holds an Engineering degree from Delhi
University and an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
 

Amit Bhatia
Chairman of Aspire
Founding CEO IIIC
(October 2014-December 2016)

Amit Bhatia, the Founding CEO of Impact Investors Council (www.iiic.in) is an award-winning social entrepreneur. IIC members have cumulatively invested $2 billion in 325 social enterprises in India, across sectors like financial inclusion, affordable education & healthcare, water & sanitation, livelihoods, agriculture, clean energy, etc. IIC focuses on impact measurement & standardisation, research & policy support and self-regulation for the impact-investing sector in India.

Amit is also Chairman of Aspire ( www.aspireindia.org), a social enterprise focused on Employability Education. Since 2007, Aspire has trained over 65,000 students across 100 institutions in 18 states and 45 cities. Amit has been recognized as “Education Czar” in 2008 by MINT (a WSJ publication); Finalist of John P. McNulty Prize in 2010 and Winner in 2012 (from The Aspen Institute); featured as “NEXT” in Fast Company (2011); recognized as “Young Turk” by CNBC-TV18; and, featured by Business Today as “66 Reasons to Keep Your Faith in India” in 2013.

Finally, Amit is Founder & Managing Trustee of Aspire Circle ( www.aspirecircle.org), a non- profit promoting social leadership in India through Fellowships. Aspire Circle has ~100 Fellows amongst Heads of CSR/Corporate Foundations, NGO/Non-Profits, DFIs, Intermediaries, as well as Social Entrepreneurs, Impact Investors, Academics, etc.

Amit has 24 years of management experience and till 2007 served as CEO of WNS Knowledge Services, successfully listing WNS on NYSE with a $1 billion IPO. Prior to WNS, Amit was the Founding Country Manager for FreeMarkets, Inc. Most notably, Amit founded and led McKinsey Knowledge Centre, the consulting firm’s global research centre. He was also a Financial Analyst at American Express.

Amit has a Bachelor’s degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce; Master’s Degree from Delhi School of Economics with a University Gold Medal.

SUGANDHI LUTHRA
Manager: design & communication

Sugandhi joined the team in May 2016 taking care of… She has 6 years’ experience in Design Firms, Advertising Agencies & Luxury Brands and has worked with Raffles Millennium, Reddiffusion, Law & Kenneth and Moon Beam Capital. Sugandhi completed her Communication Design degree from Pearl Academy of Fashion. She also has a Post Graduate degree in Retail Management. Reach out to her at sugandhi.luthra@iiic.in

NEHA BHATNAGAR 
Head : Partnerships

Neha is IIC’s second employee (after the CEO) and has been associated with the organisation since October 2015. She manages Memberships and core functions at IIC.

Traveler by nature and wanderer at heart, Neha has tapped multiple industries during the 10 years of her work life. Post her specialization in Robotics/Multimedia/Software Development from Melbourne, Australia she worked with brands like CitiBank (Australia), TCS, IMS (Education). After her stint at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad she tested waters at Oliver Wyman (Singapore) and Google-d around. Despite her varied work experiences, she feels that her growing years at Scindia School, Gwalior and her time with her family will always be the most impact-ful in her life.

Neha can be contacted on neha.bhatnagar@iiic.in

RANJNA KHANNA
DIRECTOR IIIC 

Ranjna  is leading Impact investors Council in the capacity of Director. Her desire to work for the Social sector and  under-served was the underlying reason for her to join the organisation. She has been associated with IIC since May 2016 and managed the Research and Advocacy functions for the organization in the initial few months. 
Ranjna, a management graduate from Management Development Institute (MDI), has  15 years of management experience out of which a major part is with corporate banking across client origination, corporate credit, risk underwriting and portfolio management. Before Joining IIC, She has worked with HSBC as Head of Risk Analysis Unit for North & East India, Vice President –Client Management, Vice President –Credit and Risk Management, North India. She has also worked earlier with Standard Chartered Bank on the Client Origination side for the Mid market segment. She started her career as a sector analyst with AXIS Bank and managed bank exposure to key sectors like hotels and sugar. Ranjna has a bachelor degree in Commerce from Punjab University. 
Ranjna can be contacted on ranjna.khanna@iiic.in

SIDDHARTH NAUTIYAL

Investment Partner, Omidyar Network, Co Chair, Capital & Advocacy Commitee
Siddharth is an investment partner at Omidyar Network where he leads the firm’s Emerging
Tech investments in India.
​Before joining Omidyar Network, Siddharth was an entrepreneur, angel investor, and mentor
to startup companies across Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune.  He incubated and
advised companies in edtech and home relocation, invested in fintech, B2B SAAS, and
consumer internet companies, and served on the board of India’s largest distributed clean
energy company.
 Siddharth was formerly with Bessemer Venture Partners, where he was most recently a
partner in the firm’s Mumbai office. While at Bessemer, Siddharth had the opportunity to
invest in and work with companies across various sectors including e-commerce, clean
energy, healthcare, and hospitality.
 Siddharth joined Bessemer from McKinsey & Company, where he spent five years in the
India office, working with companies across financial services, healthcare, retail, and
manufacturing industries.
Siddharth holds a Post Graduate Diploma in management from the Indian Institute of
Management in Ahmedabad and a B. Tech. in computer science and engineering from the
Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

ROYSTON BRAGANZA
CEO, GRAMEEN FOUNDATION

Royston joined Grameen Capital in 2007 to launch the organization as CEO. He currently oversees all aspects of operations in India. Grameen Capital is part of the global Grameen family of companies, the flagship of which is the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank founded by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.In his earlier assignment, as a Senior Vice President with HSBC, Royston was instrumental in setting up and heading HSBC’s Microfinance & Priority Sector business. Prior to that, he was the head of HSBC’s SME Business.
Before joining HSBC, Royston worked in Citibank India for over 8 years in various assignments both across the Consumer Bank as well as the Corporate Bank.
He serves on many boards and advisory bodies, including Sa-Dhan, Grameen Foundation India, FICCI Financial Inclusion Committee, the CII National Committee on NBFC’s, the United Nations Microfinance Resource Group and the India’s Impact Investors Executive Council. The London-based Finance Monthly publication named Royston in their 2013 Global CEO Award Winners list as one of the Top 4 CEOs in Asia, and Top 2 in India, the other one being Kumar Mangalam Birla.Royston has done his Masters in Management Studies from the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

KARTIK DESAI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ASHA IMPACT

Kartik is Executive Director of Asha Impact – an impact investment and policy advocacy platform for business leaders set up by Vikram Gandhi and Pramod Bhasin. He leads the investment activities of the virtual fund as well as the non-profit activities of the Asha Impact trust. Kartik has worked with several pioneering organisations in the development and social finance sectors both globally (Rockefeller Foundation and UNDP) and in India (Lok Capital and Aavishkaar), as well as been an investment banker with Merrill Lynch executing large IPO, M&A and PE transactions. Kartik has a Bachelors in Finance from the Wharton School and a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University.

Geeta Goel
Vice President, Mission Investing
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

As the Vice President of Mission Investing at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Geeta is responsible for all impact investments undertaken by the foundation globally. Under her leadership the foundation has made catalytic program-related investments across its India-based microfinance and education initiatives and its US - based education initiatives. The foundation currently has an active portfolio of 35 companies in the impact investing space. In addition, the foundation has also supported five early-stage funds and incubators in India and the US to accelerate the funding of mission-aligned companies in education and skill training. Prior to this role, Geeta led the Family Economic Stability portfolio at the foundation, focusing on financial inclusion and jobs and livelihoods. Under her guidance, the foundation helped catalyze and grow the urban microfinance market in India. Prior to joining the foundation, Geeta spent 12 years with the Corporate Finance practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Anurag Aggarwal
 

Anurag is a Partner at Aavishkaar and has been with the Aavishkaar-Intellecap group since 2005. He has been part of the Founding team of the Group company Intellecap and last served as its CEO. In his 10 years of his association with Intellecap, Anurag set up and built the Company's Investment Banking Practice which raised over INR 10 billion of equity capital for over 50 early and growth stage impact enterprises. Anurag has played a key role in incubating I3N (Intellecap Impact Investment Network), India's first impact focused angel network within Intellecap and continues to guide the team as part of its group of strategic advisors. He was one of the key architects of creating the current group structure of Aavishkaar and Intellecap and led the efforts of the Group in the incubation and acquisition of the 3 NBFCs (IntelleCash, IntelleGrow and Arohan) within the Intellecap group. 
In addition to serving on the Board of Intellecap as its CEO, Anurag has in the past served as an independent Director on the Board of A Little World and Zero Mass Foundation. He represents Intellecap interest on the board of group companies Arohan Microfinance, Jainsons Finlease (IntelleGrow) and IntelleCash Microfinance Network. 
Before joining the Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, Anurag worked in the Cash Management Services Division of ICICI Bank in Mumbai. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Commerce Degree from Madras University, Chennai (India), and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal (India).

Jinesh Shah 

Jinesh Shah is the co-founder of Omnivore Partners, a venture fund investing in early stage Indian start-ups developing breakthrough technologies for food, agriculture and rural livelihoods. Jinesh is a Director for multiple Omnivore-backed startups, including Stellapps Technologies, Barrix Agro Sciences, Retigence Technologies and FR8. Previously, Jinesh was the Vice President and CFO at Nexus Venture Partners, one of India’s leading early stage venture capital funds, where he lead the finance organization and also few select portfolio investments. He earlier served in Finance roles with Datamatics (leading Treasury/M&A), Patni Computers (initiating the IPO process), and HCL Technologies (founding the BPO business). He is a Chartered Accountant with B.Com from R. A. Poddar College and an MMS (Finance) from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). 

LM Singh 

 L M. Singh is heading the Impact Investment for the Urban Health Project supported by USAID.
L. M. Singh has over 25 years of extensive experience serving Fortune 500, growth and early stage businesses in India, UAE, Bahrain, London, New York in the areas of audit, consulting, investments, mergers & acquisitions, buy outs, capital raise, fund management and strategic advisory roles. He has held senior management and Board positions on public and private companies and has worked with PwC, Ernst & Young and TAIB Bank, an international investment and merchant bank, where he last served as President & Country Head in New York and London. He was Managing Partner at Lotus Capital LLC, New York, a private equity firm and most recently Managing Director at Langham Capital Ltd, New Delhi, India, a cross border investment bank, where he was responsible for managing senior relationships with corporates, private equity, early stage and venture capital funds and leading transactions in sectors which included IT, technology, education and healthcare.
L. M. Singh is a Chartered Accountant and also a Certified Information Systems Auditor, CISA (USA). He is a Graduate in Business Studies; B.Com (Honours) from Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) University of Delhi. He is a Member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Financial Conduct Authority, Institute of Internal Auditors, AIIA (USA) and Institute of Information Systems Audit & Control, CISA. He is also an active speaker at various industry forums including Silicon India, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and Asian Private Equity.      

Nitin Aggarwal 

Nitin Agrawal is the Dy. CEO at IntelleGrow. He has over 15 years of work experience focused on rural/lower mass markets in financial services industry across Bank and NBFCs. Nitin comes with an experience of managing large teams from diverse functional areas with a keen eye to pick business drivers. Prior to IntelleGrow, Nitin led the strategy and risk function besides serving as interim CEO at Spandana, one of the largest NBFC-MFI. There, he actively participated in the business revival including crisis response, Corporate Debt Restructuring, fund raise, process improvement, trainings and rollouts. Prior to that, he worked at Fullerton India in their rural foray managing the rural project rollout, business planning, risk control and reviews. He also worked at ICICI Bank in product and tech covering microfinance product, exploring rollout of smart cards in rural space, agri channel finance and bulk warehouse receipt finance. Before that, he did research and credit ratings at M-CRIL besides working in Media production planning and budgeting, materials management in Times' group and India Today group. Nitin graduated from Institute of Rural Management, Anand specializing in Finance and Rural/ low-income livelihoods.

Preeti Sinha 

Ms. Preeti Sinha is the Senior President & Glocal Convenor of YES Global Institute; a practicing think tank at YES Bank.
She is also on Board of SIX (Social Innovation Exchange), UK, and
International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR). She is also part
of the Green Business Certification Inc. India’s (GBCI India) CEO
Advisory Council, Prior to YES Bank, she has been associated with African Development Bank (AfDB), the Financing for Development (FfD) Initiative at the World Economic Forum, HSBC, Rabobank, Lehman Brothers and JP
Morgan. 
She has worked extensively on financing for development under Resource Mobilization and Strategy Development in over 4 continents –Asia, North America, Europe and Africa. With over 25 years of global experience, she leads the YES Institute in New Delhi.
She was Project Director for an extensive period for. She has prior experience of over 15 years in investment banking for HSBC, Rabobank, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan in London, Hong Kong, Mumbai and New York. Preeti has an Executive Education degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She achieved a Masters degree in Global Leadership from the World Economic Forum. She holds a MBA from the Yale University School of Management (SOM). She has a BA Honors degree from the Dartmouth College in Economics and Computer Science

Ritu Verma  

Ritu is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She is passionate about bringing innovation from lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporates - Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. If Ritu had any spare time she’d love to travel to all ends of the earth and read a few books.

Mukesh Sharma   

Mukesh is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Menterra. Till recently, he was a Chief Investment Officer at Villgro, India’s oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator. He has over 10 years of experience in impact investing, private equity and investment banking space. He has worked on over 50 buy-side and sell-side transactions across Asia, Middle-East and Europe.
 
Mukesh is also a non-executive director on the board of Biosense Technologies, a company that produces low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic solutions for the developing world.

​He is a Chartered Accountant and has passed all three levels of CFA from CFA Institute, USA.

Ayesha Gopal  

Ayesha joined Elevar in 2016 and works in strategy and business development to help grow and scale Elevar. Ayesha believes that: “In an increasingly connected world the entrepreneurial endeavour to uplift the underserved will form one of the bedrocks of the growth story in years to come.”

Ayesha returned to India in 2015 after spending 14 years in the United States. Her transition to India from the US was largely driven by her interest in identifying opportunities within the investment space particularly in those sectors that are minimally structured, heterogeneous in nature and are at a nascent stage of organization. Ayesha has over 10 years of work experience in the finance sector. In her seven years at Moody’s in credit ratings she cycled through several industries (retail, packaged foods, restaurants, consumer products and utilities). She also spent a year at RBC in equity research following a portfolio of chemical companies. Upon returning to India she joined Capital Float. In her role at Capital Float she led their effort to build a credit rating framework.
Ayesha has an MBA from the University of Michigan. She also holds a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. She is an avid traveller and an amateur photographer.
 

Anoop Nambiar  

Anoop has joined Gray Matters Capital as the India Director of Operational Excellence and is responsible for the long-term success of our investees by providing management support to existing portfolio companies. His role involves building relationships with and on behalf of our investees, identifying key challenges within their enterprises and mobilizing resources to help them scale and grow their impact.
Anoop has over 20 years of experience across the corporate and development sectors. He started his career in IT and has extensive experience in technology management, consulting and outsourcing across industries and functions. In 2012, he transitioned to the development sector to align both his personal and professional interests.
Prior to GMC, Anoop worked with InDev, an advisory services and consulting organization, with the mission to catalyze inclusive development. At InDev, he developed and supported market-based models and solutions for financial inclusion and livelihoods inclusion. Previously, he worked with Accenture and Infosys, where he served multiple clients and led key technology programs and groups.
Anoop holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kerala.

Saneesh Singh   

Saneesh has over 26 years of experience in the fields of development, banking, and finance, financial inclusion, MSME lending and social and impact investments. He leads Opportunity International’s initiatives in India. Saneesh has been engaged in institution building, mentoring and governance of major microfinance institutions (MFIs) and has wide exposure to innovative community finance arrangements & social impact investments in India and abroad. He is a member of Inclusive Finance India Group of Advisors and has been associated as committee member with various national level MSME technical institutes, industry associations, business incubators and management training institutions. He also serves on key committees and industry forums associated with social performance,responsible finance and impact investments.

Saneesh has earlier worked in senior managerial capacities at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and was part of the core team that initiated its highly successful microfinance program. He was also involved in significant initiatives relating to institutional development, capacity building, technology upgradation, livelihood financing and financial inclusion. He successfully implemented prestigious bilateral projects with UKAid, IFAD, World Bank, GIZ and Swiss Aid during his SIDBI stint. He also played a key role in startup support and growth of Bandhan, the leading Indian MFI which is now a Universal Bank.

Saneesh holds Master’s Degree in Social Work as well as in Systems Analysis and Design and is an Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He is a British Chevening (Banking and Finance) Scholar from London School of Economics and Political Science and has specialized in Private Equity Investments from Indian School of Business, as also in Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance from Harvard Business School.  He currently serves on the boards of several leading Urban and Rural Micro Finance Institutions, including a Small Finance Bank.

Ushnisha  

Ushnisha currently leads Acumen's Lean Data team in India. Previously, she was a management consultant and program implementer for various global DFIs, philanthropies and social businesses across sectors such as Clean Energy, Water and Sanitation, Healthcare and Education. She also has extensive experience in framework development, data sciences and new age experimentation in the field of Development Monitoring and Evaluation, and Low Income customer interaction. She holds a MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Urmi Sengupta  

Urmi is responsible for managing grant-making on field-building and collaborative activities to inform and build the impact investing marketplace. Organizations in the field that are supported by this work include those undertaking research, building new investment products and platforms and facilitating industry collaboration on a global scale. She also represents the team on impact investing efforts undertaken in conjunction with the Foundation’s international programs.

With close to two decades of experience in international economic development, banking and impact investing, Urmi has worked with stakeholders along the financial services delivery chain, focusing specially on the small and micro segments. She started her career in corporate banking at Bank of America in India after a business degree from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, later earning a master’s degree (summa cum laude) at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. For eight years, she worked with CapitalPlus Exchange, leading and managing relationships with small business finance and microfinance institutions and developing a range of capacity building initiatives. Her work included conceptualizing, launching and running the first global community network for emerging market small business banks, an initiative that is now part of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) SME Finance Forum managed by the International Finance Corporation.

Sarika Mendu  

Prior to joining Lok, Sarika was Fulbright research grantee at The Copenhagen Business School and a Teach for America Corps Member in Chicago. Sarika holds a BSBA from Kenan-Flagler at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Sarika is working as Analyst with Lok Capital.

Nisha Datt  

Nisha Dutt is Chief Executive Officer of Intellecap, a  Global Firm building entrepreneurial ecosystem focussed on South Asia, South East Asia and Africa. As Chief Executive Officer Nisha guides the global positioning of Intellecap business and also serves on its Board of Directors. Before taking over as the Chief Executive officer, Nisha established the Intellecap consulting practice globally.  Her key contribution has been marrying technology with challenges of healthcare, financial services, incubation and conceptualizing programs such as www.startupwave.co , Innovations Labs and Credit-tree. 
 
Nisha is a member of the Group Executive Council of Aavishkaar Intellecap Group.  She serves on boards of listed companies including SUBEX and 63 Moons. Her career spans across 15 years of experience in strategy and operations in national and multinational corporates. She has also served on the Board of Directors of several listed companies in India. She holds an MBA from the University of Ohio and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Oklahoma State University, USA.
 

Sandeep Farias  

Sandeep co-founded Elevar Equity in 2008 with the view that “Lack of access to basic services for underserved communities is an issue of discrimination that must be challenged. If a service can be provided by a business on an affordable cost, high scale basis, it is imperative that we leverage the power of markets to scale and provide access to life changing services to millions of individuals and their communities.”

Sandeep has close to 20 years of experience in diverse areas such as emerging markets investing, microfinance and other financial services, governance, organizational design and corporate law. He has consistently been passionate about working with early stage companies that foster economic development. Sandeep has led Series A investments in what are now some of India’s best “low income community” focused companies. These companies include Ujjivan (a highly respected urban microfinance institution), Vistaar (the leading micro and small enterprise lender), Shubham (a community focused housing finance company), Madura (one of the most efficient microfinance institutions), Glocal (a fast growing ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ hospital chain), Indifi (an innovative technology integrated lending marketplace for SMEs) and SecureNow (distributor of customized general insurance for SMEs). He currently sits on the board of Madura, Vistaar, Shubham, Glocal, Indifi and SecureNow. Prior to Elevar, between 2004 and 2008 he founded and ran the Indian operations of Unitus, a microfinance accelerator where he partnered with, and supported, some of India’s leading microfinance institutions (who were in the early stages of their journey). The companies he has invested in, or partnered with, have together reached close to 20 million customers in the last few years.

Sandeep started his career in 1996 after completing an integrated law and arts degree from the National Law School of India University. Over eight years, he worked at two leading corporate law firms (Amarchand and Nishith Desai Associates), worked with clients such as Google, Amazon, Singapore Telecom and Temasek and founded NDA’s corporate and development sector practice. He also established NDA’s offices in Palo Alto and Bangalore and helped the firm win the Asian Law Firm of the Year (Pro Bono) Award from the International Financial Law Review for his work with the American India Foundation after the Gujarat earthquake in 2000. Sandeep is also passionate about politics, design, cycling and good conversations.
 

Ajit Mahadevan  

Ajit Mahadevan joined Acumen as India Country Director. Ajit joined ​Acumen from Ernst & Young, where he has served as Advisory Partner & Leader (Life Sciences) for the past six years.  At EY, he was a strategic advisor to the leadership of some of the leading Indian and global life science and healthcare players with the focus being business transformation and growth.  Prior to his time at E&Y, Ajit was President of Piramal Healthcare, one of the leading pharmaceuticals companies in India, where he built the international business from inception in 2002 to $300M by the end of 2008. Ajit held multiple leadership roles across strategy, M&A and business leadership. During his tenure at Accenture’s Strategic Services practice in UK and India, he led the development of one of the firm’s largest and most successful internal projects – the Offshore Development Centre in 2001, which has now grown to about 100,000 people across multiple cities in India. Ajit has worked in an advisory capacity to Acumen in the past, most recently participating in Regional Fellows selection panels in Mumbai.

Ajit holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Sciences from PSG College of Technology, India and a Masters of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business)..
 

Anuradha  

Anuradha brings extensive experience in early-stage venture capital to her role at Omidyar Network. Anuradha leads investments in financial inclusion that bring critical services to millions of financially underserved Indians. 

Prior to joining Omidyar Network in early 2012, Anuradha spent seven years at VentureEast, an early-stage venture capital fund. While there, she made many successful investments across sectors spanning clean tech, enterprise software, IT services, financial inclusion, supply chain, and group buying. Previously she was an investment banker at Lazard India where she focused on the life sciences and consumer products sector. Anuradha also served in various M&A, business development, and corporate strategy roles at UTV Interactive and Cadila Pharmaceuticals. She began her career as a principal correspondent on the corporate reporting and equity analysis team for one of India’s leading business dailies, The Financial Express.

Anuradha received an MBA in finance and a BS in physics from Madurai Kamaraj University.

​Srikrishna Ramamurthy  

Mr. Srikrishna Ramamoorthy is a Co-Founder and Partner at Unitus Seed Fund LLC since joining the firm in 2012. He is responsible for the India operations. Mr. Ramamoorthy has been involved with organizations that are working towards improving lives of people at the 'Base of the Pyramid', especially in microfinance, enterprise lending, low income housing, and urban livelihoods. In microfinance, he has been part of the founding team at Ujjivan, where Mr. Ramamoorthy setup and managed microfinance branches. He served as a Program Manager at Unitus India, where he led microfinance innovation initiatives including micro insurance, savings and training. Mr. Ramamoorthy was a Co-Founder of Kinara Capital where he worked on various functions including client sourcing and product development. Prior to Kinara Capital, Mr. Ramamoorthy worked at Michael & Susan Dell Foundation where he led the foundation's efforts in urban livelihoods and managed a portfolio of equity investments and grants in urban microfinance and low income housing. Mr. Ramamoorthy also represented the foundation as a Director and Observer on the Boards of investee companies. Before MSDF, he was an Associate with Unitus Advisors Pvt Ltd where he built product and service offerings including savings, microinsurance and training for Unitus network microfinance institutions and their clients, through partnerships with private sector organizations. Mr. Ramamoorthy has both entrepreneurial and investing perspectives with extensive experience in impact investing, consulting and implementation. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from the University of Bangalore.

​Anil Sinha, Senior Advisor,GIIN 

Anil Sinha is presently Senior Advisor at GIIN. He was previously Senior Manager IFC and Regional Head of Inclusive Business and Advisory Services South Asia, which he started from scratch.   Anil was with IFC for about 22 years and lived and worked in Africa, East Asia, South Asia as well DC. He started his career with IFC in 1992 as an Investment Officer in Harare covering Zimbabwe, and Angola and Mozambique. He then moved to Hanoi, Vietnam in 1997 as part of a core team to start a new program to extend IFC’s reach through small business investments as well as launch the Mekong private sector and SME Advisory program. He them moved to Ho Chi Minh City to expand the Mekong program in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as Regional Manager. Moving to Dhaka, he started from scratch, large innovative advisory programs including access to finance, sustainable business advisory, investment climate and PPP with a focus on increasing shared prosperity. He expanded the IFC program to Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and lately India with many first time partnerships with development institutions, state and national governments, corporates and foundations. He built and led a strong team of 140 diverse IFC staff in South Asia and was awarded the Bank Group Diversity and Inclusive leadership Award. A number of the Inclusive Business projects he led have won awards internally and externally.

​JayaroopaJeyabharthi, Principal, Patamar Capital

Jayaroopa has been involved in the social enterprise and impact investing space since 2007. Before joining Unitus, she led India investment operations at FondazioneOpes, an Italian impact fund, successfully closing transactions in the clean-tech and education realms. Prior to Opes, she led the fundraising efforts at Janalakshmi Financial Services, one of the largest microfinance institutions in India. She successfully executed several debt, equity and loan securitization rounds. A well-capitalized Janalakshmi successfully navigated turbulent times for the microfinance industry in India to emerge as a leading player in the space.
Jayaroopa started her career as a corporate banker in India’s leading private sector banks before moving onto an entrepreneurial stint at a ceramic design venture. Her interest in the social space was kindled while volunteering with Janaagraha, a not-for-profot institution advocating urban governance and reforms in India.
She holds an MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar specializing in Finance. She is based in Bangalore, India.

Kartik Desai

Kartik is Executive Director of Asha Impact – an impact investment and policy advocacy platform for business leaders set up by Vikram Gandhi and Pramod Bhasin. He leads the investment activities of the virtual fund as well as the non-profit activities of the Asha Impact trust. Kartik has worked with several pioneering organisations in the development and social finance sectors both globally (Rockefeller Foundation and UNDP) and in India (Lok Capital and Aavishkaar), as well as been an investment banker with Merrill Lynch executing large IPO, M&A and PE transactions. Kartik has a Bachelors in Finance from the Wharton School and a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University.

NamithaJanardhan, Vice President, Investor Relations
Namitha is a professional with well-rounded experience of over five years in various assignments related to financial services sector. Namitha joined IFMR Investments in May 2014. Today, her role encompasses setting up of AIF structures, fund raising, investor relations and product design. Prior to joining IFMR Investments her expertise covered Financial Research & Analysis; Demand Assessments and Business Consulting. Namitha has completed her PGDM in Development and Sustainable Finance from IFMR Business School.
 

Philip Varnum,
Chief Financial & Administrative Officer, Lemelson Foundation

Philip Varnum serves as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, responsible for the Foundation’s finances, investments, IT infrastructure, and administration. He is responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s program-related investment portfolio which includes both loans and equity investments. He also serves as the staff liaison between the Foundation and its investment consultants. This includes performance reporting and the divest/invest process.
Prior to joining The Lemelson Foundation in 2007, Philip was with Portland State University Foundation for nearly ten years where he was responsible for accounting, investment, human resources, real estate and entrepreneurial functions. Philip earned an MBA degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

RaviVukkudala, CEO, Northern Arc

Ravi is the CEO of Northern Arc Investments and has over 13 years’ experience in credit investing, risk and fund management. Prior to joining Northern Arc, he was working in credit and rates assessment as part of the Fixed Income investment team at Invesco Mutual fund. His capital market experience also includes stints with companies such as Bharti AXA Investment Managers, JM Financial Ltd, and Merrill Lynch. Ravi is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA Institute) & Financial Risk Manager (GARP) and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Finance from NMIMS (Mumbai), Masters in Management & Information Systems from Virginia Tech (US) & Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from University of Mumbai. An avid sports enthusiast, Ravi can usually be found chasing goals on the football pitch.

Mark Kahn,
Founding Partner, Omnivore Fund

Mark Kahn is the co-founder of Omnivore Partners, a venture fund investing in early stage agricultural technology companies in India.
Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, one of India's foremost diversified agribusiness companies.
At Godrej Agrovet, Mark was responsible for corporate strategy, M&A, R&D, and new business incubation.
Earlier in his career, Mark worked for Syngenta and PFM. He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.

Pradeep Nair,
Regional Director, Ford Foundation

Pradeep Nair joined the Ford Foundation towards the end of March 2017, to head the India region, including Sri Lanka and Nepal. He has about 20 years of private and public sector experience primarily in US and India. His most recent assignment before joining the Foundation was with The Volcker Alliance in New York, where working along with Paul Volcker and his advisory team he led their Public Service Program. In this role, he directed the Alliance’s efforts to work with corporates, academia and the government, to catalyze more effective, sustainable, and accountable solutions to public policy challenges; and to bridge the divide between government and the people it serves.
Previously, Pradeep worked for the Institute for Sustainable Communities, where he helped start and manage the group’s India office and develop and grow their global strategy and programs. Prior to that, as a Director with the Clinton Foundation, Pradeep helped in designing and expanding their global programs, managing India strategy and operations and later helping to establish the C40 Cities group in the South Asia region. He spent the first part of his career in Silicon Valley, as a strategy consultant and technology specialist with Deloitte Consulting and several start-ups. He focused on advising corporates strategize and implement process and technology solutions, to grow, and scale up in new regions. He also led product development and helped launch several technology applications globally. Pradeep is a regular panelist and speaker on international development and social issues, and given his diverse and deep work with corporates and public sector, he has a keen interest on bridging the gap between the two. An engineer and MBA by training, he has worked and lived in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Raunak Singhvi 
FO, Graymatters Capital

Raunak brings with him work experience of more than 15 years in Finance, Due Diligence, Investment Evaluation, Transformation, Controllership, Project Management, Treasury, and Risk Assurance with a diverse set of businesses spanning FMCG, Insurance, Payments and Consulting. He has worked on projects in 20+ countries across 4 different continents.
Raunak is a member of ICAI, India; CIMA, UK and ICMAI, India. 
Fun Fact
Raunak likes to spend time with his son by playing, reading and learning with him.

Ragini Chaudhary
CEO India, Graymatters Capital

Ragini is the CEO of the India arm of Atlanta headquartered impact investor Gray Matters Capital. With more than 16 years of experience in microfinance, impact investment and development sector, Ragini is leading the team in India to improve the access and quality of education and employability with a gender focus through, K12 curriculum integrated with 21st century skills, self -learning and self earning mobile solutions.
Ragini is on the Board of Gray Matters Capital’s investees - Indian School Finance Company and Address Health. She is also an Independent Member on Self Regulatory Committee of Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN).
Prior to joining Gray Matters Capital, Ragini provided strategic and operational direction to the Poorest State Inclusive Growth (PSIG) Programme, a financial inclusion project of the Department of International Development, UK which focused on 12 million low income households in 4 states across India.
Ragini also served as the Chief Investment Officer heading operations at Mi India Capital Consultants (DiaVikas Capital), Director Training at EDA Rural Systems Pvt Ltd (M-CRIL) and as a Project Co-ordinator at CARE India. As Director of Training, Ragini had an invaluable opportunity to build capacity of senior and mid level staff of over 100 MFIs in 8 countries.
Ragini is a management graduate from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and has qualified as a Management Accountant from Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA), UK.
Fun Fact
Ragini loves to read and is a closet movie critic. She is passionate about teaching and believes that best way to learn is by teaching.
 

Abhijit Nath
Country Manager, Insitor Impact Asia Fund

Abhijit heads Insitor’s operations in India, including sourcing and closing transactions and managing them
through their life cycle. Given Insitor’s growing portfolio in India, Abhijit also spends significant amounts of
time with existing investees to aid their growth. Abhijit comes with significant experience in the social impact
space, with stints at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Dalberg Global Advisors. Prior to that, he
spent several years in growth private equity, at Deutsche Bank’s alternative investments arm and ICICI
Venture, among India’s largest private equity firms. Abhijit received an MBA at the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad and holds undergrad degrees in Economics from Delhi University and Jazz Composition from the Berklee College of Music.

Binali Suhandani
South Asia Director, AVPN

She has over 19 years of experience in not for profit sector in India and UK. Her last seven year stint as a Country head was with Akshaya Patra Foundation. Prior to this, she helped Sense International, UK set up its base in India and with the Women’s World Bank working in the area of Micro finance for women.
She has been a speaker and trainer on Indian and International forums on Resource Mobilization and Strategic Planning. She is also a consultative member on the United Nation’s SUN Group headed by UN Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Food Security and Nutrition, Mr. David Nabbaro.

Sucharita Kamanath
ANDE India Chapter Manager

Sucharita joined ANDE in September 2017 as the India Chapter Manager. She brings with her more than two decades of experience spanning the social enterprise, IT, non- profit, and consulting industries including various senior management roles in consulting, program & project management, social enterprise management, training, and facilitation.  A people person through and through, she has a passion for doing her bit to make the world a better place and sees social entrepreneurship as a means to this end. Sucharita has a Masters in Business Administration from the SAID Business School, Oxford and a Masters degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Rema Subramanium 
Partner, Ankur Capital

Ms. Rema Subramanian serves as a Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Partner at Ankur Capital Advisors. Previously, she also served as a Founding Partner at the firm. Ms. Rema is a member of the Board of Directors at Skillveri Training Solutions Pvt Ltd. She has three decades of experience in building and scaling operations across various sectors like financial services, education, information technology, packaging, etc. in India. She has headed several companies across various sectors growing many from scratch to large scale businesses. Ms. Rema has deep domain experience in education and outsourcing sectors. She is passionate about the social sector and has worked extensively advising and mentoring social entrepreneurs. Her key strength is strategic thinking with hands on implementation. She has unique capabilities of having been an entrepreneur and worked across sectors. Ms. Rema earns Cost Accountant in Inter Company Secretary and Systems Management from ICFAI during 1998 and ICWAI in Management Accountant from Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India - ICWAI during 1980 to 1984.

Sanjay Nayyar
CEO, KKR

Sanjay Nayar (Mumbai) joined KKR in 2009 and is a Member and CEO of KKR India. He is also a member of the Asia Portfolio Management Committee and Asian Investment Committee. He is on the board of KKR's portfolio companies Radiant Healthcare, Bharti Infratel, Magma Financial Services, and Coffee Day Holdings, and has had significant involvement with KKR's investment in Apollo Hospitals. He also supports expanding the range of KKR's credit and capital markets offerings across the region. Prior to joining KKR, he served as CEO of Citigroup's Indian and South Asian operations and as a member of Citigroup’s Management Committee and Asia Executive Operating Committee. Currently, he is a member of the board of USISPF, and SEBI’s NISM Board of Governors. He serves on the boards of Washington D.C.-based EMPEA and the Indian School of Business (ISB), and is a founding member of the Brookings Foundation, India. Mr. Nayar was additionally the deputy chairman of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and served on the Committee of the Reserve Bank of India tasked with building the bank’s Centre for Advanced Financial Learning (CAFRAL). He was the co-chairman of the Banking Committee for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and served as the chairman of the Indian Private Venture Capital Association.