Founders
ISDM is a not-for-profit Section-8 company and has audacious aspirations to build this incredible institution and an enabling ecosystem to achieve impact at scale for the sector and society.
We believe that this vision is possible only with collective wisdom and collective philanthropy.
We invite carefully identified people to become Founders of ISDM and along with their contribution also be able to join our Advisory Board and influence the shape and form of this legacy-building institution.
In a short span of 4 years, we have been backed by brilliant people and key influencers in the sector. Here is how you can Support Us.
Omidyar Network India invest in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class. To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, they work with entrepreneurs in the private, non-profit and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problems.
A.T.E. Chandra Foundation manages the philanthropic capital of A.T.E. Enterprises and Archana & Amit Chandra. It supports various projects and initiatives in its two core verticals of Rural Transformation and Sector Capacity Building. The Foundation works closely with leading Indian and global players in the social sector space in pursuing its objectives of creating a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable society.
Founder - Ashoka University and Central Square Foundation; Educationist and Philanthropist
Ashish Dhawan is Founder of Ashoka University and the Founder of Central Square Foundation (CSF), a philanthropic organization focused on systemic reform in K-12 education in India. He has an MBA with distinction from Harvard University and a dual Bachelor's (BS/BA) from Yale University. Ashish is on the India Advisory Board of Harvard and a member of Yale's Development Council, and worked for twenty years in investment management, running one of India's leading private equity funds, ChrysCapital. In June 2012, he left his full time role at ChrysCapital to work on education reform in India.
Gaurav has experience of working in the private sector and the development space (microfinance, health, impact investment, education), largely as a management consultant with P&G, American Express, Azim Premji Foundation, Lok Capital etc. His areas of experience include program management and implementation, strategic and business planning, organization restructuring and design and sales & distribution management. Gaurav has an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.E. and an M.Sc. from BITS Pilani.
As the Global Capability Centre of NatWest Group plc, NatWest Group India drives innovation and transformation to champion the potential of its customers, colleagues, and communities. Built on the bedrock of India’s technology talent, best-in-class back-office operations, and fast-growing FinTech ecosystem, NatWest Group India provides world-class services and solutions to the bank’s 19 million banking customers globally. As a purpose-led organisation, the NatWest Group is committed to champion the potential of people through learning and build a thriving development ecosystem to solve the most complex social issues we face today. NatWest Group India has partnered with the Indian School of Development and Management (ISDM), one of India’s pioneering management institute for the development sector, to strengthen capabilities and drive tangible progress of India’s development ecosystem. As a Founding Patron of ISDM, NatWest Group India will play an instrumental role in fostering and shaping the country's development sector by leveraging the power of transformational education. By advocating a multi-dimensional model comprising several interventions like case studies, scholarships, knowledge sharing, industry best-practices, and frequent engagements with the faculty and students, NatWest Group India will help ISDM nurture talent and strengthen capabilities which are crucial for meeting India’s growing development needs.
Founding Dean - Indian School of Business, Founder and Trustee - Ashoka University
Pramath spent 13 years with McKinsey as a partner and is also the Founding Dean of Indian School of Business (ISB). He is a Founder and Trustee of Ashoka University and heads the India operations of Albright Stonebridge Group, a US-based commercial diplomacy firm. He is the founder of 9.9 Media, and prior to that, he was the MD and CEO of the ABP Media Group. Pramath has an M.S.E and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B. Tech. from IIT Kanpur.
Ravi worked for 24 years in the corporate sector, most of which was at HSBC where he was the Regional Marketing Head for Middle East and Africa, Head of Consumer Products for Asia Pacific, Consumer Banking Head of Indonesia, CEO and President Director of Bank Ekonomi (a local bank in Indonesia that was acquired by HSBC). He quit his corporate career and switched to the social sector in 2011, joining Azim Premji Foundation where he was the Head of Education Leadership & Management. Ravi has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B. Tech. from IIT-BHU.
Group President - LVMH South & Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Founder - L Capital Asia, Chairman - L Catterton Asia
Ravi Thakran has been working in various leading positions at the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey Group (LVMH) since 2001. He has been the Group President of LVMH South & Southeast Asia and Oceania from 2007. Ravi Thakran is also the founder of L Capital Asia. Ravi Thakran is now the Chairman of the entity called L Catterton, now the world’s largest consumer focused Private Equity fund with over USD 15 Billion of assets under management; operating six distinct fund strategies out of seventeen offices located across five continents. Prior to his time in LVMH, he had held senior management positions at the Swatch Group, Nike and the Tata Group. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Vice Chairman and CEO – EXL
Rohit Kapoor is the Vice Chairman and CEO of EXL. He co-founded the company in 1999 and since then has held various roles including CFO and President and Chief Operating Officer. Rohit has helped create a business model that is high growth, futuristic and built on the premise of delivering tangible business impact to customers. Rohit currently sits on the Board of CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) and has been a board member since April 2011. Rohit is an active member of NASSCOM BPM Forum and also serves as the Chairperson of the US Chapter of ASSOCHAM, the apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India. Since March 2014, Rohit has been a director of New York Tri-State chapter of Pratham USA, a Non-profit organization. Rohit was recognized as one of the top 25 most influential professionals driving the sourcing industry in Globalization Today’s Powerhouse 25 in 2011. Rohit resides in Scarsdale, New York. He is married with two children. He is an avid golfer and wine collector. He holds a Bachelor in Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India and an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.
Founder, Takshila Educational Society; Pro Vice-Chairman, Delhi Public Schools Patna University (B.Com)
Sanjiv Kumar is a passionate educator and Founder of the Takshila Education Society (TES). After a brief stint in the banking sector, he founded TES and established four successful franchises of Delhi Public School in Patna, Pune, Ludhiana and Coimbatore in alliance with the Delhi Public School Society. In 2010, Sanjiv setup Parivartan – an Integrated Rural Community Development Initiative in the Siwan district of Bihar. As a social re-engineering initiative, Parivartan aims to empower the rural youth with employable skills and the farming community with modern farming techniques and knowledge. Sanjiv is an active supporter of activities that are focused on preserving Indian music, culture, and the arts and building a culture of environmental preservation in younger generations. He has a B.Com degree from Patna University.
Sharad has worked extensively in the automotive industry working for global OEMs from different parts of the world. Besides building a solid business, Sharad has also travelled widely around the world. In addition to this, he has been working with schools driving scale and quality. Sharad is on the Board and actively supports IIMPACT which has established 2000 centres, working with over 55,000 out-of-school-girls to educate and mainstream them. Sharad has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur.
Suparna Diwakar teaches Perspectives on Scale at ISDM . She is a Co-founder of ISDM and held the position of Dean Research and Academics. Suparna has worked extensively in the development sector for more than 30 years, starting her career with MYRADA. She led and managed multiple projects at Adamya Chetana, Centre for Leadership and Management in Public Services, the Karnataka Department of Public Instruction and the Indian Institute of Science. Suparna also has experience in curriculum development, teaching, design, project development and implementation, corporate trainings and numerous collaborative projects with TISS, The Teacher Foundation, ABB, Azim Premji Foundation and UNICEF. She has also published papers on academic leadership, management and governance. Suparna has a PGDHRM from Symbiosis, an M.A. in Economics from Gokhale Institute and a B.Sc. from Bangalore University.
Senior Partner and Director - BCG Henderson Institute, Former MD of BCG India
Arindam Bhattacharya has 25+ years of experience in consulting and research, advising leading Indian and global companies on competitive strategy. As head of BCG India he led the growing Social Impact practice in India in education, food and nutrition, and health services. Dr. Bhattacharya is also Chairman of CII's National Committee on States Competitiveness, and a member of Save the Children India’s Governing Council. He has been a member of several expert committees set up by the Government of India. Arindam has a PhD in Engineering from University of Warwick, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur.
Managing Director, Finnovate Partners LLP
Biju is a qualified chartered accountant from the U.K. and is currently the Managing Director of Finnovate Partners LLP. Biju has worked for over 25 years in the banking industry and is now very active in the social impact space.
Lady Sriram College for Women - 1985 IIM Ahmedabad - 1987
Former Chief People Officer, Flipkart; philanthropist
Mekin Maheshwari started his career with Yahoo! when Yahoo Bangalore was 30 people, where he built large scale distributed systems, made sense of user data and built a mobile platform. He then went on to join Ugenie (later acquired by Lulu.com) as its first hire and was part of the team till 2009. Mekin joined Flipkart in 2009, starting out with building and growing the Engineering function, and then running 2 startup businesses within Flipkart - eBooks and PayZippy. In December 2013, he moved into the role of Chief People Officer at Flipkart. He left Flipkart in March 2016 with the ambition of impacting Education in India. Mekin completed his B.E. from PESIT Bangalore in 2002.
Ex-Managing Director - DBS Bank
V. “Paddy” Padmanabhan is a Professor of Marketing and the Unilever Chaired Professor of Marketing at the INSEAD Asia campus. He is the Academic Director of the Emerging Markets Institute. Prior to joining INSEAD, Professor Padmanabhan was the John K. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the Olin School of Business, Washington University (1998-2002), and an Associate Professor of Marketing and the Fletcher Jones Faculty Fellow at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (1990-1998). He has served as a visiting professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and INSEAD (Europe campus).
One of the principles we follow at ISDM, is that no student will be denied the opportunity to join the PG Programme due to financial reasons. The fees that we charge and options for paying now or later, etc. are tailored for every student based on their needs and stage of life. The aggregate shortfall in costs we incur and the fees we receive is approximately Rs 7.5 Lakhs per student.
We would like to invite you to consider funding one or more Studentships at the ISDM PG Programme in Development Leadership at the rate of 7.5 Lakh INR (USD 7,000) per student per annum.
Vijay Santhanam graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and has completed twenty years of a successful career in international business in India, China and the Asia Pacific region. Kainaz Gazder is the Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble
The Enpee Group was founded in 1961 by Mr. N.P. Kirpalani – a first generation entrepreneur. The Enpee Group is at the forefront of value-added specialty manufacturing & knowledge services. Their business focus and vision now encompass excellence in emerging markets across sunrise sectors such as renewable energy, construction and related chemicals & value-added packaging solutions and services. With a strong manufacturing infrastructure based in Africa and Asia and with client footprints across global markets, their businesses today directly employs more than 2,000 people and provide a source of indirect employment and livelihood to several thousand more. The group on its own as part of corporate social responsibility is actively involved in humanitarian and philanthropic activities connected with education, healthcare, community development and the environment.
Sar-La Education Trust is the result of a dream of a couple, Saroj and Lalji Mehrotra. Sarojji's keenness to extend support to young girls in smaller towns and Lalji bhai's faith in Gandhiji's principles of education that combined knowledge and work. Sar-La Education Trust has for more than 3 decades intertwined formal, vocational and technical education through its own institutions and has extended support to other institutions and initiatives for education of girls in remote locations. The Trust, in the hands of the third generation, is carrying the legacy of its founders, Gandhian principles while moving ahead with goals for another thirty years, with simplicity, honesty and a hands – on approach.
Co-Founder, RatnaTraya Capital
Surendra Jain co-founded WestBridge Capital India and Sequoia Capital India. Funds advised by these teams have invested more than $3 billion-plus of capital in more than 80 companies since the early 2000s. SK left full time operational responsibilities at WestBridge in 2018 to focus on his other interests. He is also the co-founder of RatnaTraya Capital, a principal personal investing firm. Surendra received a BTech in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi and an MSEE from the University of Minnesota. He also earned an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad where he received the President’s Gold Medal for academic excellence
IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad
Vipin Agarwal is a enior Banker with experience across many countries. He has worked for many years with Citibank and currently is the Senior Managing Director at CIMB Malaysia.
