More Than Teachers.
An Ecosystem.

At ISDM, learning is shaped by a deliberately assembled ecosystem of faculty, sector practitioners, and bricoleurs. Together, they bring academic rigour, lived experience, and reflective mentorship to create a learning environment that is informed by the realities of the field, not instruction alone.

With our unique bricolage model, academic rigour meets field insight, and students are supported in integrating both into their own practice.

Advisors

We are privilged to be guided by sectoral leaders and influencers in our journey to create a vibrant and catalytic ecosystem for Development Management and Leadership in India.

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Advisory Board

Statutory Advisors

Team

At ISDM, we have some of the best minds to achieve our collective vision. We work relentlessly to create a work place culture based on respect, equity, compassion and integrity within the organisation across various teams and verticals.

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Faculty

ISDM has a reputable faculty from diverse backgrounds and with vast interdisciplinary experience in management as well as development. ISDM students are exposed to thought leaders and influencers from the industry, and people with wide and varied profiles and have the unique opportunity of interacting and working with them at ISDM.

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Visiting Faculty

Guest speakers

Board of Governing Trustees

ISDM BOGT shall be the key decision-making body without fiduciary responsibilities, focusing on strategic decisions and leaving operational tasks to the leadership team of ISDM and support from executive trustees as required. The Executive Head shall present all strategic choices and decisions to the BOGT for their consideration and approval.

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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 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.

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Founder Patrons

Founder Sponsors

Founder Donors

Donors

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Statutory Advisors
Advisory Board
Guest speakers
Donors
Founder Donors
Founder Sponsors
Founder Patrons
Faculty And Bricoleurs
Sector Practitioners
Visiting Faculty
Board of Governing Trustees
Team

Urvi Shriram

Family Philanthropy Anchor, Lead - Centre for Inclusive Development, ISDM

Board of Governing Trustees

Tanvi Bikhchandani

Co-founder of Tamarind Chutney, Manager - Family Office

Board of Governing Trustees

Setika Singh

Executive Director of Takshila Foundation

Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Preeti Shenoy

Director - New Initiatives, Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST)

Board of Governing Trustees

Nupur Agarwala Bahadur

Recipient President’s Award for Philanthropy and Volunteerism, Singapore, 2020 | Impact Investor and Co-founder of Supporting SG’s Frontline

Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Indu Bhushan

Former CEO, Ayushman Bharat, Former Dir General, ADB

Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Harsh Mariwala

Founder & Chairman, Marico

Founders

Sar - La Education Trust

Founders

Infozech

Founders

Vishnu Padmanabhan

Data journalist, The Economist

Founders

Vijay Santhanam

Inspirational Speaker; Visiting Faculty IIM Lucknow

Founders

Vipin K. Agrawal

Managing Partner, AG Management Advisory

Founders

Subir Mehra

Partner, EY

Founders

S K Jain

Founder and Managing Partner, RatnaTraya Capital; Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University

Founders

Shankar Viswanathan

Board Member, Advisor, Investor, Consultant, Coach.

Founders

Prashant Purker

Managing Director, Head of Global Finance, India, LEHMAN BROTHERS

Founders

Mahesh Srinivasan Iyer

Managing Director, Accenture.

Founders

Kankipati Rajan Raju

Director, Invespar Pte. Ltd.

Founders

Kainaz Rattan Gazder

Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Procter & Gamble

Founders

Omidyar Network India

Founders

Infoedge

Founders

HSBC

Founders

V. 'Paddy' Padmanabhan

Unilever Chaired Professor of Marketing, INSEAD; Academic Director, INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute

Founders

Sanjay Naraindas Kirpalani

Chairman, ENPEE Group; Chairman, RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd.

Founders

Ravi Thakran

Chairman and CEO, Turmeric Capital Singapore Pte Ltd.

Founders

Mekin Maheshwari

Founder and CEO, Udhyam Learning Foundation; Co-founder, Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (G.A.M.E).

Founders

Jaya Murthy

Co-owner and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Primentor Inc.

Founders

Biju Chandrasekharan and Sumi Chandrasekharan

Managing Director, Finnovate Partners

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Ajay Shridhar Shriram

Chairman and Senior Managing Director, DCM Shriram Ltd.

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Dr. Arindam Kumar Bhattacharya

Independent Director and Senior Advisor

Founders

Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge (India) Ltd.

Founders

Ford Foundation

Founders

Capgemini

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees

Ambarish Raghuvanshi

Co-Promoter and Former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Info Edge India Ltd.; Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University

Founders

Citibank

Founders

A.T.E. Chandra Foundation

Founders

Suparna Diwakar

Regenerative Development, Leadership and Organisations

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Sharad Agarwal

Founder at Indian School of Development Management Chief Strategy Officer - Board

Founders

Sanjiv Kumar

Founder, Takshila Educational Society; Pro Vice-Chairman, Delhi Public Schools

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees

Rohit Kapoor

Vice Chairman and CEO, EXL Service Holdings, Inc.

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Ravi Sreedharan

President - Board

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Pramath Raj Sinha

Founder and Chairman, Harappa Education; Founding Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB); Founder and Trustee, Ashoka University

Founders
Board of Governing Trustees
Advisors

Gaurav Shah

Founder & Director at Indian School of Development Management (ISDM).

Founders

Amit Chandra

Managing Director and Chairperson, Bain Capital India; Co-founder, A.T.E. Chandra Foundation

Founders

Ashish Dhawan

Founder and CEO, The Convergence Foundation; Chairperson, Ashoka University and Central Square Foundation

Why Management Matters in the Social Sector?

Impact does not scale on intent alone.

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India’s social sector is operating at an unprecedented scale and ambition—seeking to deliver measurable outcomes, manage complexity, and steward public and philanthropic capital responsibly.

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What holds the sector back is not ambition or intent. It is the absence of leadership and management capability designed for social purpose organisations.

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While business has Business Management and the state has Public Administration, the social sector has long lacked a comparable discipline to build leaders, strengthen institutions, and sustain impact over time.

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Development Management addresses this gap.

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It equips leaders to build organisations that endure, adapt, and deliver sustained impact at scale—without losing sight of purpose, ethics, or context.

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Because social change demands stronger leadership.

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What Is Development Management?

A discipline built for leaders of social purpose organisations.

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Development Management is a field of practice and learning focused on leading and managing organisations that exist to advance social development.

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It draws from management sciences, public systems, and social theory, but is fundamentally shaped by the realities of development work. It recognises that social purpose organisations operate amid multiple stakeholders, unequal power structures, uncertain outcomes, and deep contextual complexity.

At its core, Development Management helps leaders to:

  • build organisations that are mission-driven and well-managed
  • make decisions that balance impact, scale, and sustainability
  • design systems that respond to people, context, and change
ISDM’S Role

Advancing Development Management as a discipline.

ISDM exists to advance and anchor Development Management as a foundational discipline for India’s social sector.

Its role is to ensure that Development Management is not treated as an abstract concept, but embedded in how leaders are prepared, organisations are built, and institutions endure. By shaping leadership pathways, contributing field-informed knowledge, and strengthening organisational capability, ISDM helps establish Development Management as a shared standard for leadership and management in social development.

In doing so, ISDM operates at the level of the ecosystem—supporting the long-term capability of organisations and leaders working toward India’s social development goals.

Our Values

The beliefs that anchor our intent and ethics

Equity

‍We build leadership spaces where dignity, access, and opportunity are non-negotiable.

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‍We recognise structural inequality and work actively to counter it—across caste, class, gender, language, faith, sexuality, and geography. Equity shapes who gets to lead, whose voices are heard, and how institutions are built.


Compassion

‍We lead with humanity—towards others and ourselves.

‍We create learning environments that honour vulnerability, difference, and growth. Compassion at ISDM is not softness; it is the practice of listening deeply, engaging honestly, and holding complexity with care.


Courage

‍We choose clarity, even when it is uncomfortable.

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‍We question assumptions, redesign what no longer serves, and express principled disagreement when needed. Courage shows up in learning, unlearning, apologising, failing, and beginning again—with integrity.



Justice

‍We act with responsibility, transparency, and accountability.‍

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Justice guides how we teach, research, partner, and build institutions. We value truth, dialogue, and trust—and commit to practices that are ethical, sustainable, and rooted in democratic values.

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