Our Leadership

Rajesh (Raj) Shah is co-CEO of MSI and a former vice president in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers. There, he focused on the needs of financial sponsor/private equity funds (mergers, acquisitions and capital raising).

Raj has a degree in finance and accounting from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Orange County chapter of the Young President’s Organization as well as Pratham USA’s Los Angeles chapter.

Raj resides in Orange County, California, where MSI is headquartered. He is married and has two children.

A technology veteran and serial entrepreneur, Pradeep Singh is the founder and executive chairman of Aditi Consulting. He also serves as co-chairman of Vidyanext, an educational solutions company he founded in 2009. He was previously the CEO of Aditi Technologies (which he founded in 1994 and was bought by Symphony Tech in 2013) as well as Talisma, one of India’s first product companies, founded in 1999.

Pradeep held several management positions at Microsoft from 1986 to 1994 and, in his early career, completed brief stints at McKinsey in Copenhagen, Texas Instruments in Dallas and Mannai Trading Company in Doha.

Pradeep has been honored with IIT Delhi’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award and has been recognized as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. He holds an MBA from Harvard University, and a B.Tech Electrical Engineering degree from IIT, Delhi. Pradeep is vice chairman of the Pratham USA Board and serves as chair of the Marketing Committee. In addition, he also serves as chairman of Pratham Seattle.

Neha Desai Shah is president and co-founder of GEP, a global provider of strategy, software, and managed services to enterprise supply chain management and procurement at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies.

Prior to GEP, Neha was a consultant at Accenture.

Neha received her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a degree in economics from the Wharton School and a degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

Among other recognitions, Neha recently received the ISM Women & Leadership Diamond Award for outstanding leadership and achievement in the procurement and supply chain sector. She is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization and passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in business and driving social justice.

Dhiren Shethia is an entrepreneur and investor passionate about technology, energy, and decarbonization. He co-founded Enaxis (later acquired by Accenture) and has spent the past two decades advising global companies on growth, governance and technology adoption. At Accenture he led the Energy Transition & Sustainability business for asset intensive businesses. Earlier in his career, Dhiren held roles at Deloitte Consulting and technology firms. Currently, he is an active investor in early and mid-stage technology and climate tech companies and serves as an advisor to venture & PE funds.

In addition to his professional work, Dhiren supports philanthropic organizations focused on education and community development. He serves as the Chair of the Board at Pratham USA and on the board of Memorial Park Conservancy in Houston.

He holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Computer Science from Angelo State University. He was recognized as Indian American Businessman/Entrepreneur of the Year.

Deepak Raj is the founder and managing director of the New Jersey-based private investment firm Raj Associates with investments in real estate and public and private securities.

He has extensive experience in the investment business. Deepak’s leadership positions during his 24 years with Merrill Lynch include senior analyst in research (and member of the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team); head of their Global Consumer Products Investment Banking practice; and senior vice president and member of the firm’s executive management committee. As director of Global Equity Research, he managed a staff of approximately 700 investment professionals located throughout the world.

He was elected chairman of the New Jersey State Investment Council in 2019. The Council formulates policies governing the investment of funds and supervises the $80 billion NJ Pension Fund.

Deepak has wide-ranging philanthropic interests. He previously served as chairperson of Pratham USA and continues to serve on the board. He is also the chair of the Indian Philanthropy Alliance. Deepak is the founder of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University (with his wife Neera) and is a co-founder of Indian American IMPACT.

A chartered financial analyst, Deepak graduated from IIT Kanpur with a BTech in electrical engineering and earned an MBA from Northeastern University. He and his wife, Neera, have two grown children and live in Princeton, New Jersey.

Dinyar (Dinny) Devitre is an international business executive who has held leadership positions over a 45 year period in the consumer products and financial services industries in Asia, Australia, Japan, Europe, and the U.S.

Mr. Devitre held a number of senior operating positions with Philip Morris Inc. and then with Altria Group Inc. where he had a 35 year career. He was Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Altria Group Inc., a role he held from 2002 to 2008 before retiring from the Company. Between 1998 and 2001, Mr. Devitre was Executive Vice President and Group Head of Citibank’s Global Consumer Bank for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

He currently serves on the Advisory Board of General Atlantic and is on the Board of Avestar Capital. He recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of Altria Group, Inc., where he was Chairman of the Finance Committee from 2008-2022 and the Board of IHS Markit Ltd where he was Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2012-2022. Prior Board appointments included Kraft Foods Inc. from 2002-2007, Western Union Inc. from 2006-2015, and SABMiller from 2007-2016. He was also a Special Advisor to General Atlantic from 2008 to 2016.

He has served on the Boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts from 2002-2010 and the Asia Society from 2002-2012. He currently serves as Chairman of The Nature Conservancy’s India Council and is Vice Chairman of the Pratham Education Foundation in India.

Born in Jamshedpur, India, Mr. Devitre earned a B.A. (Hons) Degree at St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, India, and a M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

Mr. Devitre resides in New York and is married to Aashish Devitre.

Arvind Sanger is the founder and managing partner of Geosphere Capital Management, a global long-short equity hedge fund focused on natural resources and industrial companies worldwide.

A former portfolio manager at SAC Capital where he managed a team of six investment professionals in New York and Singapore, Arvind’s career also includes 15 years as a top-ranked sell-side oil services and equipment analyst at a number of firms, including Deutsche Bank, DLJ and Kidder Peabody.

Arvind graduated with a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and received his MBA from Tulane University. He is a member of the Business School Council at The A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and is a former chairman of Pratham USA.

Viral V. Acharya is the CV Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business.

Before joining NYU Stern, he was professor of finance and academic director of the Private Equity Institute at the London Business School, a research affiliate of the Center for Economic Policy Research and an academic advisor to the Bank of England.

Viral also served as Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India from 2017 to 2019 in charge of monetary policy, financial markets, financial stability, and research. He has served on several boards, including the International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Advisory Council of the Bombay (Mumbai) Stock Exchange. He has also been an academic advisor to the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the European Systemic Risk Board.

His numerous awards and recognition include the Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance from the Journal of Financial Economics in 2000, Best Paper Award in Equity Trading at the Western Finance Association Meetings in 2003, the inaugural Lawrence G. Goldberg Prize for the Best PhD in Financial Intermediation, the Best Paper Award in Asset Pricing from the Journal of Financial Economics in 2005, an inaugural Rising Star in Finance Award in 2008, the inaugural Banque de France – Toulouse School of Economics Junior Prize in Monetary Economics and Finance, 2011, and the 2017 Alexandre Lamfalussy Senior Research Fellowship of the Bank for International Settlements.

Viral holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and a PhD in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business. Viral is a founding member and former president of the New York Tri-State and Pratham UK chapters. He also served on the board of the New York Tri-State chapter from 2013-2016. Viral, and Professor Manjiree Jog, his wife, are members of the Pratham LEADers Circle.

Sheila Gulati is founder and managing director of Tola Capital, a venture capital firm that invests globally in enterprise software companies across multiple stages.

She is a seasoned software expert with a wide range of industry experiences, blending financial and strategic acumen with deep knowledge and passion for software businesses.

Prior to founding Tola Capital in 2010, Sheila spent over a decade at Microsoft. In her most recent role, she led the company’s enterprise strategy and had ownership for the company’s database and developer platforms and tools business. Prior to Microsoft, she was an investment banker for Robertson Stephens.

Throughout her career, Sheila has volunteered and served on numerous organizations and boards, including founding the Seattle Chapter of Pratham USA. Sheila is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Ashish Gupta currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer and was an early investor in Amira Learning, the world’s first intelligent technology proven to accelerate reading mastery in English and Spanish. Amira now supports over four million students across 19 countries.

Prior to Amira, Ashish founded and managed two successful investment management firms, each deploying over $1 billion in capital at their peak, and has helped scale several early- and growth-stage companies.

In addition, Ashish serves on the Chapter Leadership Committee for Pratham USA—the largest nonprofit focused on early education and skilling in India—as well as on the Advisory Board for Outcomes Collective, a private equity firm focused on education and healthcare technology investments. He also serves on the Investment Committee for Beliade Venture Fund I and on the advisory board for the Business School and Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Texas (UT), among others.

Ashish currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife and two teenage children.

Suren Gupta is executive vice president of technology and strategic ventures and a member of the senior leadership team for Allstate Insurance Company, the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States.

Focusing on innovation and enhanced delivery, he is responsible for technology strategy, network infrastructure, enterprise applications, and technology-related governance, security and compliance activities.

Previously, Suren was Wells Fargo executive vice president and group chief information officer for consumer lending. He was a founding member of the corporate executive team of Airclic Inc., and senior vice president of informational technology and operations for GMAC Residential, a division of GM.

Suren is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He also received a Master’s degree in computer engineering from West Virginia University and an MBA from George Mason University. He serves on the Chicago Public Library Foundation Board and, in 2015, was named to the board of directors of ZionsBancorporation.

Swatantra Jain has over 30 years of experience in international trade and is a business partner with Vinmar International, a highly successful global plastics and petrochemicals company.

Swatantra is a past president of Pratham Houston and formerly served as Pratham USA’s chief financial officer. He is also a board member of Magic Bus, another charity devoted to providing education to India’s underprivileged children.

A founding member and chairman of JVB Meditation Center Houston, he also serves on the board of Interfaith Ministries of Houston and as the director-at-large of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston. Swatantra has been honored by India House, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and Pratham USA for his outstanding community leadership and service and was the recipient of their 2010 Philanthropist of the Year Award.

Swatantra is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Born in Sialkot West Pakistan, India, Swatantra currently resides in Houston with his wife, Bimla.

Sumeet Jaisinghani is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Explore Capital

Management, a Dallas-based private investment firm.

Prior to founding Explore in January 2023, Sumeet served as Managing Director, Public and Private Equity for Saban Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based private investment firm.

Sumeet launched, and was responsible for, Saban’s global public equities platform, as well as the firm’s private equity activities in Asia-Pacific. Sumeet led Saban’s offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, from 2011 to 2018.

Sumeet has served on the board of directors of several public and private companies, in both the US and Asia. Prior to joining Saban in 2008, Sumeet worked as an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of J.P. Morgan in New York.
Sumeet holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Management from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Victor Khosla is founder and chief investment officer of Strategic Value Partners, LLC (SVP), a global alternative investment firm focused on distressed and deep value opportunities with offices in Greenwich, London and Tokyo.

Victor has a 32-year track record in distressed and private equity investments. He served as president of Cerberus Capital and ran MooreSVP. He also held senior positions at Citibank and Merrill Lynch. Victor has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University and an MA in Economics from Vanderbilt University. He also has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Management Council at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Victor’s wife Gail served on the New York Tri-State board for over a decade.

Narendra is an entrepreneur and adviser to various organizations. He is on the board of XSELL Technologies, Irisvision, a co-founder of SiriusAI an AI solutions company focused on financial services. He serves as an advisor to Insight Venture Partners.

Narendra Mulani retired from Accenture in 2019. Narendra’s career at Accenture reflects his deep understanding of analytics and digital disruption, his ability to lay out a vision and strategy to build businesses at scale and the business operator skills to effectively scale such businesses.

In 2010, Narendra was charged with creating and growing the Accenture Applied Intelligence business unit. The unit is responsible for building core capabilities in analytics, artificial intelligence and automation to create functional and industry solutions at scale. Narendra was also asked to coordinate the application of artificial intelligence and analytic technologies across Accenture. He led the Applied Intelligence business from inception to $8.5 billion in annual revenues.

Prior to his role in Applied Intelligence Narendra held senior leadership roles including a business unit in North America for consulting, technology, and outsourcing that covered the consumer and industrial sectors. Prior to this role Narendra was the Global Managing Director for the global Supply Chain Consulting practice.

Narendra serves on the boards of IMPACT, an organization focused on elevating the presence and voice of South Asians in public office, and giving them a voice in our democracy. In addition he is the board president of Open Doors of CT, Open Doors strives to make a direct impact in the greater Norwalk area by guiding every person in the cycle of homelessness towards housing stability.

Narendra has earned an MBA and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Narendra’s Ph.D. was on the application of multivariate statistics to marketing and social science problems.

Ila Paliwal is a classically trained vocalist, composer, producer and philanthropist.

Her father, the late Dr. Padma Singh Sharma Kamlesh, was a nationally renowned poet and Hindi and Gujarati scholar. Her mother, Dr. Sushila Sharma Kamlesh, is an English and Sanskrit scholar.

She received a BA in English, economics, music and fine arts from Dayalbagh University, Agra and an MA in fine arts from Agra University. She also received an MA (sangeet praveen) with a distinction in Hindustani classical vocal music from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad and a BA in Mandarin from the Language and Culture Institute, Beijing.

Ila has performed in renowned venues around the world and worked as a cross-cultural consultant in Beijing. She supports several philanthropic organizations through her family’s charitable foundation.

She lives in New York with her husband, Dinesh Paliwal, president and CEO of Harman International Industries. The couple has two adult children, Shriya and Aasheesh.

Bhavesh V. (Bob) Patel, who has served on the Board of Air Products since January 2025, is an accomplished global business leader with extensive experience across the chemicals, materials, and industrial sectors.

Bhavesh is the former President of Standard Industries, a global industrial conglomerate with diversified holdings in manufacturing, chemicals, and performance materials. He was appointed to this role in 2023 after leading W.R. Grace, a Standard Industries subsidiary focused on specialty chemicals and materials, where he served as Chief Executive Officer beginning in 2022.

Before joining W.R. Grace, Bhavesh spent seven years as Chief Executive Officer of LyondellBasell Industries, one of the world’s largest chemicals, plastics, and refining companies. Under his leadership, the company expanded its global footprint, undertook significant strategic acquisitions, and developed world-scale production facilities. Prior to becoming CEO, he held several senior executive roles at LyondellBasell, including Senior Vice President and later Executive Vice President of Olefins & Polyolefins – Europe, Asia & International and Technology.

Earlier in his career, Bhavesh spent nearly two decades with Chevron and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, serving in a range of operations, commercial, and leadership roles in both the United States and Singapore.

Bhavesh also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Houston Branch (since 2021). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Temple University.

Adarsh Sarma is a partner at the New York firm Warburg Pincus, where he focuses on education, financial technology and business services investments.

Previously, he was a principal at ChrysCapital and vice president of strategic alliances at Radiowave.
Adarsh is currently a director of Bridgepoint Education, Stratford School, Liaison International and Alert Global Media, and a board observer of InComm Holdings.

He received a BA from Knox College, Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Adarsh serves on the board of Pratham USA’s New York Tri-state chapter.

Gagan Singh is the chief investment officer of PNC Financial Services Group, where he also directs the activities of the economics group as well as mortgage servicing acquisition and hedging. In addition, Gagan serves as chief executive officer of PNC Capital Finance and PNC Investment Corporation, overseeing the firm’s private equity, mezzanine and alternative investments. He is a member of PNC’s asset and liability committee and chairman of its pension investment committee.

Prior to joining PNC in 2004, Gagan was a managing director and head of the North America derivatives strategy team at JP Morgan. He is a member of the advisory board of University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and the board of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation.

Gagan received a B.Tech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, where he was a recipient of the graduate school fellowship.

Gagan is president of the New York Tri-State chapter of Pratham USA. He and his wife, Sunaina, have three daughters.

Mihir Worah brings 20 years of global experience as Managing Director at Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), a leader in active fixed income with deep expertise across public and private markets, where he was Chief Investment Officer for Asset Allocation and Real Assets. He served in leadership positions on their Global Executive Committee and Global Investment Committee. Notably, Mihir served as an adviser to the US government as a member of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee and Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory. He received a PhD in Theoretical Physics from The University of Chicago where he remains involved as the Chair of the Advisory Council for the Physical Sciences Division.

Mihir lives in Orange County, CA with his wife Anu and border collie Kai, where they are passionate about supporting education, arts and the environment both locally and globally.

Vijay Goradia established Pratham USA in Houston in 1999 after an inspirational visit to one of Pratham’s urban literacy programs in Mumbai.

He immigrated to America with a vision of developing an international chemical trading company—Vinmar International Ltd. which is now a prestigious global company with 25 offices worldwide. Vijay is also founder and chairman of the Vinmar Group, Haverhill Chemicals and Lion Copolymer.

His companies have received numerous recognitions including the E&Y Master Entrepreneur Award and the US Department of Commerce E Export Award.

Vijay serves on the boards of Greater Houston Partnership, The Houston Technology Center, and American India Foundation. He is an advisor to the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston and currently serves on the International Trade Advisory Committee for the US Department of Commerce.

His family foundation has partnered with Sightlife USA to restore eyesight to those suffering from corneal blindness.

Vijay and his wife Marie, a past president of the Houston chapter, have two children, Sapphira and Kevin.

Avinash C. Ahuja is president of Magnum Producing, LP, an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Texas.

Prior to founding the company in 1987, Avinash held key management positions in two oil and gas companies located in Texas and Louisiana.

Avinash is very active in local, national and international organizations, including: The Art Museum of South Texas, Christus Spohn Health System, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center of Corpus Christi, YWCA, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, MD Anderson Cancer Center, World Affairs Council of South Texas and Miracle Foundation. He also serves on the advisory board for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi College of Business.

Avinash received a BS in petroleum engineering from Indian School of Mines and an MS from the University of Houston. He has two grown children (Ranika and Rajan), three grandchildren (Lia, Ellie and Avinash), and lives with his wife Peggy in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Sudesh Arora is president and chief executive officer of NATEL Engineering Company, Inc., a privately held aerospace and defense electronics design, development and manufacturing company.

He founded NATEL in 1975, and his leadership led the company to numerous outsourcing contracts as well as the US Small Business Administration’s Regional Subcontractor of the Year Award for 2003.

Previously, Sudesh worked for Gulf Research and Development Company, where he developed a sophisticated sulfur analyzer, which won the coveted IR-100 Award from Industrial Research magazine as one of the 100 most significant developments of the year. A member of MENSA,

Sudesh obtained his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and his Master’s degree (MSEE) from Carnegie Mellon.
Sudesh has financially supported the construction of Pratham’s vocational training centers in Aurangabad, Latur, Bapatla, Bhopal, Ralegaon and Pilani. He also helped Developments in Literacy to build the Mandianwala School in Pakistan and, in 2009, gave rent-free space to the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Foundation for their operations.

Hemant Goradia is president and CEO of Vinmar International Ltd., a global marketing, distribution and project development company, which markets petrochemicals in over 100 countries. Vinmar participates in the development of Greenfield Manufacturing projects by providing technical assistance in technology selection and facilitating project finance.

Hemant serves on the boards of Goradia Capital LLC, Lion Copolymer Holdings LLC and Haverhill Chemicals LLC. He also serves on the board of visitors at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Engineering.

Hemant and his wife, Indrani, have established a research fellowship at the Texas Children’s Hospital Cancer Center.

Jaideep Khanna is managing partner and co-founder of Artha Capital Management, an emerging market fund based in Stamford, CT.

He co-founded the firm in April 2002 and served as president, portfolio manager and director. Prior to starting Artha, Jaideep was an executive director and managed pools of funds at Morgan Stanley Asset Management in New York and London.

He serves on the New York Regional Board of Room to Read and on the National Board of Directors for Pratham USA. He was the founder and remains a trustee of Ashoka University, New Delhi, and serves on the International Advisory Board, Center for Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a degree in accounting and economics from Muskingum University and holds an MBA from Duke.

Manoj Singh spent 36 years in senior leadership positions with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., including head of Deloitte Consulting in the Americas, CEO of the Asia Pacific region and chief operating officer. He has advised national and multinational companies on mergers and acquisitions, enterprise cost management and shareholder value growth with a focus on technology, manufacturing and the energy industry.

Manoj currently chairs the audit committee of the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon University and also serves on the board of the Rubin Museum and the business council of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

A distinguished graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University, he is a frequent speaker on college campuses, has appeared on Bloomberg, the BBC and CNBC, and was recognized as one of the top 25 consultants in the US by Consulting Magazine.

Manoj and his wife Rita have two daughters and four grandchildren. The couple enjoys hiking, tennis, golf, cricket and traveling.

Riaz Valani is general partner at Global Asset Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm. He previously served as chairman of Viventures Partners SA, president of IMDI/Sonique, and a member of Gruntal & Co.’s asset securitization group.

Dr. Fareed Zakaria is the host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” contributing editor for The Atlantic, a columnist for The Washington Post and a New York Times bestselling author. He has been described as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation” by Esquire magazine and was named in 2010 as one of the top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy.

Fareed’s in-depth interviews with countless intellectuals, business leaders, politicians and journalists—including the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Manmohan Singh, King Abdullah II, Dmitry Medvedev, Moammar Gadhafi and Lula da Silva—have been broadcast in more than 200 million homes around the world. Previously, he spent ten years overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad and eight years as managing editor of Foreign Affairs.

Born in India, Fareed has a BA from Yale and a PhD from Harvard University. He has received honorary degrees from numerous universities including Brown, the University of Miami and Oberlin College. He lives in New York City.

Manisha Bharti, MPH, MBA, is the first CEO of Pratham USA and Global Executive and brings over 25 years of professional experience in global development.

A seasoned executive, Manisha has demonstrated a keen ability to build partnerships, support diverse teams of wide-ranging talents, steward significant growth, and deepen impact for a range of India-focused and global organizations.

Manisha was chief of strategy and programs at GHR Foundation, one of Minnesota’s largest philanthropic organizations, where she oversaw a grant portfolio within health, education and international development. During the pandemic, she significantly deepened GHR’s international partnerships and helped establish its racial equity program in Minneapolis/St. Paul. She also served as secretary and board member of the Global Solidarity Fund.

From 2005 to 2016, Manisha held numerous positions at FHI 360, one of the premier global nongovernmental organizations, including chief strategy officer from 2013 to 2016. While at FHI 360, Manisha helped grow the organization’s revenues tenfold, generate several billion dollars in new funding, diversify the organization’s funder base to include over one hundred new philanthropic and corporate partnerships, and expand its impact beyond health into the areas of education, nutrition, gender, climate, crisis response, and integrated development.

Manisha has also worked for the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), McKinsey & Company, UNICEF, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, FXB Foundation, and the Canadian and Ontario governments. She is the youngest person to have served on a Canadian royal commission, having been appointed to the Ontario Royal Commission on Learning in the mid-1990s. Her current work is informed and inspired by her early professional experiences living in the Volta region of Ghana and the Pali district of Rajasthan.

Manisha graduated with honors from Harvard University, earning an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree in social studies. She also earned two master’s degrees with honors, in business administration and public health, from Johns Hopkins University. She serves as vice chair of the India Philanthropy Alliance, on the Board of the Harvard Alumni Association, and as a director of SALUTE. She is also an active participant in the 2021 Class of the GEO Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship and has a lifetime appointment as the secretary of her graduating class at Harvard.

The title she values most is that of “mom” to her triplets: Ayrton, Avantika and her angel daughter Asmi. Her children teach her daily about the importance of humility, compassion, presence, patience, gratitude, and grace. Manisha and her family reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Vikas Bahl is a senior development professional with over twenty years’ experience in private and non-profit sectors. He has successfully managed a diverse and thriving donor network across the Unites States and currently serves as the Head of Operations for Pratham USA. Prior to Pratham, Vikas worked for Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, running the Dasra Social Impact program that focused on developing growth strategies and refining business models for India’s most innovative social entrepreneurs. His US consulting experience includes providing strategic HR/benefits services to several high-profile Fortune 500 companies.

Vikas has an MBA with honors from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He has recently led the establishment of the Pratham Dubai office and is enthusiastic about building a presence for the organization in the Middle East. Vikas is a travel enthusiast and is close to achieving his goal of visiting 50 countries by the age of 50!

A seasoned communications specialist, Priyanka brings several years of global experience of working with the United Nations (UN) and international NGOs across different mandate areas.

Recently, as the Director of External Affairs, at the National Organization on Disability, she led strategic communications and marketing initiatives that engage, mobilize and advance the mission and brand for the organization.

Priyanka worked as senior manager at an international rights-based organization, EngenderHealth, where she managed the full spectrum of communications including strategic planning, media and executive relations, content creation, capacity development, social media positioning, brand strengthening, integrated campaigns and international events. She strategized and executed program communication vis-à-vis projects for the United Nations Population Fund in India. As the communications lead for a multi-country initiative at the United Nations Development Programme, she served to bring the issue of climate risk reduction to the forefront of the development agenda.

Manushi Yadav currently serves as Director, Strategy and Partnerships for Pratham USA where she is leading the institutional fundraising and collaboration – working with funders, partners, and industry collaboratives to communicate Pratham’s work, funding needs, and program priorities.

Prior to this, Manushi spent almost a decade with Pratham in India leading work across program management, operations, and partnerships. Most recently, Manushi led Pratham’s Strategic Partnerships team and worked with program leaders to develop new initiatives and medium-term strategic vision for key programs.

Manushi currently resides in Chicago and is an MBA candidate and a Neubauer Civic Scholar at the Booth School of Business University of Chicago.

Rukmini Banerji is a Senior Advisor to Pratham Education Foundation. She served as the organization’s CEO for more than a decade, from 2015 to 2026. With extensive experience in the design and delivery of educational interventions, she played a pivotal role in developing and implementing Pratham’s partnership programs with governments.

Rukmini studied economics at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and the Delhi School of Economics. As a Rhodes Scholar, she attended Oxford University (1981–83) and later earned her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1991. Rukmini worked in Chicago for several years at Spencer Foundation. She returned to India in 1996 and has been with Pratham ever since. Rukmini has extensive experience in the field—working directly with rural and urban communities as well as designing and implementing large-scale partnerships with governments. Rukmini also led Pratham’s research and assessment efforts, including the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) exercise from 2005 to 2014.

In 2008, Rukmini received the Maulana Abul Kalam Shiksha Puraskar by the Government of Bihar, becoming its first recipient. In 2021, she was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development.

Originally from Bihar, Rukmini is now based between Delhi and Pune. She writes frequently on education in both Hindi and English dailies in India and enjoys writing books and stories for children.

After obtaining a PhD in chemistry from Ohio State University and serving on the faculty at the University of Houston, Dr. Madhav Chavan returned to India where he worked in the slums of Mumbai as part of the National Literacy Mission. In 1995, as a result of a UNICEF initiative, he co-founded Pratham to address problems of universal primary education in Mumbai.
Since then, Dr. Chavan has led the development of the organization, pioneering large-scale innovations to address literacy problems among India’s underserved children.

He expanded Pratham’s reach from Mumbai to two-thirds of India with programs that include early education, remedial education for primary schools and upper primary students, libraries, support for children who have dropped out of school or are at risk of doing so, and vocational training for youth.

Named a 2014 Asia Game Changer by the Asia Society, Dr. Chavan also received the 2012 WISE Prize instituted by the Qatar Foundation at the World Innovation Summit for Education, an award which has been equated to a Nobel prize for work done in education.

Dr. Chavan combines his scientific training with his creativity (he has written songs about human rights and anchored television shows) to continually seek innovative ways of educating India’s underprivileged children.

Selected publications

“Improving Literacy And Math Instruction At Scale In India’s Primary Schools: The Case of Pratham’s Read India Program,” co-authored with Rukmini Banerji in Journal of Educational Change, Volume 17, Issue 4, 433-475. November 2016. View article.

“Learning to Read” co-authored with Rukmini Banerji and Usha Rane in Seminar, April 2004. View article.

“A Point of Light in Mumbai,” co-authored with Rukmini Banerji, Paresh Vaish and Atul Vardhachary in The McKinsey Quarterly, Winter 2001.

“Building Societal Missions For Universal Pre-School And Primary Education: The Pratham Experience,” in the series: Strategies of Education and Training for Disadvantaged Groups. IIEP/UNESCO, Paris, 2000. View article.

“The Bottom Up Push for Quality Education in India,” co-authored with Rukmini Banerji in the series on school reform: Leading Educational Change: Global Issues, Challenges, and Lessons on Whole-System Reform edited by Helen Malone, Chapter 19, 97-100. Teachers College Press, New York, 2013. View article.

With 25 years of experience as an education and social activist, Farida Lambay co-founded Pratham in 1995 with Dr. Madhav Chavan.

She heads the Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children and is also responsible for Pratham’s direct programs in Mumbai and Gujarat. Ms. Lambay was recently appointed a member of the Maharashtra State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and currently serves on the Government of India Committee on Child Labour & Research in Education where she has initiated national level policy changes.

A former vice principal of the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in Mumbai, Ms. Lambay has spearheaded initiatives such as Prerana (working for the rights of sex workers in Kamatipura, Mumbai) and YUVA (working on various social issues taking strength from the youth) as well as multiple disaster relief efforts.

In 2015, she received the Indira Gandhi Memorial Award for her contributions to education and child rights.