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Sohini Bhattacharya
Director, Venture Program
Sohini Bhattacharya began her career with CINI-Child In Need Institute.She has worked extensively with women and children from rural and semi-rural areas. She worked for four years in a society for traditional crafts and craftspersons in Delhi, helping producer groups all over India manage their own production and marketing. In 1996, Sohini set up a gender resource center in Calcutta and her main interests lie in gender rights, training and human resource management. Sohini joined Ashoka in 1999.
Manisha Gupta
Director, International Operations, Innovative Learning Initiative
Manisha was a Calcutta-based journalist before she decided to quit the profession to work in Ashoka. Having originally joined Ashoka as a volunteer, she helped edit and coordinate Changemakers, an international magazine for the profession of social entrepreneurship. She went on to set up Ashoka India' s headquarters in Delhi in 1998. Since then, Manisha has initiated systems and processes to build an active fellowship of social entrepreneurs in India. In 2000, she launched an extensive marketing and communications program in the country. Having served as Ashoka's Country Representative of India and thereafter, Director of Ashoka India's Fellowship and Marketing programs, Manisha is currently heading Ashoka's global initiative, the Innovative Learning Initiative. |
Venkatesh Raghavendra
Director, South Asia Partnerships
Venkatesh is building bridges between Ashoka and the business sector. He is focussed on formalising and managing Ashoka's strategic partnerships in South Asia. He is also the main point of coordination between Ashoka's headquarters in Washington DC and our programs in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Prior to this position, Venkatesh was the director of Ashoka's Venture program. He has been the co-founder of 'The Adventurers' - an outdoor and environmental organisation working in the rain forests of South India.
Natasha Ramarathnam
Director, CBI / CSE
Natasha joined Ashoka in September 2002 to head the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship of Ashoka India. A management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), she worked for over 6 years at SBI Capital Markets and KPMG, where she specialized in providing financial and strategic advisory services in the Urban Infrastructure, Transportation and Energy sectors in India. In her role as a Management Consultant she advised various Central and State Government agencies, both on specific development projects and on creating an enabling environment to attract private participation in the infrastructure sectors. At Ashoka, Natasha is working to migrate the best practices from the corporate to the social sector, through a strategic partnership with McKinsey & Co, aiming for civil society organisations to adopt local resource mobilisation strategies.
Gared Price Jones
Consultant, Innovative Learning Initiative
Gared has come to the Ashoka India team following five years in management consulting with Deloitte Consulting / Braxton Associates and three years with a boutique organisational development - consulting firm. As a consultant with Braxton, he spent three years in South Africe where he assisted organisations in dealing with the complex strategic and organisational issues that arose after the fall of apartheid. He has also worked closely with one of the largest non-profit, fund-raising organisations in the US, helping develop overall Internet strategy. Gared has a Batchelor's degree in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from the Kellogg school at Northwestern University.
Anuradha Mukherjee
Regional Representative, East India
Anuradha Mukherjee joined Ashoka in May 1999. Before joining Ashoka, Anuradha worked as a development communications professional and was the coordinator in India for the International Television Trust for the Environment (TVE). Anuradha's background is in Economics and Mass Communication and she has worked on children's issues, human rights, environment and health.
Jennifer Liang
Regional Representative, North-east India
Of Chinese origin, Jennifer Liang was born in Calcutta, grew up in Bangalore and studied in Mumbai. Married to a Kashmiri she now lives in Assam. Jennifer has studied social work and spent considerable time in Assam working with diverse ethnic groups to bring about social change.
Vasudeva Sharma
Regional Representative, South India
Vasudeva Sharma, a post graduate in Social Work has worked in the field of child rights and child development. As an active member of CACL-Campaign Against Child Labour he takes a leading role in sensitizing NGO and GO personnel on issues related to child protection and development. Sharma has written quite extensively with field experiences on developmental issues for both field workers and students. Presently he is involved in the search and selection process in Andhra Pradesh.
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Nomito Kamdar
Regional Representative, South India
Before joining Ashoka, Nomito Kamdar played a key role in establishing the "Indian Institute for Adventure Applications" --- a training centre for outdoor learning and eco-tourism based in the Western Ghats rainforests of South India. Nomito has worked extensively with tribals, disabled children, juvenile delinquents and street children and was in the forefront of the 'Western Ghats Restoration Project' a grassroots level initiative in the Western Ghats to restore its bio-cultural diversity. Nomito joined Ashoka in 2001.
Devashri Mukherji
Regional Representative, North India.
During her college years in Calcutta, Devashri started working with an educational resource centre writing and preparing educational material for children. She worked with a donor agency, an art magazine and an educational portal in Bombay before joining Ashoka in June 2001.
Pekham Basu
Regional Representative, West India
Pekham Basu joined Ashoka in June 2002. She is a post-graduate from Tata Institute of Social Work and has worked with the Special Cell for Women and Children (a joint project of TISS and Mumbai Police) on sensitising the police to domestice violence and how to deal with survivors of the same. She has also worked with Children of the World (India) Trust where she prepared and processed domestic and international adoption as well as took initiatives in introducing training for caregivers for the abandoned and destitute infants.
Dolon Sen
Manager, Fellowship Program
Dolon Sen has majored in history and taught in a primary school in New Delhi for four years. She joined Ashoka in 1998. Dolon has played a key role in the development of Ashoka India's headquarters in New Delhi. She currently manages the full range of Ashoka's national fellowship programs.
Rati Mishra
Manager, Citizen Base Initiative (CBI), Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE)
After completing her Post Graduation in Economics from Lucknow University, Rati worked for over five years with various corporates, before moving to the development sector in 1999. She was with Helpage India for over a year, where she mainly handled fund-raising programs. She joined Ashoka in September 2000 and for over two years has been handling the Business-Social Initiatives out of Delhi. Her primary focus has been on capacity augumentation of NGO's and she is a qualified trainer for Resource Mobilisation Workshops. Rati also volunteers with two organisations in Delhi, working on child education and on abolishing the trafficking of women. |
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Menaka Subramaniam
Coordinator, Development
Menaka holds a post graduate degree in Social work with a specialization in Family and Child Welfare from TISS. After having worked at Project and Program Management with YUVA, an empowerment oriented, large civil sector organisation in India for more than two years, she chose to understand and contribute to resource generation and management in the Development sector. Menaka brings with her a varied educational background first through her bachelors in commerce followed by a diploma in marketing and sales and finally a Masters degree from TISS. She is also currently pursuing a postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights from the Indian Institute Of Human Rights, New Delhi.
Noor Parvin Aboobacker
Program Assistant, Venture
Having completed her Bachelors in Sociology, Noor began as a volunteer with Ashoka's Mumbai office in October 2001. In February 2002, Noor joined Ashoka's Venture program to coordinate with the various regional representatives and provide overall administrative support to the Mumbai office.
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Manoj
Administrative Coordinator
Manoj joined Ashoka in June 1998. Even as he works in Ashoka, he is continuing his studies through correspondence. Manoj helps out the Delhi office with all administrative processes. |
Sonu
Office Boy
Sonu joined Ashoka in 2001. He is pursuing his higher secondary studies through correspondence. Sonu works in Ashoka's Delhi office.
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