Directors
Kavita Anand is catalysing a committed learning community of educators across India, to transform the learning of students. For more than three decades as an educator, researcher, funder, school and system leader, and now edupreneur, she has worked towards ensuring ‘a good school for every child’. Her work has taken her to every state in India. Kavita’s work in the Aga Khan Education Service, India and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust was a launchpad for her own play school, Kidz@Play, and for setting up and leading the now renowned K10 School, Shishuvan for a private management in Mumbai. Over the last decade with her partner Spokey Wheeler, Kavita provided support for The UK Open University’s (OU) programmes ‘Teacher Education through School-Based Support’, (TESS-India); ‘English in action’ (EIA) in Bangladesh; and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for 266 schools of Zimbabwe. Kavita was part of the international delivery team for the School Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) curriculum with the National College of Teaching and Leadership,(NCTL) Nottingham and the National University for Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA), that trained 7000 government school leaders across 5 States of India. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), UK, Kavita was awarded an Ashoka Fellowship in 2015 for her single-minded determination to improve the quality of education in India.
Kavita Anand
Co-founder & Executive Director
Nita started her career in hospitality and then moved to marketing but education was always her first love. She graduated from Bombay University with a degree in English Literature. She later studied to become a preschool teacher and worked for a few years in Bangalore at a leading preschool there. After moving to Mumbai, she was offered a job as a Spanish teacher at Bombay International School. After two years, she was appointed as the programme coordinator at the same school. In 2017, the school appointed her as the Head of Junior School. During her tenure at BIS, Nita was an active advocate of inclusion and community service. Nita has been associated with Adhyayan Quality Education Services as an assessor since 2016. She has also conducted workshops in using technology in education for Adhyayan’s partner schools. She was recently selected by ASCD, to which Adhyayan is affiliated, to join the Emerging Leader Class of 2021.
Apart from reading, sketchnoting, playing word games, and taking long walks, Nita loves to bake in her free time (she even briefly owned a bakery) and has recently started experimenting with sourdough.
Nita Luthria Row
Director
Advisory Board
Natasha Joshi
Bhawani Singh Shekhawat is a co-founder of the Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation. A seasoned corporate executive who has led large multinational business units globally as well as in Europe, EMEA and Asia he brings a wealth of passion and expertise at Adhyayan. Bhawani is the CEO of The Akshaya Patra Foundation (Europe) and helps with oversight and strategy based in London, UK. He also supports a range of companies as a Non-Exec Director. Bhawani is a speaker with London Bureau of Speakers and speaks on Leadership, Purposive Strategy and Innovation.
Bhawani Singh Shekhawat
Monica Pachori is a marketing professional with around ten years of experience primarily in FMCG sector. She has worked in a variety of sales & marketing roles across brands in firms like Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, General Mills & Tata Motors. She is currently working as manager, marketing for grocery business with Amazon India. She holds an MBA from IIM Kozhikode. Along with her day job, she likes to volunteer her time for the causes she is passionate about, i.e. access to good quality education for all kids & women empowerment.
Monica Pachori
Natasha Joshi is an Associate Director at Nilekani Philanthropies and an education specialist with over ten years of experience in the sector. She has worked on education programs, policy, governance and financing for organisations like UNICEF, NITI Aayog, and most recently Tata Trusts. She holds a masters degree in Human Development and Psychology, from Harvard University and writes for the India Development review where she has the two most-read pieces of all time on IDR. In her free time, she curates Desi Writers Lounge, a writers collective promoting South-Asian writing, and has set up readers clubs in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Natasha Joshi
Raghunandan Maluste
Raghunandan Maluste is currently Honorary Secretary & Treasurer, Mumbai First and angel investor. He has been in the top management of profits and not for profits since the early 1980s. He is co-founding IITians for Influencing India’s Transformation and was Chair of CSO Partners till its winding up in 2015. Nandan has worked over 46 years in India, the United Kingdom and the Gulf as a public accountant, management consultant, journalist, advertising executive, entrepreneur, angel investor, board member of companies, trusts and societies, researcher and consultant in government, investment and private banker. Some of the organisations he has helped lead are Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), Lintas, HSBC Securities, Kotak Mahindra Bank, CRY-Child Rights & You, Confederation of Indian Industry, Bombay Natural History Society, Rotary Club of Bombay and Bombay Gymkhana. Nandan has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Manchester Business School, England, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales as well as of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Prof. Neelam Sood (Retd.) was the Head of, Department of School Education at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. She holds a Masters in Child Development from Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi and a Doctorate in Psychology. Prof. Sood has served on the faculty in Punjab University and Haryana Agriculture University and later at the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, New Delhi for over a decade. She joined NIEPA in 1997 as Fellow; Professor since 2005, and was visiting faculty in a university in the U.S as a Fulbright scholar in 2005. She is a specialist in Child Development. Her areas of interest include Early Childhood Care and Education, Teacher Education, Planning and Management issues in School Education, Nutrition, Gender and Inclusion in Education. She has authored four books, several monographs and journal articles published in reputed journals in India and abroad.
Prof. Neelam Sood (Retd.)
Priya Panikkar
Priya Panikkar has over twenty years of experience in fundraising and related operations. She founded PQ (Philanthropy Quotient) Consulting in 2019. PQ consulting provides fundraising services to nonprofits, and philanthropy services to donors to accomplish their mission effectively and efficiently. The firm has clients in the US and India. Priya leads the University Advancement's Operations team. She is responsible for prospect research and analytics; human resources; database management and reporting; information technology and systems; and creative communication services. In this role, she has also raised major gifts and oversaw the donor relations department. In addition, Priya has managed two capital campaigns that raised over $155 million dollars; spearheaded the 85 Hours of Giving campaign — ODU’s first-ever Day of Giving campaign; and held the first ODU alumni international event. She serves as a faculty at the Indian Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS) and Naropa Fellowship, India. Priya sits on the board of directors of Readers to Leaders, a nonprofit organization that addresses child illiteracy in the US. She holds Master's degrees from Old Dominion University, VA, and from the University of Kerala, India.
Raghunandan Maluste
Raghunandan Maluste is currently Honorary Secretary & Treasurer, Mumbai First and angel investor. He has been in the top management of profits and not for profits since the early 1980s. He is co-founding IITians for Influencing India’s Transformation and was Chair of CSO Partners till its winding up in 2015. Nandan has worked over 46 years in India, the United Kingdom and the Gulf as a public accountant, management consultant, journalist, advertising executive, entrepreneur, angel investor, board member of companies, trusts and societies, researcher and consultant in government, investment and private banker. Some of the organisations he has helped lead are Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), Lintas, HSBC Securities, Kotak Mahindra Bank, CRY-Child Rights & You, Confederation of Indian Industry, Bombay Natural History Society, Rotary Club of Bombay and Bombay Gymkhana. Nandan has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Manchester Business School, England, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales as well as of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Samir Somaiya is the chairman and managing director of Godavari Biorefineries Ltd and he is also the president of Somaiya Vidyavihar.
He is also the chairman of K. J. Somaiya Trust, K. J. Somaiya Medical Trust, K. J. Somaiya Institute of Applied Agriculture Research, The Girivanvasi Pragati Mandal, Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory (Riidl) (Technology Business Incubator). He is the owner of Kitabkhana.