Advisors

N.S. Raghavan is a co-founder and former Joint Managing Director of Infosys who took voluntary retirement from Infosys in the year 2000 to promote his vision of entrepreneurship and India-based global companies on a broader scale. Nadathur Holdings & Investments was incorporated with the aim of nurturing knowledge based and innovation driven ventures that either target the Indian market or leverage Indian resources to target the global market.

Similarly to encourage entrepreneurship in the country and help incubate start-ups, he set up the N. S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) with a contribution of around Rs 12.5 crores.

N S Raghavan was selected by a reputed panel of International judges to receive the Dhirubai Ambani Award for the year 2004 on the 57th India's Independence Day banquet held in Los Angeles on Aug 15th. This award was given to him for his outstanding contribution to Entrepreneurship by FOIAC, City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles and Orange County, State of California and the Congressional offices of the USA.

Dr. Amita Vyas is an Assistant Professor & Director of the Maternal & Child Health masters in public health program in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and holds an adjunct appointment with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Vyas is a public health scientist whose primary research focuses on reproductive and sexual health. At George Washington University, Dr. Vyas teaches Reproductive Health: US and Global Perspectives, Adolescent Health & Development, Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health, and Management Approaches to Public Health. Dr. Vyas has given lectures and speeches around the country including Capitol Hill and was the Chair for “Partnerships in Health,” an advocacy briefing and event on Capitol Hill aimed at promoting public-private partnerships to address HIV/AIDS in India.

Dr. Vyas served as President of the Network of South Asian Professionals-Washington D.C., an organization of over 1000 members committed to providing networking, professional development, political education, and community service opportunities to those interested in South Asian related affairs; Dr. Vyas was a founding board member of the South Asian Public Health Association and served on the Board of Directors for the Indian-American Leadership Incubator, a national organization committed to identifying, training, and funding Indian American leaders for elected and appointed political office.

In 2007, Dr.Vyas founded the Global India Fund, a non-profit organization committed to inspiring global philanthropy by providing secure and transparent giving options to individual and corporate donors. GIF showcases the work of credible non-profit organizations in India and empowers donors to choose which organizations to support.

Noshir H. Dadrawala is Chief Executive of the Mumbai based ‘Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy’. He is Director of ‘Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium’, member of the Coordinating Committee of ‘Worldwide Initiatives and Network of Grant-makers’ (WINGS) and Fellow of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy.

He has written several resource books and is also the regional contributing editor of the ‘International Journal on Non-profit Law’ and is Co-author of an internationally acclaimed publication titled, “Philanthropy & Law in South Asia’.

He has conducted seminars and workshops for NGOs all over the country and he is Visiting Faculty for a number of renowned institutions. In March 2008 he was appointed by The Planning Commission as a member of an Expert Group on feasibility of a New Central Law to serve as an alternative All-India Statute for Voluntary Organizations in India.

Dr.G.K. Jayaram is the founder–Director of the Institute of Leadership & Institutional Development (ILID) at Bangalore. The span of his work and experience has been worldwide with diverse industries at all levels of the organization, from the boardroom to the shop floor.

He has worked for International consulting firms, Arthur D. Little Inc. and Coopers & Lybrand, and for over two decades, has owned his own consulting practice in the United States. He was the first chairman of Infosys during 1982-85. He co-founded Transformation Systems Inc., a software firm in Princeton, N.J. in 1996 and was the Chairman of the firm. He retired from this firm in August 1999. 

He has taught at Stanford Executive Education Program, UCLA, and U.S. Naval post-graduate school. In 2001-2003 he created, and was the first director of, Infosys Leadership Institute at Mysore, India. Jayaram has a B.Sc. & B.E. from Bangalore, PGDBA from IIM, Ahmedabad, and a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles.

LeRoy Pingho is the Founder and CEO of Great Elm Solutions, a management consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was also the Founder and CEO of PAC, Inc. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President and Vice President at Charles Schwab and Fannie Mae. He has envisioned, built, managed, and controlled major organizations and large-scale multi-year capital and operating budgets.

Mr. Pingho serves on several boards and advisory committees in the Washington, DC area and is very active in the nonprofit arena, co-chairing Fannie Mae’s highly successful Help the Homeless campaigns for several years and serving on the boards of the Imagination Stage, the National Center for Children & Families, The Bullis School, Visible Men, CUP International, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. He is also the Co-founder and President of Upward Bound Foundation.

Prof. Operajita is Chair and Founder of The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition™, and a Former Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University, USA. She currently serves as an adviser on governance issues, parliamentary performance, international affairs and energy and environment to several of India's prominent leaders in India's Parliament. Earlier, she was adviser to the late Honourable Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, Union Minister for Power, and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India. She was also director of the political office of the Honourable Kapil Sibal, at present India’s Union Minister for Human Resource Development. She has also been an adviser to the Honourable Naveen Jindal, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, and Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Jindal Steel and Power Limited.

Russell J. deLucia, Ph.D. is the principal founder and president of Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund (S3IDF) in the U.S. and founding chairman and senior adviser of its affiliate in India under the same name. Both are non-profit organizations that facilitate small-scale infrastructure and related investments needed for poverty alleviation and overall economic advancement in the developing world.

Over the past thirty years, Dr. deLucia has developed an approach to small-scale infrastructure investments that takes technical, financial and business organizational innovations common in large infrastructure investments, and applies them to small-scale explicitly pro-poor investments. Trained in engineering and economics (Ph.D. Harvard University), Dr. deLucia has extensive development finance and infrastructure development experience encompassing assignments in more than sixty countries.

Pavan is a Partner at Ojas Venture Partners, an early stage technology fund backed by Nadathur Holdings and has over 15 years experience across various industries such as early stage investing, consulting, venture advisory, research etc.

In the recent past, he has worked with Nadathur Holdings and Investments, SRW Advisors  and Syndicated Research Group (US based research advisory firm that provided research advisory services to senior executives of Fortune 500 companies in the domains of Human Capital Strategies and Corporate Finance Strategies). In the past, Pavan has also worked as a CFO for two venture backed companies in the domain of internet applications and media beside stints with Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse in their Assurance and Advisory practices. Pavan is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, Economics & Statistics.  Apart from this, Pavan is a keen student of philosophy/mysticism and is also involved with a couple of not for profit organizations.

Dharen is a strategy consultant who specializes in the emergent domain of corporate brand strategy. His work combines the best from the fields of business strategy, core vision, and brand strategy to provide organizations with a sense of unique identity which becomes a constant source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Over the last 10 years, he has developed strategies for Asian Paints, Tata Steel, ITC, GMR, Hindustan Unilever, Pepsico, Titan, Wipro, Reebok, Deutsche Bank, P&G, etc. Dharen spent 10 years with the ad agency, J. Walter Thompson in their strategic planning function working first in India, then Asia Pacific and finally serving as Global Director of Strategic Planning. Dharen is a graduate of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai. He has published in the Economic Times, Business World, and The Times of India and has taught strategic marketing at IIM- Bangalore and IIM - Calcutta

He joined Acumen Fund as its India Legal Associate in July 2008. Prior to that, Pankaj worked as an Associate with AZB & Partners in New Delhi on a variety of corporate advisory and transactional matters. Pankaj received B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, where he graduated as the university first rank holder and was a recipient of a number of honors. Pankaj was admitted to the Bar Council of Delhi in 2006, and is qualified to practice law in India.

Prashanth is one of the few professionals in the country who have been with the internet industry since 90s. He believes it's possible to create disproportionate value through the Internet & Mobile medium. He believes that ‘Superior customer experience and Continuous Product Innovation are at the core of every good brand’. His experience in this space started with US internet majors such as Expedia.com & Drugstore.com. He has been instrumental in bringing Product Management expertise into some of the best Indian consumer internet brands including Naukri.com, Shaadi.com, Makaan.com, FutureBazaar.com and Fropper.com. During his tenure at People Interactive, he has helped Shaadi.com earn the PC World Award for “Best Site” & “Best Design” in matrimony category.

Prashanth spends some of his time advising Internet & Mobile startups in creating sustainable business models. Prashanth is alumnus of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad - he is actively involved in developing Internet & Mobile student focus groups at ISB.

Yoo-Mi Lee is a freelance volunteer with over 27 years of diverse business and development experience.  She has worked as an investment analyst and trader for financial management companies, as a business analyst for a food processing company, and as a business development specialist and consultant for international development organizations. She currently manages a South Asian development portal ProPoor.org and works on environmental and energy projects in South India.