Team

Samhita Social Ventures evolved from Priya's work with the Nadathur family's social initiatives in the areas of nature conservation, art, education for differently-abled children, and livelihood generation through microenterprise.

Prior to working with Nadathur's family office, Priya co-founded The Spark Group, an education company that delivered affordable education to low income communities. At Spark, Priya helped define strategy, created the business plan and was also instrumental in raising funds from IFMR Trust.

Priya's interest in social entrepreneurship began when she worked as a Researcher at the Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA. At MIT, Priya was part of two student-led start-ups - Aerovax, a company that created safe, inhalable aerosol vaccines that could be delivered without the use of needles and Kalpataru, a company that delivered innovative, low-cost technology to increase the efficiency of microfinance institutions. Kalpataru's pilot was tested with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and was presented to Nobel laureate, Dr Muhammad Yunus. Both social enterprises won several awards at MIT.

Priya has worked as a consultant with the International Finance Corporation in Africa. She started her career in Accounting at Arthur Andersen in Mumbai.

Priya has a Masters. in Economics from Yale University, USA, a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and a Masters in Commerce from Mumbai University where she stood first in the entire graduating class.

Namit holds an MBA in marketing from ICFAI University. He has served as a Networking Expert for Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India on a DFID - World Bank project for BDS market development where he built a strong marketing and support network between micro - small entrepreneurs and business development service providers from India and abroad. His contribution in the field of Business Development Services (BDS) won him a scholarship at a professional course on BDS at the International Training Centre of the ILO.

As a marketing manager for an apparel company he has traveled across India and closely studied the dynamics of consumer tastes and preferences. Namit has had a close association with the media. He founded Youphoria, an online news portal, served as an Editor for theviewspaper.net, worked as a student reporter for The Telegraph (TTIS) and was a freelancer for a number of leading publications. He volunteers with the Grow Movement as a micro enterprise consultant and believes in empowering micro entreprenuers to create a large scale social impact.

Sarabjeet is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur where he completed a bachelors and masters in mathematics and computing. He is passionate about business, social entrepreneurship, climate change and international relations. Sarabjeet's interest in the development sector began with his work with AIESEC and his experience on the Jagriti Yatra, an eighteen day national odyssey, introducing hundreds of motivated youth to the unsung heroes of India. He joined Samhita as a fellow of the Engineers for Social Impact program and has stayed with the organization since then.

Sarabjeet is an avid blogger, runs a youth portal called Let Me Know and works with the Acara Institute. He is a StartingBloc Fellow and was an Indian Youth delegate to the UNFCCC'c Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Prior to joining Samhita, Sarabjeet has worked at the CSAIL Lab at MIT and the Cambridge University Press.

Siddharth is a lawyer and an alumnus of NALSAR, University of Law, Hyderabad. Prior to joining Samhita, Siddharth spent three years working with the private equity advisory team of a leading Indian law firm, followed by six months with rural community based social organizations in Tamil Nadu, where he had an opportunity to study closely and take part in socially beneficial initiatives relating to community trade and forest rights. Siddharth continues to be associated as a volunteer with Just Change India, a community led trade initiative.

Siddharth has had a continued interest in community development and believes in sustainability as the way forward in ushering social change. Siddharth enjoys cooking, writing humorous fiction and watching cricket.

Thryza is a graduate in Philosophy and Literature and is pursuing her MBA. She started her career as a teacher with Akanksha and worked in the HR sector for three years. Her willingness to make a meaningful difference to the society got her into the social sector.

An eternal optimist at heart and a go-getter in life she enjoys adventure sports, poetry, painting, travelling among other things.