Team

Manju Kuchhal, Managing Trustee

Manju Kuchhal started her career in software development at Tata Consultancy Services. After 8 years there, she moved on to support Dhwani Foundation in developing technology solutions for NGOs. 

She works closely with NGOs to identify operational areas where technology can be leveraged, engage with relevant solution providers and help develop effective solutions.

Manju has a post graduate degree in Computer Applications from LD College of Engineering, Ahmedabad.

Dr S Rajagopalan, Trustee

Dr S Rajagopalan heads the Innovation Centre at IIIT-B. A veteran in the social-tech space and an Ashoka Fellow, Dr Rajagopalan was the CEO of Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology from 1982 to 1993. He co-founded Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), a non-profit development society for innovating social-tech products. As Chairman of TIDE, he was among the four finalists of Social Entrepreneur of India award (2006), and one of the 50 pioneers of India chosen by India Today magazine (2008). TIDE received the International Ashden Award in 2008.

Dr Rajagopalan holds a BTech degree from IIT Delhi, PGDM from IIM Bangalore and PhD from IIT Kanpur.

Pramod Kulkarni, Trustee

Pramod has been associated with the social sector for over three decades, holding senior management positions in leading NGOs, including PRADAN (1984-1995), iVolunteer (2000-2010) and Prerana (1990- 2012). He is the founder of SAATHI, a pan-India NGO that reintegrates runaway children with their families. With a passion for supporting economically-challenged meritorious students, Pramod has been actively involved with organizations such as Vidyaposhak and initiatives like Prerana Nurture Merit, apart from volunteering in government schools.

Pramod has an MSc degree from MS University, Baroda, and a PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad.

S Sivaguru, Trustee

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, has been in the international IT products and services industry since 1980 and has played various senior leadership roles.

His professional interests include: personal and organizational excellence, knowledge management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Rajiv Kuchhal

Rajiv has over 30 years of management experience in IT, BPO and ITeS industries, with a long stint at Infosys. He was the COO of OnMobile Global Limited and a co-founder of Progeon Limited. Rajiv is an active angel investor and mentor to multiple startups in the social enterprise and technology space. He has served as a Venture Advisor at TVS Capital Funds and is a Non-Executive Independent Director of Expleo Solutions. He is also a general partner at Exfinity Fund and a Mentor at IIMB NSRCEL Social Incubation Programme. He has a B.Tech. from IIT Delhi.

MJ Aravind

MJ Aravind has over 30 years of global experience with large multinational corporations including Compaq, DEC, and Xerox in areas such as supply chain, sales and marketing, customer service, and field operations. Aravind was a co-founder and VP Operations of Daksh eServices, one of India’s earliest and largest independent BPO (Business Processing Organization) companies. Post Daksh, Aravind leveraged his operational experience and extensive network to help set up the India operations of Artiman Ventures, an early-stage Venture Capital firm. 

In the last decade, Aravind has been extensively involved with the social sector in both executive and advisory capacity. He was on the Board of The Association of People with Disability for eight  years. He is also an Advisor to the Disability NGO Alliance, Bengaluru.

Krishna Kumar

Krishna Kumar has extensive experience in Sales, Sales Management, Operations, Global Client Relations and Management Consultancy across industries. Having spent most of his career in early stage startups, he has had the opportunity to set up new centres and engagements for companies like UBICS, Page Point Motorola and GECIS/Genpact across multiple geographies. His key skills include setting up and scaling operations, bridging gaps between front and back ends, process improvement and working with diverse teams. KK is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Rangarajan

Rangarajan has been an independent start-up consultant and angel investor since 2018. Prior to this, he has held leadership roles in product management, sales and marketing at both large IT companies like Wipro Infotech and Infosys, as well as, startup enterprises like Appnomic Systems and RubanBridge, in a career spanning 30 years.
He has also been actively involved in the social sector as Board Member of Makkala Jagriti, an NGO in Bengaluru. He holds a BE degree from BITS, Pilani, and an MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai.

Ramesh Emani

Ramesh comes with over 40 years of professional experience and worked with many industry verticals like Banking, Telecom and Technology. He was CTO, Wipro and helped drive their innovation programmes, and also served as President, Wipro Technologies. He also served as President, Telecom and Product Engineering solutions, with business of about $1 Billion with about 19,000 people with operations in USA, Western Europe and Japan. Ramesh was a member of Wipro’s Corporate Executive Council.

He founded Insta Health Solutions, focused in providing complete hospital and clinic management software solutions for hospitals and clinics in emerging markets of India, Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Ramesh is a board member of eMids Technologies.
Ramesh holds an M Tech from IIT Kanpur.

Kishore Udiaver

Kishore has worked as an Investment Advisor in IIFL Wealth Management Limited / Wealth Advisors (India) across areas such as wealth management, client relations, compliance etc.

Prior to that, he spent 14 years in GIC Asset Management Company Limited / GIC Mutual Fund across areas such as fund management and securities dealing. He has also worked in General Insurance Corporation of India in areas of insurance, reinsurance, and investment accounting. He has vast experience in accounting and tax audits.

A N Jayachandra

Jayachandra comes with rich experience of over 40 years in the areas of Administration, Finance, Research, Training, HR and other fields. He has insightful understanding of stakeholder engagement especially with government, research and academic institutions, and NGOs.
He serves as an Advisor – Special Projects and New Initiatives at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for advanced Scientific Research.

K N Gopinath, Executive Director

Gopinath has over 25 years of diverse experience in the social sector with a long stint at The Association of People of Disabilities (APD), as its Executive Director (Operations) in Bengaluru . He is the managing trustee of Motivation India, a subsidiary of the Motivation UK one of the leading international organisations in the field of wheelchair provisioning. Gopinath is also a sought-after resource person in the sector.

At Dhwani, he is responsible for the overall strategic direction, growth, and impact of the organisation. He has been working on developing innovative models that could enhance NGOs process and systems to increase visibility and scale of the grassroots organisations. He works very closely with the leadership of NGOs, Federations, and other key social sector players to promote credibility and accountability of social organisations.

Gopinath holds a post graduate degree in Social Work and is a Certified Common Purpose Graduate.

Vinaya Mallya, Sr. Programme Head – MIS & Technology

Vinaya has over two decades of experience much of it in the IT industry, and more recently in the social sector. She started her career with Infosys, where she spent a decade amassing technical knowledge and honing her management and customer relationship skills. She later founded a design services company for training and development of multimedia solutions. She was selected for Goldman Sachs-ISB sponsored – “10000 World Women Entrepreneurs Management Program” in 2011.

At Dhwani Foundation, Vinaya engages with NGOs to help them adopt technology platforms to smoothen their operations. She enables the customization and implementation of Goonjan MIS at NGOs and also manages the product road-map for Goonjan platform.

Prithwipala K, Function Head- Central Help Desk

Prithwi is a development sector professional, and has worked in national and international organizations for over 12 years in the areas of HIV/AIDS, TB prevention and control, support for orphan and vulnerable children, adolescent girls, female sex workers, urban slum population and more. He has worked closely with government departments and in public-private partnership programmes. He is experienced in Programme planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, community mobilisation, capacity building and counselling.

Prithwi holds a post graduate degree in Social Work.

Greg Mathias, Manager – Communications

Greg is experienced in Operations Management, Strategy planning, HR, Content writing, Digital Marketing and Client Engagement. He has worked with organizations such as Pana Education, Mangalore and CMSSS, Hassan.
Greg is a graduate in commerce and has completed certificate courses in sustainability from Azim Premji Foundation, fundraising from Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and web applications from NIIT, Mangalore. He has a special interest in web development and multimedia editing.

Maria Jennifer, Assistant Manager – Goonjan

Jennifer has about 5 years of diverse experience in the NGO Operations Management and Training roles. She has worked with multiple nonprofit organizations promoting organization development and livelihood programmes. She has experience handling various programmes and setting up marketing processes.

She holds a postgraduate degree in commerce, an MBA in Finance with specialization at Organisation Development.

Jacob D’Souza, Sr. Manager – DrishtE

Jacob comes with 16 years of rich experience in the development sector. He worked in the areas of rehabilitation of street children, research, organisation development at different organizations at various capacities. He has special interest in the field of social media, general admin, research and development.

He holds a post graduate degree in Social Work. His hobbies are reading, music and photography.

Nikil KP, Sr. Programme Head – Central Enrolment

Nikil brings over 15 years of professional experience in office automation and digital printing sector. He has held various senior management roles, with skills in project management, production, and technical management. He has worked in across many continents in the area of sales, training, and dealership management of photocopiers and managed over 36 service providers in the Office automation products space across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

Nikil holds a Diploma in Electronics Production Technology. He also has completed his Masters in Social work from TNOU, Chennai.

Isan Magimaidoss, Sr. Training Head- Training & Helpdesk

Isan Magimaidoss brings over 30 years of professional experience in the social sector, specifically in child rights-focused community development. He has handled varied responsibilities such as programming, grant-making, strategic planning and development, partnership management, alliance building, capacity building, Programme monitoring and evaluation.

He has also actively engaged with partner organizations, NGO networks, academic and resource organizations and donor agencies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He has worked with Child Rights and You (CRY), Churches’ Council for Child and Youth Care (CCCYC), and Nightingales Medical Trust (NMT).

Isan holds a Master of Philosophy Degree (M. Phil) in Social Work from Christ University.

Rabbi Jayakaran, Programme Head – Voices

Rabbi has worked for over two decades in the social development sector, both in rural and urban contexts. He has engaged in strengthening capacity of NGOs through organization building process, strengthening social movements, interfacing with government departments and advocating child rights policies. He has also experience in peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
Rabbi is founder and Managing Trustee, Peacemakers Trust which works in the space of prison reforms, restorative Justice and mental health and serves as Guest Faculty, Dept of Psychology, Christ (Deemed to be University).
He is currently working on an MPhil at the Department of Psychology, Christ (deemed to be University), Bengaluru. He has an MA Inter-Cultural Studies, University of Gloucestershire, UK and a MSW, School of Social Work, Mangalore University.

Sunita Suresh, Sr. Programme Head – Niranthara Sahayak & Finance

Sunita has over seventeen years of experience across industries. She has worked in finance management, MIS, credibility assurance, vendor management and other areas, across the social sector and corporates. Her area of expertise is in capacity building of staff to improve budget, planning, utilization and reporting of financials, partnership management, hiring, vendor conversations, project design and implementation.
Sunita served at various senior levels at Give India, TIDE India, and Make a Difference as well as Deutsche Bank, PepsiCo and other companies.
Sunita holds an MBA in Finance from ICFAI Business School, Bangalore and post graduate Diploma in Economics from University of Warwick, UK.

S C Monalisa – Senior Associate – Goonjan

Monalisa has over 5 years of experience in understanding client requirement, building valuable customer relations, customer retention and upselling. She has worked in customer relations as well as technical operations and service.
She is a computer science graduate from Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Odisha

Praveen Kumar, Manager – Helpdesk

Praveen has experience in resource mobilization, monitoring and reporting and research. He has a graduate degree in Economics, and has done an M.S.W (Community Development).
Praveen has worked in Childline India, where he coordinated with CHILDLINE partners across 8 districts, supporting capacity building and expansion. He has also served as Project Coordinator for the National Digital Literacy Mission.

Siddique Ahamed, Programme Officer – DrishtE

Siddique has experience in project coordination and management.
Siddique has a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Mysore University and worked in Saint John’s Research Institute as a Project Coordinator for over five years. His goal is to contribute to betterment of his workplace and Society.

Suresh Kumar, Assistant Manager – Help Desk Support

Suresh comes with a vast experience of over 9 years in the development sector.  He started his career as tele caller. He bas been part of organisations like Sattva consulting Pvt.Ltd, Nudge Foundation, GiveWay Foundation, Akshara Foundation and Amnesty International India.

He has great mastery over tamil and has translated annual reports, magazines and building Blocks math app from English to Tamil. He is lyricist and has written about 400 Tamil songs for films and TV series. He has also written and published a Tamil poetry book.

He has BLIS (Bachelor of Library and Information Science) from Annamalai University and a Lifetime Member of the “Bangalore Tamil Sangam”.

Prahlada Rao, Master Trainer- Niranthara Sahayak

Prahlada comes with 30+ years of programme management experience in social development sector in public health, rural development, women empowerment, lake rejuvenation and education. He has a deeper experience of working with academic institutions, bilateral organizations, foundations, CSR agencies and Government organizations at various levels through multi-state projects and exposure to multicultural communities. He is an expert Trainer with mastery in module design, developing training manuals, delivery and assessment.

He holds Post-graduation in Sociology from Bangalore University, and Certification in Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Health programmes from Mahidol University, Bangkok.

Pavan Murthy, Manager – Updeshak Programme

Pavan comes with over 16 years of diverse experience in the development and health Sector.  He held senior roles at multiple organisations, his major work involving HIV/AIDS prevention-care-support, child focused community development, women empowerment and youth skills development projects. He has served in many reputed organisations like KHPT, SWASTHI and OXFAM India. He has an exposure to CSR and Partner Management.

He holds master’s degree in social work from Bangalore University and Certification in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from Gustav Werner Stiftung, Reutlingen, Germany.

Rolan Roy Dsouza , Content and Community Management Executive

With a strong background in Mass Communication, Rolan comes with over 3 years of experience in designing magazines, collaterals, newspapers, handling social media, scripting, editing and creating digital advertisements. He has created several demo videos, awareness videos and 2D advertisements for public service segments.  He is also a music enthusiast, expert in playing several western musical instruments and has been a music instructor for Sandesha Cultural academy in Mangalore. 

He holds a postgraduate degree in Journalism and Mass communication.

Dhanashree , Junior Associate-Goonjan

Dhanashree comes with over 6 years of experience as DEO in Regional Medical Research Centre and as a Data Analyst in Talent Acquisition team of Mindtree Limited.  

She has a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from KLECET, Belgaum.

Mamatha Rajesh, Manager-Goonjan

Mamatha comes with 20+ years of experience in the IT sector providing expertise in Business operations and Client Interface Management. She has also played various roles including Development Management, Test Reporting, Defect database management and Design expertise. She has managed multiple teams and interacted with donors, educational institutes, and other groups.

She has completed her Master’s in Information Technology and Executive MBA in Information Technology.

Giridharan HC, Enrolment Manager

Giridharan comes with 15 years of experience with Sales & Business Development. His expertise involves business development, recruiting channel partners, Cold Calling, Relationship Building & Management, Account Mapping, Negotiation & Closure, Implementing and maintaining Quality services.

In his track record with 5 companies, he has handled diverse customer Segments such as Retail, Wholesale, Service Professionals, Corporate, PSU and Channel Sales. He has served in with challenging assignments.

Suma Ravi, Director of Programmes

Suma Ravi comes with 35 years of experience in Executive management, Fundraising, Programmatic interventions, strategy planning, People management, Market research and Client management.

She has a successful track record of working both in development sector as well as the corporate in India & abroad. She has served in 5 organisations undertaking challenging assignments.

She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Abhishek Shivu, Manager – Finance, HR and Admin

With about 6.5 years of experience, Abhishek has worked as a Finance & Accounting Consultant for companies like Vizdom Outlooks and Vinyas Communications. He has also been through his CA Articleship training under A S Bohra & Co and B M Manjunath & Associates (BMMA).

Adept in corporate statutory filings, payroll processing, revenue tracking as well as office & employee management, Abhishek is experienced in analyzing data, consolidating & simplifying it for management reporting and aid decision making.