We stand United, every step of the Way.

Aritra belongs to the social work background and has completed his post-graduation in Social Work in Public Health from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Aritra has volunteered in various not-for-profit organizations across India working in the thematic areas of Health, Livelihood and Community Development.

He has worked at TISS Center For Excellence in CSR erstwhile National CSR HUB as a Programme Officer for two and half years and has also been part of the TISS AESDII team. During his time at NCSR Hub, Aritra has been engaged in due-diligence of non-profit organisations, research studies for public sector enterprises as well as private companies , proposal evaluations of CSR projects and has conducted extensive field visits.

Aritra has one research publication on “Lived Experiences of Women in SEX Work & Their Mental Health Concerns“ – a qualitative study at Sonagachi, West Bengal in TISS DSPACE REPOSITORY.  His interest areas include Community Health, Preventive and Social Medicine, Sustainable Livelihoods Community Development  with special interest in communications and operations.

M A Alagappan retired as the Executive Chairman of the Murugappa Corporate Board. A scion of the Murugappa family – one of the oldest and most distinguished business families in India – Alagappan has been a dynamic business manager with strong entrepreneurial traits.

He serves on the Board of Directors of AVT Natural Products Ltd. and Vasan Helathcare Pvt. Ltd. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Group for Diageo India Pvt. Ltd. (“Diageo India”)

Equipped with vast experience and knowledge in managing diverse businesses, Alagappan has been actively involved with several leading industry associations. He is the Honorary Consul of Hungary in India for the Southern Region. He is a former President of The United Planters’ Association of Southern India, AIEO, and the Southern India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SICCI).

Being a tennis enthusiast, he plays a key role in the development of the game in the country. He is the President of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association(TNTA) and Vice President of the All India Tennis Association (AITA)

M A Alagappan takes a keen interest in social welfare and is a trustee of the AMM Arunachalam Trust, and AMM Foundation, which run schools and hospitals across India. He also serves as a member of the governing body of the Cancer Institute, a public charitable voluntary institution dedicated to cancer treatment, care, control, and research.

A Commerce graduate from the University of Madras, Alagappan has also undergone a course in Management Studies from the University of Aston in Birmingham.

In January 2009, M A Alagappan was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the Birmingham City University in recognition of his outstanding business achievements.

Rakesh S. Agrawal is the Chairman of Shiva Pharmachem Ltd, a company promoted by the family, having business interests in Acid Chlorides, Alkyl Chlorides, Polymers, Engineering Services, Trading etc,

Born on 8 th June, 1947, he is a Post Graduate (Master of Engineering –Chem) from Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey.

A first generation entrepreneur, Mr. Agrawal introduced Engineering Thermoplastics in India by setting up ABS Plastics Ltd, the first plant in the country to manufacture ABS and SAN resins and pioneered the market for these products in India. During his reign as Managing Director from 1973 to 2012, the Company had grown from 2000 TPA to 100,000 TPA in terms of ABS/SAN manufacturing capacity and Rs. 110 Mio to more than Rs. 11,000 Mio in terms of turnover.

Mr. Agrawal plays a major role in various Industries Associations and he is currently a Managing Committee Member of Federation of Gujarat Industries, where he also served as President for 2 years. He has also served as an Executive Committee Member of FICCI for several years.

He is also involved with various educational, social and charitable activities and is currently the Chairman of United Way of Baroda. He is also on the Board of GSFC University and had served as Senate Member of the MS University of Baroda for 4 years.

A connoisseur of contemporary Indian Art, he has created an Art Centre for the promotion of art and culture and possesses a large collection of various forms of visual art both – contemporary and primary.

1.Joined Pioneer Equipment Co. Pvt. Ltd. as Management Trainee in 1973. After variousassignments in the Company, joined the Board of Directors of Pioneer Equipment in1980. Headed Pioneer Equipment Co. Pvt. Ltd. from 1981 to 1990.

2.From 1985 to 1992 was instrumental in planning the toothbrush manufacturing unit ofM/s. Dye Azo Pvt. Ltd.

3.In 1993 was instrumental in promoting Jewel Brushes Pvt Ltd. as manufacturers of ToothBrushes.

4.In 2000 promoted Coronet Products Pvt. Ltd. a Joint Venture with M/s. Coronet WerkeGmbH, Germany for manufacture of Household Care and Dental Care Products.

5.In 2007 all the companies of the Jewel Group as also Coronet Products Pvt. Ltd. havebeen amalgamated into one Company, Jewel Consumer Care Pvt. Ltd. which is now aleading manufacturer of Oral Care and House Hold Care products in Asia with exports toover 50 countries around the world.

6.Mr. Goradia is also a founder Director of Kunkel Wagner (India) Pvt. Ltd a Joint VentureCompany with Kunkel Wagner Processtechnologie GmbH, Germany. Kunkel WagnerProcesstechnologie GmbH are world famous manufacturers of specialized FoundryEquipments and Turnkey Plants. Jointly with the principals Kunkel Wagner (India) Pvt.Ltd. have been supplying plants in India and to various countries in Asia and Africa.

Institutional Activities:

-Was member of the Executive Committee of Federation of Indian Chambers ofCommerce and Industry (FICCI) & was Chairman of Gujarat State Council of FICCIfrom inception till 2007.

-Member of the Managing Committee of the Federation of Gujarat Industries since1988 and has held various Executive Positions including President (1999 & 2000).

-Chairman of Baroda Citizens Council, (BCC) Vadodara from 2000 to 2009. BCC is aleading NGO working for the betterment of Baroda since 45 years.

-Chairman of the Board of United Way of Vadodara from 2009 to 2013. Has been aTrustee since 1991

-Vice Chairman & Trustee of Shram Mandir Trust a leading NGO taking care ofLeprosy patients.

-Chairman of Baroda Citizens Council Credit Society.

Mr. Kapil Kumria is the Managing Director and CEO of one of the leading travel companies of India, Corporate Flyers Pvt. Ltd. with 20 years plus experience in Travel Industry.

He is personally involved in the important projects going on and symbolizes the biggest outbound tour operator in India doing the largest members logistics for incentives & conferences.

Mr. Kapil Kumria started this successful journey in 1983 with Diners Club, Mumbai. Headed Sales Department from 1983 till 1986 that gave a glimpse of his roaring career ahead. Stepping upwards, he joined Carlson in Sales & Marketing Department, the then IND Travel, through 1986 till 1989. Started using his exceptional skills of sales and marketing for himself and became a partner in one of the emerging organization rendering travel services to prominent corporate in India, Corporate Travel Pvt. Ltd. In the year 1997, he started Corporate Flyers Pvt. Ltd. with 100% ownership. His keen interest in charity and welfare motivated him to form an NGO, Khushii five years back. He is a founder member and treasurer with Khushii. Mr. Kapil is a founder member of the world biggest NGO, United Way Delhi, and actively involved in the community development programs.

Mr. Kumria earned his Bachelor’s degree in tourism from the University of Delhi and further on he went to Miami, US to pursue advanced course in Operations from Panam Airline Center following an advanced course in ticketing and operations from Lufthansa Airline’s German centre, Frankfurt, Germany. A keen Sportsman represented Delhi State in Basketball and later was an important part in college basketball team. He was a successful Captain of College Cricket Team as well.

He presently holds the position of Co Chairman, DCG Data Core Systems (India) Pvt Ltd., a part of DCPL Group of Companies and subsidiary Data Core Systems, Inc US. He is also an active member of the Governing Bodies of Saroj Gupta Cancer Research & Hospital, Thakurpukur and Aurobindo Seba Kendra Hospital. He is also the Partner, Sengupta & Roy, a firm of Chartered Accountants.

In his earlier positions he was the Ex CFO of PwC, VP (Finance) and Stone India Ltd. a Duncan Group of Companies.

He was also the Ex Chairman,  American Chamber of Commerce ( Eastern Chapter) and Ex Chairman Eastern India Regional Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Ms Sushama Oza is Director, Strategy and Sustainability, Adani Foundation, India. She spearheads strategy for the corporate social responsibility projects of the Adani conglomerate at multiple sites across twelve states in core sectors, community health, and sustainable livelihood development. She has a bachelor’s degree in home science (extension and communication) and a master’s degree in social work from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU), Vadodara. She started her career at MSU as a research and teaching assistant. She has extensive experience working with different organizations including the California Rehabilitation Centre, California, USA.

Homi Khusrokhan is a Commerce Graduate from Bombay University and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a M.Sc. (Econ.) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He worked for 29 years with Glaxo & Burroughs Wellcome in India and retired in 2000 as Managing Director of both companies. He then joined the Tata Group as MD of Tata Tea Ltd. on a 3 year assignment and then moved to Tata Chemicals Ltd in 2004. He retired as MD of Tata Chemicals in December 2008. After his retirement from the Tata Group, he now serves on the Boards of several companies in a non-executive or advisory capacity and is presently a Vice President of the Bombay Natural History Society. In February 2009, he was appointed a Special Adviser to the Government-appointed Board of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. to assist with the turn-around of the company and the induction of a new strategic investor.

Prashanth Prakash joined Accel in 2008. He began investing in Indian technology start-ups in 2004, well before they acquired global attention. He started his investing career as a co-founder of Erasmic, one of India’s first early-stage funds. Prior to that, he founded two enterprises in the Internet and multimedia publishing domains.

As a key member of Accel’s India team,  Prashanth focuses on consumer Internet services, online marketplaces, and SaaS. He has led investments in Agrostar, BlueStone, BookMyShow, Clevertap, FabHotels, Glowroad, HolidayMe, HomeLane, InfraMarket, PropTiger, QwikCilver (acquired by Pine Labs), Rentomojo, TeaBox, and other early-stage companies.

Prashanth is from Bangalore and holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Delaware and an undergraduate degree in computer science.

M A Alagappan retired as the Executive Chairman of the Murugappa Corporate Board. A scion of the Murugappa family – one of the oldest and most distinguished business families in India – Alagappan has been a dynamic business manager with strong entrepreneurial traits.

He serves on the Board of Directors of AVT Natural Products Ltd. and Vasan Helathcare Pvt. Ltd. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Group for Diageo India Pvt. Ltd. (“Diageo India”)

Equipped with vast experience and knowledge in managing diverse businesses, Alagappan has been actively involved with several leading industry associations. He is the Honorary Consul of Hungary in India for the Southern Region. He is a former President of The United Planters’ Association of Southern India, AIEO, and the Southern India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SICCI).

Being a tennis enthusiast, he plays a key role in the development of the game in the country. He is the President of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association(TNTA) and Vice President of the All India Tennis Association (AITA)

M A Alagappan takes a keen interest in social welfare and is a trustee of the AMM Arunachalam Trust, and AMM Foundation, which run schools and hospitals across India. He also serves as a member of the governing body of the Cancer Institute, a public charitable voluntary institution dedicated to cancer treatment, care, control, and research.

A Commerce graduate from the University of Madras, Alagappan has also undergone a course in Management Studies from the University of Aston in Birmingham.

In January 2009, M A Alagappan was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the Birmingham City University in recognition of his outstanding business achievements.

Ramesh Kaza is the Senior Vice President and Head of Information Technology (CIO) for India, where he has dual responsibility in providing end-to-end technology support for the State Street India organization and its entities, and also build and manage the in-house knowledge capability for critical technology functions.

Ramesh came to State Street with over 28 years of diversified working experience, operating globally from Australia, US and India. Prior to joining State Street, he had a long stint of over 16 years with the Bank of America, where he held critical positions operating from both US and India. With the Bank of America, he led numerous transformational initiatives to optimize technology services. His most recent role was the global delivery Chief Information Officer, responsible for building and managing technology solutions for enterprise lines of business viz. Risk, Compliance, HR,Finance, Marketing, Audit and Enterprise Data.

Ramesh also held key positions globally with companies like Fidelity Investments, GE Capital, AMP Life and Aspect development. Ramesh brings in core knowledge in optimizing technology solutions for customers, building and managing global workforce including best in class vendor management. He is also an active contributor to community development projects in the areas of Education, Health, Livelihood and Environment through his volunteer work at United Way of Hyderabad. He serves the board of United Way Hyderabad as the chairperson.

Ramesh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Master’s degree in Satellite Communication and Microwave Engineering and an Executive Leadership accreditation from Cornell University.

Manish has been associated with the United Way network in India for over a decade. Since his college days, he has been engaged with the development sector in various capacities. Passionate about nurturing social initiatives, scaling up not–for–profit organizations, and advising businesses on community investments, Manish is a certified Corporate Social Responsibility professional from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He was awarded the prestigious Ford Foundation Fellowship to do a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Development from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. In 2016, Manish was selected as an emerging leader by United Way Worldwide to undertake an Executive Leadership Development program with Centre for Creative Learning, Harvard Kennedy School and Deloitte University in the United States of America. Manish has served communities across the country and in West Africa.

Rajesh Krishnan has wide experience in Sales, Marketing and Business Development and has spent many years in multinational companies such as Consul, APC (later Schneider Electric) and CommScope. He held various leadership roles at both, National and Asia Pacific level.

He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and is a first-rank holder from Karnataka University. He also has a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management from Bhavan’s College. His strong views like ‘be the change you wish to see’, made him change course and take up teaching in a low-income school, where he taught Science, Mathematics, and English to over 140 children from Grades 3 to 7.

He joined United Way Bengaluru as a volunteer towards the planning and implementation of Nandi Hillathon. Convinced that Social Engineering is where his passion lies, he has joined United Way Bengaluru. A stickler to detail he has a penchant for cooking, travel, and history.

Swapnil has been working in the Finances & Admin Department in social work from the past 9 years along with 2 years in the corporate sector. He has worked with GFATM Project (The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria) for SAATHII in Maharashtra and Goa.

Throughout his professional journey, he has met with opportunities to work with various people and organizations like Prayas (Pune), Gaurav, Aaraju Foundation, Humsaya foundation, thus helping him grow his skills. Having gained knowledge and experience about finance management, budgeting, data analysis, FARA, TDS, provident fund, income tax return, charity commissioner rules, handholding support, advocacy, reproductive and child health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, adolescent health and sexuality and SHGs, Swapnil now heads the Finance at United Way India.

Rajendra has been working with United Way India from the past couple of years and is always ready to assist in the operational tasks of the organization. Committed, passionate, and always ready to serve, he truly showcases all that United Way India is about — service to the community.

Jayanti Shukla joined United Way Mumbai in 2008. Prior to this assignment, she worked with the New India Assurance Co. Ltd, a multinational insurance company, as their Regional Manager at the company’s Delhi Regional Office. She later worked with IL&FS Investsmart Insurance Brokers Ltd. as Vice President for corporate and insurer relations.

Jayanti is an Independent Director on the boards of two of the group companies of Standard Chartered Bank, namely Standard Chartered Securities (India) Ltd., and Standard Chartered Investment and Loans (India) Ltd. She is on the CII Task Force for India@75 and is a member of the CSR Committee of the Indian Merchants Chamber.

She is also an alumnus of the Hunt Partners Independent Directors Club. Jayanti holds an M.Phil from the University of Delhi.

Sachin has over 21+ years of rich and diverse experiences in and outside India.

Prior to leading United Way Delhi, he has served in leadership positions in two of the largest child-focused organizations in India where he managed large and diverse program portfolios (education, health, livelihood, water and sanitation, disaster response, etc.).

He has experience working with diverse stakeholders and partnerships, which include civil societies, governments and for-profit corporations. He managed large programs using diverse sources of funding and has deep exposure to programs across several thematic areas and countries. He is a post graduate from The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and is an Aspire Social Leadership Fellow

Dipanwita Das has 22 years of corporate work experience with brands like Vodafone, Telenor and Reliance. She has been through the entire telecom lifecycle from its inception to its present avatar. Her forte is customer service and operations, setting up of new processes, and managing all aspects of customer interaction in alignment with the other departments.

She last worked as DGM service delivery head for the eastern region at Reliance Communication. She also teaches the children of slum-dwellers, who are first generation learners, in association with a charitable trust in her neighborhood. She holds an MBA from the Institute of Business Management, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Archana Raghuram is the Executive Director and CEO of United Way Chennai. Previously, she was the Global Head of Outreach, Cognizant’s CSR program focused on providing underprivileged sections of the society with access to quality education. As a Cognizant veteran with over 21 years of experience, Archana has been instrumental in setting up the Outreach program in over 20 countries and is taking its growth to over 100,000 active volunteers across the globe. Under her leadership and guidance, these volunteers have made an impact to the lives of over 4,00,000 underprivileged children and clocked more than 20,00,000 volunteering hours making it one of the largest corporate volunteering program in the world.

Archana has won international recognition for the work she has done. She was awarded the prestigious Forbes India Philanthropy Award in the ‘Good Samaritan’ category by the Forbes India Magazine. She was honored as ‘one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business’ for 2015 by Fast Company magazine. Brew magazine honored Archana as an ‘outstanding women achiever in her chosen field’ in 2016.

Archana has completed an executive management program on sustainable business and corporate responsibility from the Swedish Institute. She was one of the 25 people selected from applicants all over India for sponsorship by the Swedish Institute.

Archana holds a B.E. degree in Computer Science from Dr. MGR Engineering College. She is also a rank holder from the University of Madras. She started her career as a software engineer.

Dr. Binita Verdia oversees the administration, programs, and strategic plan of the organization including community outreach, fundraising, and branding. She holds a PhD in Tissue Culture (published 12 research papers in National and Internal journals), an MBA (Master in Operation Research), and a PGMSM (Marketing and Sales Management). She has done a gender course from PRIA and a LAMP (Leadership and Management in Health Research) course from INCLEN, New Delhi. She has a rich work experience of 21 years across the corporate and development sectors.

She is the Vice-President of Jain International Women Organization. She is also the jury member in categories of outstanding CSR, NGO, and women entrepreneur of FGI (Federation of Industrial Association – 100 years young Chamber of Commerce recognized by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI) for two consecutive awards in 2017 and 2019. She is also an active member of the Jain youth group.

She has served in GSFC Science Foundation for 7 years and in esteemed NGOs such as Seva Mandir, Rajasthan as Head Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation Cell. She anchored Rural Development course for international undergraduates. At Deepak Foundation she was a Senior team member in CSR and HNR-CS before joining United Way of Baroda. Her experience is in the areas of fund-raising for the organization, implementation, proposal development, evaluation, and monitoring of various sectors such as health, education, women and child development, occupational health, and clinical services. She has also been instrumental in the designing and development of the Sustainable Enterprise Center of Deepak Occupational Health Centre.

Apart from these, she was Co-investigator for Childhood Pneumonia research study in the urban, rural and tribal areas of Gujarat funded by INCLEN. She conducted a study on child migration funded by Child Fund and willingness to pay for health services funded by Sanford World Clinics. She has attended, presented and awarded best poster and paper presentations at various conferences at INSA, and also conducted various effect and impact studies on the development sector.

Rekha joined United Way of Hyderabad in January 2013. She has 19+ years of pan-India experience in community development. She has worked with various communities which are facing challenges – women, workers in unorganized work sectors, tribal communities, fishing communities, and rural and urban poor. Most of the work has been oriented towards empowering socially and economically disempowered communities.

She started her career as a lecturer of Journalism. Her passion for community development brought her to work with over 200 NGOs and CBOs in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. She has rich experience of lobbying with the government for policy change. She provided leadership to two large people’s networks to lead right-based campaigns. The networks are Andhra Pradesh women’s network in Andhra Pradesh and Forum for Crèche and Childcare Services (FORCES) in Karnataka.

She has authored over 10 forward-looking documents for large funding organizations like Sri Ratan Tata Trust, Alliance Network, Skillshare International – Value chain of Non-timber forest produces, ISB, and Goldman Sachs. Her documents were on Women Entrepreneurship Development Program, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Hyderabad, and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for GO of AP.

Her passion to teach, promote volunteerism and enthuse students to work in the social development sector lead her to organize student development programs for students from National Institute for Rural Development – Hyderabad, Osmania University, and social work students from various MSW colleges.

In her current role, she is responsible for operationalizing the vision, mission, and goals of the organization as both its programmatic and administrative head. Rekha has a Master’s degree in Mass Communication with a specialization in print media, advertising, and public relations.

With over four decades of experience in developing and leading one of India’s most respectedand diversified Chartered Accounting firms – Haribhakti & Co. LLP Chartered Accountants,Mr. Haribhakti stepped away from the Company’s management in 2018, while now pursuingthe establishment of high quality auditing globally through a “not for profit” initiativesurrounding his recently authored book –“Audit Renaissance”.

Currently the Non‐Executive Chairman of L&T Finance Holdings Limited, L&T MutualFund and Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited. Alongwith serving as the Chairman on the boardof United Way India he is also the director at number of pharmaceutical, media, appliances,developers, cement firms. He also serves on the advisory Boards of Doha Bank andExcellence Enablers Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Haribhakti has a passion for teaching, writing and public speaking. He was associatedwith IIM‐Ahmedabad as visiting faculty from 1981‐83. He has led BMA, IIA (Mumbai),ICAI (WIRC), IMC, FPSB and Rotary Club of Bombay over the last several decades. Fortwo years he served on the Standards Advisory Council of the IASB in London and wasChairman of NPS (National Pension Scheme) Trust from 2015‐2017. He frequentlycontributes his views on public forums, to the press and to the electronic media.

Selected as one of the top 100 women of India by the National Bar Assocation of India in March 2018 and published in the book “The Phenomenal She”, Ms. Rajita Kulkarni helps organisations achieve global excellence in governance , finance and administration. Having recently joined United Way India as a Board member, she has been instrumental in leading a number of action-oriented initatives towards the goal in creating global advocacy to inspire individuals and corporations embrace an ethical way of life. Her keen understanding of the education landscape of the world, her ability to connect with academicians, students and regulators and her unique skill of bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders towards a common goal is driving the Sri Sri University team to build it as a global centre of excellence.

Before committing her life to society five years ago, Rajita was a banker for 18 years with Citi. She held many international leadership positions in her career, last of which was Asia Pacific Head for Customer Advocacy and Training for the Retail Assets Business where her portfolio responsibility was annual revenues of 750 million US dollars, 16,000 employees and over 800 branches across 12 countries. Considered an expert in the field of leadership training, she has designed85 management exercises and learning tools released in a book “Focus Forward”. She has won 17 awards for professional excellence in her field and has clocked over1 million man-hours in training and development of over 100000 participants.

With 6 years of solid experience in development and disaster contexts, Shubham is a highly agile professional who has lead projects focusing on education, livelihood, WASH, cash transfers, disaster risk reduction, post-disaster recovery, and resilience.

At United Way India, he is responsible for programs and community impact initiatives. His portfolio includes project cycle management, grant management, system & operations, and coordination with international and national United Way teams. Previously, he was driving early recovery and cash transfer projects in Nepal which supported the victims of 2015 Himalayan mega-earthquake. He is a voracious reader and loves studying human psychology, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence.

Having studied Banking and Insurance and now pursuing her Master’s in Environmental Sustainability, Melanie has been working with United Way India since the past 2 and a half years.

Coming from a household that caters food, Melanie is always excited to cater to people throughout her career in the organization she works for. Having worked with various firms pertaining to administration in India and Dubai, Melanie is now looking forward to bringing United Way India’s philanthropic services to her community in Mumbai.