OUR TEAM

Dr. Sheela Bhide
Chairperson
Dr. Sheela Bhide is a retired Civil Servant belonging to the Indian Administrative Service, Andhra Pradesh Cadre of 1973 Batch. She has served Government of India and Government of Andhra Pradesh in various assignments over a period of 36 years. In Government of India, she has held the posts of Chairperson of the India Trade Promotion Organization under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Special Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of External Affairs, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Defence and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In the Government of Andhra Pradesh, she was Principal Secretary in the Department of Industries and Commerce and Principal Secretary in the Department of Finance, besides several other posts held by her both in the field and in the Secretariat.
In 2008 she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.
Dr. Sheela Bhide has a doctorate in International Trade from the Graduate Institute for International Studies and Development, Geneva, Switzerland. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the George Mason University, Virginia, USA and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
At Harvard University, she was awarded the Josephine and Raymond Vernon Award for Academic Excellence and the Josephine and Raymond Award for Leadership.
At present she is the Chairperson of the Women Entrepreneurs International Trade and Technology Centre, Senior Adviser to the Indian Institute of Foundrymen, Senior Adviser to the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India, Independent Director on the Boards of Rane Holdings Ltd, Gati-Kintetsu Private Ltd, Ahluwalia Contracts India Ltd and Suryoday Foundation.

Dhara Vyas
Director
Ms Dhara Vyas has 18 years of diversified experience in financial services and international development ranging from strategic planning, business partnering, consulting, human resource management, learning and organization development and banking operations.
Ms Dhara holds her Bachelor's in Business Administration and has double Master's in Commerce (Economics and Management Accounts) from Saurashtra University and Business Administration (Human Resources Management) from Symbiosis.
She has undertaken professional and volunteering assignments in India, Muscat and Hongkong with ANZ Grindlays Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Swadhaar Finserve, LUPP Middle East, ACCION International, TSOL and Grameen Foundation.
Ms Dhara is currently the Chief People Officer and Head – Corporate Social Responsibility and provides oversight to CSR activities of Suryoday Small Finance Bank.

Narayan Rao
Director
Mr Narayan has over thirty years of professional experience spanning business, operations and technology including six years in USA. He has worked in organisations like Motorola-Pagepoint, Intelligroup and Pinc.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Loyola College, Madras and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Poona.
Currently he is the Chief Services Officer at Suryoday Small Finance Bank.

Ratna Viswanathan
Additional Director
Ratna Viswanathan is a highly accomplished, senior development and public sector professional.
A former civil servant (Indian Audit and Accounts Service, 1987 batch), she has worked in a range of departments across the Government of India including Audit, Defence and Indian public broadcasting.
She was the CEO of the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) for four years, which is both the industry body and the sector regulator (on behalf of the RBI) of the ‘for profit’ microfinance sector. She has held leadership positions at both Oxfam and VSO and played a key role in managing change in both those organisations.
She is now the Chief Executive of Reach to Teach and is based in New Delhi, India. Before joining Reach to Teach, she was the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the UNDP and before that a senior consultant with UNEP, where she helped establish the Sustainable India Finance Facility.
She is a highly experienced change agent; proficient in building capacity and influencing systems change by leveraging partnerships across different sectors. She sits on the Boards of several companies. She occasionally writes for The Print on defence issues.

Srinivasan Vn
Additional Director
Mr Srinivasan V, is a Chartered Accountant with more than thirty years of experience and of which about twenty four years of a successful corporate career as Chief Financial Officer of large and diversified enterprises.
He has handled various facets of finance and accounting, process controls and improvements including implementing new technology systems, all aspects of direct and indirect taxation, policy issues relating to growth of the industry, fundraising including debt, mezzanine and equity, working with reputed board members etc.
Mr Srinivasan has the proven ability to partner business in key strategic and functional leadership roles across multiple industries viz. Oil & Gas, Life and General Insurance, E-Commerce, Healthcare, InsureTech etc. He has built finance teams for MNCs, together with a keen interest and disposition towards entrepreneurship, business incubation and mentoring start-ups and SMEs.
He has founded CFO Bridge in 2012, India’s leading CFO Shared Service Company, which is supporting Start-ups and SMEs with an affordable CFO. Today CFO Bridge LLP has twenty five CFO Partners and serves more than eighty entities Pan India.
He has earlier worked across Reliance & Cairn Energy - in Oil & Gas sectors spanning more than thirteen years, AMP Sanmar, ICICI Prudential Life and Bharti AXA Life - in Life Insurance sector over eleven years. His stint as CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of Bharti AXA Life, where he helped build a world class finance department and also successfully lobbied for tax and other regulatory reforms has been his career highlight.
Currently he is an Independent Director and Chairman, Board Audit Committee on the Board of Aegon Life Insurance Company and Acko General Insurance Company. He is also on the Board of GOQii Technologies India Private Limited, a leading InsureTech start up headquartered in Mumbai.
Mr Srinivasan lives in Mumbai and has significant interests in Yoga and Ayurveda way of living.

Baskar Babu Ramachandran
Advisor
Baskar Babu Ramachandran is the Co-founder, MD and CEO of Suryoday Small Finance Bank.
He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras and a Master’s in Business Administration from Pondicherry University.
He has participated in the Management Development Programme for ‘Strategic Management for Corporate Leadership’ conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
With more than twenty five years of experience in banking and financial services prior to establishing Suryoday Small Finance Bank, he was associated with GE Capital Transportation Financial Services Limited as the Vice President, Quality and Operations, HDFC Bank as Assistant Vice President and Cholamandalam DBS Finance as the Chief Marketing Officer (West Zone).
He is a first-generation entrepreneur. Since the inception of the Microfinance company, he embedded the seeds of social development in Suryoday.
He is committed to the CSR activities of Suryoday Foundation and provides strategic direction and guidance to the programs.

Preeti Telang
Director, Programs
Ms. Preeti Telang is a development professional with over twenty five years of experience in education, health, financial inclusion and microfinance.
Prior to joining Suryoday Foundation she was the CEO and Strategic Advisor at Swadhaar FinAccess. She was instrumental in building the organization, along with managing the various stakeholders (funders, project and media partners) and leading the digital transformation of Swadhaar FinAccess.
During her tenure with Swadhaar Group, she also worked with the lending associate, Swadhaar FinServe Pvt. Ltd (now RBL FinServe Limited), heading Communication and Customer Protection and Social Performance.
Prior to joining Swadhaar, Ms. Telang worked with Xaviers Institute of Communication and College of Social Work, Mumbai. Her core expertise has been development and design of communication content for different marginalized groups of women, children at risk, sex workers and people living in urban and rural low- income communities. She has also conducted Training of Trainers and innumerable communication skills workshops for NGOs and grass root workers.
Ms. Telang was Co-Founder of Training Resources and Media Production (TRAMP) a collective of media professionals committed to the cause of Development Communication. Through TRAMP she worked on different assignments for Population Services International, DFID India, Engender Health International and others.
Ms. Telang holds a MBA degree in Social Entrepreneurship from SVKMs Narsee Monjee School of Business Management and a Masters of Social Work from Mumbai University.

Dr. Minakshi Sahoo
Sr Vice President, Partnerships & New Initiatives
Dr. Minakshi is a senior development professional with more than eighteen years of experience. She has worked with various organizations namely PRADAN, SEWA, JK Trust, IFFCO Kisan and Deepak Foundation.
Her core competency has been spearheading livelihood programs in rural areas across India. Her expertise also includes promotion of microfinance through SHG’s and their credit linkages, rural enterprise development, promotion of Farmer Producer Organization, managing various livestock-based projects, community resource mobilization, social as well as digital marketing. She also has experience in building partnership and liasoning with various government agencies, local and state level NGOs, and other private/public institutions.
Dr Minakshi is a veterinary science graduate from Assam Agricultural University and has done her Post Graduation in Rural Development.

Shilpaa D Bhure
Vice President, Programs
Shilpaa D Bhure has a wide-ranging experience in programme designing, management, monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment and reporting. She has worked extensively with non- governmental organization on public-private partnerships projects. She has experience of handling multi stakeholders (government, NGOs, corporate partners and community).
Ms Shilpaa has worked with Kotak Foundation, United Way of Mumbai and Harmony for Silvers Foundation.
Shilpaa completed Post Graduation Program in Development Management from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research Mumbai and is MSW from S.N.D.T University.

Prakash A
Area Manager, Tamil Nadu
Mr Prakash A has over ten years of experience across various projects like child labour, education, health and financial literacy. He has coordinated multi state programs in India. His expertise include working with different marginalised groups.
His last engagement was with PEAK (People's Education and Action in Kodaikanal) as Project Coordinator where he led a team and coordinated projects.
Prakash A has a Masters in Social Work from Madras University.

Manasi Acharya
Senior Manager, Programs
Ms Manasi Acharya has 10 years of experience in development sector especially in education, adolescent issues and gender.
Her skills are in project management, curriculum design, documentation, impact and behaviour change.
Prior to joining Suryoday Foundation she worked with Kenpath on developing digital delivery of training content through AI chatbots for NGO programs. She has worked with Akshara, Piramal education, Pratham, iCall & many other grassroot organizations.
Ms Mansi holds Bachelor’s in social work (hons), with specialization in rural development and Masters in gender studies from Tata institute of social sciences.

Mr. Sushant Kumar Swain
Area Manager, Odisha
Mr. Sushant Kumar Swain has 10 years plus experience in the development sector. He has experience of working on multi thematic areas in livelihood promotion, gender health & nutrition, institution building, and renewable energy. He has worked with rural and tribal communities in remote locations in Odisha.
His last assignment was with Harsha Trust and was involved in planning, monitoring, coordination and team management for multiple projects.
Mr Sushant has Masters in Social Work (MSW) from Utkal University, Odisha.

Dr. A Jayarajan
Area Manager, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry
Dr Jayarajan comes with 10 years of experience in research and training. His experience and expertise are in livelihood for farmers, women, youths, tribal and other social and economically disadvantaged communities.
Prior to joining Suryoday Foundation he was State Program Manager in the livelihood project titled “Opportunities for Youth Engagements” in the Terna Public Charitable Trust, Navi Mumbai. He also worked as Research Officer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Dr Jayrajan was Assistant Professor and Research Officer with Centre for Outreach and Strategic Alliances, Mumbai. He has published more than 10 research articles in reputed journals to his credit.
Dr Jayarajan hold Ph.D. in Public Administration from Gandhigram Rural University, Tamil Nadu, MA in Local governance from Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Empowerment, Tamil Nadu, and Bachelors in Business Administration from Pondicherry University.