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Executive Team

Shashank Mani

Founder - Jagriti Yatra, Jagriti Enterprise Centre Purvanchal

An Author, an economic thinker, a “Yatri” at heart and a man on a mission, Shashank Mani straddles several worlds and experiences. He is the founder of Jagriti Yatra and Jagriti Enterprise Center – Purvanchal (JECP) and also a Partner with a well-known consulting firm, where he is the Government Strategy and Transformation leader and Aerospace and Defense Leader.

Shashank belongs to Deoria, Uttar Pradesh and was educated in both India and Switzerland. He completed his schooling from Colvin Taluqdars' College (Lucknow), BTech from Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Delhi and MBA (Hons) from IMD Lussanne. He has spent over 18 years in an international business environment, starting with Schlumberger, an international oil services company; consulting firms, and as the CEO of a BPO company he founded.

Shashank has written for the Times of India, the Asian Age and authored the Book titled “India –A journey through a Healing Civilisation”—published by Harper Collins, which launched the Jagriti Yatra in 2008.

Ashutosh Kumar

Executive Director

Exceptionally bright and dedicated to the vision of Enterprise-led-development, Ashutosh joined Jagriti in 2008 in the founding year. He was an integral part of the team, playing the role of Executive Director from 2012 till 2015. He now advises the executive team in strategy. An IIT Kharagpur alumnus, he is a theatre enthusiast and has also made several short films.

Ashutosh brings great creativity and humour to the team. He has led Jagriti Yatra successfully for the last 4 years.

Chinmay Vadnere

Chief Operating Officer

Chinmay is a chemical engineer by education, entrepreneur by passion. He joined the Jagriti Yatra in 2008 as a participant and soon after as an extended team member. He headed Railway Operations and Punctuality for the Yatra for 10+ years from 2009 - 2019. Today, he is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and an integral part of the core team of all Jagriti activities. He brings in a rich and rounded experience of Operations, Finance, Programming and Marketing.

Pankaj Mane

Head of Operations & Awareness

Pankaj has completed his MCA from Pune University. He has previously worked as Software developer and team leader. He is a District Community Service Director of Rotaract Pune. Pankaj is passionate about body building, personal health and wellness.He is a national level Shotput player.

Lalitha Prakash

Manager Fundraising

Veteran in Pharma sector with more than 20 years of experience. Successfully accomplished setting up Animal health division in Africa and South East Asia. Currently working with Jagriti as fund raiser.

Akash Goswami

Akash Goswami

Administration Officer

Akash from Nashik Maharashtra, a team since 2014 and now, Akash's story has been full of continuous climbs. He has a chain of trekking groups in Maharashtra; has himself been part of activities like paragliding and is even going for an Everest expedition. Akash is a state level jawline throw player, A passion entrepreneur who knows how to live life to the fullest.

Archana Bora

Archana Bora

Program Manager

Archana Bora a Counselling Psychologist and has been a practicing Handwriting analysis & Grapho -Therapy since 2012. She has worked with companies like Hindustan Unilever, Zamels ( Australian jewellery store brand), Galaxy Automation as well as recruitment agencies using Handwriting Analysis as a tool for professional development through self-awareness. She has also worked with Sr. Management of Adinath Jewellery in Human Resource Development for a period of 9 months. She has consulted more than 2000 persons through their Handwriting Analysis in more than 13 different languages on paper. Before this she has been working with Concept PR as a Sr. Investor Relations Manager and at HDFC Mutual Fund as a Service RM for half a decade. Her hobbies include reading fiction as well as philosophy, acting on stage and working in the social sector including education and personal development. A keen storyteller she has told more than 30 stories to more than a 1000 children and performed in more than 150 plays. Her dream is to own a cultural center one day and to play a string instrument.

Pragati Baheti

Selection & Onboarding Manager

Pragati is a MBA in Finance and IT. Post-internship with ABG she worked with the channel partner of Alibaba and as a key member of the Strategy and Planning team of an E-commerce startup. She has contributed towards the expansion of her father’s business to get it to reach new heights. Having an interest in writing she writes a blog “thesilentvibrations.blogspot.com” focusing on unsaid feelings. With her keen entrepreneurial mindset and quick learning attitude, she is fond of Indian handicrafts, travelling and Ayurveda.

Jagriti Yatra Board

The Jagriti Yatra Board comprises of international experienced professionals with high calibre who define the ethos of Jagriti Yatra.

Sharat Bansal

Chairman

Sharat Bansal has been a Partner, Management Consulting Leader, Advisory Leaders, Global Relationship Partner and member of PwC’s India Leadership Team. In PwC, he established several new practices like Strategy, Supply chain and Operations, Customer Relationship Management Human Capital Management. Sharat also led IBM Global Business Services in India for five years.

Balu Nayar

Board Member

Balu is a Co-Founder of NextGen Telesolutions Pvt Ltd. He was the Managing Director and Head of Morpheus Team at Morpheus Capital Advisors. He founded Morpheus in 2009. He has over 19 years of experience spanning media, marketing and business development. Prior to joining Morpheus Capital Advisors as Managing Director, Mr. Nayar was a Managing Director of IMG India. He was earlier associated with Yahoo as a Regional Director for Yahoo's Connected Life businesses across India, South-East Asia and Australia, after a stint as the Business Development Director for the APAC region. Mr. Nayar had earlier headed Hutchison Telecom's VAS division and before that had set up the marketing division at STAR TV.

Sunil Pangarkar

Board Member

Sunil Pangarkar has been an Oil and Gas Executive for 30+ years. He has lived and worked globally. He was a co-founder of one start-up that had a successful exit in 2015. He completed his mechanical engineering degree from MS University , Baroda and an MBA from Sloan school, MIT , Boston. He is currently the executive Chairman of Ecomax Solutions Pvt Ltd out of Pune.

Raj Krishnamurthy

Board Member

Raj is a thinker, leader and an innovator. He has worked for several multinationals including Applied Materials, BOC Group and UTC. He is the founder of a consultancy in London - Enria Limited. He currently works for Rentokil-Initial as their Innovations Director and is passionate about supporting startups. Raj is the architect of Biz Gyan Tree, the business plan competition in the Yatra and credited with several other creative excesses. He has a Bachelors from IIT Bombay, MS from Purdue University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Rewati Prabhu

Board Member

Rewati has worked for over 15 years as an urban designer in the USA, Europe, Africa and India. A gold medallist B.Arch graduate from Pune University and a fellowship awardee in her Masters in Urban Planning from University of Michigan, USA, she is a Director of Frischmann Prabhu India, a 400 strong multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Mumbai. Rewati has led several award-winning development projects and is passionate about urban regeneration in India.

Surendra Sharma

Board Member

An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, he is an ex-technocrat and consultant from the Nuclear Energy field. Interested in social welfare and nation building activity, he is closely associated with Jagriti Yatra and is contributing to its success from the very inception in 1997

Vanita Viswanath

Board Member

Vanita conceptualized and led Udyogini, an NGO based in Delhi. She is Founding Trustee and currently Chairperson of Aajeevika Bureau. She was previously with the World Bank, Washington D.C in various positions, including as co-director of a four-year Women's Enterprise Management Training program operational in three Asian countries. She also authored the first policy document on the Asian Development Bank's collaboration with NGOs. She has published widely lectured in leading US universities such as Yale and Columbia and presented papers in conferences worldwide, most recently at the Sixth Subsistence Marketplaces conference at the School of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA. She was recognized as a finalist of the Schwab Foundation India Social Entrepreneur of the Year award 2012 and recipient of The International Alliance of Women, Washington D.C, World of Difference Award 2013. She received her PhD from the University of Texas, Austin, USA.

Extended Team

Gauri Sharma Tripathi

A Kathak dance artist, perfomer, choreographer and artist in residence at Southbank Centre, London, Gauri is associated with Jagriti Yatra since its inception. She has done the choreography for Jagriti Geet that beautifully reflects Prasoon's lyrics and which Yatris could perfom all together.

She is curator of Alchemy festival and Women of World (WOW) at SBC.

Ananth Krishna

Ganesh Singh

Advisory

  • A P Misra

  • Ashish Chauhan

  • Chetna Sinha

  • Claude Smadja

  • Murali Talsila

  • Rohit Bhag

  • Sunil Shukla

  • Vijay Mahajan

  • Pooja Nayar

  • Swapnil Dixit

  • Vibha Joshi