Staff & Board

Dr. Madhav Chavan, Co-Founder & CEO

Originally trained as a chemist at Ohio State University and later a faculty member in chemistry at the University of University of Houston and University of Mumbai, Madhav Chavan has spent the last twenty years pioneering large-scale innovative programs in the field of education in India. After several years of work in adult literacy, in 1994, Madhav Chavan along with Farida Lambay founded Pratham in Mumbai. Madhav’s efforts have led to long-term partnerships with government at different levels and sustained commitment from the corporate sector and non-resident Indians for supporting the movement to bring every Indian child to school and to help every child to learn well.

Farida Lambay, Co-Founder, Trustee & Executive Secretary

The co-founder of Pratham, she is also the Vice-Prinicipal of the prestigious Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in Mumbai. She has led Pratham’s work in the area of child labour and “child at risk” and heads the Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children. Farida’s sustained work has led to a significant decline in child labour in Mumbai. She is on the State Child Rights Commisssion in Maharashtra and has recently been appointed as a member of the Government of India’s committee for Child Labour.

Dr. Rukmini Banerji, Director, ASER Center

Rukmini has been with Pratham since 1996, working in urban programmes of Mumbai and Delhi, as well as in the large-scale rural programmes in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. She has led Pratham’s research and assessment efforts. Since 2005, Rukmini has been a lead member of the team that designs and implements ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) and is a director of the newly formed ASER Centre. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, she did her doctoral work at the University of Chicago.

Usha Rane, Regional Head

Since 1996, Usha has been one of the leaders of the teaching-learning innovations in Pratham. Mobilising communities and catalyzing schools to deliver basic learning on scale has been one of her primary interests. Her work in 2002-2003, in the government schools in the tribal blocks of Maharastra was a precursor to the large scale Pratham government partnerships that emerged thereafter in many States. Today, Usha is responsible for Pratham’s work in five States.

Brij Kaul, Regional Head

Brij holds a Masters degree in Physics from Delhi University and a postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad. He served the corporate sector for around four years before he set up a textile unit that he ran for 20 years. Progressing with time, he involved himself with the IT sector, where his company provided wireless data encryption and backup solutions for international banks and network carriers.

Avinash Ahuja is President and CEO of Magnum Producing, LP, an oil and gas company based in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Sudesh Arora is President and CEO of Natel, a privately held aerospace and defense electronics company.

Vijay Goradia is the Founder and Chairman of Vinmar International Limited, a global distributor of Chemicals and Polymers with headquarters in Houston, Texas. He is also the founder and Chairman of Pratham USA.

Jaideep Khanna is Managing Partner and co-founder of Artha Capital, an Emerging Market Fund based in Stamford, CT.

Paul Pandian is President of Tech Mahindra (R & D Services) Inc., in Dallas, Texas, after the merger of Axes Technologies, the company he founded, with Tech Mahindra, in 1990.

Arvind Sanger is the founder and Managing Partner of Geosphere Capital Management, a global long-short equity hedge fund focused on natural resources and industrial companies around the world.