OUR CULTURE
Our approach is centered around the pillars of excellence, trust, dedication and transparency. All of us believe in open communication and positivity, with the goal of delivering results for our partners. Our culture is one of partnership, diversity and ensuring our employees are happy. While striving for excellence, the key for us is to ensure purposeful engagement through which organisational and individual goals are aligned.
Sneha Arora
Chief Executive Officer
Vernon Dsouza
Chief Programme Officer (CPO)
Carmeline Fernandes
CHIEF OPERATION OFFICER
Vanita Kariappa
LEAD CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Aishwarya Menon
LEAD CONSULTANT (Knowledge, Impact and Programmes)
Soniya Mulik
SENIOR CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Reeva Kulkarni
CONSULTANT COMMUNICATIONS
Sanil Gharat
FINANCE MANAGER
Saumya Sharma
BD, ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Anuj Mirchandani
ASSOCIATE - FINANCE, HR & ADMIN
Sunita Mirchandani
ASSOCIATE
Devina Nigam
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Vaishali Janarthanan
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Parul Agarwal
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Kavya Tadakaluri
PROGRAMME ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Debarati Mondal
Recruitment and Impact Associate
Shalini Kapoor
Consultant Future of Impact Collaborative
Divya S. Pillai
Consultant Accelerator
Shreya Nagda
Consultant Accelerator
Kavita Pandya
Programme Consultant
OUR CULTURE
Our culture is centered around the pillars of excellence, trust, dedication and transparency. We believe in open communication and positivity, with the goal of delivering results for our partners.
Our culture is one of partnership, diversity and ensuring employee satisfaction. While striving for excellence, the key for us is to ensure purposeful engagement with all our stakeholders, ensuring that organisational and individual goals are aligned.
BOARD MEMBERS
Dimple Gujral
Trustee
Dr. Neha Deshpande-Kamat
Trustee
Gayatri Nair Lobo
Advisory Board Member
Prasad Baji
Advisory Board Member
Meghna Rakshit
Advisory Board Member
Sucharita Kamath
Advisory Board Member
Chief Executive Officer
Sneha is the Chief Executive Officer at Atma and is leading the Fundraising, Governance and Communications verticals. She has close to fourteen years of experience in the private and development sector. An MBA from the Indian School of Business, Sneha has held multiple positions across strategy consulting and corporate finance. She is deeply passionate about making a positive impact in people's lives through her work and is excited to drive this through the capacity building of NGOs at Atma. She has been selected as an Acumen Fellow in 2022. Before joining Atma, she worked at Boston Consulting Group’s Social Impact practice and has experience in supporting large-scale transformation projects in Education and Water with State governments in India. Sneha is an avid runner and has completed over 10 half marathons. She also loves reading, baking and is a big TED fan.
Chief Programme Officer (CPO)
Vernon is the Chief Programme Officer at Atma and is leading the Programme vertical. He has two decades of experience in the development sector with leadership experience in helping organisations design and operationalises impactful, scalable, and sustainable projects. He is deeply passionate about education and enabling individuals to gain access to quality education to rise to the challenges of a developing yet globally competitive country and is excited to drive this through the capacity building of NGOs at Atma. Before joining Atma, he worked at the British Council and has experience in designing and delivering large-scale transformation projects in Education with State governments in India; partnership development, relationship building, strategy, operations, governance, and project management. Vernon loves reading, food and is an avid football fan.
CHIEF OPERATION OFFICER
Carmeline joined Atma in 2011 and is currently leading Operations, the Volunteer Program and Administration at Atma. Before that, she worked at anti-human trafficking organisations for over 10 years, during which she managed offices and supervised teams across cities, assisted in field assignments, headed administration and led HR and community relations portfolios. In her spare time, Carmeline volunteers to work with support groups for children and youth.
LEAD CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Vanita Kariappa is the Lead Consultant at Atma with over 7 years of experience in running, working, and Consulting for educational NGOs in India. She has a degree in Psychology and a post-graduation in Development Management from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research. As a former Founder of the Rangmanch Foundation, she understands the resource constraints that organisations have and the importance of scaling up in order to provide quality education to all children. She loves to travel and highly values new ideas and innovation and believes that entrepreneurs are the real changemakers!
LEAD CONSULTANT (Knowledge, Impact and Programmes)
Aishwarya is a Lead Consultant at Atma and manages the Knowledge, Impact and Programmes (KIP) vertical. With a degree in law from NALSAR University of Law and a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, she has close to 8 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit sectors. During her time at Atma, she has worked on supporting the capacity development journey of a number of Atma's NGO partners across areas such as strategy, fundraising and monitoring and evaluation. When she is not working, she can be found holding forth on the latest movies and TV shows or huddled in a corner with her Kindle.
SENIOR CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Soniya is a Senior Consultant at Atma with over seven years of experience in the development sector. She holds a Masters Degree in Biochemistry and has completed her Law Degree from Mumbai University. She started her journey at the grassroots and has worked in various capacities in the environment, education, sustainability and corporate CSR domain. Outside of work loves trying new things which catch her attention, cooking and reading.
CONSULTANT COMMUNICATIONS
Reeva joined Atma as a volunteer in 2019 to support the Atma partners with their online presence and help build their social media content. She later joined the Atma team as a Business Development Consultant and leads the fundraising efforts. Reeva is a graduate of Social Entrepreneurship from EDHEC Business school, France. She has finally found her calling in the development sector and hopes to create an impact on the importance of education. Reeva has previously worked on digital strategies for Christian Dior parfums in Paris and a B2B e-commerce company in Berlin. She loves to explore new art shows and artists all around the world.
FINANCE MANAGER
Sanil Gharat is an Accounts Associate at Atma, with a Master's in Commerce from Mumbai University. Previously, Sanil has nine years of experience with Texperts and Medialexicon as Sr. Accounts Executive and Accountant, respectively. At Atma, he looks over book-keeping, financial audits and other compliances. Over the weekend, Sanil makes time for cricket and action movies.
BD, ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Saumya is a business development associate at Atma. With a bachelor's in chemical engineering from BVDU Pune, she set out to build her foundations in the development sector by completing the Teach For India fellowship. In her tenure as a fellow, she worked closely on the ground in a low-income private school in Mumbai and built data-informed structures, and mobilized volunteers and stakeholders to improve the learning levels of 137 students. She is a literary enthusiast with a keen interest in poetry. She practices Kathak in her free time and loves watching all kinds of movies.
ASSOCIATE - FINANCE, HR & ADMIN
Anuj is a Finance Associate at Atma. He is a Chartered Accountant and has seven years of experience in tax & transfer pricing consultancy, corporate finance, and audit across the finance, banking, insurance, manufacturing, hospitality, and information technology sectors. He has previously worked with Ernst & Young and Deloitte and has assisted large MNCs in pricing their intra-group transactions, setting up remuneration models/ policies, complying with taxation rules, and dealing with Indian as well as Foreign Revenue Authorities. He associates strongly with the causes of education development and animal welfare and wishes to contribute towards the same. Apart from work, he has his own little creative world where he does painting, doodling, fashion illustration, watches movies, and is learning theatre and music.
ASSOCIATE
Volunteering with Atma has been an opportunity to realize my passion for working with NGOs which promote quality education and the growth of marginalized children and youth. I have worked on projects to build the capacity of NGOs in the HR and Monitoring & Evaluation domains. I work with the Atma leadership team to manage the NGO mentorship programme under which NGOs are mentored to overcome challenges in different aspects of their work. It's a pleasure to volunteer at Atma as the projects are challenging, and the Atma team is vibrant and dedicated. Atma has an inclusive work environment, where the opinion and contributions of volunteers are valued. Sunita has a Masters in Management Studies Degree in Finance. She has experience of twenty-eight years in the IT services sector and over 8 years as a volunteer in the development sector. She volunteers with Angel Xpress Foundation, a grassroots NGO to teaches children. She joined Atma as a volunteer in Jan 2020 to work on building the capacity of nonprofits using her experience in management. In her spare time, you can find her listening to music and reading.
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Devina has been associated with Atma in various capacities in the past and now as a Consultant. She holds a bachelor's degree in History from Delhi University and completed her post-graduation in Human Capital Management from XLRI Jamshedpur. She started her professional journey about a decade ago in the field of HR and since then has worked with Accenture across their three businesses (Consulting, Outsourcing & IT Solutions) and Godrej Consumer Products. She has worked in the spaces of Employee Engagement, Employee performance management, policies & culture development especially wrt the inclusion of diverse workgroups into the workforce like women, LGBTQ, and Persons with Disabilities. She's passionate about India's colours, crafts, and all things home decor. Outside of consultant work, you will find her either talking to her plants or spending time on her entrepreneurial venture called Chokar which aims to bring Indian crafts & artists from remote parts of the country to mainstream markets.
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Vaishali has worked in the development sector for the past 7 years. She brings grassroots experience and learnings on issues of child rights, violence against women, and education. She holds a Masters in Education from TISS, Mumbai. She is interested in law, caste, and gender. She enjoys eating Pani puri at every corner of the country.
CONSULTANT, ACCELERATOR
Parul has worked with multiple types of social impact organizations in her work experience of 3+ years. She brings grassroots experience and learnings on issues of education, livelihood, and skill development. She holds a Masters in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. Outside of work, you can find her trying out every new thing she can put her hand on, but she has consistent love for travelling and dancing.
PROGRAMME ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT
Kavya began her leadership development journey at AIESEC, an entrepreneurial journey by co-founding The Inner Goddess Academy – a leadership development platform specially designed for women and took on several other such roles during her four years studying Computer Science Engineering. Since then, she has worked in advertising, business development, and NGO management. It is while doing all the above that she found her calling lies in creating an impact in India’s social sector. In particular, she enjoys working with changemakers with a special focus on causes related to gender and sexuality rights, quality education, and environmental protection. She recently received her post-graduate certification in Social Innovation Management from Amani Institute and aims to one day build a foundation that addresses and builds awareness around the above-mentioned causes. When she's not working, you can find her engrossed in meaningful conversations while watching the sunset by the beach.
Recruitment and Impact Associate
Debarati joined Atma in February 2022 as an Impact and Recruitment Associate. Before that she worked for Tribal Livelihood in a Project Executive capacity and also tried her hands in ed-tech briefly. In her spare time, Debarati can be found either cycling or trying out different yogic postures or lost in thoughts of how she can make the world any better.
Consultant Future of Impact Collaborative
Shalini is the consultant for Future of Impact Collaborative at Atma and has close to 3.5 years of experience in the impact sector. Her experience and learning from being a teaching Fellow & spearheading the implementation of education programs with state governments and communities directly provided her with the foundation for building meaningful relationships, non-profit management, fundraising, and hands-on experience in managing and coordinating multi-stakeholder projects that create holistic ecosystems. She has also been selected as a GGI Fellow in 2022 and is deeply passionate about creating a positive social Impact. She is a certified PADI open water Scuba diver and loves to explore the ocean. In her free time, you can find her binge-watching shows/movies/documentaries with a bowl full of chocolate ice cream and sipping cold coffees.
Consultant Accelerator
Divya's exposure to the development sector started in 2014 through volunteering with various organisations in Jaipur working towards RTE for underprivileged kids. She has over 3 years of experience in teaching, managing projects, creating data-informed plans and leading large cohorts of people from various age groups. She is passionate about impacting and improving the lives of children through holistic education. Her experience of teaching 98 girls in a low-income community through the Teach For India Fellowship, and communications training with the British Council together helped her understand the grassroots reality and different types of stakeholders. She is a certified yoga trainer and loves outdoor activities. She also enjoys Indian classical art forms, DIY, and writing letters.
Consultant Accelerator
Shreya joined as a volunteer with Atma and worked on projects within communications, business development and knowledge management verticals. Being extremely enthusiastic about empowering underprivileged people through education and valuable life skills, she is now part of the Accelerator vertical curating processes and interventions for capacity building of partner NGOs. A Chartered Accountant with almost 6 years of corporate experience, she has worked with KPMG as an indirect tax consultant managing GST implementation, advisory and compliance projects across diverse clientele. Badminton, food, books and meaningful conversations occupy her time outside of work.
Programme Consultant
Kavita is working with Atma as a Programme Consultant to provide support on capacity-building projects. She has over 12 years of experience in the development sector in managing diverse roles like providing mentoring and capacity-building support to nonprofits and social enterprises, leading and executing programmes and building organisational processes. She has done her MBA in Human Resources. Previously, she has worked with EdelGive Foundation where she managed the corporate employee volunteering programme and with UnLtd India where she managed the Incubation programme along with mentoring social entrepreneurs. She has also worked with different NGOs as a consultant, her key skill areas include strategic planning, financial budgeting, impact measurement, process development and human resources. Her interests are reading, writing, art and music.
Trustee
Dimple is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of professional experience. She was a founding staff member of Teach For India and spent a decade there as CFO; managing not just finance but also fundraising, technology and legal matters. Prior to Teach For India, she has worked in the Travel and Logistics industry in organisations such as Cleartrip.com, Kuoni Travel (India) Pvt. Ltd., Travel Corporation of India, FedEx, and Ernst & Young.
Dimple was a partner at a small consultancy firm called Tatha Partners, the aim of which was to provide operational and financial guidance to small and new businesses, both in the private and non-profit sector.
Dimple is currently the Head of Finance at Dalberg.
Trustee
Dr. Neha Deshpande-Kamat will be joining the Atma board as an advisory member. Neha is a Ph.D. in Human Development and specializes in Social and Behavioural Sciences with 15 + years of experience in the field of health and education. She is a practicing Health Educator and Nutritionist in Mumbai. Neha has been associated with Atma for the past 7 years and has previously lead the Impact and Research Teams at Atma. We are happy to have her on board as a part of the Atma Family.
Advisory Board Member
Gayatri brings to ATE Chandra Foundation, a mix of close to 20 years of strategy consulting and development sector experience, having worked most recently as CEO of India School Leadership Institute (ISLI). Before joining ISLI, Gayatri was at Dalberg Advisors and prior to that the Chief Operating Officer at Teach For India, and was part of the scale-up of operations during its first six years. Gayatri has also previously worked at OC&C Strategy Consultants and Avalon consulting, working with clients across sectors. Gayatri has a Masters in Management Studies and a Bachelors in Commerce from Mumbai University.
Advisory Board Member
After 22 years in the corporate world across Siemens, ICICI, Edelweiss and JSW Group, Prasad transitioned to the social sector as a volunteer, advisor and philanthropist to non-profits in July 2018. With a vast experience across project finance, corporate banking, investment banking, institutional equities and investor relations, he not puts them into practice working with non-profits helping them to sustain and scale. He plays various roles for multiple organisations such as Partner, Social Venture Partners, Mumbai Chapter; Executive Board Member, Foundation for Mother and Child Health India; Member, Caring Friends network; and Founding Member, IIT for IIT (IITians for Influencing India's Transformation)
Advisory Board Member
Meghna Rakshit has over 20 years of experience in marketing and communications with corporate and social sector companies. She is passionate about leveraging communications to drive gender equality and womens’ empowerment through her role at The Womanity Foundation. She brings extensive experience in user-centered problem solving, communications, business planning, and design thinking to her work. She sits on the advisory board of ATMA (an organisation supporting education NGOs) and has been a speaker at several development sector forums. Prior to Womanity, Meghna was Partner & CEO of Subu & Rakshit (S&R). Under her leadership, S&R provided strategic communications solutions to organisations across health, education, community development, women empowerment, and housing to increase their impact. Meghna's previous experience includes leading the Communications team at Teach For India. She has previously worked on marketing strategy at Anand Bazaar Patrika and 9.9 Media, and media planning at Mindshare’s New York and Mumbai offices. Meghna holds an MBA from The Indian School of Business and a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Psychology from Hamilton College, New York.
Advisory Board Member
Sucharita has two and a half decades of a unique blend of experience in the Corporate and Sustainable Development space spanning the IT, non-profit, and social enterprise and consulting industries including various senior management roles. She is currently the India head of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and also is a Partner at Emergence consulting. Sucharita is an MBA from the University of Oxford.
