Our Team

Mohan H.L is a social scientist with three decades of experience as a Senior Technical Advisor for programmes, communications and community interventions. Presently, he is also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KHPT, he leads and provides overall direction to management of programmes, communications and community mobilisation systems and activities. He has played a key role in strengthening KHPT’s partnership with both state and national governments in India.

A firm believer in community centric planning and decentralisation, he has been responsible for design and implementation of innovations in areas of MNCH and HIV/AIDS. His area of interest include institution building and leveraging information and communications technology for empowering grassroots communities.

Prior to joining KHPT, he has spent more than two decades in government and non-government organisations, working specifically in the areas of education, health, decentralisation and adolescent education. He has worked as an advisor and consultant in several development projects of UNFPA, UNESCO and UNICEF, within the country as well as outside.

He has a Master’s degree in Rural and Urban Community Development from the School of Social Work, Mangalore. He has several peer reviewed publications and abstracts to his credit.

Ms. Tasqeen has substantial experience in development work spanning over 25 years evident in the range of portfolios handled and organisations worked with, namely, grassroots organisations, international NGOs and multi-lateral organisations. The thrust of the work has been conceptualising and facilitating participatory and sustainable development at the grassroots, policy research and advocacy work, assessing potential partners, project design and evaluation, strategic direction, building vision and capacities of communities and organisations as well as resource mobilisation. The thematic areas she has worked on have provided valuable insights and experience in gender and development, women’s empowerment, education and child labour, health and HIV/AIDS, migration and livelihoods in the informal economy.

Ms Macchiwala is currently working as Portfolio Manager at the Azim Premji Foundation. She is a board member of Sutradhar, an educational resource centre since 2002 and also, a member of Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee, WIPRO since 2004.

Mr AM Rajashekara has thirty-six years of experience in the fields of administration, advertising and publicity, program planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programmes implemented across the country through the ‘National Literacy Mission Authority’ (NLMA). He is a well-known figure in the non-formal education sector and administration sectors with strong networking capabilities, having played advisory roles in several large programs within the government, both at the state and national levels. After completing his M.A. (Economics) from Bangalore University in 1976, he started his career with the Family Planning Association of India, funded by the International Planned Parenthood Federation. He has led teams in planning strategies for nationwide mobilization and environment building activities through a variety of media initiatives, organised capacity building programmes for key functionaries, developed resource materials for training and assessment of learning outcomes, and so on.

He has several successes to his credit during his tenure as the Joint Director in the Department of Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India. He has also participated in numerous seminars, conferences and training programmes, and been awarded fellowships organised at different national and international forums on topics like ‘Population Education’, ‘Monitoring & Evaluation’, ‘Role of Media in Education’, ‘Capacity Building of Adult Education Functionaries’, ‘Mobilization and Environment Building’, ‘Assessment of Adult Learners’, ‘Development of Training Manuals’, etc.

Ms Merlyn Martis, is currently Director & Chief Functionary, Development Education Society (DEEDS), Mangalore. Ms Martis is a social scientist and has been successfully spearheading a team of professional social workers, implementing several development projects in Karnataka since 1989. She has special expertise in the field of women empowerment, and as an experienced state level resource person in the field of gender and women empowerment, she has to her credit various training programmes, seminars, and articles on women’s issues. She is also a member of Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) against sexual harassment of women in both private and public institutions. Ms Martis has received the Akkamahadevi Prashasthi award from the Govt of Karnataka in 2017 for her work with women victims of violence. She has her degrees in Masters in Social Work, LLB, B.Sc., and Post Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling.

Mr Aravindan is the CEO and Director, Thematic Collaboration at AVPN India Foundation, leading collaborative efforts to unlock more capital for the social sector.

He has 15 years of experience and crossed over to development from the private sector after close to a decade in strategy and finance roles. His expertise in development is around advising non-profits on institutional building and strategic management and advising donors on effective giving practices.

Mr Aravindan holds a Postgraduate degree in Management from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and a Civil Engineering Degree from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy.

Author, development policy analyst, and former IAS officer, Mr Sanjay Kaul has over four decades of rich experience in both the government and the private sectors. His current areas of interest are child development, health, nutrition, school education and livelihoods.

His recently-published book, ‘An Alternative Development Agenda for India’ (Routledge) provides a revamped, transformative, and fiscally sustainable agenda to improve people’s well-being and livelihoods.

He serves as Chairman of the Government of India Task Force on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). He is a Director at Sewa Grih Rin Ltd. (SGRL), an affordable housing finance company, and Director at DigiGrain, an agri-business venture. Mr Kaul is also a Trustee at the World Food Program Trust for India and on the Governing Council of Mobile Creches – a leading child rights organization.

Mr Kaul worked for 28 years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and, 14 years in the private sector, as head of National Commodity Management Services Ltd. (NCML), a leading agri-business company.  During his long tenure as a civil servant, he worked in leadership positions across sectors – rural development, health, nutrition, education, child development, food and agriculture, and industry. This included working in the Prime Minister’s Office and serving in various capacities in the Karnataka Government as Commissioner – Health & Family Welfare, Chairman – Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Secretary and Commissioner (School Education), and Secretary (Medical Education). He also served as Joint Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India.

A post-graduate in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Mr Kaul began his career as a college lecturer in Economics at the University of Delhi and has retained his interest in academics and writing.

Mr Dhruv Kumar Khaitan has been a start-up serial entrepreneur for the past 50 years, involved in conceptualising, creating, and scaling high technology ventures in India. He has been a strategic mentor in these companies, and led the companies through their stages of start-up, growth, market leadership and eventual divestment to strategic buyers who wanted to establish their leadership in India.

Currently, he is the Founder and Director of NeoGrowth Credit Pvt. Ltd, which is a FinTech NBFC and a pioneer in SME lending based on the underwriting of digital payments data. NeoGrowth is a for-profit social enterprise and has pioneered a unique model in India, which enables a flexible automated repayment mechanism for merchants and has enabled improvement in credit history, financial inclusion, and business growth (resulting in job creation) for many of its customers.

Along with his family, Mr Khaitan is active in various philanthropic initiatives in India. He has been a speaker and panelist at various philanthropic forums. In addition to financial donations, he is personally spending time with some NGOs in helping them build capacity, by leveraging his entrepreneurial experience, technology exposure and contacts.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT, USA and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley.