CORPORATE
Ronnie Screwvala: Founder Trustee
Ronnie Screwvala is a first generation entrepreneur who started his journey by introducing India to multi channel TV viewing, by launching the first cable TV network in the country. From there, he went on to build a Media and Entertainment conglomerate spanning Television, Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, Games and Digital, that he listed in 2005 for a market cap of $ 55 million and that The Walt Disney Company bought in 2012 for an enterprise value of $1.4 billion.
Ronnie puts a great deal of emphasis on Social Welfare. He founded a Foundation with a focus on Rural India and adopted over 200 villages in Maharashtra to work on their self-sufficiency in water, health, education and livelihood.
Onto his second innings after selling his stake to Disney - The Foundation - entitled SWADES, has a plan to impact one million in Rural Maharashtra in five years, with a clear exit/empowerment strategy from those villages, and building a model for others to follow. The Foundation has committed an initial amount of $50 million in its first tranche.
Zarina Mehta: Managing Trustee
Zarina Mehta is one of the three founder directors of UTV, one of India's foremost Media & Entertainment Conglomerates; now Disney UTV. She has lead the creation and launch of highly successful broadcast brands including UTV Bindass, UTV Stars, UTV Action and Hungama TV. Zarina also supervised the creation and launch of the #1 Kids Channel in Indonesia & Malaysia called Astro Ceria.
Prior to that Zarina has produced over 3500 hours of high TRP, award-winning television programming in multiple languages for every major broadcaster; including Shanti (India's first daily soap), Snakes and Ladders (India's first Game Show) and other cult shows like Hip Hip Hurray, Saaya, Shararath & Emotional Athyachar.
In July this year, Zarina switched tracks and is now working full time at the Swades Foundation. Her vision is to empower rural India through holistic and sustainable growth by creating partnerships between Rural India, Corporates, Young India, the Government and other Foundations to create permanent, irreversible change for good. Her special passion is for transformational education that is both joyful and empowering.
Zarina has featured in Business Today's Most Powerful Women in Indian Business List for the last three years.
Trishya Screwvala: Trustee
Trishya Screwvala graduated with a Master's degree from USC's Peter Stark Producing Program, where she received the Robert S. Ferguson Marketing Award. Back in Bombay, she produced a documentary, "Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told", with the Academy Award Nominated Shekhar Kapur that screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Currently, she is working with a Los Angeles based independent company as a Producer on a PBS documentary "One in a Billion", directed by Sundance Fellow Geeta Patel. She is also collaborating with Grant Hill (Thin Red Line, The Matrix) to produce a feature film, "Mouse". Concurrently, Trishya has started Raindancer, a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire the urban youth to affect change, with a focus on education for the underprivileged. She is also a trustee of Swades Foundation
Praveen Aggarwal - Chief Operating Officer
With 26 years of experience in Business Management and Corporate Affairs in large Indian and global organizations, he has been instrumental in institutionalizing Stakeholder Relations, Risk Assessment, Crisis Management, CSR and Sustainability practices within Corporates and across Industries.
Praveen has contributed to the development of Corporate Affairs, Corporate Governance and CSR by engaging several Fortune 500 companies, small & medium enterprises (SME) and management institutes. His professional experience is associated with names like MGF, Tata vehicles, Joint American Indo Network, News channel - Jain TV and Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. Praveen was Chief of Corporate Affairs of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages before he joined the SWADES Foundation as its Chief Operating Officer.
At Coca-Cola, he looked after Community Engagement (Citizenship/CSR/Sustainability/Crisis response) for India and South West Asia for Coca-Cola. Providing strategic framework, including Vision, Policy, broad direction on projects, NGO partnerships, Project implementation, communication, capacity building of operations teams across 70 manufacturing locations in South West Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Srilanka). He has steered partnerships with International NGOs- UN Habitat, Winrock, Habitat for Humanity, Rotary International, WWF, ICRISAT, with over 100 national NGOs including Red Cross, AFPRO, CAF, Save The Children, World Vision, Plan, FORCE, Naandi, Rotary, BAIF etc. and numerous grassroots NGOs.
He has contributed substantially to Reputation management as well as Stakeholder engagements i.e. Trade bodies, consumers, communities, CSR, NGOs, INGOs, select Governments, local self-governments and political leadership at several levels.
Praveen has been a member of CII's National Education Committee, CSR committee of CII for North India, Water committee of FICCI, Environment committee of FICCI, CSR council of AMCHAM besides being nominated on independent advisory board of an International NGO's Indian operations. He continues to assist CII in several regional and National committees/councils. With such diverse explorations, Praveen brings to the table, immense knowledge and experience.
Nicola Monteiro - Director: Social Work
Nicola Monteiro was a topper in The Social Work Master's Program (MSW) 1985 - 1987 batch of The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a deemed university, Mumbai. She was associated with a United Nations Children's Fund and Commonwealth Association project and with The Catholic Relief Services, an international donor agency after which she spent 4 years rendering her services as a United Nations Children's Fund consultant, and worked with the government health authorities both at Mumbai city and at the State level, as well as with Medical Associations to make Maharashtra state "Mother and Baby Friendly".
In 1997, Nicola joined the SWADES Foundation where she initiated various interventions for urban and rural Maharashtra. Leading a multidisciplinary team, she introduced the concepts of shramdaan, rain water harvesting, community-led livelihood projects in the Konkan region... paving the way for an organized, 360 degree approach to water, agriculture, health and education aimed at touching the lives of more than a million people.
Nicola has had the opportunity to visit countries like the USA, UK, Finland, and Sweden and interact with like minded professionals. She has visited Sri Lanka on a number of occasions, as part of the Post Tsunami rehabilitation program. She brings with her the skill to design interventions addressing developmental needs; the ability to mobilize resources to implement programs and finally the personality to work as a team player across the core sectors of water, agriculture, health and education.
Dr. Sachin Gupte - Director: Health 
Dr. Sachin Gupte holds a Postgraduate degree in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Edinburgh (U.K.) and a Masters in Community Medicine (M.D) from the University of Mumbai. With more than 15 years experience of working in various positions of responsibility in Health sector development programming, he now heads the Health vertical of Swades Foundation.
His core skills include extensive experience in the technical and functional areas of strategic planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and supportive supervision of health intervention programs. Supplementing these core skills, he also brings in vast experience of building partnerships and alliances with a wide spectrum of development partners/stakeholders including government, donors, NGOs and corporate houses at regional and state level.
During his professional journey, he has been associated with reputed development sector partners like World Health Organization - NPSP, UNICEF, Family Health International and PATH. During his professional career, Dr. Sachin Gupte has worked in the area of Reproductive and Child Health, Polio Eradication, Strengthening of Routine Immunization, STI/HIV and was also a part of the Tsunami disaster management team in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
In the past, Dr. Gupte was heading the Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine division of NOCIL for 5 years. He was also a member of the Safety, Health and Environment committee and was the Chairman for the Indian Association of Occupational Health (IAOH), Thane-Raigad branch.
Before joining Swades he was State Health Vertical Head (Assam) for UNICEF based in Guwahati.
Priya Nair - Director: Education
Priya has been in the school education sector for about 27 years, contributing significantly to building & leading a team of people involved in programs that enhance the quality of education, incorporating progressive systems and processes in key areas of functioning of schools, curriculum planning and designing keeping with the progressive global trends in education.
Priya completed her Bachelors in Science (Zoology & Biochemistry) & then went on to complete her B.Ed & M.Ed. She holds a MA degree specializing in History all through Mumbai University.
In her last assignment, Priya worked in the capacity of Director Schools of JBCN Education Pvt. Ltd. where she focused on both academic management and administrative strategies, in the pre operational and operational phases of the 16 schools within the organization, across the K-12 spectrum, following varied international/national curricular programs.
Prior to this, she was the Principal of a school with a rather progressive outlook to education, managed by 'Aga Khan Education Service, India', for almost 8 years. In September 2009, she was selected as Best Principal from amongst 80-90 schools in the E and F South Educational Ward.
She also headed the Program Implementation, Gujarat State at Schoolnet India (ILFS-ETS), an organization that promoted technology-enabled education in schools.
She was also involved in providing counseling and pastoral support to the parent community, mobilizing and managing optimally the available human, financial and material resources, liaising with internal and external stakeholders in order to bring about a fair understanding and achievement of organizational goals.
As a result of her interest in 'human relations and dynamics', she has been in the past a Working Committee member of the Asia South Pacific Bureau Of Adult Educators working towards developing a 'peace curriculum' for conflict resolution, with special focus on South Asia.
Poonam Jethwani - Director: Finance
Poonam Jethwani comes with 15 years of experience in handling positions of high responsibility in the Finance department in companies like United Health Group, Neoteric Infomatique Ltd., Otis Elevators Co. Ltd & Priya Group. Prior to joining us Poonam has been practicing as an independent financial consultant for multiple organizations.
A qualified Chartered Accountant & Company Secretary, Poonam is currently pursuing a Certification course in IFRS & Masters in Business Finance, both conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
At the Swades foundation, Poonam is also responsible for implementing systems and processes, together with overseeing the entire finance and regulatory function.
Dr. Dhruv Mankad - Advisor: Health
With immense passion to work with the community on public health, Dr. Mankad's goal has been to promote appropriate healthcare systems by reviewing feasible options and facilitating appropriate changes in knowledge, attitude and practice from the community level. His areas of expertise are Primary Health Care System, Mother and Child Health, Women's Health, Problem Based Learning approach, Open Distance Learning and NGO Management. He has worked in Nashik for the past 22 years as Honorary Director of VACHAN, a development organization working with the tribals of Maharashtra to make a dent on poverty with an integrated approach.
Dr. Mankad has been a leading consultant to various national and international organizations like Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Aga Khan Health Services, European Commission, UNFPA, National Health System Resource Centre for various studies and programme reviews and evaluations related to public health. He has contributed to various publications like Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Medico Friend Circle Bulletin, Economic and Political Weekly etc. on current issues about public health.
Since March 2012, Dr. Dhruv Mankad shares his passion towards healthcare and education with the SWADES Foundation as the Program Director - Health.
Manoj Kumar Sharma - Deputy Director: Agriculture and Livelihood 
A postgraduate in Environmental Science from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, Manoj also holds a Management Diploma from International Agriculture Training Centre, Isreal in Water and Crop Production.
Manoj comes to us with over seventeen years of vast experience working with wide range of reputed industries, academic/research institutions, international organizations, NGO's and government agencies. He has extensive experience in program planning and management, implementation, monitoring & evaluation and human resource management. He is passionate about creating innovative and practical solutions for rural poor. He has to his credit the successful implementation of some of the innovative projects on groundwater management, rural drinking water and sanitation, agriculture and Livelihood.
He started his career at the grass root level as Assistant Officer Social Forestry and Horticulture in M/s Century Pulp and Paper. He then joined the prestigious Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project of World Bank, popularly known as Swajal Project as an Environmental Specialist. He went on further to join Disaster Risk Management Program of GOI and UNDP. His interest and expertise in water sector and rural livelihood motivated him to join North Gujarat Sustainable Groundwater Management Initiative Project of IWMI-TATA in the capacity of Team Leader. In a span of seven years he successfully led a pilot project into a full-fledged project later on to be converted into a nationally acclaimed award winning organization.
Before joining Swades, Manoj served as a Chief Executive Officer at Society for Integrated Land and Water Management.
Sean Sokhi - General Manager: Research, Monitoring and Evaluation 
A Program management specialist with 16+ years of experience, Sean has designed, managed and evaluated projects in the areas of community development, HIV/AIDS, anti-human trafficking and institutional strengthening of community-based partner organizations across multiple organizations. Sean's work includes assignments at World Vision, Family Health International (FHI), International Justice Mission and Praxis.
As part of FHI, Sean provided management support to India Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the largest national level network of people living with HIV and to develop its National Advocacy Strategy; strengthen monitoring and reporting systems; and assisted INP+ in developing its Five year Strategic Plan (2008-12) and formation of its National Women’s Forum.
As Director of Aftercare, International Justice Mission, Sean managed the Aftercare Program with 16 staff. During his time there, he participated in rescue operations with the Social Service Branch, Mumbai Police to rescue over a 100 minor girls and young women trafficked into commercial sex work in Mumbai. In addition to implementing a two year model Aftercare Program for rescued girls, Sean also managed the implementation of a qualitative baseline study for the prevalence of minors in commercial sexual exploitation in Mumbai.
Sean's most recent experience was with Praxis as Manager Organization Development - working for organizational development of networks of marginalized communities including injecting drug users, female sex workers and transgender in six high prevalence states.
Radhika Ahuja - Senior Manager: Corporate Communications
Radhika heads the Corporate Communications and Public Relations division at Swades and is responsible for brand communications, marketing communications, media relations, media management and image management of the foundation.
Radhika brings with her a rich and varied experience in field and has played pivotal roles across verticals spanning from logistics to lifestyle, hospitality, retail to media & entertainment. At each of her previous assignments, Radhika has contributed immensely towards strategic brand imagery and has a created lasting impact towards building brands that has she worked for.
Her key achievements include driving the public relations divisions for the IIFA Awards (2008, Thailand), The Unforgettable World Tour (2008, USA & UK) amongst a host of others. She has worked in the Corporate Communications divisions at Blue Dart, Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Hanmer MS&L Communication, Shiamak Davar's Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and Imagine TV (Turner General Entertainment Networks India Pvt. Ltd.)
Radhika hails from Delhi and holds a Masters Degree in Communication Management from the Manipal University.
GRASSROOTS
Avinash. B. Kamane - District Program Associate, Water
Avinash leads the Water team at Raigad. Avinash holds a Diploma in Social Work from IGNOU and Diploma in Civil Engineering from reputed L.E.S Polytechnic, Sangli. Avinash is with Swades Foundation in 2007 to oversee the Water Access, Water Conservation & Water Harvesting projects. He lent his expertise in the on-going interventions and introduced new structures and techniques to create a sustainable impact on the water scarcity problem in the district. He also played a pivotal role in implementation of smokless chulas (stoves) and solar lighting projects. Avinash, recently represented Swades at the CIF (Counsel of International Fellowship) Israel International Exchange Program 2012.
Avinash brings with him a rich experience of over 18 years in the field of Civil Engineering. For nearly 12 years, he led the team of Harit Kranti Pratisthan`s watershed development program in Sangli District (Maharashtra, India). Earlier he was associated as a consultant with SPAN, Pune (India) as a consultant for their watershed program.
Babasaheb Chavan - Agriculture Officer
After graduating in Agriculture, Babasaheb started his career as agro-based livelihood and water resource management practitioner. Babasaheb brings with him 17+ years of experience & passion to innovate in the farming sector.
He began his professional journey from grassroots by developing watershed i.e. from survey to implementation. Prior to his association with the SWADES Foundation in October 2007 he worked for 12 years as Watershed Development Team Member at Agriculture Department of the NGO Haritkranti Pratishthan Miraj, Dist- Sangli (Maharashtra).
He played a key role in introducing Turmeric crop in Konkan region as a cash crop. He has also developed various pictorial IEC (Information Education and Communication) material for SHG and Farmers using community based success stories.
He has guided Field Staff, SHG and Farmers towards empowerment of community groups, tribals, small farmers & women farmers.
He was selected to participate in CIF (Counsel of International Fellowship) international exchange Program of Netherlands 2012 to expand his knowledge around social work.
Dr. Vaibhav Chandrakant Datrange - District Co-ordinator: Health
Dr.Vaibhav Datrange joined Swades Foundation family in 2012. Dr.Vaibhav looks after project management, technical & clinical supervision, health-related trainings, community & grass-roots work and monitoring of all health projects.
Dr. Vaibhav’s experience spans over 12 years including working with VACHAN as Program Officer, Health (Nashik, Maharashtra), Ayurwel as Consulting Ayurved Physician (Nashik, Maharashtra) and Ashtang Charitable Hospital as Resident Medical Officer (Pune, Maharashtra).
In his previous assignments Dr. Vaibhav has handled key projects concerned with door-step primary contact care program for home base antenatal and neonatal care in tribal areas, process of local communities and development functionaries work together in planning, implementing, and monitoring village level health activities etc.
During these projects he worked with other organisation like PCI (Project Concern International) Suzlon Foundation, SATHI and NRHM at Nashik & Nandurban district, Maharashtra.
Dr. Vaibhav also holds a Diploma in Public Health Services from Saurashtra University 2010.
Manash Sen Sarma - Program Associate, Education
Manash joined Swades foundation as a Program Associate for education in August 2012 and is been at Goregaon in Raigad district in Maharashtra.
After completing his graduation, he completed an Advance Diploma in Systems Management from NIIT Ltd and is a Microsoft Certified Professional. He is also an ISO-9001 certified from BVQI in Education Management.
He has 23 years of working experience in various corporate training houses like NIIT Ltd, Processquip Projects Private Limited. Being Technological savvy, he has been instrumental in providing training to thousands of students, teachers, corporate members in computers as in well as soft skills domain.
During the last seven years, he was engaged with a social service organization and implemented large scale projects to improve the quality of education in the schools right from initiation to completion. He has been engaged in the implementation of education Projects in primary and secondary schools, both government as well as private, across 12 states of the country. He brings with him rich experience of Government liasoning, manpower management, teachers training, student assessment, Management Development Programs etc. His most commendable work has been with the government schools of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Goa, Gujarat and with the schools of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samitti under the HRD ministry, Government of India for 160 schools in each district of 5 states. He also implemented this educational project in the private schools of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra state that has enriched his knowledge of students and their psychology in all these states. He has experience of providing teachers training to teachers of government and private schools in the soft skill domain.
Najaruddin Shikalgar - Cluster Head Social Work, Poladpur Block
After Najaruddin, fondly referred to as Nazir, did his Masters in Social Work from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, he has been in the field of professional social work. He worked in a number of organisations like the Kolhapur Milk Cooperative, Sidhivinayak, Surajya Child Foundation, on forming cooperatives, Save The Girl Child campaign and linking villagers, senior citizens, and widows to various government schemes.
In April 2010, Nazir joined SWADES Foundation and commenced developmental work in one of the most backward regions of Raigad district, called Poladpur block.
As cluster head social work, he mobilized villagers to address their water needs by undertaking shramdhan and moved on to focus on implementing agricultural projects.
He spearhead a movement to cultivate a second crop in areas where villagers had not even cultivate a first crop.
Prasad Narayan Patil - Cluster Head, Social Work, Mhasla Block
Prasad Narayan Patil did his Masters Degree in Social Work. For the past 15 years, he has been practising as a Professional Social Worker.
Before joining Swades, he worked with an NGO called Parivartan for leadership development in the Panchayat Raj system in Ratnagiri district and as a Gender Specialist in the Jalswarajya Project funded by The World Bank, in Sangli district.
Family counselling and minimization of domestic violence earned him awards and appreciation from the Inspector General of Police in Sindhudurg district (Maharashtra).
From April 2006, he has been with SWADES implementing village developmental activities at the Mhasla Block in Raigad district.
Prasad has participated in a social work exchange program at Finland organised by The Council For International Fellowship.
Tushar Inamdar - District Head Social Work
Armed with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Shivaji University, Kolhapur in 1997 and experience in working with NGOs like Sangaram as well as TISS - UNICEF projects on the issue of HIV /AIDS, Tushar also promoted an organization called “AAMICH AMACHE” too for addressing the issues related to HIV/AIDS.
To broaden his horizons and to reach out to many more people in villages Tushar is with Swades Foundation since 2001 and accepted the challenge of working towards Rural Empowerment.
For the last 11 years, Tushar has led the Raigad team using professional social work skills to motivate 160 villages to implement Rain Water Harvesting and other community development projects through shramdaan (voluntary labour).
Conflict resolution among the target communities has been a big challenge which resulted in Tushar presenting a paper on the said subject at an international conference in Hong Kong in 2007. He was also the Indian representative at an international conference on Rural Social Work held in China. Thereafter, Tushar participated in an International Exchange Program in Israel in 2010.
Tushar’s community mobilization & social work skills resulted in him being invited by Doordarshan Sahaydri for live interviews on two occasions.
Tushar is now pursuing PhD in Social Work from CMJ University, Shillong, Meghalaya, while helping Swades team to widen its reach to over 1 million people in next 6 - 7 years.
Vijay Ranmale - Cluster Head Social Work, Mahad Block
Vijay completed his Master’s Degree in Social Work with a specialization in Urban & Rural Community Development from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. For 11 years, Vijay work with various community based organisations like SOS Children Villages and so on.
Vijay joined SWADES in October 2006. At SWADES he worked specially on the formation of SHGs, their capacity building and movement into livelihoods like community farming. Vijay’s special area of interest has been children whom he has nurtured as agents of change for village developmental activities.
From June 2009, Vijay has been working in the largest block of Raigad district called Mahad block. He is responsible for overall village development and linking villagers to government departments to help villagers to implement different programs in their villages.
Vijay has participated in various national and international workshops and training programs. In May 2011, Vijay represented India at The Council for International Fellowship in Austria & Czech Republic.
Vilas D. Kamble- Cluster Head, Social Work, Shrivardhan Block
Vilas obtained his Master’s Degree in Social Work in Wardha, Nagpur University. As part of the Social Work program, he did research studies on “The Kakaddara Community’s Involvement in Watershed Program” and “Physical and Mental Status of ANC Mothers.”
After his Master’s Degree, he worked as a professional social worker in different NGOs like All India Apang Klyankari Sanstha, Development Organization Trust, and on government led projects like Indo-German Watershed Development Program and Jal Swaraj.
Vilas has constantly chosen to upgrade his skills by participating in various training programs like Watershed and Women Empowerment by AFARM, Pune; Tribal Development and Reproductive Child Health by SOSVA, Pune; Watershed and Organizational Management by WOTR, Ahmednagar; Women Development, by MYRADA, Karnataka; and PRA Training by SCOTT, New Delhi.
In 2006, Vilas joined SWADES Foundation and first worked in Mahad block, Raigad District, Maharashtra. At the request of the Foundation, he then moved to the tribal belt of Thane district to work on issues like Rain Water Harvesting, Formation of Self Help groups, Livelihood and Health. He is now back in Raigad district as Cluster Head, Shrivardhan Block.
