Leadership Team

Shridhar Venkat serves as the CEO of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. He has over 30 years of experience with leading multinationals like Philips, ABB and Webex Communications India (CISCO). An Eisenhower Fellow 2014 for innovation, Shridhar has been working with Akshaya Patra for over 17 years. Prior to that, he was the Vice-President - Sales of Webex Commuincations India (CISCO). Shridhar holds a Bachelor’s Degree in ElectricalEngineering and a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management, NMIMS Mumbai. Shridhar has been inducted in the Hall of Distinguished Alumni Leaders by NMIMS. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of Mother Teresa Social Leadership Scholarship. His search for ‘Existential Purpose’ in life made him quit a corporate career and join the organization.

Balaji MN joined The Akshaya Patra Foundation as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to strategise and execute plans for the sustainability and growth of the organisation. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and a certified member of ISACA, USA (CISA). He has over 25 years of experience. He has worked with reputed firms, such as Deloitte Haskins & Sells, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Moore Stephens, handling an impressive list of clients, which included Hindustan Unilever Limited, Britannia, Titan Company Limited, Honeywell India, Société Générale, Tata Coffee and Kalyan Jewellers.

Saanil has over 20 years of experience in setting up and managing strategic business units (SBUs) with P&L responsibility. An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, he has worked with firms like Reuters, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Capco and Symphony Services before joining The Akshaya Patra Foundation. At Akshaya Patra, he is instrumental in scaling and improving various functions, such as donor care, individual giving, sourcing, human resources, information technology and Social Business Ventures.

Mukesh Tiwari has two decades of experience in building and inspiring multicultural teams that often surpass organisational expectations and driving HR initiatives to achieve bottom-line outcomes while consistently promoting employee engagement and keeping organisational goals in mind. His professional experience includes being Board of Director & Chief Human Resource Officer for Aberdare Technologies and stints at reputed organisations like Caterpillar India, Caterpillar China, ING India and HDFC. A goal-driven individual, he currently holds the position of Chief Human Resources Officer at The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

Vinod is passionate about leveraging technology to drive measurable results and delivering exceptional business outcomes. He has over 22 years of experience in leading, managing and developing high-performing engineering teams. Before joining Akshaya Patra, he has held leadership roles in technology divisions of investment banks, such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Barclays IB. Vinod has a Master’s degree in science in Information Technology from NTU Singapore. He is on a mission to digitally enable Akshaya Patra to eliminate classroom hunger and deliver meaningful impact.

Dhananjay heads the Resource Mobilisation and Marketing vertical of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. He has over three decades of expertise in executive management, consulting and technology sales. In addition, he has an extensive background that spans a variety of technologies, business domains and verticals, enhancing his ability to drive significant business growth. He has been associated with global giants like Hewlett Packard-Blue Star, Juniper Networks, Microsoft Corporation, Nortel, and F5 Inc. Dhananjay’s expertise will help Akshaya Patra accelerate its impact as it continues to serve society with a spectrum of philanthropic services.

Hari Shankar heads The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s audit vertical as the director and drives auditing standards, legal issues, internal audits, internal controls and risk management. Hari Shankar brings with him over 23 years of experience in financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury, legal and compliances, assurance and advisory services with a dedication to maintain high quality standards. He has previously worked with Eka Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. As the VP – Finance. He has also worked at L&T Komatsu Ltd, GE Finance, Ocwen Financial Solutions and Deloitte. Hari Shankar is a Chartered Accountant (CA), ICWA and CPA of Australia.