Meet our team

Ms. Kirti Joshi has over 25 years of experience in the field of social development, mostly in the areas of healthcare and women's empowerment. Following her master's degree completion in India, she attended North Eastern University in Boston to obtain her Master of Science in Leadership Management with a focus in healthcare management. She worked as a consultant for N D Lea International Ltd., Canada for world bank projects, CARE-International, Lahey Health-Boston, Gujarat Small Industries Corporation Ltd., Head of Hospital Operations, Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences, CEO Project Life, to mention a few. She is currently serving as a Managing Trustee of Basera.

Ms Farah Naqvi a writer and activist working on public policy and the rights of the most marginalized from both a development and justice perspective. She works on minority rights, (in particular, the Muslim community), Dalit rights, gender issues and women’s education. Farah Naqvi is one of the founders of Nirantar (a Delhi-based NGO working on gender & education), a Board Member of Oxfam India and on the Board of PAHAL (a rural women’s media collective based in Bundelkhand which published Khabar Lahariya. She has authored a book, Waves in the Hinterland exploring connections between rural women, education, rural media, democracy and citizenship. She was Member, Planning Commission Steering Committee (Women and Child), Working Group (Minority Affairs) and Working Group (Youth Affairs & Adolescents) for the 11th five-year plan, and was Member, Steering Committee on the Empowerment of Minorities for the 12th five-year plan.

Mr. Ernesto Noronha is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His expertise lies in the areas of globalization and employment relations; workplace diversity and inclusion; technology and work; informal and precarious work; organizational control; and workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment. Professor Noronha holds an international reputation for his work on Indian employment relations against the backdrop of global production networks and informalization and has made significant novel theoretical and substantive contributions, which are widely cited. He is well-recognized for his engagement with postpositivist and visual methodologies. Professor Noronha holds numerous prestigious editorial roles. He is Section Editor of Labour Relations and Business Ethics at the Journal of Business Ethics, an FT50 journal, and a member of the Editorial Boards of Business and Society and Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations. Professor Noronha is on the Board of the International Association for Visual Sociology and of RC30 Sociology of Work of the International Sociological Association. He has published in Journal of Business Ethics, ILR Labor Relations Review, Organization, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Information and Organization and International Journal of Human Resource Management, among other reputed peer-reviewed journals. He has received numerous research awards and bilateral and multilateral grants throughout his academic career. Professor Noronha is committed to ensuring the impact of his research work through active engagement with industry, trade unions, employer associations and civil society organizations. He is currently a part of Social Compact, an initiative which engages Indian industry with issues relations to labour well-being and production networks.

Mr Shrinivas Rao is a feminist social worker with over 25 years of experience in development sector. He has been part of Azad Foundation since 2009. In his career as a development professional Shrinivas had taken up some important social innovation projects both nationally and internationally. As a practitioner of Participatory Planning and Research, Shrinivas has implemented projects of participatory town Planning, leadership development academies for elected leaders of local governments and advised governments on key governance reforms. He has written several articles on governance reforms, city planning, participatory development and leadership building in national and international publications. Shrinivas as part of Azad Foundation leadership team has played an important role in establishing Women with Wheels programme across location in India. Shrinivas has been closely working with grassroots leaders for initiatives such as Men for Gender Justice (MGJ) and Feminist Leadership Programme for creating Gender Just ecosystem. Shrinivas also has keen interest in organization development and human processes. Shrinivas has M.Phil. Degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Ms Chinmayi Desai is the Chair Person of The Saath Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd and Director of Urban Programmes at Saath, in Charge of Saath’s Health, Education, Microfinance Institute, Livelihood, Urban Resource Center Programmes. She holds B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a Diploma in Special Education. Chinmayi has 16 years of experience of working in the social development sector, focusing on program planning, management, implementation and capacity building.

Mr Nayan Patel is currently serving as Managing Trustee of Institute for Studies and Transformations (IST), Ahmedabad. He has more than two decades work comprising of project planning, management, review and monitoring, developing strategic plan, mew initiatives and capacity building of personnel at different levels in organization.

Mr K Mohan Krishna has more than two decades of multi-faceted Human and Institutional Development work across industry comprising: facilitating Organizational Change processes, design and delivery of learning and development journeys, Coaching Senior Organizational professionals and Social Entrepreneurs, executing large-scale Social Responsibility projects, teaching and training Post-Graduate level students on Organizational Development, Governance, Environmental Education and Human Rights. Mohan has a Masters in Environmental Chemistry and in Business Administration and is a Certified Professional Coach. Previously, he was anchoring the Centre for Governance Studies in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India. Mohan is presently anchoring the Human and Institutional Development Resource Centre with a key focus on enhancing leadership capacities in Community Based Organizations working with the underprivileged communities across the country and in Non-profits across the country.