Amitav Virmani is the Founder and CEO of The Education Alliance (TEA), a non-profit organization focused on improving the quality of education in government schools. The organization currently works with the state governments of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Delhi along with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on education reform initiatives.

Prior to founding The Education Alliance, Amitav was Country Director, ARK India, a UK based NGO, where Amitav and his team launched several programs focused on school leadership, English language literacy, school vouchers and school quality assessments. Before stepping into the development sector, Amitav worked for Bristol Myers Squibb, a pharma company based in Princeton, US for 5 years. He has also been involved with his family-run food processing and real-estate business in Punjab since 1994.

Amitav was educated at the Doon School and went on to study Economics at St. Stephens College, Delhi University. He has an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill, USA. He sits on the board of AVPN India, Childrens Book Trust, Virmani Education Trust, Teach for India (Delhi) and The Shri Ram Schools. Amitav is a member of the CII Education Task Force and of the International Board of Advisors for Kenan Flagler Business School, UNC, Chapel Hill.

Amitav is an Aspen Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and an N/Core Fellow.

Tara Singh Vachani is the Executive Chairman and founder of Antara Senior Living, where her aim has been to give a new dimension to the Senior Care space in India. She is also Vice Chairman of Max India Limited. Antara today encompasses three verticals, Residences for Seniors, Care Homes for Seniors, and Care at Home for Seniors. Tara is also the Managing Trustee of Max India Foundation, a role she is extremely passionate about, through which she focuses on supporting partners in the space of Foundational Learning and runs a program on Social Emotional Ethical learning in collaboration with Emory University.

She currently chairs the Teach for India Delhi Regional Board and is a member of the Advisory Board of Vedica Scholars Program. Tara is a 2020 member of Young Global Leaders a part of the World Economic Forum and was also one of the ‘40 under 40’ by Economic Times in 2018.

With a major in Politics and South Asian studies from the National University of Singapore followed by courses in Strategy Management at the London School of Economics, and Hospitality Business Strategy and Management at Ecole hotelier de Lausanne, Switzerland, Tara loves to learn.

An enthusiastic traveler, she is deeply rooted in India by her love for family and country. Tara enjoys being organized, and is a detail-oriented perfectionist, Tara loves reading, theatre and is always looking for new experiences. She is the youngest child of Mr. Analjit Singh, a well-known business leader and visionary and married to Mr. Sahil Vachani and is mother to two daughters.

Dr. Y. Suresh Reddy is the Director of SRF Foundation, (www.srf.com) the corporate social responsibility arm of SRF Limited (www.srf-foundation.org). He completed his Ph. D. in Public Administration from SV University, Tirupati (India) in 1995 and has vast experience of 24 years by associating with Academic, Government, Not for Profit and Corporate Foundations. In the past, he has been associated with Byrraju Foundation, Hyderabad; Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, Hyderabad; CARE India (International NGO), New Delhi and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), New Delhi.

Dr. Reddy is a specialist in school education and vocational skill training projects. He has skills in the entire Project Cycle Management and building institutions. He has also authored books, titled “Co-operatives & Rural Development” and “Child Labor in India” and has many research papers to his credit. His areas of interest include CSR, school education for deprived, ICT for development, Public Private Community Partnerships for Education, Child Labor, Vocational Skills and Rural Development.

As the head of SRF Foundation, he has built a team of 110 professionals and 9 CSR Champions supported by 145 CSR Council Members, collaborated with various State Government Education Departments and like-minded corporate and civil society agencies – Capgemini, IBM, Coca Cola, Tetra Pak, Schneider, HP, IndiGo Airlines, Brillio, Sunrise, CARE India, Times of India, NDTV, PNB Housing, Signify and UN Habitat and designed and executed the educational programs spread across nine states in the country.

With his efforts, SRF Foundation today stands as one of the respected Development agencies in the country with contributions in the areas of school education and vocational skills impacting lives of 76,000 students directly and 250,000 students indirectly and 5,000 youth spread across nine states of India.

Shaheena Attarwala works at Microsoft as a Design Manager where she leads research & design for emerging economies. Born into a poor and uneducated family in a village in Uttar Pradesh, she was raised in the slums of Mumbai. Attarwala resisted early marriage and pursued education fearlessly against her family’s will and support. Life in the slum exposed her to the severest living conditions, gender bias, and sexual harassment. Her perpetual curiosity to learn and a focus to design a different life for herself paved the path for her subsequent achievements. She holds a degree in Law and her social work initiatives have received recognition from the United Nations.

Her journey has inspired girls to pursue education & career and has changed the mindset of parents. Apart from making the digital world a better place, she also endeavors to open a school for unprivileged children in her village combining technology and design, as she strongly believes that technology is an both an equalizer and a catalyst in reducing the empathy gap in the world. She was named as one of the “Unsung Heroes” of India by The India Today in 2019 and is a fellow at the prestigious GP Birla Fellowship for young women leaders.

She advocates that people from vulnerable backgrounds strive towards being part of mainstream society through education.