Persons

Abhishek is a key management personnel at Social Synergy Foundation. Abhishek has experience across investment banking, management consulting, fund-raising and start-ups. At Social Synergy, his primary responsibility is managing a part of the OD portfolio, counselling donors, and sourcing funds under ‘FIG’.

Through his work with clients, Abhishek has been exposed to the sectors of employable skills development, family economic sustainability, micro-insurance, water supply, early childhood education, maternal care and women’s agency. He has successfully moved impact capital (grant and equity) of more than USD 15 million in social enterprises.

In the past, Abhishek worked as a Principal Consultant with a niche consulting company (ISG) where he advised his clients on their supply-chain sourcing strategies. He advised a leading German energy provider on a multi-vendor infrastructure outsourcing transaction. Before ISG, Abhishek was a Consultant at Tholons, a boutique consulting firm where he was responsible for consulting a Fortune 500 IT-BPO client on restructuring their service delivery model to optimize on skills, processes and costs.

Abhishek holds a Masters in Finance from Cranfield School of Management and an MBA from Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM, Trichy). He completed his graduation in Chemical Engineering from Mumbai University. He is based in Mumbai.

Chandan is a member of the Board at Social Synergy Foundation. He is the co-founder of Castling Consulting which focuses on consulting for small and medium-sized corporates. Recently, he co-founded Wazzeer, a start-up looking to provide legal, compliance and accounting services to the start-up and small/mid-sized corporate segment.

Chandan has more than seven years of experience spanning management consulting, working with growing enterprises by helping them frame their strategies, handholding them through the implementation process, and raising capital. Under Castling, he and his team have moved impact capital in the range of USD 10 million and have worked with 15+ social enterprises and impact investors.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Chandan worked with different consulting firms and was responsible for advising clients on post-acquisition integration, operations planning, exploring untapped revenue sources, market & competitive landscape analysis and ‘go-to-market’ strategy.

Chandan has a Dual Degree (Bachelors and Masters) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and has done his Management from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He is based in Bengaluru.

Martin is the co-founder of Social Synergy Deutschland, a German charitable organisation, and a member of the Board of Social Synergy Foundation. He holds the additional responsibility of developing and promoting the FIG initiative in Europe.

He is also the Coordinator of Bundesinitiative Impact Investing (https://bundesinitiative-impact-investing.de/), the former German National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (NAB) which is a member of the Global Steering Group (GSG). Bundesinitiative is a multi-stakeholder coalition with a focus on growing the German Impact Investing ecosystem. It is open to a wide variety of sectors and organisations. Funds, banks, foundations, private investors, welfare organisations, government and research bodies are part of this member organisation. Previously Martin worked as the DACH representative of the European Venture Philanthropy Association and spent several years in India incubating start-up social enterprises.

Before working in the impact space, Martin had a long-standing career in the banking and strategic consulting business. Martin has a PhD in Business Ethics, Department of Economics from Universität Eichstätt in Germany. He is based in Berlin.

Kushagra is a key management personnel at Social Synergy Foundation. He has been in the management consulting profession since 2007, and has experience in strategy consulting, organisational restructuring & development. At Social Synergy, his primary responsibilities include managing part of its OD portfolio, institution-building of Social Synergy itself, and collaboration with academic institutions.

Through his work with clients, Kushagra has been exposed to sectors of low-income housing, maternal and child care, drinking water, community rights & advocacy, environmental regeneration, role of women in development, urban habitat improvement and theory & practice of learning & developmental processes within the field of education.

In the past, Kushagra worked at erstwhile Monitor Group's Inclusive Markets Initiative on designing and implementing market-based models to address housing and drinking water needs in urban low-income communities. Prior to joining Monitor, he worked in the Strategy Consulting practice at Accenture India in the sectors of consumer retail strategy and merger & restructuring in the airlines sector.

Kushagra holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Bachelor in Engineering (B.E.) in Electronics and Telecommunications from Mumbai University. He is based in Ahmedabad / Mumbai and writes at merchantkushagra.info.

Prashant is member of the Board at Social Synergy Foundation. He is the co-founder of ValetEZ, a start-up providing solutions in urban parking management space. Prashant has several years of experience working with SMEs and large corporations on market assessment studies, entry strategies, business plans and partner identification engagements.

At Intellecap, Prashant worked with the IFC’s Philippines office to identify the potential for sustainable energy solutions among microenterprises and low-income households in that country. As part of that project, he also recommended financing (micro-loan) models that would help realise this market potential in the Philippines. He has also worked with a leading FMCG company on identifying financing and last mile distribution channels to drive outreach for their water purifiers among low-income households in India. Prior to Intellecap, Prashant worked with Netscribes, a leading business and financial research firm in India, on consulting engagements.

Prashant has an MBA from the University of Oxford – Said Business School in the UK. He is based in Bengaluru and writes at prashantchandrasekaran.info.

Praveena is doing an apprenticeship with Social Synergy Foundation. Her active interest in working with civil society organisations stems from her experience growing up in a small village in Tamil Nadu, closely witnessing the complexities of caste and gender.

After a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai, she worked for three years in software development at BNY Mellon Technology (erstwhile iNautix Technologies), focused on banking and financial technology. Subsequently, she worked at Intellect Design Arena for one and a half years.

Alongside her education and professional commitments, she was an active volunteer, and she decided to move from volunteering to a more active engagement with developmental issues. She first worked with Bodhi Tree Foundation, based out of Tirunelveli, which supports rural graduates to take charge of their lives and contribute back to their communities. With them, she was engaged in designing programs, engaging the community and other partners and aiding learning and development. Subsequently, she completed a postgraduate diploma certificate at the Indian School of Development Management, Noida and worked briefly with CARE India before leaving it to enjoy parenthood.

Her apprenticeship with Social Synergy allows her to balance between her familial responsibilities with finding a means to continue and broaden her participation with developmental work.