Our Team

Dr. Madhav Chavan is a co-founder and CEO-President of Pratham, an organization that reaches 3 million primary school age children in India every year.

He acquired a Ph. D. in Chemistry at the Ohio State University in the US in 1983 and returned to India in 1986 after his post-doctoral work at the University of Houston. In 1989, while teaching at the University of Mumbai, he started mass scale work for adult literacy in the slums of Mumbai as a part of the National Literacy Mission in the slums of Mumbai. In 1994, as a result of an initiative of UNICEF in Mumbai, Pratham was set up to address problems of universal primary education in Mumbai. Dr. Chavan has since then led the development of the organization and its programs. Pratham has several mass-scale innovations such as the Annual Status of Education Report in the area of assessment and the Read India movement in the delivery of education for the underprivileged to its credit.

Pratham has been recognized by the Kravis Prize and the Skoll Award for its innovativeness and leadership as a social entrepreneurial organization in the area of education. MadhavChavan was recently awarded the WISE Prize for Education instituted by the Qatar Foundation at the World Innovation Summit for Education, which is equated with a “Nobel for work done in education”.

Dr. Chavan is a creative individual who has anchored television shows, written songs about human rights and women’s rights. He enjoys working out creative ways to educate or train children and youth. He finds time to work on challenges of teaching while balancing his duties as the CEO of a big organization.

Mr. S K Joshi was Director (Finance) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a fortune 500 company. During his long tenure (over three decades) in Oil Industry he was involved in several issues impacting the oil industry in India. Mr Joshi was actively involved in recruiting more than 150 Chartered Accountants and mentoring them in BPCL.

Mr Joshi is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He also holds an MBA degree from the University of Hull, UK.

Post retirement Mr. Joshi is engaged in Investment Banking & Capital markets activity to pursue his interest. He is currently working as Executive Director in Khambatta Securities Ltd and heading the Wealth Management business.

Chief Mentor, WCF

Ms. Shamini Murugesh has set up WNS Cares Foundation which works for the underprivileged and has vast experience in creating sustainability programs. She provides guidance and expertise to the Foundation on a pro bono and honorary basis.

She strongly believes that each of us has the power within us. The power to create an equitable society.

WNS Cares Foundation provides the instrument needed to wield that power through education.

Their mission is to "Educate, Empower, Enrich" and extends well beyond the economically and socially weak recipient, it reaches the soul of the donor.

Co - Founder and CEO

Prem Yadav has been the driving force behind Pratham InfoTech Foundation. Being a co-founder, the goals and vision of the organization are clearly imbibed in all the initiatives and programs designed by him. Prem is an empathetic and visionary leader who has defined the culture of the organization as an extension of himself – friendly, supportive and committed. With a decade long experience in development sector, before founding of PIF, Prem has been crucial in maintaining the horizontal structure of leadership ensuring free flow of ideas and solutions through all the levels of organization. His belief that open conversation and trust brings out best in people has helped the organization develop through diverse programs and design new programs based on the need on ground. His vision and ability to bring that vision into reality is only a part of the reason for him being awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship. He shared his experiences as a TEDx Speaker in Perm, Russia.For the last two decades Prem has only built on experiences from past and present to ensure a sustainable future and growth for the organization thereby contributing to the greater mission of nation building.

Co - Founder and Trustee

Equipped with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Mumbai University, he has worked on various projects and in diverse fields. He has been the Co-ordinator for CORO for Literacy, worked on Integrated Waste Management Project, handled different roles at All India Radio, Mumbai, been actively involved in Construction Work; and is now the Director of the Vocational Skills Training Program besides being a Trustee of Pratham InfoTech Foundation.

Trustee

Meera has been working with Pratham since 1997 and has handled various responsibilities in these years. She is currently responsible for setting up the District Resource Centres in various States of India, and is also working on building the capacities of the Pratham national team. She is interested in developing teaching material for children and innovative teaching modules.

Trustee

Smitin Brid is an Early Childhood Development and Education professional having 21 years extensive experience in education development.

He heads the Early Childhood Programs of Pratham Education Foundation.

He has extensive experience of program start-ups and management, content development, training, community mobilization for pre-primary and primary education with Pratham since 1996. He has spearheaded ‘Pratham’s Community College’ and offered various skills and knowledge-based training programs to more than 5,500 adult-learners under IGNOU affiliation.

He has also supported more than 100 women edupreneurs to start and run quality preschools on enterprise basis.

He holds a masters’ degree in Public Administration and has also earned certificate of proficiency with distinction in ‘Early Childhood Development for Sustainable Development’ from SDG Academy.

Education Program Lead

Roopa Billava has been an integral part of Pratham InfoTech Foundation for 15+ years. Roopa's two and a half decade extensive experience in operations and project management, combined with her skills in donor management and outreach, has consistently driven the success and impact of the foundation's school education initiatives. Her previous experience with non-government and corporate organizations complemented by her strategic vision, ability to foster collaboration and transparency have been cornerstones of Roopa's leadership qualities. They have significantly advanced the foundation's mission, ensuring effective nation wide program execution and meaningful educational outcomes. In her current role as Program Lead for Education Programs, she leads a team of over 800 members. Her commitment to excellence in navigating complex challenges has trickled into her team, making her an invaluable asset to the organization.

Skilling and Empowerment Program Lead

Shruti Limaye has been with Pratham InfoTech Foundation for 7+ years. She currently Leads the Skilling and Empowerment Program which has been a big driving force and a connect of the organization with adolescent, youth and women in communities. With her decade long extensive experience in the development sector, Shruti has been instrumental in forging partner relationships and garnering support for diverse community development projects. Shruti is a compassionate professional who excels in ensuring successful project outcomes and positive community impact. She has a penchant for team development, which makes her capable of managing projects while collaborating effectively with teams. Programs implemented and spear headed by Shruti have contributed to the goal of the organization – “e-education for all”.

Finance Lead

Jayawant Shirke has been part of the Pratham InfoTech Foundation’s Finance team since inception giving him a two decade experience in accounts and finance. He currently works as the Finance Lead, and specializes in strategic financial management, budgeting and compliances. He has been responsible for adaptation, development and implementation of financial strategies that support organizational growth and mission. Jayawant has designed and created an entirely cashless system which has enabled efficient tracking of funds and transparency among team members of the organization as well as with partners. Jayawant and his team skillfully handle all the audits from third party auditors, partner organizations as well as government agencies, ensuring effective processing of queries in most audits. This consistency and clarity with which legal and financial compliances are handled in the organization have led to a credibility among donors and partners which we hold in the highest regard.

HR and Administrative Lead

Naghma Shaikh is the HR and Administrative Lead of Pratham InfoTech Foundation for 5+ years. She has an extensive experience of two decades in the field of Human Resource Management and has been responsible for creating as well as executing the Employee hiring, development, grievance redressal and welfare policies. Naghma has been instrumental in maintaining a work culture which is inclusive and empathetic. Right from finding the best fit people for the organization to making everyone feel valued, Naghma handles not only the macro aspects of people policy but also keenly supervises the micro aspects of it. Prior to joining PIF, Naghma had worked exclusively in the corporate sector and has combined her past experience with current needs of the organization to give creative solutions to people development which has been instrumental in PIF being certified as the ‘Great Place to Work 2024’.

Sachin Patil, Advisor for Development and Global Operations, provides strategic counsel on global partnerships, program design and implementation planning forPratham InfoTech Foundation. In this capacity, he leads efforts in fund raising, donor outreach and program marketing. Additionally, he advises on technology implementation, instructional content and program execution for IT based educational and community development programs in India. At present, Sachin is championing community capacity building initiative, called India Digital Inclusion, which focuses on online information, IT training, professional soft skill development and livelihood assistance for youth in underserved communities. He is also advocating another initiativefor learning skill development in order to teach school age students “how to learn” to become lifelong learners.Around late 1998 in his early twenties, Dr. Madhav Chavan at Pratham offered him an opportunity to help Pratham design and develop educational software (Later became well-known as Jigar) for the then launched Computer Aided Learning program. This engagement slowly turned into a passion. Later, at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington DC, he collaborated with universities, research labs, foundations and special interest/policy action groupson educational technology research and policy projects. Sachin is a software technologist by profession and passionate about designing IT based social initiatives that facilitate the socio-economic development of underserved communities.He has earned his Master of Computer Science at the George Washington University, Washington,DC and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Pune University, India.

Parasvil Patel is an active member of the Pratham Boston team and led the efforts to run a pilot introducing Scratch to middle school students. He is currently pursuing an MBA from the Harvard Business School and supporting the Scratch project roll out across the PIF network. Prior to business school, he worked with clients across multiple industries across two geographies (India and US) as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay. He is passionate about technology and enjoys hiking.

Technology Lead

Amit Patil has been a part of the Technology team of Pratham InfoTech Foundation for 16+ years and is leading the technology team since 2023. He is a proficient software developer and has successfully handled very important projects which has helped in the organizations’ journey towards being completely paperless. The most effective portal development implemented by him is the ‘Jankari Portal ERP’ which is a central system for organizational operations. Furthermore, through creation of ‘Sahayogi Portal’(portal for partners of the organization), and its linkage to the Jankari Portal, Amit and his team have been instrumental in fostering transparency of systems and ease of information flow between the organization and its partners. Amit is a trained Computer Applications professional and through his focus and dedication has proved to be a valuable asset to the organization.

Communication Lead

Rima Amarapurkar has recently taken over as Communication Lead and is currently working on developing the internal and external communication collaterals and strategies of the organisation. Rima has behind her a two decade long experience as a communication and entertainment professional in the commercial entertainment industry as well as Social Sector. An award winning filmmaker and podcast host, Rima is known for her writing and presentation skills. Her focus has always been to bring the issues close to the common people in front of the larger audience. She has demonstrated her strong capacities as a story teller through short format, long format films and documentaries. Her TEDx talk on feminism in daily living has been appreciated from all quarters of the society.