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VidyaGyan Board
ROSHNI NADAR MALHOTRA
CEO, HCL Corporation
Chairperson, HCL Technologies
Trustee, Shiv Nadar Foundation
Founder & Trustee, The Habitats Trust

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the Chairperson of HCLTech, a leading global technology organization with a market capitalization of over $50 billion, and the Chairperson of its CSR Board Committee.

Roshni is a Trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Since its inception, the Shiv Nadar Foundation has invested $1.2 billion in nation building institutions and driving transformational leadership. Roshni is also the Chairperson and driving force behind VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for the economically underprivileged, meritorious, rural students of Uttar Pradesh, and has been working towards nurturing future leaders from rural India who can be catalysts of change for their communities, villages and the nation at large. In 2023, VidyaGyan was a recipient of the Children’s Champion Award from the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) for identifying and nurturing students from underserved rural backgrounds into future leaders through high-quality education.

Passionate about wildlife and conservation, Roshni established The Habitats Trust in 2018. The Foundation aims to work towards protecting India’s natural habitats and its indigenous species with the core mission of creating and conserving sustainable ecosystems through strategic partnerships and collaborations with all stakeholders, at every level.

Roshni is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the MIT School of Engineering, USA and also a member of the Kellogg School of Management Executive Board for Asia. She serves on the board of directors of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and is an independent director on the board of HDFC Asset Management Company.

In recognition of her outstanding work both in business and in philanthropy, Roshni has received several honors and accolades. Some of these include being featured for the seventh consecutive year in ‘The World's 100 Most Powerful Women’ list, compiled and released by Forbes in 2023. In 2020, Forbes also featured her among the ‘25 Most Powerful Businesswomen in Asia’. Roshni was honored with the ‘Most Powerful Women in Business 2023’ by Business Today. Roshni was conferred with Lewis Institute Community Changemaker Award by Babson College in 2017 and was recognized by Horasis, an internationally renowned think tank, as the ‘Indian Business Leader of the Year 2019. She is an alumnus of the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL, 2014-19), a unique and diverse community of the world’s most outstanding, next-generation leaders, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

Since 2019, she has been producing a TV series for the Animal Planet/Discovery based on the most endangered wildlife species in India - ‘On The Brink’. In 2022, On The Brink episode on Bats was the recipient of the Best Indian National Film Award in the category of science & technology. In 2018, Roshni also produced a children’s film, ‘Halkaa’, directed by the National Awardee Nila Madhab Panda. The movie is based on the unique journey of a slum child battling the issue of open defecation.

Roshni holds an undergraduate degree in Communications from Northwestern University and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. At Kellogg, she was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award. In 2023, Roshni was conferred with the Schaffner Award by Kellogg for her contribution to the society.

GOWRI ISHWARAN
CEO, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF) and
former Principal, Sanskriti School

Recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri Award in the year 2004, Gowri Ishwaran is an innovative educationist with over 30 years of experience in the field. She has brought a paradigm shift on how education needs to be imparted to young students, owing to her clear understanding of the needs of growing children.

She was the founding Principal of Sanskriti School, New Delhi, which is counted among the leading schools of India, achieving the distinction within a short span of 10 years. She has also been instrumental in developing, organizing and conducting training programmes and seminars for students and teachers, and actively disseminating her experiences and learning.

As CEO of The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, Mrs Ishwaran has been instrumental in developing today’s youth to become change makers.
ATUL GUPTA
Former Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Atul Gupta has served as the Chief Secretary to the Government of Uttar Pradesh from May, 2008 till superannuation on 31st March, 2011. As head of the state administration he was instrumental in several legal and procedural innovations which enabled highest ever growth rate (23%) for state finances in recent years.

After superannuation as Chief Secretary, he chaired the 4th State Finance Commission of Uttar Pradesh, a Commission set up under the Constitution of India, from Dec 2011 to Dec 2014.

He is married to Usha Gupta who was an officer of Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax).
Shikhar Malhotra
CEO & Vice Chairman, HCL Healthcare
Director, HCL Corporation
Trustee, Shiv Nadar Foundation
Chairman, Shiv Nadar School
Chancellor, Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence
Trustee, The Habitats Trust

Shikhar serves as the CEO & Vice Chairman of HCL Healthcare, one of India's largest corporate health solutions firms, providing end-to-end healthcare solutions with a vision to make corporate India a healthier place. Today, HCL Healthcare is delivering personalized, sustainable and managed care health solutions to organizations across sectors while serving more than 500,000 customers annually across India.

He is a Director of HCL Corporation, the holdco for HCL’s operating companies and a Director on the HCLTech board.

A trustee at the Shiv Nadar Foundation, he helps shape its vision of nation-building through transformational leadership. He is the Chairman of Shiv Nadar School, which is amongst the most coveted educational institutions in Delhi-NCR and Chennai, and the Chancellor of Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, India’s youngest and the only Private University in Uttar Pradesh to be granted the prestigious status of 'Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University (IoE) by Govt. of India. Today, SNIoE is one of the leading private universities in the country acknowledged for being on an accelerated path to emerge as a world-class research-based, multidisciplinary institution.

Committed to wildlife and conservation, Shikhar co-founded The Habitats Trust in 2018 with his wife Roshni Nadar Malhotra. He is the Trustee of the Habitats Trust which is empowering on-ground conservationists to achieve its vision of securing India’s natural habitats and their indigenous species.

His early lessons as an entrepreneur were learnt at his family business and were later sharpened at Babson College in the US, with a specialization in entrepreneurship. He is also a member of the Global Advisory board of Babson College.

He is a sports aficionado, especially for football and cycling.
KIRAN NADAR
Chairperson, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Trustee, Shiv Nadar Foundation

Kiran Nadar is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation and Chairperson, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (www.KNMA.in). She is also an acclaimed international bridge player, a philanthropist and an avid art collector.

She is a key driver behind demystifying art to the common man through the KNMA, a philanthropic initiative in art. She has been acknowledged as a ‘hero of philanthropy’ by Forbes Asia Magazine in 2010 for launching India’s first philanthropic private museum.

Kiran is a Trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which among its transformational educational initiatives has established the SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, today among the top private engineering colleges in India, Shiv Nadar University, VidyaGyan schools, Shiv Nadar School and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Drawing from her diverse and rich experience in advertising and communications, Kiran plays a very important role in defining the architecture and the aesthetics of the Foundation’s initiatives.

Kiran is also member of the Rasaja Foundation, an educational, scientific and cultural institution created in 1984 by the late Jaya Appasamy, a renowned artist, art historian and art critic. As a representative of the Foundation, she has also been involved in a joint initiative with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to promote the education of the Dalit and Muslim girl child in some of the most backward districts in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India.

An advertising, communications and brand professional by background, Kiran started her career at MCM. Then came her stint at NIIT - a company that grew out of Shiv Nadar's vision for computer education in India. Kiran was responsible for shaping the NIIT brand in its formative years with Rajendra Pawar and was closely involved in its brand building strategy. She is one of the top Indian players of competitive bridge as a member of the “Formidables” team, and has not only won many laurels at the National level but has also represented India several times in international competitive bridge events.

Kiran lives in Delhi, India with her husband Shiv Nadar, Founder, HCL and Chairman, Shiv Nadar Foundation.
S.K. MAHESHWARI
Project Director & Chief Admission Officer

S. K. Maheshwari retired from Public Service as Regulatory, Social Welfare and Developmental Civil Servant after a distinguished career spanning 34 years of service. After various stints as Sub Divisional Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate and Chief Development Officer in different districts of Uttar Pradesh in addition to being District Magistrate of Champawat, Uttar Kashi and Haridwar in the state of Uttarakhand. S. K. Maheshwari was awarded international license for “Training of Trainers” by Thames Valley University, London in 1992. He was appointed as Joint Director (Training) in the prestigious U.P. Academy of Administration, Nainital. As Additional Director Social Welfare, he provided successful leadership to various Social Welfare activities in the state of UttaraKhand. He remained Additional Secretary, Secondary Education and Higher Education to the Government of Uttarakhand before elevation to the posts of Secretary, School Education and Director, School Education to the Government of Uttarakhand.

He has been associated with the VidyaGyan Leadership Academy for more than eight years. Mr. Maheshwari has been instrumental in creating the VidyaGyan admission selection process which is magnitude and scale the largest admission process at school level in the country encompassing public and private partnership. Through fruitful interaction with State and District Administration and educational institutions, Mr. Maheshwari has successfully nurtured a spirit of ‘healthy competition amongst students competing for admission in the coveted Vidyagyan Leadership Academies.
VidyaGyan Management
BISHWAJIT BANERJEE
Director at Vidyagyan

A postgraduate in Physics, Bishwajit Banerjee started his professional career as a teacher in 1988.

In 1992 he joined Delhi Public School, Noida as a Physics Teacher and later became the Head of the Department. He was instrumental in setting up the Career Counselling Cell in Delhi Public School and also prepared test material for aptitude test used in Career Counselling workshops. He has conducted many workshops on Career Counselling, setting a question paper, how to prepare for exams, time management and motivation.

He joined the Shiv Nadar Foundation in 2008 and is the founding Principal of the first VidyaGyan Leadership Academy in Bulandshahr.

In 2002 he took over as Principal of DPS, Lucknow, served for three years and then joined DPS Jalandhar as Principal. He has been recognized for his social work by NGOs like HelpAge India, CRY, Cancer Aid Society etc. For his contribution in the field of education he was felicitated with Dr Radhakrishnan Samman.
Swati Shaligram
Principal

An alumnus of Loreto Convent College, Swati S Shaligram is a postgraduate in English with an experience of 28 years in the education field. Before joining VidyaGyan School, Sitapur in 2019, she held the position of Vice Principal at Army Public School, Lucknow.

During the expanse of her career, she has handled various responsibilities such as Academic Coordinator, HOD, Editor of the school magazine, Centre Superintendent for competitive exams and a member of interview panel for the recruitment of teachers. She is the recipient of Radhakrishnan award for the highest subject average in the school in class XII CBSE board examination.

She has participated in a number of CBSE Teacher Development Programmes and Capacity Building Programmes such as Instructional Leadership and Virtual Professional Development Sessions for CBSE School Leaders and Teachers.

Elevated to the post of Principal in May 2021 in the challenging times of Covid 19, Swati feels honoured in leading a school with a difference, India’s first rural leadership academy for the meritorious students of the villages of Uttar Pradesh.Swati’s personal philosophy is that learning must never stop; each lifes experience has some lesson to teach which helps in achieving one’s dreams and ambitions .

She believes in accomplishing goals through collaboration and teamwork with a focus on developing students into responsible citizens who are physically fit , mentally strong, emotionally balanced and overall a good human being. She loves reading, travelling and gardening.
Meenambika Menon
Principal

Meenambika Menon, a double Post Graduate in Physics and Ecology n Environment, has been in the field of education for more than three decades. She has a wide experience in the field of Teaching pedagogy, Curriculum development, Meaningful assessments and School audits.

She has been associated with NCERT and CBSE in developing content for Science (VI to X) and training material for Science teachers on pedagogy and assessments. She has conducted many training sessions for teachers on Content delivery, Classroom Management, Assessment, Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, to name a few.

Meenambika has also received the Teacher Excellence and Achievement Award with a fellowship from USIEF (United States India Education Foundation). As a part of thus she got an opportunity to share her expertise and collaborate with the educators of the United States and 25 other countries. She was conferred with the Uttar Pradesh State Science Teacher Award by the National Academy of Sciences in the year 2005.

Other than teaching Physics and Mathematics she is also passionate about sky gazing, singing and dancing. Throughout her tenure in different school she has enjoyed helping her students in their creative ventures like Science Exhibitions, activities under Astronomy theme, debates, Dance Dramas, Singing and Dancing Competitions. Helping a learner to ‘Think and Own’ his/her learning has been always her priority and objective.