MEET THE TEAM
We are a lean, entrepreneurial and motivated team of thinkers and doers.
CEO
Trained in physics and economics, Badal loves to tinker with big ideas. He is passionate about disruptive innovation and large-scale change, which is reflected in his professional trajectory.
DIRECTOR, PARTNERSHIPS & IMPLEMENTATION
Alok loves bringing positive social change at scale through innovative solutions. He’s a sports enthusiast who believes that a strong sports culture is key for individual and nation growth.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, INNOVATION & STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Vivekdeep Gupta is a graduate of Harvard Business School and, prior to Catalyst, was a co-founder at Covrd, San Francisco - a fintech start-up for workers in the sharing economy.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, LEARNING & COMMUNICATIONS
Parvinder is a social scientist by education with a research degree in economic history from JNU, and 16+ years of experience in media, marketing, advocacy, campaigns, and policy engagement.
Badal has a deep industry background in financial services, digital payments and online commerce. Previously, he was a Vice President at Snapdeal where he built an Omnichannel business from ground up; a Group Product Head at Intuit’s Quickbooks business unit where he crafted new fintech products; an Engagement Manager at McKinsey’s financial services and payments practice where he advised Fortune 50 companies on innovation strategies; and an Economist at the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program where he led a ground breaking a new initiative focused on public accountability in urban service delivery.
He is a technology enthusiast, an active angel investor, and once played for a NYC based rock band. He has an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Alok has 22 years of global experience in fintech solutions. He was COO, India, at World Resources Institute where he set up global work in urban innovation and tools. Before that he was member of the startup team at UIDAI driving program strategy and implementation of Aadhaar – the world’s largest biometric-based online identity platform for 1.2 billion Indians — enabling roll out of the Aadhaar-based payment platform and effective delivery of welfare services. Prior to UIDAI, he took two fintech ventures to the Indian market as a founding team member. Earlier, he worked in the U.S. for 10 years with Trend Micro, managing global IT strategy, and DiamondCluster, developing and executing digital strategies for Fortune 50 companies.
He has an Electronic Commerce management degree from Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University and Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.
Previously, while with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Sudhir headed its Financial Inclusion initiative (Poorest States Inclusive Growth program) in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, focusing on increasing access to financial services among poor households. As an entrepreneur, Sudhir initiated his own Urban Microfinance Company called MITRA in Rajasthan, providing financial services to urban poor. He has also worked closely with industry associations on policy and advocacy issues and with client-beneficiaries in urban and rural Rajasthan to generate linkages with livelihoods.
He is a postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM).
Passionate about evidence-based conversations and storytelling, he has co-created community media initiatives and digital platforms for public engagement for inclusion and social change. Parvinder has worked with some of the leading development organizations like ActionAid, Oxfam, Christian Aid International, Plan International and Landesa among others. He loves contributing to the on-going public discourses through his writings and has been published in academic journals and international news media.
Sapna has been a pilot team member at global investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Nomura, and their set up and start up story in India. With over 11 years of experience across transition, operations and execution of large-scale business transformation programs, her noteworthy engagements involved the roll out of new bank branch set ups for equity and fixed income businesses in Mauritius, Singapore, Indonesia and China. In her last stint at Nomura, she was instrumental in front-to-back program management, business analysis and user-acceptance testing for projects such as delivery of India FII Proprietary Trading business roll-out. Prior to Nomura, Sapna was a business analyst at Goldman Sachs and established a center of excellence reconciliation platform for Lehman’s global businesses.
Sapna holds a Bachelor in Commerce Degree, an MBA from the Symbiosis University, Pune and is Six Sigma Green Belt certified.
ECOSYSTEM OPERATIONS LEADER
Sudhir has over 13 years of professional experience in the financial inclusion and microfinance space, aimed at reaching the financially underserved sections of society.
MANAGER, PARTNERSHIPS & IMPLEMENTATION
Sapna is a change-enthusiast and an offshoring startup specialist with core experience in Business Analysis, Project and Program Management. She truly believes that ‘change is the law of life’.
MANAGER, LEARNING & COMMUNICATIONS
Bringing in rich experience from her stint in the advertising industry, Vinaina has a knack of turning nuggets of insights into meaningful communication solutions.
COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA CONSULTANT
Passionate about communicating complex policy issues to people in a form that is easily understandable, Aparajita brings rich experience in policy and communications to the table.
Aparajita was one of the four Indians selected for the Faiths Act Fellowship by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Prior to that, she was a LAMP Fellow and worked as a Legislative Assistant to Mr. N.K. Singh, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. Most recently, she was Manager, Corporate Affairs and Communications at Snapdeal where she was responsible for media messaging and engagement, in addition to providing inputs on policy and legislative issues concerning the digital commerce sector. She also developed and managed partnerships with many state governments for Snapdeal.
A street theatre artist in her undergraduate years, Aparajita was instrumental in seeding ‘Manthan’ – an annual congregation of street theatre student groups to spread social awareness across India. Manthan has now expanded to 15+ towns and cities.
She is an alumnus of Oxford University and College of Business Studies at Delhi University.
With over 10 years of industry experience, she has developed and implemented numerous cross-channel communication campaigns and initiatives. She started her career working with leading advertising firms such as Lintas IMAG and Saatchi & Saatchi, and also served as a brand manager at the Times of India. Having managed marketing and communication responsibilities in the business sector for a few years, Vinaina now manages outreach tasks for development projects. At a public international organization, she led the policy and outreach function of an agricultural policy research project. Her role entailed conceptualizing and implementing an integrated outreach program. Owing to its innovative approach and executional finesses, the project features as a case study in the Harvard Business.
POLICY CONSULTANT
Rohit is an engineer turned policy wonk with years of experience in researching policy issues. He is a 2013 IPRYLI (India-Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative) fellow with the Asia Society.
DATA SCIENTIST
Arindam with a background in mathematics and economics, has been a data junkie for almost ten years, with experience across several industries ranging from economics to sports.
MONITORING & EVALUATION SPECIALIST
Passionate about designing solutions that address the needs of the underserved sections of society, Vaisnavi’s journey in the development sector started through volunteer opportunities.
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
With flawless administrative skills, Preeti is passionate about her work; conducting events is her strength. She feels good to provide support to her teammates.
Arindam has developed analytical frameworks for problems ranging from performance and strategy evaluation in Twenty20 cricket, to identifying possible locations for the new capital of the bifurcated state of Andhra Pradesh, to assessing credit risk in data-poor lending networks, to proving cartel and monopolistic behaviour in markets. Arindam also has a keen interest in developing data pipelines, with a specific interest in data quality and value add – in his time with Indian Institute for Human Settlements, he was instrumental in developing a spatiotemporal database panning sources from Census of India to remote sensing imagery from NASA and ISRO. In his free time, Arindam loves following long form cricket from across the globe, cooking, and analysing films.
Preeti previously worked with FHI360 where she gained exposure to the development sector. Earlier, at Jayanita Exports, she was exposed to work with global buyers for handicraft export and import. Before that, at Alar Impex Pvt. Ltd., she was working with the Belgian government on importing dredging machines from Belgium. Her first experience was interesting: she started her career with SSC as an invigilator for initial paper checks.
She has an Economics degree from Delhi University, and an Office Management and Secretarial Diploma from YMCA as well as an Operational Management diploma from MIT.
Sunil has worked with Snapdeal in the capacity of Brand Alliances Manager. He has also worked to pilot the Omni channel form of retail in the e-commerce space. Prior to that, he has worked with Cognizant as a Business Intelligence consultant for clients ranging from the publications to banks to telecom sectors.
He is an alumnus of Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Ahmedabad and National Institute of Technology, Raipur.
Tunisha has valuable work experience in both the corporate as well as the development sector. She worked as a Senior Research Associate with Consumer Unity and Trust Society for two years handling policy and regulatory research. Prior to that she worked with IMRB International for three years and was responsible for end-to-end project management. She handled both quantitative as well as qualitative studies in the areas of brand health checks as well as communication evaluations.
Tunisha has a management degree from Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA).
During Darshan’s tenure at DA, he played a leadership role in the creation of ecosystem development for fly ash brick industry, enterprise development, creation of market linkages and integrated village development with HUL and Bharat Oman Refineries Limited. His business proposal on Rural Home Stays in Madhya Pradesh “Homes of India” was selected by IIM- Calcutta as a semi-finalist entry to TATA Social Enterprise Challenge and he was offered the Entrepreneurship Development Program at IIM-Calcutta on incubation. As an independent consultant, he has helped non-profit organizations with fundraising and marketing strategies. He has also independently conducted marketing activation campaigns for various corporates.
Darshan’s education background is in economics and international business management.
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Tunisha is passionate about policy and regulatory research and has had professional exposure in a diverse set of sectors including business responsibility, insurance and energy.
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Prior to Darshan’s association with Catalyst, he was associated with Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Indore, Development Alternatives (DA) for entrepreneurship and enterprise development programs.
OPERATIONS LEADER, IFMR LEAD
As Chief Operating Officer, Anup ensures organizational effectiveness by providing leadership for the organization’s key functions and international expansion.
OPERATIONS MANAGER, IFMR LEAD
Preethi oversees field data collection and digitization operations and is also involved in developing and leading research studies and short-term projects in open data, finance and healthcare.
SENIOR ASSOCIATE, PARTNERSHIPS & IMPLEMENTATION
Sunil is an engineer turned management student. He has worked in the areas of brand alliance in ecommerce and as a Business Intelligence consultant for several domains.
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Tunisha is passionate about policy and regulatory research and has had professional exposure in a diverse set of sectors including business responsibility, insurance and energy.
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Prior to Darshan’s association with Catalyst, he was associated with Indian Institute of Management (Indore), for entrepreneurship and enterprise development programs.
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Siddharth enjoys mathematics and all things data. He joins Catalyst from the partnerships & strategic initiatives team at Snapdeal. He loves swimming, squash and anything that gets him outdoors.
Anup joined IFMR Research in October 2005 as Research Associate and has worked in several research studies. Prior to IFMR, he worked with University of Delhi for four years, as well as the World Bank as Short Term Consultant for more than a year. At present, as COO, he is involved in IFMR’s international expansion, partnership and training, HR and administration, grant management, financial functions, effective data collection, data management and ethical compliance.
Anup holds a Master degree in Social Work from the University of Delhi.
Preethi also engages in fundraising, outreach and capacity building activities for IFMR LEAD. She has been with IFMR LEAD since 2006 (she took a sabbatical from 2012 to 2014 during which she traveled and babysat her first born). She lends a helping hand to Team Catalyst when they face operational challenges thus ensuring (or at least trying to ensure) smooth backend support for seamless front-end delivery.
She has a Masters Degree in Management from IFMR Business School where her focus areas were Finance and Marketing.
Vivekdeep Gupta graduated in 2014 with an MBA in Finance and Economics. Vivek has significant public policy experience, having worked at the Office of the Advisor to Prime Minister of India where he designed parts of the National Skill Development Policy and approved loans for skill development programs. He also worked with Mr. N Chandrababu Naidu, through the AP Economic Development Board, during his current tenure as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Vivek spent 4 years with the Tata Group as part of the Tata Administrative Services (TAS) in Africa, Israel and India. At TAS, he helped the Group set up multiple businesses including India’s first private sector military aerospace unit and micro-finance fund in South Africa.
Akanksha has worked with Accenture Strategy as a Business Consultant for close to years, in large scale implementation and strategy projects in areas of process efficiency and process integration with technological systems.
She completed her MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and BSc (H) Mathematics from Lady Shri Ram College. She is passionate about the causes of Financial Inclusion, education for the blind and economic development and has contributed to these areas in her own small yet significant ways.
She likes watching plays more than movies and philosophy more than romance. Her height doesn’t justify her love and skill at basketball and she takes the job of restaurant critiquing quite seriously! Her bucket list includes travelling solo to Latin America and teaching kids there.
Ryan has worked on numerous projects at the intersection of technology, policy, and operations. He spent four years at Google developing the Android hardware and software ecosystems by managing direct-to-consumer device support operations and creating policies for the world’s biggest mobile app marketplace. At Ripple, Ryan served as Head of Developer Relations and Platform Partnerships. Through this role he engaged with numerous financial institutions and FinTech entrepreneurs building the payment systems of the future.
Ryan is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Classical Civilizations. He is expected to graduate from the University of Oxford’s Master of Public Policy program in Fall 2017. When he’s not studying or playing with tech, you can find Ryan relaxing by watching and playing baseball.
BUSINESS ANALYST
Passionate about fintech and use of blockchain to improve regulation tech, Gaurav loves designing the efficient ways to streamline processes. prior catalyst he was a co-founder at Authentic - An India stack based E-KYC and authentication startup.
MARKETING, INCITE
Sowmya is CEO of INCITE, where she helps companies reimagine how they interact with their customers and manage their businesses in the digital economy.
MARKETING, INCITE
Pratap is Founder and COO of INCITE, where he spearheads the company’s business operations. He is actively involved in defining and shaping the agency’s core disciplines.
ASSOCIATE
Priyanka is currently pursuing MSc Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining LSE.
Pratap began his career as a research scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. During his MBA program in the U.S., Pratap interned with the Federal Communications Commission, helping draft policy and legislation for the Satellite Communications division. Then, as a part of Capital One’s Small Business division, Pratap was instrumental in developing new products and creating and growing the Loyalty Program. He later led Capital One’s foray into the Indian consumer lending market. During this time, he was also invited to write an advisory paper to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, on leveraging data analytics within the Income Tax department. As an independent consultant, Pratap mentored large corporations by offering strategic advice related to India entry.
Pratap has a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the Yale School of Management with a dual concentration in strategy and international finance.
Gaurav has been an active participant in startup ecosphere. He has worked with CIIE, IIM A where he worked on the bi-yearly Blpan competition Power of Ideas; as an intern at Dexter capital - a startup debt advisory and angel fund where he assisted in early due diligence and outreach; and as a Business development associate at CultureAlley, creator of HelloEnglish App where he worked on monetizing the app through multiple channels and upselling. In his free time, he loves to write short stories, follow cricket and prepare for marathon cycling.
SUMMER PROGRAM (BATCH OF 2017)
Every year, we select a few passionately driven individuals with unique skills and interests that complement our current priorities.
FELLOW
Being born and raised right next to Silicon Valley, Ryan has always been inspired by the history of technology and its potential for the future.
ASSOCIATE
Research and service in a diverse array of settings have augmented Maya’s commitment to poverty alleviation and economic development.
ASSOCIATE
Priyanka is currently pursuing MSc Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining LSE.
ASSOCIATE
Abhinav is interested in social entrepreneurship and the potential of markets to promote economic development. He is a second-year undergrad studying Economics and Finance at Ashoka University.
Siddharth has a dual degree from BITS Pilani with bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering and a master’s degree in economics. He’s previously interned at Morgan Stanley, KPMG, among other companies.
Prior to joining Catalyst, he spent about two years at Snapdeal working on partnerships & strategic initiative projects.
In his spare time, he can be found debating, planning detailed vacation itineraries and outdoors. He has spent a summer working in financial crime investigation with Gurgaon Police.
Anand enjoys learning and has moved between sectors and domain in his professional life — from IT to telecom to television and lastly financial services. He has written code, managed projects, delivered products, sold and marketed them with stints at companies including Tech Mahindra, Idea Cellular, Star TV, Eko and IDmission Solutions. He wants to remain curious and in hopefully bring some change. He has interests in diverse and often utterly unrelated subjects.
Since 2010, Sowmya has driven INCITE’s growth from a small startup into a full-service interactive agency operating out of the U.S., Europe and India. Earlier, she was responsible for corporate fund raising for the United Way in Massachusetts, helping America’s largest non-profit organization raise funds for outreach programs. On her return to India, Sowmya was part of the founding team of Nirvana, a Bengaluru-based BPO that services global clients. Here she defined the strategic vision and built key parts of the organization including product development and sales. As Head of the New York office, she was responsible for Nirvana’s expansion into the North American market. Sowmya then returned to India to co-found a successful wine company, Naka Wines. As CEO of Naka Wines, she was responsible for launching the brand across Karnataka and the USA.
Sowmya has an MBA from the prestigious University of Massachusetts.
Priyanka worked with Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi in their project –Accountability Initiative- where she worked in the areas of public finance and public administration. As a Research Associate, she handled both quantitative and qualitative analytical work as well as worked on ground to implement PETS for the project.
Priyanka holds a B.A. (Hons) Economics degree from Lady Shri Ram college for women and a PGD in Liberal Arts from Ashoka University. Apart from nurturing a career goal to step into policy work using her academic qualifications professionally, she continues to juggle her passion for community work through her community initiative- The WordsWorth Project- which engages youth volunteers to assist underprivileged kids with their English language development. She often uses the rest of her time to give life to her thoughts through blogging and doodling.
Maya combines academic interests in economic development and poverty alleviation with a wide array of experiences in research and multi-sectoral policy development & implementation. Most recently, she co-led two nationwide behavioral economics experiments on HIV test uptake with a public health and social entrepreneurship laboratory in Guangzhou, China. She is interested in the ways in which microeconomic theory and behavioral insights can be used to design informal and formal social programs and institutions.
Maya studies economics and mathematics as a Robertson Scholar at Duke University and will graduate in May 2018. She was named a 2017 United States Truman Scholar. In her free time, she can usually be found wandering through mountains and canyons in the American Southwest.
ADVISORS
Catalyst’s advisors being deep sector expertise and thought leadership to guide our strategy and implementation.
RENANA JHABVALA
National Coordinator
SEWA Bank
STEERING COMMITTEE
Catalyst’s Steering Committee represents current donors and IFMR to provide governance and oversight.