Advisory Board Members
We are a team of passionate educationists who believe that excellent teachers impact student lives in classrooms & beyond.
Manisha Parthasarthy
Advisory Board Member
Manisha Parthasarthy is an Advisory Board Member at CEQUE.
Manisha started dedicating her time to volunteer work more than 25 years ago, having worked with diverse organizations such as Samaritans in Paris, Mothers Choice in Hong Kong, and the HIV Unit of Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. She is currently serving as Vice Chairperson of St Jude India Childcare Centers, an organization she has been with for 13 years.
Her responsibilities range from mentoring colleagues who work with young children at the frontline of care delivery to expanding SJICC’s national footprint across the country and fundraising. She hopes to bring some of these learnings to her role on the CEQUE advisory board.
Manisha believes that focusing on staff skill training and innovation can create an environment that can deliver better outcomes for the ultimate beneficiaries.
These are the children who look to St Jude to give them another chance at life and the children that CEQUE teachers will help to achieve their potential.
Ashwini Kapila
Advisory Board Member
Ashwini Kapila has been a career banker and has served in the financial services sector spanning more than 28 years.
He has served at Barclays Bank for 21years as the Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) & Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), India, covering all liability and capital-raising business for Indian FIs as well looked after the entire Corporate and Investment Banking relationship responsibilities with these clients. Ashwini started his career at DSP Merrill Lynch and was a member of the Institutional Sales team of
the Debt Capital Markets in Mumbai, from 1994 to 1998 & then with ABN AMRO Securities, as part of the sales team in the debt capital markets business, from 1998 till 2001.
He takes active interest in mentoring, investing and advising entrepreneurs, especially in the new age digital sector. His particular interests are in the Education and Health & Wellness sector. He is currently Advisor to GetSetUp Inc – a US based peer-to-peer learning socializing and engagement platform for Older Adults / Senior Citizens.
He holds a postgraduate management degree from Mumbai University’s Sydenham Institute of Management (’94) and has a graduate honours degree in Economics from Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (‘92).
Pratima Harite
Advisory Board Member
Pratima Harite heads the Asia Pacific CSR & Philanthropy at Lenovo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lenovo.
She is responsible for building strong charitable partnerships across Asia Pacific’s diverse markets, increasing employee engagement in alignment with the new global volunteer benefit and evaluating the impact of Lenovo’s strategic charitable investments in Asia Pacific underscoring Lenovo’s global philanthropy and Foundation’s mission of smarter technology for all.
Pratima has a gamut of experience, having worked for over 15 years at a senior level in varied global financial institutions, one of which was Standard Chartered India where she was responsible for building the CSR function from the ground up leading to several of her initiatives being integrated at a corporate level.
Later, having worked for two major Indian conglomerates (Reliance Anil Ambani Group and Wadia Group), she led the CSR wing with various lines of businesses ranging from financial, power and FMCG to name a few.
She is a subject matter expert in the areas of Women Empowerment, education, financial literacy, vocational training, and healthcare. During her spare time, she works pro bono with non-profit organizations supporting them in developing communication strategies and fundraising.
Shalaka Deshmukh
Advisory Board Member
Shalaka Deshmukh has been in the education sector for more than 30 years.
Currently, Shalaka is an Assistant Secretary at The Shikshan Mandal, Goregaon, also heading a Center for Quality Education in the same organization. She has previously worked with out-of-school children and serves as a Board Member of Unnati ISEC, an NGO working in the interior parts of Maharashtra with a tribal community.
Her special interest is in Art education - which is developing visual literacy in children and adults around them. Helping children who are lacking behind in their studies for various reasons is an issue that she holds very close to her heart.
Shalaka holds a Batchelor’s degree in Fine Art (painting) from Mumbai University.
Shveta Ramchandani Advisory Board Member
Shveta is a Human Resources professional with over 20 years of experience. She has worked in the corporate sector with organizations like Wipro Technologies, Reliance Petroleum and Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd. in Line and Corporate HR roles.
In her current association with Great Place To Work® Institute, she works with clients across industries and manages projects in the areas of Workplace culture and employee experience assessment, people practices evaluation, and Leadership/People manager capability building.
Shveta holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Delhi University (College of Business Studies) and a Master’s in Personnel Management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (MPM).
Veena Naravane Advisory Board Member
Veena Naravane has been a secondary school teacher and a teacher trainer. Her experience spans over 3 decades. She has taught in schools in India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. She has held leadership positions in the schools she has worked in and is well-versed in curriculum and syllabus planning, pedagogy, and monitoring and evaluation of teachers.
Veena is an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and has two Masters degrees, one in French and the other in History. She also has a Bachelor of Education degree from Pune University.
Veena has been a teacher trainer for a long. She has designed and delivered teacher workshops on a wide range of topics. She has also helped the CBSE to create formative assessment rubrics for Social Studies.
Veena has experience working with special children. She has been a champion of inclusive education. As the President of the Army Wives Welfare Association, an NGO that works for the welfare of military spouses and families, she worked relentlessly to sensitize the environment on the issues faced by differently abled children and their parents. She has spoken in many forums on the management of learning difficulties in children.
In her free time, Veena likes to write. She has many published stories and articles to her credit.
