About Us

Ashok Shah is a Chartered Accountant and Founding Partner of Cignas from N A Shah Advisors LLP, with over 48 years of experience in tax advisory, business restructuring, transaction advisory, estate and trust planning, and family governance. Widely respected for his holistic and balanced approach, he has advised numerous family businesses, multinational corporations, and private equity funds on complex tax, restructuring, and family governance matters.
At Muktangan, Mr. Shah advises the Trust on financial and taxation matters, bringing extensive professional expertise and a balanced, strategic perspective to support the Trust’s educational mission.

Mrs. Elizabeth Mehta, is an accomplished educationist with over five decades of experience at all levels of school education including extensive work in rural India. During her career Liz has been involved in teaching, curriculum development and education management, she has also conducted classroom-based pedagogical research and has participated in several international and national conferences. At Muktangan, Liz oversees the programmatic aspects of the seven schools and teacher education institute. For her exemplary work in education through the years and for setting up the Muktangan Schools Network Elizabeth Mehta was honoured with the title ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of The British Empire’ (MBE) during the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015.

A finance and legal professional with over 25+ plus years of experience, Ms. Farida Bhathena is Vice-President – Finance and Legal at Paragon Property Enterprises Pvt Ltd and a Director of Paragon Textile Mills Pvt. Ltd. Farida also assumes the role of Trustee and CFO at the Muktangan Education Trust, overseeing the finance, accounts, and taxation aspects of the Trust.

Mr. Sridhar Ramachandran, is a management strategy specialist and comes with over 30 years of significant experience in general and financial management of companies across Asia and Africa. Currently, he serves as Advisor of India Nivesh Renaissance Fund. He represents the fund as nominee director in listed and unlisted companies. In addition, he is also on the advisory board of DAA Consulting and Mentor my Board. He has held leadership positions in different roles including, Alpen Capital, Cadila Pharma, Brescon Corporate Advisors, Pioneer Embroideries, SKD Group (Hong Kong), Texmcao-Polysindo Group (Indonesia, South Africa & Botswana), Utexrwa (Rwanda). During his career spanning over three decades, he has successfully turned around few companies, worked with many visionary entrepreneurs, and interacted with more than thousand promoters across various sectors and consulted many companies on strategy, M&A, Debt restructuring and other areas that helped him to gain tremendous experience. His first book “End of Saamba Dance”, a business and a financial thriller fiction quickly rose to popularity in the business and financial community and won the Best Author’s Award 2021 by Navi Mumbai Chamber of Business & Industries. He speaks at various industry forums on Strategy, Finance and Governance areas. Sridhar is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, CPA from Colorado State, USA and a Commerce Graduate from Madras University.

Mr. Sunil Mehta is Chairman of Paragon Textile Mills Pvt Ltd., manufacturers of Elpar fabrics and Chairman & Managing Director of Paragon Property Enterprises Private Limited. He has been deeply involved in education for many years holding positions including; Chairman of Bombay International School Association. At Muktangan, Sunil oversees the operational aspects of the organization including Fundraising, Public Relations, Human Resource, Administration and Finance.

Vineeth worked for a decade in the corporate sector with organizations like Capgemini, Ingersoll Rand, and Exide Technologies India. His core domains were Business HR, Talent Development, and C&B. Since 2013 he has switched his career to the non-profit sector. After an enriching 3-year stint with Muktangan wherein he was the overall leader for strategy, Vineeth is now an advisor serving several committed non-profits in delivering sustainable change. He continues to be actively involved with Muktangan, especially in the areas of talent stewardship, governance, and impact growth.

Zarin has inhabited the world of education for over three decades as a teacher, teacher trainer and head of school. Starting her career with the NGO, ‘Parisar Asha’, helped her understand the concerns of education for socio-economically challenged communities, in urban and rural settings. She has been the editor of a newsletter called ‘Classroom’ as well as co-ordinated conferences for educators as part of the education core team of the global movement, ‘Initiatives of Change’. Armed with a M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Sheffield, U.K., she writes poetry, short stories and novels. Her first book, ‘Gopal’s Gully’ was published by Duckbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House [India]. Building human connections with teachers and students as well as nurturing critical thinking remain her abiding passions.

Dipa Dwarkadas is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA in Finance and extensive experience in the finance sector in India and abroad. She currently manages the complete financial operations of her family office, overseeing taxation, banking, investments, expenses, and revenues. Dipa serves on the advisory board of Madat Charitable Trust, supporting initiatives that help underprivileged patients navigate cancer care. She is also associated with Ashoka University and St. Jude India, and is a passionate supporter of multiple social causes, with a strong commitment to inclusive and impactful change.

Jennifer is an educator and curriculum specialist with deep roots in Mumbai’s educational landscape. She serves as Secretary of Sharon Education Society, providing leadership across administration, human resources, and strategic planning for a community of over 1,500 students, while mentoring teachers and designing library curricula that foster holistic development and a culture of reading.

Since 2022, she has been an Academic Mentor with Bookworm Trust, Goa, supporting children’s libraries and facilitating the Library Educator’s Certificate Course. Earlier, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai (2015–2022), she worked as an Assistant Professor, leading curriculum design for computer-assisted language learning under the CLIx initiative across multiple states, and teaching in the M.A. Elementary Education and B.Ed./M.Ed. programmes.

Jennifer began her journey with Muktangan as Lead Teacher Educator (2009–2014), leading English curriculum development across seven municipal schools and designing the Independent Writing curriculum to nurture children’s self-expression and critical thinking.

Known for her collaborative approach and thoughtful mentorship, Jennifer bridges academic theory with classroom practice. She is currently pursuing her PhD at TISS, focusing on school libraries and curriculum studies, and holds postgraduate degrees in Elementary Education (TISS) and English Literature (EFLU, Hyderabad).

Fulfilling the role of Director HR and Administration, Mr. Satose over a career spanning 35+ years associated with the Paragon Group acts as primary liaison with the local MCGM authorities. At the Muktangan Education Trust, he oversees all HR maintenance functions, Muktangan schools’ administration and programme logistics.

An engaged philanthropist and deeply committed to the social sector, Maithili is passionate about progressive education, healthcare and vulnerable child care. Maithili attended Brown University for her undergraduate degree after which she worked on Wall Street in New York, as a commodities trader for Morgan Stanley. She received her post-graduate degree from the London School of Economics before returning home. Maithili has had a successful career in the art world as Director and India Country Head of Sotheby’s, the global auction house. Maithili is a founder member of Ashoka University, and also serves on the India Advisory Board of Brown University and the South Asian Art Council at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has two young children with her husband, Shashank Singh.

Rajan is a veteran of the Indian internet industry with experience in retail internet and business services spanning two decades. He is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Nirvana Venture Advisors and was previously associated as a Venture Partner with Clearstone Venture Advisors (Indian Advisory of Clearstone Venture Partners) before which he also served as country head for Ebay India. He has been an active member of the governing council of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and chaired the Federation of Indian 4 Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) E-Business committee in 2007. Additionally, Rajan also serves on the boards of Billdesk, Games2Win and Cartrade amongst other businesses and is on the Advisory Board of the Praja Foundation, Mumbai.

Currently serving as Managing Director of KAYMO Fastener Company, Vivek has been a part of the business for 34 years! He is a teaching faculty at Moral Re-Armament (MRA) and Initiatives for Change International (IofC) and is regularly invited to present at business groups on topics related to Value Sustainability for Companies and Building Ethical and Competitive Organizations. Vivek currently serves on the Boards of three Non-Profits IofC, Praja and Toy Bank as well as the advisory committee of Annamrita (ISKON Food Relief)

Mayur Khaire is an electronics engineer turned development professional with extensive experience in Business intelligence, data warehousing, rural development, education, and skill development. His career has taken him from the tech industry to the remote regions of Jammu and Kashmir, where he spent three transformative years as a Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellow. He has also served as the Head of Programmes at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune), managing a national-level programme with expertise. Throughout his career, Mayur has led education projects from planning to execution across regions including J&K, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Karnataka within government systems.
Armed with a master's in development Practice from TISS Mumbai, an MBA in Operations, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Mass Media, Mayur combines technical expertise with a deep understanding of development challenges. Passionate about bringing positive change to mainstream education, he strongly believes in the potential of every child to learn. Currently, he leads as the CEO of Muktangan, where he continues to drive impactful educational initiatives.