Board of Trustees

Mr. B.T. Bangera

Mr. B.T. Bangera, Chairperson, DHAN Foundation is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is currently the Managing Director of M/s Hi-Tech Arai Limited., an Indo-Japanese joint venture at Madurai. He has over 30 years of experience, holding senior management positions in reputed companies in India. He has been an office-bearer in the Management Associations and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) at different levels. He is keenly interested in education and is a member on the Board of Governors and Board of Studies of a number of management and engineering institutions.

Ms. K. Noorjehan

Ms. K. Noorjehan, Vice Chairperson, DHAN Foundation is currently an Administrative member of Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench. She was the Chief Post Master General, Haryana Postal Circle and later became Chief Principal Post Master General of Maharasthra circle. She was subsequently promoted to the grade of Member, Postal Services Board. She has over 30 years of experience in different parts of the country. She was instrumental in computerising postal operations in the southern region, and in creating own infrastructure for several post offices. She is interested in women development, especially the poor and the disadvantaged.

Mr. R.D. Thulsiraj

Mr. R.D. Thulsiraj, Treasurer, DHAN Foundation is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, is the Executive Director of LAICO-Aravind Eye Care System. For almost 20 years he had been the Administrator of Aravind Eye Hospitals. He was also the South-East Asia Regional Chair for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). He worked with the board of Seva Foundation (an U.S.-based NGO) for more than 15 years. He has a number of published papers to his credit, and has presented papers at international conferences on eye care.

Dr. Nirmala Murthy

Dr. Nirmala Murthy is currently the President for the Foundation for Research in Health Systems. She holds a Doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has over three decades of rich experience in public health, involving monitoring and evaluation, research, and health information systems. She has taught at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She has worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts and Management Sciences for Health, Boston. She has been a consultant for various national and international health-related programmes of the Government of India and the World Bank. She has a number of papers and publications related to health, health policies, programmes and research to her credit. Her areas of interest are health information systems, and monitoring and evaluation of health and welfare programmes.

Dr. Priscilla Daniel

Dr. Priscilla Daniel holds two Master’s degrees and a Ph. D. in Social Marketing of Health Education. She was formerly the Programme Executive in ECLOF International. She appraises large loan proposals, trains the staff and Boards of NECs. She worked as an educationist for more than 20 years and was the Founder-President of two NGOs (SUEB – Society for the Upliftment of the Economically Backward and SIRPI – Social Initiative for Rural Peoples’ Integration) and a Board member of ECLO, India. Now she is in the Board of Management of Friends of India at Geneva, Switzerland. She was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship for Public Innovators in 1991 for her contribution in the field of development.

Dr. V. Abhai Kumar

Dr. V. Abhai Kumar holds Engineering Master’s degree in Communication Systems. He received his Ph.D Degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Currently, he is Principal of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. He is a senior member of IEEE. He has authored and co–authored a number of technical papers in reputed journals and presented papers at international and national conferences. He has more than two decades of research and teaching experience in microwaves, remote sensing, digital signal processing and image processing. His research interests include array signal processing and smart antennas.

Mr. M. Balachandran

Mr. M. Balachandran is a post graduate in Agricultural Science and a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. He is currently the Director of Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. He is also serving as the Chairman of Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Corporation Limited. Recently he has been nominated as a member of the High Power Advisory Committee of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on consent orders and also as a Director of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). He is a member in the Research and Development Advisory Committee of the National Housing Bank and the Oversight Committee of India Infrastructural Finance Corporation Limited (IIFCL). During the span of his 37 years of operational banking, he has held positions at various capacities and covered Priority Sector, Corporate Credit and International Banking.

Ms. N. Shanthi Maduresan

Ms. N. Shanthi Maduresan is a post graduate in Rural Economics and Extension Education. She has more than 20 years of experience in Microfinance. She was instrumental in promoting Federations of Kalanjiam women SHGs in Ramnathapuram and Tuticorin districts of Tamil Nadu. She is currently working as a Faculty in Tata–Dhan Academy, teaching Participatory Learning Methods (PALM), Building People’s Organisations (BUD) for development and gender. She is also coordinating Development Management Programmes (DMPs) in the Academy on microfinance, livelihood, health and team building for NGOs. She is also serving as the Chief Executive of Indian Network of Federations of Microfinance Self Help Groups (INFOS ). Her areas of interest are building community-based institutions and capacity building for development.

Mr. C. Sudhakar

Mr. C. Sudhakar is a post graduate in Commerce and Intermediate in Institute of Cost Works Accountant (ICWA) of India. He is presently leading the Center for Finance in DHAN Foundation. He has about fifteen years of experience in the development sector. He handled management accounting and financial management courses for the Tata-Dhan Academy. He anchored training programmes for NGOs on Financial Management and on legal aspects. He is currently involved in setting up systems for financial accounting and monitoring in the people organisations promoted by DHAN Foundation. His areas of interest are building capacities of the community-based institutions in financial management and developing systems for monitoring and transparency in such institutions.

Mr. M.P. Vasimalai

Mr. M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of DHAN Foundation is a post graduate in Agriculture and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has over three decades of experience in development work and one of the key people in setting up Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN). He was instrumental in setting up DHAN Foundation in 1997. He has specialised in community organisation, designing development interventions in the fields of natural resource management, livelihood promotion and institutional development. He has traveled extensively within and outside India and has participated/ presented papers on these themes. He is also holding various positions in national and international forums, working groups, task forces and missions of Central and State governments on these themes. He was instrumental in promoting various network organisations. His areas of interest are institution building, leadership development and promoting various development themes for poverty reduction.