Gurunathan is a graduate in Agricultural Engineering from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and masters in rural management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). He is the Director of Tata-Dhan Academy w.e.f. April 2015. He has two years experience in irrigation water management, tank irrigation systems in the projects sponsored by IFPRI, Washington and Ford Foundation. He was instrumental in setting up prestigious Automatic dairy plant with Anand Milk Union Ltd, (AMUL), Anand, Gujarat. He has 17 years experience in DHAN Foundation, worked as Chief Executive of DHAN Foundation’s Water Theme Collective called DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation, led a team of 150 Professionals and Para Professionals. He has trained “Water” Professionals from Government, Academia, NGOs and Civil Society Organisations. He has participated in Round Table Conference and made presentation on Safe Drinking Water for Poor Households at World Water Forum, Istanbul in 2009. He also made poster Presentation in Stockholm World Water Week during 2005. He took part in various conferences, Seminars in World Water Forums, Kyoto; Mexico and Regional Global Water Partnership meets at Dhaka, and Kuala Lampur. He published articles on Small Scale water resources development and management, watershed development, drinking water ponds and water quality etc. He teaches courses in Project Management (PM), Water and Development (WAD), Strategic Management (SM), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Quantitative Techniques for Development Management Research (QTMR) to PDM students. His current interests are Climate change Adaptation, Water Security and Livelihoods, Environment Management and Project Planning Management. He served in the advisory committee of National Water Academy, Pune and National Hydrologolical Institute for hard rock areas, Belgaum. He was involved in the committee for preparation of State action Plan for Climate Change Tamil Nadu. He was one of the working committee members constituted by Central Planning Commission Government of India on Water Governance in drafting 12th Five year plan.
Janakiraman is an alumnus of Tata - Dhan Academy (PDM – 3rd Batch). He did his graduation in Pharmacy and post-graduation in Public Administration. He is involved in development work for the past 16 years. He is working in DHAN Foundation for the past 14 years. Initial six years he involved in shaping local governance theme, he established project location for facilitating better grassroots governance, designed multiyear-micro planning processes for Panchayat Raj institutions and experimented few democratic tools such as Panchayat Parliament, Panchayat level HDI, Social Audit, etc., He served as resource person for Participatory Resource Mapping and livelihood mapping as part of IFAD supported Post Tsunami Sustainable Livelihoods Project of Govt. of Tamil Nadu. He has involved in the development of self-learning course materials and conducts seminar classes for the distance education course named “Diploma in Panchayat Management”, offered by DHAN People Academy. He conducted and involved in hundreds of various capacity building programs to community leaders and development practitioners. He coordinated several research studies on local governance in collaboration with academic and government institutions such as RGNIYD, NIRD, and DRD. Along with other faculties of TDA, he jointly worked in research projects relating to micro insurance and preparation of District Human Development Reports. He was worked as a regional coordinator for five years at Kanchipuram & Vellore districts, where he was mentoring nine project locations servicing 22,000 poor families through microfinance, agriculture, and water conservation interventions. During this period, he mobilized financial resources from Rabo - Bank, European Union, and United Nations through proposals for expanding and deepening project activities. From 2013 to April 2017 he serving as Chief Executive to Kalanjiam Development Financial Services (KDFS), a community MFI initiative of DHAN Foundation, which provides bridge financing to SHGs across the nation. Presently he is heading Panchayat Raj theme of DHAN Foundation along with coordinating DHAN People Academy. His areas of interest are governance, training, and microfinance. At TDA, he is involved in teaching PDM and DEEP for the past 10 years. At present, he teaches two courses namely, Basics of Development (BoD) & Legal Environment for Development (LED). He also actively involves in various need based support to various DMPs and other activities of TDA.
Jolly Rajaratnam is a postgraduate in Mathematics from St. Johns College, Palayamkottai. She obtained her Doctorate degree in Bio-Medical Sciences from The TNMGR University, Chennai. She worked as a Consultant Training Officer in RUHSA Department of CMC, Vellore, Tamil Nadu for 20 years from 1985-2005. She was a faculty for Post Graduate Diploma in Community and Health Management Course (PGDCHM). She had received training on 'Curriculum Development', 'Participatory Project Planning', 'Evaluative Research', 'PRA Techniques', Scientific Article Writing”, 'Information Management and Documentation' 'Qualitative Research', 'Epidemiologic Methods and Analysis & Applied Multivariate Techniques', “Statistical Methods for Evaluating a Development Project” Introduction to Graphics”, “Graphics in Word”, “Microsoft Excel” and “Power Point” and Health Data Management and Statistical Software”. She developed a Management Information System for the health and development work carried out in a Block consisting of 1,20,000 population. She had guided Social Work students from Adelaide, Australia on their 'Field study' and Biology students from St. Olaf, USA from 1995-2005. She worked as an Evaluation Coordinator in the same department and evaluated many community health projects in Tamil Nadu and other states of Orissa, Bihar and Gujarat as well. She had conducted research on a programme to prevent and control Anaemia among Pregnant Women, Effectiveness of iron supplementation, deworming and IEC among adolescent girls and boys, Physical and sexual growth pattern of rural adolescent girls and boys and Epidemiological study of Fertility among leprosy patients (Ph.D. Thesis). She presented papers in conferences held in India, Nepal, Bangkok and Fuiggi, Italy. She has published ten articles in reputed journals six as principal author and four as co-author. Currently she is working as a consultant to different organizations in various capacities. She teaches ‘Research Methods for Development’ course for the PDM students.
Madhankumar is a post graduate sociology and psychology with a basic degree in commerce from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai affiliated to University of Madras. He has M.Phil Degree in psychology from the Bharathiar University and currently pursuing Ph.D. He was heading the Centre for Research in DHAN Foundation. He has three decades of experience in the development sector. Earlier, he worked as a Life worker in Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari for ten years in the field of renewable energy and appropriate technology. At the Academy, he teaches courses in Interpersonal Behaviour in Personal and Organization Development (IPBOD) and urban livelihoods focusing on occupational studies in the urban context for PDM students.
Mandar Nayak is a graduate in engineering from the Mumbai University and alumni of the weekend MBA program, PGSEM (Post Graduate in Software Enterprise Management) from Indian Institute of Management IIM Bangalore. He has over 20 years of engineering and managerial experience with corporates, including the Tata group, CMIE (Centre for monitoring Indian Economy). He has also worked as Internal Consultant with the Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC), and FPI (Fiscal Policy Institute), Karnataka State Government. His engagements also include Board Member for the past 4 years at a pan India, Bangalore based NGO, Sathi, which helps to reunite runaway children with their families, and 9 years of experience as a volunteer for Bangalore based NGO, Prerana, which provides financial and mentoring assistance to merit students in Karnataka. Presently, he takes up consulting assignments in independent capacity.
Premanand in the capacity of Programme Leader has 19+ years of working experience in DHAN Foundation in the areas of institution building, community driven small water bodies, water management, WASH, Climate Change Adaptation, Environment, Agriculture Livelihoods. He has a Bacherlor degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Over the period he developed skills & knowledge through various programmes in the field of Development Management, Rural Development, Poverty Alleviation Programmes, Geographical Information System, Computer Applications for Social Development, Social Research, Project Design & Implementation, Project Appraisal, Reporting, Monitoring & Evaluation, Management Information System, Coordinating NGO activities &Liaisoning and Financial & Human Resources Management.
He also served as a Project Consultant to Government of Puducherry for the European Union funded Tank Rehabilitation Project. He was the Team Leader for the ICT for Development Theme and was a key team member instrumental in mobilising nearly 100 crores for the Development Programmes in the tsunami affected areas in 2004-05. He has coordinated national and local workshops and contributed papers to various conferences and participated in various international and national level workshops/events. Mr. Premanand was one among the five in India to present papers in the International Microinsurance Conference at Tanzania in 2012 organised by Munich Re Foundation, Germany. He underwent professional training at Achmea, The Netherlands in the field of ICT applications for Microinsurance. Also he attened 2 months training at NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad in the field of Geographical Information System GIS & Remote Sensing. He was the Director of DHAN People Academy between Feb 2013 to Apr 2017 and during this period the Diploma Programme (distance edcuation) in Tankfed Agriculture & Management and Rainfed Agriculture Development was offered (in Tamil). Similarly a Certificate Programme in Grassroots Democracy was offered in Tamil, Kannada, Odiya and Hindi.
He is one of the faculty at Tata-Dhan Academy and heading the TECHNOLOGY discipline. He was also incharge for Admission (PDM 17) & Placement (PDM 16).
Sasikala is a Post graduate in Sociology and received Post graduate Diploma in Development Management. She is an alumnus of Tata-Dhan Academy (PDM-3). She has 15 years of experience in development sector. Involved in the field of community banking, SHG formation, farmers association and implemented micro credit and savings program. She has experience in initiation and implementation of slum development programmes with the collaboration of Ministry of Urban Development and ULBs etc. She has experience in organizing and co-ordinating periodical training programmes and workshops for the capacity building of team, community members, leaders, staffs. She is the part of research team for past four years and involved in the preparation of District Human development report for Madurai, Tiruvannamalai and Perspective Plan document preparation for backward blocks of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu. She teaches courses in communication for PDM students.
Shanthi Maduresan is a post-graduate in Rural Economics and Extension Education from Gandhigram Rural University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Annamalai University. She has 26 years of experience in the development sector, particularly in DHAN Foundation. Earlier she had two years experience in Gandhigram Rural University. She was instrumental in promoting a region in Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts in Tamil Nadu by leading a team of 150 among 30,000 poor families around microfinance. Her contribution in promoting and building people’s organisations is very significant. She has specialised skills in community organization, conflict resolution, and institution building. She has experience in conducting training programmes for the staff and leaders of various people’s organizations, government officials and bank officers. She underwent Management Education Programme (MEP) in Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and “Occupational health and security” course in PRIA. She is specialised in Participatory Research Methodology on Microfinance, Livelihood and Health. Presently she is the board member of DHAN Vayalagam Tank Foundation . She is the Chief Executive of Kalanjiam Mutual Movement, which is networking of people’s organizations at national level. She is anchoring Development Executive Education Programme of Tata Dhan Academy and She teaches courses in Building People Organization for Development (BUD) Gender and Practice (GAP). Her areas of interest are: Building Institutions and Capacity building for development.
Subburaj is an Agricultural Engineer, graduated from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He has a decade of experience in the development sector. The areas of expertise include micro finance, water management, plantation development, soil and water conservation, monitoring & evaluation and software development. He has work experience in rural, urban, tribal and coastal contexts. He has five years development work experience in Sterling and IIRM and 18 years experience in DHAN Foundation, particularly in conservation of traditional water bodies and database management system. He introduced database based MIS system for the Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme and computerised SHG level accounts and developed software
He is instrumental in setting Monitoring and Evaluation of Post Tsunami Initiatives of DHAN Foundation, and implementation of conservation project of Coastal Conservation and Livelihoods Programme supported by European Union. At present, he is handling a large scale livelihoods restoration and resilience building programme in Balasore district of Odisha. He is specialized in community based disaster management. Currently teaches a course in Management Information System for Development(MIS4D) for the PDM students and Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Management (DPMM).
Umarani is an agricultural graduate from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and a post graduate in Personnel Management and Masters in Sociology. She has 27 years of work experience in the development sector. She has wider experience in community banking programme of DHAN Foundation. She was instrumental in promoting a rural federation of women’s SHGs, the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu in 1995. She has conducted many capacity buildingprogrammes for on microfinance for Government officials, bank officers and NGO officials from within India and from other countries. She participated in various seminars and workshops within and outside the country. She also presented papers in relation to microfinance in workshops. She is also specialised in Human Resource Development by handling HRD for DHAN Foundation for more than four years. She visited Bangladesh, Kenya, Philippines, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Spain and the Netherlands in relation to building perspectives on Microfinance and water sector, and evaluating Microfinance project. She has undergone Management Education Programme in Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She teaches courses in Microfinance for Poverty Reduction (MFPR) and Leadership Development (LEAD) for PDM students. Presently, she is the Chief Executive of DHAN Kalanjiam Foundation. Her areas of interest are microfinance, HR, and leadership development.
Vasimalai is a management graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and master in agricultural sciences from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He is the Executive Director of DHAN Foundation. He has more than 30 years of experience in the development sector and he is well-known development leader in the social sector. He has specialised in community organisation, designing development interventions in the fields of natural resource management and livelihoods promotion and institutional development. He has organised several national and international workshops, policy seminars on the themes of Natural Resource Management and Microfinance and has participated/presented papers on these themes at many national and international forums. He also holds various positions in national and international forums, working groups, task forces and missions of central and state government on these themes. He has also taken up many consultancy projects for Indian government and other countries. He has promoted many development institutions, and is nurturing them by setting appropriate culture building mechanisms. He was instrumental in promoting various network organisations. He handles courses in Motivation, Values, and Ethics for Development (MOVE) and Marketing Of Development programmes and concepts (MODE). His areas of interest are institution building, leadership development and promoting various development themes and nurture them to reach millions of poor families.
Venkatesan is a graduate in Agriculture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore. He has over 19 years of experience in water sector, and grooming and nurturing young development professionals as Programme Leader of Human Resource Development of DHAN Foundation. He underwent faculty development programme at ISB (Indian School of Business), Hyderabad and specialized in leadership development, human process lab and soft skill training. His areas of interest include leadership development, team building and mentoring. He teaches courses in Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) for PDM students.