Leadership

Sreejith NN: Co-founder and Director, India Operations

Sreejith is responsible for ROPE's India operations. He is implementing and refining the supply chain model that is central to the success ROPE. He establishes the distributive rural production centers and sets up management systems across them while ensuring delivery of the products. Sreejith has experience and success in organizing and working with the rural informal sector. In his previous work, he was responsible for managing 300 self-help groups consisting of 4000 poor women. Sreejith holds Bachelor of Technology Mechanical from Government Engineering College, Thrissur, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Management from Tata-Dhan Academy.

Patrick Fischer: Co-founder and Director, International Operations

Patrick is responsible for ROPE's international operations. He manages international sales and marketing and will expand the organization to other developing countries, drawing on his unique experience and knowledge of best practices in both the private sector and international development. An engineer by training, Patrick started his career in the aerospace industry, working in several Asian countries. He then transitioned to international development, moving to Namibia where he helped manage a $20 million dollar program reaching 60,000 people. Patrick holds a BS and BA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Dr. Aarti Kawlra: Director

Dr. Aarti is a social anthropologist with over 18 years of experience in teaching and consulting at prestigious institutions such as the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. She currently plays a leadership role in the Rural Technology and Business Incubator of IIT Madras. Her keen interests are design and ICT based design communication. Dr. Aarti was instrumental in establishing ROPE and has served as a mentor to ROPE's entrepreneurial team from the beginning.

Kunal R Sachdev: Director

Kunal is a nominee to the ROPE board by the National Research Development Corporation, an investor in ROPE. Kunal has more than two decades of experience in retail, marketing and communications. He is currently Managing Director at Caravan Craft Retail Pvt. Ltd. and Principal Founder, Navarac. Previously he was CEO of Hidesign, a leather accessories brand headquartered at Pondicherry, India, where he was instrumental in building the Hidesign brand and growing it internationally. Prior to Hidesign, Kunal was Head of Marketing for Retail Liability Products at ITC Classic Finance Pvt. Ltd. Kunal holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Planning and Management.

Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala: Advisor

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. TeNeT group has incubated a number of technology companies to develop world class products for rural markets. He also chairs the Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) of IIT Madras. Dr. Jhunjhunwala is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Padma Shri. BusinessWeek Magazine named him one India's 50 most powerful people. Dr. Jhunjhunwala sits on the boards of the State Bank of India, TTML, BEL, Polaris, 3i Infotech, Sasken, Tejas, NRDC, and IDRBT. He is a member of Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Committee.

Paul Basil: Advisor

Mr. Paul Basil is Founder and CEO of Villgro which identifies, grooms and markets innovations that have rural benefits. Paul and Villgro co-founded the Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Programme (L-RAMP) with IIT Madras. Villgro has so far identified and activated close to 1500 social innovators, impacted more than 350,000 rural users and created social returns worth USD 5 million. Paul is an Ashok fellow and holds a B Tech degree in mechanical engineering and a post-graduate management degree from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.