People | Aspire

Meet the team

Maria Zapata

Executive Director, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Maria Zapata

Executive Director, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Maria is ASPIRe’s global director. She has been with Ashoka for almost 20 years leading different programs, including Globalizer, Ashoka’s flagship program on scaling. Supporting leading Social Entrepreneurs and helping them think strategically about how to best scale their impact has been at the core of Maria’s work.

Irina Snissar

Design and Knowledge Director ASPIRe | Ashoka

Irina Snissar

Design and Knowledge Director ASPIRe | Ashoka

Irina is ASPIRe´s Program Design and Knowledge Director. Before ASPIRe, Irina worked for over 13 years with leading organizations engaged in social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, education and culture. She has led the conception, design and launch of numerous initiatives with Ashoka, Nilekani Philanthropies and others.

Deepali Bhardwaj

Community and Knowledge Manager, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Deepali Bhardwaj

Community and Knowledge Manager, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Deepali works as ASPIRe’s community manager. She brings in six years of experience in operation, implementation and research in the livelihood sector where she has been part of building and leading programs specially with women entrepreneurship and youth skill development. Her interest lies in seeing how technology can support women in financial inclusion and equality.

Gopal Garg

Eco-system and Partnership Director, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Gopal Garg

Eco-system and Partnership Director, ASPIRe | Ashoka

Gopal is ASPIRe´s Ecosystem and Partnerships Director. In the last 20 years, he has led social impact initiatives with a focus on youth. His innovative programs on ecosystem building for inclusion of people with disabilities in corporate sector has changed mindsets and influenced many policies in India, Mauritius and Kenya. He co-led the designing and implementing of one million jobs mission of the Government and the World Bank.

Vyjayanthi Mala

Chief Orchestrator | Societal Platform

Vyjayanthi Mala

Chief Orchestrator | Societal Platform

Vyjanthi is a Program Manager at Societal Platform. She strongly believes that every individual has an inherent willingness and ability to make this world a better place. She is committed to this transformation movement of activating it with the right energy and inspiration.

Advisors

Sanjay Purohit

Chief Curator, Societal Platform

Sanjay Purohit

Chief Curator, Societal Platform

Sanjay is the Chief Curator of Societal Platform at EkStep Foundation. He is a strategic advisor and a mentor to several entrepreneurs & social enterprises.

Anand Rajan

Societal Platform

Anand Rajan

Societal Platform

Anand is a Societal Platform Strategy and Innovation advisor for organizations looking to solve large scale problems with speed and in a sustainable way.

Antonella Broglia

Ambassador of Ashoka Spain and TEDx Conferences

Antonella Broglia

Ambassador of Ashoka Spain and TEDx Conferences

Antonella spent the first part of her career in commercial communication, working at Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi as CEO, all around the world. In the last 15 years, she has devoted her life to the communication of social innovation and citizen innovators, in TV programs, TEDxTalks, and events promoting citizen Labs, as a curator, speaker and trainer. She is the Ambassador of Ashoka Spain since 2011.

Gautam John

Director of Strategy, Nilekani Philanthropies

Gautam John

Director of Strategy, Nilekani Philanthropies

Gautam believes that it is powerful to give people the ability to make a choice and that all individuals are agents of change.

Pramod Varma

CTO, EkStep

Pramod Varma

CTO, EkStep

Dr. Pramod Varma is the CTO for EkStep. He continues to be the Chief Architect and Technology Advisor for Aadhaar (UID) project. He is passionate about technology, science, society, and teaching.

Rathish Balakrishnan

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Sattva Consulting

Rathish Balakrishnan

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Sattva Consulting

Committed to ending poverty in our lifetime by enabling exceptional leaders & social organisations to achieve orbit shifting change and designing & implementing solutions that will solve social problems for good. My ideal career would be at the intersection of deep social impact, entrepreneurship and Consulting. Which is what I do today.

Rizwan Tayabali

Founder / Director at Fraktal Impact

Rizwan Tayabali

Founder / Director at Fraktal Impact

Founder and Director of Fraktal; an impact agency specialising in Fund Strategy, Due Diligence and Partner (Fundee) Support. Aside from impact leadership, culture, and organisational design, other personal specializations include solution design, social innovation, systems change and financing, implementing and scaling long-term transformative solutions to deep-rooted social challenges.

Sanjeev Arora

Ashoka Fellow since 2009

Sanjeev Arora

Ashoka Fellow since 2009

Sanjeev Arora is the Director and Founder of Project ECHO. He is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine with tenure in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) dramatically improves both capacity and access to speciality care for rural and underserved populations.

Shankar Maruwada

CEO and Co-founder of EkStep

Shankar Maruwada

CEO and Co-founder of EkStep

Shankar Maruwada is the CEO and Co-founder of EkStep. He is an entrepreneur and marketing professional with a wide range of experience working on large scale projects. He is also an investor in startups and a mentor to entrepreneurs.