Who We Are | India Impact Sherpas

Our Story

Soumitra, Shridhar and Raghu have all emerged from Indian middle-class values of the 1970s. Having had the benefit of being born into families which valued education, they have all used the opportunity to create rewarding lives and careers in varying but overlapping ways. Along the journey, serendipity has played a role in exposing them to a social sector, that is full of stories of inspiration, innovation and impact.

India Impact Sherpas is a humble attempt at learning, discovery, and growth, in what they all believe is an exciting space. An exciting space that lies at the intersection of what they love, what the world needs and what they can potentially be good at.

Raghu Gullapalli
Partner

Raghu Gullapalli has 27 years of Management Consulting experience. After working with a range of Corporate clients, helping them, accelerate and amplify their Growth and Profitability, he now works full time in the Social Sector, looking to help Social enterprises, accelerate their Growth and Impact journeys.

He loves the idea of leveraging Arts for Impact in the Social sector and as a Partner in UIA, is working towards building a Cohort of Arts Organisations leveraging Music/ Theatre/ Visual Art/ Poetry etc to target outcomes in Social domains. He helps these social enterprises, develop a Scalable Operating Model, build a Suitable Leadership and Talent pool, Articulate and Track Impact and Develop a Sustainable funding/ financial model.

Prior to his move to the Social Sector, Raghu was a Managing Director with Accenture, where he has held multiple leadership roles across India and APAC helping clients leverage the best of Accenture experience, thinking and talent to address their most pressing business challenges and issues.

Raghu is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and an Engineer from IT-BHU, Varanasi.

Soumitra Pandey

Partner

Soumitra Pandey has over 30 years of experience in strategy and operations consulting across social and business sectors. He was a partner at Accenture and EY and then helped set-up Bridgespan in India.

He has led several strategy and organization transformation engagements over the years for large businesses, foundations, and NGOs and funder platforms such as Co-Impact and TED Audacious India. His work spans across sectors such as Rural Livelihoods, Education, RMNCH, Policy Development, and Social Justice.

He is also passionate about diversity and equity and has worked on these areas both in client engagements and internal projects. Some of his recent published work includes – Why Indian nonprofits are experts at Scaling up, Building high impact CSR programs in India, Pathways to Greater Social Mobility for India's Dalit and Adivasi Communities

Soumitra is an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and qualified Chartered Accountant.

Shridhar Sethuram

Partner

Shridhar Sethuram, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, is a private equity professional with 25+ years of investment & operating experience across asset classes, industries and life stages

He is a partner of Ujwal Impact Advisors- a pro-bono ecosystem intervention endeavoring to build a collaborative of

a) a community of social entrepreneurs with catalytic alliances with

b) large philanthropists & CSR donors

c) Professionals wanting to invest part-time time in the social space and d) large domain/ social sector organizations It has a portfolio of 35+ organizations with cumulative annual deployment of INR 200 CR and 8 managing partners

Shridhar has backpacked 100+ countries & all the 7 continents - currently at 122. He authors a popular travel photoblog

www.backpackthrulife.com. An avid marathoner & cyclist, he has successfully run 18 marathons. He has been a practitioner of meditation for 2+ decades. He is also guest/visiting faculty at various BSchools & a freelance corporate trainer & accredited coach

Paresh Parasnis

Advisor

Paresh has over 3 decades of senior management experience across Financial in HDFC Ltd, HDFC Life and Piramal Foundation. As CEO of Piramal Foundation until 2021, Paresh has been closely involved in developing innovative solutions to issues that are critical roadblocks towards unlocking India’s economic potential. He continues to play a significant role in facilitating four initiatives - Piramal Swasthya, Piramal Sarvajal, Piramal Udgam and PFEL.

He brings 30 years of experience with strengths in strategy, project management, time-bound execution and building customer friendly servicing models. Prior to joining Piramal Foundation in 2012, he served as the Executive Director & COO of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Limited. Paresh also serves on multiple Boards and mentors multiple Not-for-Profit organizations.

Ujwal Thakar

Advisor

Ujwal Thakar in over four decades of work experience has been a leader in the Banking, Consulting and Not for Profit world. He has worked in SBI, SCB, Timesbank & BNP Paribas and was a member of the Management Committees of the last three banks as Head of Retail & Private Banking.

After 28 years in Banking, he joined the Development Sector as the CEO of Pratham and later of GiveIndia. He has a deep multifaceted perspective of both worlds and the various challenges in the Development Sector. He chairs the Board of Educate Girls, and is on the board of Ummeed Child Development Center, Shoshit Sewa Kendra, Arogya World, and Lighthouse Communities Foundation. He is a Partner at the social incubator Ncore and a mentor to many young social entrepreneurs.