Board of Directors – INDIA
Bishakha Datta
Bishakha Datta is a writer and documentary filmmaker. Her first book, And Who Will Make the Chapatis?, focuses on rural women’s participation in politics. She is currently researching a book on the struggle for sex workers’ rights in India. Her two most recent documentary films include In The Flesh, which explores the lives of three people in prostitution from their own perspectives, and Taza Khabar, which explores a rural newspaper run by eight women, most of whom are Dalit or tribal. Bishakha is the executive director of Point of View, a Mumbai-based nonprofit organization that promotes women’s points of view through creative and sustained use of media, art and culture. She serves on the Board of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Neelam Deo
Ambassador Neelam Deo is the Former Consul General of India in New York. She has a masters degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and has taught in Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University. Ambassador Deo is a career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), with over three decades in the Indian Diplomatic Corps. She has been India’s ambassador to Denmark and Ivory Coast, with concurrent accreditation to Sierra Leone, Niger and Guinea. Prior to her assignment in New York, she led the Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, dealing with India’s overall relations with these countries. Ambassador Deo has also worked in India’s diplomatic missions in Washington D.C., Bangkok and Rome. Over her long career with the IFS, she has gained valuable insights into how each country’s unique history, geographical location, experience of international interventions (including colonization), foreign aid, the changing status of women, and levels of education shape its perspective and future direction.
Santosh Desai
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Santosh has over two decades of experience in advertising. He was president of McCann-Erickson, India prior to his association with Future Group. A highly respected figure in the advertising and marketing community in India, Santosh is a columnist with the Times of India and several other publications and has addressed the global management boards of several multinationals, including Hershey’s, Microsoft, Philips, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. He is also author of the book Mother Pious Lady – Making Sense of Everyday India.
Sanjeev Duggal
Sanjeev Duggal currently serves as CEO and executive director of Centum Learning Limited, a Bharti Group Associate Company. Centum Learning Limited is an integrated learning and development company, committed to the transformation of Indian youth by equipping them with up-to-date professional skills and devising and delivering innovative learning solutions. The company was selected as one of the top fifteen Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing Worldwide in 2009 by Training Inc USA and enjoys a national presence in the higher education domain in India. Sanjeev also serves as CEO of Bharti Airtel Service Limited. Prior to this, Sanjeev was managing director and CEO of NIS Sparta Ltd., a Reliance Group company and one of Asia’s leading Education and Performance Enhancement Solutions groups. Sanjeev is an acknowledged authority and a leading consultant in the sales and marketing arena in India. He is the recipient of many honors and accolades, including the Udyog Rattan Award awarded by the Institute of Economic Studies. He is also a visiting faculty member at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Sangita Jindal
Sangita Jindal, a 2004 Eisenhower Fellow, is founder and chairperson of the Jindal South West Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the O.P. Jindal group. The foundation’s work ranges from healthcare and education programs to activities in arts, culture, and heritage. Sangita established the Jindal Arts Creative Interaction Centre (JACIC) in 1992 on invitation from the National Center for the Performing Arts (Mumbai) to start a center for interdisciplinary arts activity. She is also founder and publisher of Art India, India’s leading publication on modern art. Sangita serves as chairperson of the Hampi Foundation, which is committed to heritage management, and serves on the board of trustees of the World Monuments Fund based in New York.
Suneeta Kar Dhar
Suneeta Kar Dhar currently serves as director of JAGORI, a well-known feminist resource and training center in New Delhi. Prior to this, she worked with the United Nations Development Fund for Women at the New Delhi office, and later at the New York office as manager of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. A passionate advocate of women’s rights and active in the women’s movement throughout India and South Asia, she has worked on a wide range of issues including ending violence against women and its intersections with HIV, adult and popular education, gender training and organizational development, and peace and development. She is also a founding director of the South Asia Women’s Fund based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has produced numerous training manuals, case studies, booklets, papers and articles on diverse aspects of women’s rights.
Mallika Dutt
Mallika Dutt is founder, president, and CEO. More than a decade ago, Dutt, a longtime attorney and distinguished human rights advocate, resolved to bring the values of human rights out of ivory towers and policy papers and into the lives and actions of real people. Result: a reinvented delivery of social and culture change, a space for human rights in the public dialogue, and millions of inspired individuals that are challenging the deeply entrenched norms and attitudes that fuel discrimination against women and girls.
Prior to founding Breakthrough, Mallika served as Program Officer for Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation’s New Delhi Office. There, she initiated the Foundation’s work on police reform and forged unique partnerships among police, NGOs, and civil society groups. Mallika acted as Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University, working at the forefront of the global movement for recognizing women’s rights as human rights. She also served as the director of the Norman Foundation, where she supported civil rights, economic justice, and environmental justice programs across the United States.
Dutt has served on numerous boards and committees, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Human Rights and India, the Open Society Institute’s U.S. Programs, Human Rights Watch Asia, Sister Fund, Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and WITNESS. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Games for Change Advisory Board, and the Board of Public Interest Projects. She is a co-founder of SAKHI for South Asian Women.
Dutt is frequently interviewed on national and international media and has received multiple awards. She began her career as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. She graduated from NYU Law School, received a Masters in International Affairs and South Asian Studies from Columbia University, and an A.B. in International Affairs from Mount Holyoke College. Most recently, Dutt received an honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke College in recognition of her pioneering accomplishments.
Benu Kumar
Benu Kumar has been closely associated with the fashion industry for many years. She has assisted in organizing several shows and is particularly involved in the revival of traditional fabric, embroidery, and weaving in different parts of the country through her work with distinguished couture designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.
Priya Paul
Art collector and design aficionado Priya Paul is Chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels in India. She received the distinguished “Padma Shri” in 2012 by the president of India for her contributions in the field of trade and industry. Priya started her career under her father, the late Surrendra Paul, as marketing manager of The Park Hotel in New Delhi. She repositioned The Park Hotels as India’s first and only collection of contemporary luxury boutique hotels. Priya is also executive committee member and ex-president of the Hotel Association of India. She is a founding member of the World Travel and Tourism Council – India Initiative, and a Trustee of the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) and chairperson, South Asia Women’s Fund, as well as a member of Harvard Business Schools’ India Advisory Board. A four-time nominee for Business Woman of the year by The Economic Times, Priya Paul received the FHRAI (Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India) Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000, was recognized by Forbes Online as one of India’s 100 most powerful business women in 2006, and took home the Zee Astitva Award in the Business category in 2008. She has ask received the India Today Woman in Business Award and the PHD Chamber-Distinguished Women Entrepreneur Award. In addition, she has been named “Spa Personality of the Year” for the year and inducted into the FHRAI Hall of Fame. Priya has a BA in Economics from Wellesley College and has completed the Owner President Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Jael Silliman
Jael Silliman is currently an independent consultant working on issues of gender and development. She is developing a digital archive on the Calcutta Jewish community and has recently self-published a novel, The Man With Many Hats. Previously, she served as the Ford Foundation’s Women’s Rights and Gender Justice Program Officer and the Reproductive and Sexual Rights Program Officer. Jael has also served as a tenured professor in Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa, Women’s Studies Department, and has help positions at the Noyes Foundation, Nehru Foundation, Barnard College, and Columbia University. She is the author of several books on social movements, racial justice, and social justice that are widely used in universities across the United States.
Sandeep Khosla
Sandeep Khosla, together with Abu Jani, founded and leads one of the oldest and most distiguished couture houses in India. He attended The Doon School, one of India’s most prestigious public schools, where he excelled at theatre, tie dye, batik, drawing, painting, and carpentry. The fashion bug first bit Sandeep on his initial foray into the family leather business. Later, a brief stint with an exporter afforded him hands on experience at working with a variety of fabrics and learning the ABCs of garment manufacturing. He went on to launch his own label, “Limelight,” which retailed at popular Delhi boutique Appearances. A decision to move to Mumbai found him, by sheer coincidence, working with Xerxes Bhatena, the same designer who had given Abu his first break — and the rest is history. Sandeep is a born extrovert and possesses an entrepreneurial flair. He gravitates towards risk-taking, which has helped propel the ambition shared by the duo.
Board of Directors – USA
Nasser A. Ahmad
Nasser A. Ahmad is co-founder, chief investment officer, and managing partner of DiMaio Ahmad Capital, a New York-based asset management company. Nasser has also served as managing director of Credit Suisse Capital and chief investment officer for the Direct Credit Hedge Fund Group. He was co-head of Global Cash and Derivatives Credit Trading within the Fixed Income Division at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). Nasser received a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also serves on the board of the Soros Economic Development Fund.
Marilia Bezerra
Marilia Bezerra is currently in charge of partnerships at Purpose, an organization that uses the collective power of millions of citizens and consumers to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Purpose develops and launches their own social and consumer movements using their model of movement entrepreneurship, and working with organizations and progressive companies to help them mobilize large-scale, purposeful action.
Marilia was born and grew up in Brazil. Prior to Purpose, she was a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) executive leadership and took a central role in building the organization from its start-up phase to the successful catalyst for action and global convening body it is today. As CGI’s director of commitments, Marilia lead the re-design of member engagement and commitments services into a year-round operation, helping develop a truly engaged community of CGI Members which created nearly 2,000 Commitments to Action over 5 years.
Marilia was a student leader from a very early age and was engaged in political mobilization in every Brazilian election campaign before her high school years and ever since. She got her law degree from the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil. Before graduating she founded the Andancas Art School, an institution dedicated to providing art education to both children from the most privileged areas and from the slums of her native Fortaleza. Three years later, Marilia went to work in Rio de Janeiro, where she remained for four years teaching children and learning the arts of trapeze and other acrobatic arts (political campaigns included). In 1999, Marilia moved to New York and joined the certificate program at the Laban Bartenieff Institute, becoming a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) a year later.
On her path back towards the political and socio-economic development spheres, she served as the business and financial manager for AEA Consulting, a management consulting company with a client base of leading nonprofit cultural organizations throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Marilia received a master’s of science degree (with distinction) in global affairs from New York University in 2006. She has two beautiful daughters who both challenge and inspire her everyday to make this world a better place for all.
Mallika Dutt
Mallika Dutt is founder, president, and CEO. More than a decade ago, Dutt, a longtime attorney and distinguished human rights advocate, resolved to bring the values of human rights out of ivory towers and policy papers and into the lives and actions of real people. Result: a reinvented delivery of social and culture change, a space for human rights in the public dialogue, and millions of inspired individuals that are challenging the deeply entrenched norms and attitudes that fuel discrimination against women and girls.
Prior to founding Breakthrough, Mallika served as Program Officer for Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation’s New Delhi Office. There, she initiated the Foundation’s work on police reform and forged unique partnerships among police, NGOs, and civil society groups. Mallika acted as Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University, working at the forefront of the global movement for recognizing women’s rights as human rights. She also served as the director of the Norman Foundation, where she supported civil rights, economic justice, and environmental justice programs across the United States.
Dutt has served on numerous boards and committees, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Human Rights and India, the Open Society Institute’s U.S. Programs, Human Rights Watch Asia, Sister Fund, Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and WITNESS. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Games for Change Advisory Board, and the Board of Public Interest Projects. She is a co-founder of SAKHI for South Asian Women.
Dutt is frequently interviewed on national and international media and has received multiple awards. She began her career as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. She graduated from NYU Law School, received a Masters in International Affairs and South Asian Studies from Columbia University, and an A.B. in International Affairs from Mount Holyoke College. Most recently, Dutt received an honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke College in recognition of her pioneering accomplishments.
Michael Hirschhorn
Michael Hirschhorn is a strategy consultant to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations that work predominantly in the arenas of education and human rights. Michael also serves as director of the International Human Rights Funders Group. From 2003 to 2008 he served as executive director of the Coro New York Leadership Center, and from 1995 to 2001 as executive director of the Literacy Assistance Center in New York City. Prior to that, he was deputy director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro and an assistant to the chancellor of the New York City public schools. Michael sits on the boards of several local and national nonprofits, including serving as board chair of the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.
L. Camille Massey
L. Camille Massey is vice president, Global Strategy and Programs, at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 2000, she launched Cue Global, a New York City-based consulting business that providing strategic policy and communications services to global organizations. Since 2001, she has served as a senior adviser at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a biomedical public-private partnership working in 23 countries with a concentration in Africa and Asia. Prior to Cue Global, Camille served as director of communications at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). Before studying law, Camille was an assistant director of public affairs at CFR, where she produced and helped create “America and the World,” a weekly program airing on National Public Radio and featuring leading policymakers, and co-produced and marketed “World in Focus,” a foreign policy series for public television. Camille serves on the Board of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications. She is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the American Bar Association.
Nicco Mele
Nicco Mele is an entrepreneur, angel investor and consultant to Fortune 1000 companies. He is one of America’s leading forecasters of business, politics, and culture in our fast-moving digital age.
Born to Foreign Service parents, Nicco spent his early years in Asia and Africa before graduating from the College of William and Mary in Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in government. He then worked for several high-profile advocacy organizations where he pioneered the use of social media as a galvanizing force for fundraising. As webmaster for Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential bid, Nicco and the campaign team popularized the use of technology and social media that revolutionized political fundraising and reshaped American politics. Subsequently, he co-founded EchoDitto, a leading internet strategy and consulting firm, whose non-profit and corporate clients have included Barack Obama’s successful Senate campaign, the Clinton Global Initiative, Sierra Club, UN World Food Programme, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, AARP, and Medco. Nicco is also on the faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School where he teaches graduate-level classes on the internet and politics.
Nicco’s first book, The End of Big: How The Internet Makes David The New Goliath, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in Spring 2013. In it, he explores the consequences of living in a socially-connected society, drawing upon his years of experience as an innovator in politics and technology.
Since his early days as one of Esquire Magazine’s “Best and Brightest” in America, Nicco has been a sought-after innovator, media commentator, and speaker. He serves on a number of private and non-profit boards, including the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Nicco is also co-founder of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
Joanne Sandler
Joanne Sandler is an independent consultant focused on women’s human rights and organizational change strategies. She is a senior associate of Gender@Work, an international collaborative that strengthens organizations to build cultures of equality and social justice. Joanne has worked with international organizations, private foundations, academic institutions, and women’s organizations and networks worldwide for the past 30 years. From 2001 to 2010 Joanne served as Deputy Executive Director for Programmes for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), guiding its support to programs that advance women’s empowerment and rights throughout the developing world. During her tenure, UNIFEM grew from an organization with an $18 million annual budget and presence in 20 countries to a $200 million annual budget with presence in 80 countries. Joanne then served on the transition team for the establishment of UN Women. Joanne currently serves on the boards of directors of Breakthrough and of Women Win.
