Kavita Gupta is founder and managing trustee of Neev. Neev was established in 2005 with the vision to avoid the extremes and strike the right balance for overall early childhood development. This vision then moved to starting a grade school which works with the programmes of the International Baccalaureate.
Neev currently owns five pre-schools and one academy campus in Bengaluru. It employs over 200 teaching professionals in a continuously growing team meeting the needs of nearly 1200 children. Kavita also intends to start a community school for underprivileged children bringing Neev’s education to impact children across socio-economic strata. Neev reimagines education for a changing India, around the mission of ‘building knowledge, self-awareness and relationships, with people and the environment, to lead happy, healthy, and impactful lives’.
Prior to founding Neev, Kavita worked in corporate strategy and finance – functions she headed for one of India’s largest publicly listed pharmaceutical firm. She holds a master’s degree in biotechnology from Mumbai University. She completed part of her MBA programme at Harvard University, before returning to restructure the family business.
Manish Sabharwal is chairman and co-founder of Teamlease Services, one of India’s leading staffing and human capital firm. Teamlease is also implementing India’s first vocational university and national PPP apprenticeship programme. The company has hired 1.8 million employees over the last 15 years.
In 1996, he co-founded India Life, an HR outsourcing company that was acquired by a listed US company called Hewitt Associates. Consequently, he served as CEO of Hewitt Outsourcing (Asia). Manish is a member of the National Skill Mission, Central Advisory Board of Education, and has served on various policy committees for education, employment, and employability. He serves as an Independent Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). He is also the managing trustee of the New India Foundation that offers fellowships for writing books on India, post-independence. Manish is a columnist for the Indian Express as well.
He received his MBA from The Wharton School, and is an alumnus of Shriram College of Commerce, New Delhi and Mayo College, Ajmer.