There is a reason why education is so close to Kumari Shibulal’s heart. Mrs. Shibulal comes from a family of farmers in a small village in Kerala. She recounts with pride and joy about being the first girl in her village to go to college. Her mother influenced her deeply, with her immense generosity and her belief in the need for education and its pivotal role in shaping the lives of young people. This led to Mrs. Shibulal founding the Sarojini Damodaran Foundation in 1999 and The Advaith Foundation in 2004.

Mrs. Shibulal works with various philanthropic ventures in India, including Akshaya, a charitable trust that she founded with her husband Mr. SD Shibulal, to help underprivileged children in India by way of scholarships and paediatric care. She also sponsors a fellowship program with TIFR that funds visits by eminent scientists and provides travel grants to young scientists from TIFR. She also loves sports and she was one of the first people to help PT Usha set up her Usha School of Athletics in Kerala and to sponsor the first 6 students of the school. We are proud to say that Mrs. Shibulal is a Managing Trustee of The Samhita Academy

If you ever talk to high school students at The Samhita Academy and ask them to name the person whom they admire the most, you will hear many young voices shout ‘Shibu sir!’

SD Shibulal is one of the co-founders of Infosys and is on the Forbes Billionaire List. He also co-founded business incubator Axilor Ventures along with his former Infosys colleague Senapathy Gopalakrishnan. Mr. Shibulal also chairs The Tamara, a boutique resort chain founded and run by his daughter Shruti Shibulal. Mr.Shibulal’s vision and penchant for innovation has produced many entrepreneurial successes.

Mr. Shibulal’s passion for education is evidenced by his venture, Advaith Foundation, which provides quality education and residential facilities to children from underprivileged social and economic backgrounds. To the Shibulals, the Foundation is more than just a philanthropic venture. It is family. They have been with the Advaith children right from the time they were very little and have watched them grow into accomplished and confident individuals. The Samhita Academy is an extension of Mr. Shibulal’s belief in education as an important driver of social and economic impact in the country

After a long stint in her first career at Infosys, Asha Thomas decided to respond to the call to serve in the social sector. Her search brought her to the Advaith Foundation and its objectives of serving the underserved through its Ankur project. In its quest to provide equitable and quality education, the Advaith Foundation launched The Samhita Academy school with the twin focus of inclusion and excellence.

She felt that her own school life had little prepared her for college and career. The kind of independent thinking and intellectual rigour required at IIT Madras and later in the IT industry was very different from doing well in the Board exam.

She believes that quality education needs to both prepare students for the Boards and build the skills of a thinking mind and a lifelong learner. Secondly children need to enjoy learning. That needs an environment free from fear and space to express themselves. To make that a reality, education needs to have the right blend of evidence based best practices, test preparation skills and understanding of children. As an institution, schools need to be value-based and professional. It has to have a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

“ The success of any nation depends on the excellence of its average not on the brilliance of a few” Prof Krishna Kumar

The Samhita Academy measures their excellence as a school not just by the brilliance of a few but by the effort and progress that every child makes.

Aparna epitomizes Walk the Talk. Her passion and zeal for excellence in everything she does has given her success. She has an experience of 15 years in the IT industry, that includes a decade long stint with Infosys. She is an active trustee of an NGO, providing education to children from deprived backgrounds. She was directly instrumental in aligning these kids to mainstream for the past 10 years. Parallelly, she also completed her masters in Special Education from University of Northampton, U.K. Her work-life necessitated her to focus on wellness to stay fit. Once she had this in place for herself and benefitted immensely from it, she has chosen to take it to market. Of course, nothing comes easy….her willingness to walk the untrodden path, with a do-it-all energy and a never-say-die attitude continuing to drive her journey.

Shruti Shibulal is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of The Tamara Leisure Experiences. Shruti is one of India’s next generation entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry and was named as 1 of the 5 World Economic Forum’s YGLs from India in 2017.

She is a Trustee for both Advaith Foundation and the Sarojini Damodaran Foundation, organisations involved in providing educational opportunities and healthcare assistance to underprivileged sections of society. She is on the Management Council of The Samhita Academy. She serves as a Trustee of the Women’s Education Project, an NGO providing mentorship and scholarships to young women in need of support. Shruti is also on the Advisory Board of ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment).

Shreyas Shibulal is the Founder Director of Micelio Mobility Private Limited. His background in Embedded Systems, coupled with a childhood interest in the automotive sector and a passion for clean mobility, made him start this firm. He has been featured on various channels regarding the Electric Vehicle ecosystem. He aims to accelerate the pace of clean mobility in India and to drive long-term, sustainable change in the EV space. To this effect, he has launched an INR 150 crore fund with specific focus on Electric Vehicles and related sub systems. Micelio Fund is probably India’s first seed fund focused solely on clean mobility. It invests in seed stage innovative start-ups in the EV ecosystem including drivetrain technologies, charging infrastructure, energy management and special purpose electric vehicles. Excited by mobility and driven by environmental consciousness, he is well on his way to powering a comprehensive Electric Vehicle platform for India.

Gaurav brings his experience as a strategy and technology consultant. A graduate of Boston University, Gaurav has consulted in the past to companies from various industries. He is currently involved in the areas of Entrepreneurship and Social Investment while being completely committed to the field of education.

Bhairavi is an alumnus of the prestigious Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds the unique honor of being the first Indian woman to be accepted to this program. Post-graduation, she completed stints in private equity, strategy consulting and retail research across three continents, and ultimately came back to India with the intention of setting up sustainable businesses with a social conscience. She is passionate about innovations in healthcare, organic farming and education. She will be launching Solis Health, India’s first group of holistic integrative oncology centres, in the coming months.