Anshul Magotra began her social finance journey in 2016 as part of Ashoka Singapore where she was instrumental in identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs in the region via innovation challenges and running programmes aimed at providing strategic, business and fund-raising support. As part of the Social Finance team, she has been actively working on fund raising mandates with Ashoka Fellows across the globe. Prior to Ashoka, Anshul worked for more than 8 years in banking across different functions, teams and geographies. She has worked internationally with banks such as Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered & DBS spanning roles across investment banking and equity markets.

Sumitra has over 20 years track record in initiating, managing and leading innovation work globally in the creative, media and social-impact sectors. She is in a leadership role with Ashoka Innovators for the Public in South East Asia; particularly in the work related to social entrepreneurship and empowerment of young people. Ashoka is a global organisation that has built the field of social entrepreneurship over the last 37 years, with a presence in over 75 countries and is ranked as the 5th NGO in the world. Ashoka now champions the power of young people, to create a better world in a fast-changing future.

Prior to this she co-founded an international award-winning social impact organisation in Singapore - Playeum, The Children’s Centre for Creativity in Singapore which is centred on play that unleashes the agency of young children to take charge. The systemic nature of the work includes empowering teachers, parents and community leaders to embrace child-led play and creativity. Playeum is recognised as an innovative leader in Singapore and Asia.

She is Malaysian, trained as a Chemical Engineer from Cambridge University and holds several awards namely the British Council Lien Foundation “Creativity for Social Change” Fellow, Chevening Scholar, Procter & Gamble innovation award recipient, Advisory role to the OECD 2030 Learning Framework Learning Group and Advisory Board member UWC in South East Asia (education) and Board Director of Playeum. Sumitra has raised several publications on the Future of Work, education and is a facilitator and speaker at high level engagements including World Economic Forum 2019 @Davos.

Rajesh Varghese, Country Director, Ashoka Singapore/ Malaysia. Leader – Ashoka Fellowship.  Prior to that, Rajesh held the title of change manager, strategic resources, at the organization, and before that he was a consultant. He also was corporate relations director at Make a Difference in India.

David McLean’s primary focus areas are IT strategy, digital transformation and business intelligence. He has a belief that alignment of technology with organisation strategy is critical to improving effectiveness and outcomes, and that collaboration is central to driving change. He has 25 years’ experience working within the education, non-profit and commercial sectors, including senior management experience in a leading NFP, working collaboratively to align people, process and technology to strengthen service delivery and improve effectiveness and impact. 

Bobbymon George is part of the leadership team at Sattva. Bobbymon brings over 15 years of experience in programme design, implementation and evaluation and has led several programmes at non-profits. At Sattva, he has designed and delivered more than 70 social impact assessment assignments across sectors and geographies with large CSRs and Foundatons. He has been instrumental in developing & publishing a Life skills assessment tool for youth.

Surya Banda is an Engagement Manager at Sattva. He comes with a diverse experience in Public Policy research and M&E. Surya previously worked as a Senior Policy Associate at J-PAL South Asia, where he worked with the state governments of Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand on scaling up the Targeting the Hardcore Poor (THP) program. He also supported researchers in conducting Randomized Evaluations. Surya holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from VNR VJIET, Hyderabad; and a Micromasters certificate in Data, Economics and Development Policy (MIT, USA).

Mark Cheng is a member of the Leadership Group at Ashoka, based in Hong Kong. Mark started with Ashoka in 2007 as a Senior Advisor on Social Finance, based in London. He became UK Director in 2011, and European Director in 2014. Mark led Ashoka Europe from 2014-19, before moving to Hong Kong where he has launched the Hong Kong Chapter for Ashoka. Prior to joining Ashoka,  Mark founded Chelwood Capital, a global social investment advisory firm, which he continues to actively manage. Mark is recognized as a pioneer in impact investment, and over the past decade has helped raise over $250mn for social causes in areas including micro-finance, clean energy, healthcare, education and conservation. He is the author of the ‘Social Investment Toolkit’ (www.SocialInvestmentToolkit.com), a free online resource for social entrepreneurs looking for guidance on raising investment. He writes and teaches frequently about social finance and can be followed on Twitter @markch3ng.