Our Leadership Team
Manisha Gupta
Manisha Gupta is associated with the Foundation's social entrepreneurship programs as a strategy consultant. She brings to the Foundation 15 years of professional experience in media and the non-profit sector.
Manisha's expertise lies in the area of developing social entrepreneurship through communications, organizational development and other strategy support initiatives. She has recently launched Start Up!, a professional advisory group that will work with individuals to help them start up innovative ideas for social change.
Manisha started working with leading national newspapers and magazines at the age of 17. She filed stories extensively for the Anand Bazaar Group of publications, the Statesman, Sunday Magazine (edited by Vir Sanghvi), the Illustrated Weekly (now defunct), the Economic Times, Sportsworld, the Times of India and the Eenadu group.
In 1994, she quit the profession of journalism to join Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an international organization building the profession of social entrepreneurship. From 1994 to 2000, she played a key strategic role in ramping up Ashoka's India programs, served as Ashoka India's country representative and went on to lead an international initiative, the Innovative Learning Initiative (ILI), that develops youth social entrepreneurs. Manisha envisioned and successfully ran Ashoka India's programs for providing non-financial services to social entrepreneurs as well as its communication, media and marketing programs.
In 2003, she quit Ashoka to launch her own practice with social entrepreneurs and their organizations. She is currently associated as a strategy partner and advisor with 3 national social justice movements led by Ashoka Fellows. She is also writing a book on CHILDLINE, a 24-hour helpline launched by Jeroo Billimoria, a Schwab Fellow. CHILDLINE is the country's largest child rights movement.
Manisha serves as an associate of Vyaktitva, a Delhi-based strategic HR consultancy firm. She is also on the board of Leapfrog, a social communications initiative.
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