We are a community of like-minded professionals who despite our differentiated backgrounds, share the goal and the passion to transform primary education in India. Our team is comprised of dedicated development professionals with a rich understanding of the unique context of the geographies where we work, alongside deep education expertise.
Executive Management Team
Ratna Viswanathan
Chief Executive Officer
Ratna Viswanathan is our Chief Executive and is based in New Delhi, India. She is a highly accomplished, senior development and public sector professional.
A former civil servant (Indian Audit and Accounts Service, 1987 batch) she has worked in a range of departments across the Government of India including Audit, Defence and Indian public broadcasting.
She was the CEO of the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) for four years, which is both the industry body and the sector regulator (on behalf of the RBI) of the ‘for profit’ microfinance sector. She has held leadership positions at both Oxfam and VSO and played a key role in managing change in both those organisations. Before joining Reach to Teach, she was the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the UNDP and before that a senior consultant with UNEP, where she helped establish the Sustainable India Finance Facility.
She is a highly experienced change agent; proficient in building capacity and influencing systems change by leveraging partnerships across different sectors. She sits on the Boards of several companies. She occasionally writes for The Print on defence issues.
Thomas Arackaparampil
executive Director of programmes
Thomas set up the Reach to Teach India office in 2012 and since then has been leading our field operations in India. He has more than 20 years of experience in international development. Thomas was the India Head of Oxfam Intermon (Spanish affiliate in Oxfam International) and Country Director for Oxfam in the Solomon Islands. With Oxfam Australia, he worked as Change Lead where he oversaw re-structuring of operations in Southern Africa and East Asian countries.
Peter Thomas
Chief Finance Officer
Peter is a chartered accountant with over 20 years of experience working in financial and operational management for international businesses. Prior to joining Reach to Teach Peter was Finance Director of Bain & Company and Monitor Company, both leading international strategy consulting firms.
The Board
Rakhee Ditta
Chair
Rakhee is a lawyer working in-house at a large family office, providing legal advice across a wide variety of business areas and family matters, particularly in the areas of corporate, funds, real estate and private equity. Prior to this, she was senior counsel at KBC Financial Products covering a number of areas including hedge funds, corporate finance and bonds. Rakhee trained at Linklaters as a leveraged finance lawyer, working in both London and Singapore.
Matthew Symonds
Trustee (donor representative)
Matthew is Executive Director of the Larry Ellison Foundation. Previously, Matthew has worked at The Economist as IT and Communications Editor, Political Editor and author of the Bagehot column, and finally Defence and Security Editor. Matthew was a co-founder of The Independent and was its Editorial Director and Deputy Editor from 1986 to 1994.
Neha Aviral
trustee
Neha is an Associate Director at the Larry Ellison Foundation. Neha was formerly with McKinsey and Company, where she led teams serving clients in the public sector and financial services. Prior to that, she worked at BlackRock in New York and London, managing client analytics. She also worked briefly for a leading Indian NGO, advising on its fundraising and investment strategy. She has lived and worked in India, the Middle East, and North America.
Gurmeet Kaur
Trustee
Gurmeet Kaur is an experienced impact investor having spent over 15 years in Finance, venture philanthropy and Impact investing. She currently advises an impact fund on its India investments and represents the Fund on a number of Indian company boards. Prior to that, she headed up the Impact Fund investments at the CDC Group where she was responsible for setting up the investment strategy and building a portfolio of investments in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Prior to this, she worked at the Children's Investment Fund Foundation where she was responsible for grants targeting significant maternal and child health improvements in Africa. She also spent time at the Michael and Susan Dell foundation in its early years in India. In addition to Reach to Teach, Gurmeet has also been a trustee at Standing Voice, a UK based charity that works on international rights for marginalised populations in Africa.
Geeta Khehar
Trustee
Geeta Khehar is an experienced international finance lawyer. She spent much of her career at Clifford Chance, including eighteen years as a partner in the Global Finance Practice, and was co-head of the firm’s East Africa Practice. She was appointed as a Senior Fellow at SOAS, University of London in July 2016. Geeta is now a Director on the Board of International Lawyers for Africa and is a governor at St Paul’s Girls School where she has specific responsibility for safeguarding.
Reach to Teach would like to thank Nurole for supporting our trustee recruitment process.