Yash Maniar
Yash Maniar is an India-based facilitator, social entrepreneur, and International Coaching Federation certified coach who empowers individuals and organizations in their journey from purpose to action. With a strong focus on aligning personal values with organizational goals, Yash designs and facilitates transformative learning experiences that help teams deepen collaboration, strengthen leadership, and find greater meaning in their work. As an experiential learning facilitator and coach, Yash has designed and led programs on social innovation, leadership, sustainability, systems change, and design thinking across Asia, including China, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Bangladesh. He has facilitated with organizations such as The JUMP! Foundation, coached global climate action teams through the Gigatonne Challenge, and completed over 350 hours of one-on-one coaching with entrepreneurs, leaders, and changemakers. Yash’s entrepreneurial journey includes co-founding Shunya Alternative Solutions, an eco-friendly products venture incubated by The DO School and supported by The Pollination Project. Through Shunya, he helped replace more than one million pieces of plastic cutlery with biodegradable alternatives in India. He has also worked across startups in product strategy, digital marketing, and learning design, bringing a systems thinking and human-centered approach to both organizational growth and social impact.
Pratyay Malakar
Pratyay Malakar (she/they) is an educator, curriculum designer, and education researcher deeply committed to building intersectional, inclusive, and justice-driven learning environments. With 6+ years of experience across the education and development sector, Pratyay has worked with children, teachers, teacher trainers and education systems in roles spanning facilitation, curriculum development, teacher training, and research. She has worked with organizations like Teach For India, Simple Education Foundation, Nirantar, Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation, Language and Learning Foundation, and i-Saksham, designing and leading professional development programs for government and non-profit educators in underserved communities. As a facilitator, Pratyay brings together her grounding in feminist and anti-oppressive pedagogies to create reflective, participatory spaces around themes such as identity, gender, equity, power, youth development, Queer Identities, Allyship and inclusive education. Pratyay is currently pursuing a PhD in Education at Ambedkar University Delhi, where her research focuses on reimagining educational practices through the lens of social justice, intersectionality, belonging, and systemic change. Her vision is to transform classrooms, workplaces and institutions into spaces of healing, dialogue, and possibility for all learners—especially those at the margins.
Aparna Shekar
Aparna Shekar is a passionate and highly experienced soft skills trainer and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering learning programs that support both individual growth and business transformation. Her work is rooted in the belief that strengthening people’s capabilities leads to better outcomes, and she brings this to life through interactive, insight-driven workshops and one-on-one coaching engagements with clients across the world. With a background in marketing, education, and facilitation, Aparna partners with organizations in sectors such as banking, technology, automotive, consulting, and education to help leaders deepen emotional intelligence, build resilient teams, and lead with clarity and purpose. She is especially skilled at facilitating learning for culturally diverse groups and is known for creating high-energy, inclusive learning environments both online and in person. As a certified coach and master trainer, Aparna is consistently praised for her engaging facilitation style and her ability to foster meaningful connection. Her areas of expertise include leadership development, communication, coaching and mentoring, emotional intelligence, influencing without authority, and managing uncertainty with resilience. She has led programs for organizations such as Microsoft, UBS, Mastercard, Deloitte, Intuit, Skoda Auto, Thoughtworks, and many others. Outside of her professional work, Aparna is a trained classical singer and dancer, a curious and enthusiastic home gardener, and a passionate storyteller. She has won awards for her writing and creativity and brings warmth, curiosity, and care into every space she enters. Whether she is coaching a senior leader, designing a team workshop, or simply listening deeply, Aparna remains committed to helping people show up with intention and grow with confidence.
Amrita Varadarajan
Amrita Varadarajan has 15+ years of education + work experience related to the development sector – working on capacity building/ L&D, organization design & development, program design, assessment design and systems change in sectors like education, panchayati raj, election management and health. She also has worked with a range of stakeholders such as large and small non-profits, donor agencies, management consultants, government stakeholders from village to state & national levels, multilateral and bilateral agencies. She brings to the space a deep desire to empower non-profit leaders and teams to build thriving, reflective & compassionate workspaces – where we all spend more than 1/3rd of our days, physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually! When not dreaming up ways to do more organization design work, Amrita inhabits other worlds through the characters in the books she reads, the road trips with her partner, the plants she spends time with, music she listens to and the weird series she is trying not to binge on! You can connect with her on LinkedIn (the only social media space you will find her on, sometimes!)
Samantha Batista
Anuj Kothari
Anuj is a product, technology, education, and leadership enthusiast. He is an engineer by education and has worked in the capacity of technology & product leader, marketing manager, and UX designer in corporations and startups. Currently, he runs a Performance Marketing Agency where they deliver performance to the client and develop unique products internally. He loves to travel and teach. Most of his free time is spent on either small and large treks or working with non-profits. He has been associated majorly with U&I Trust, which is a volunteer-driven organization that teaches kids in underprivileged areas of 25 cities in India. His facilitation experience is a mixture of managing professional teams and building communities in U&I. Professionally, at multiple companies, he has built engineering and product teams of the size of 10-30 people and led them. Apart from the usual work, he tries to give enough time to coaching and skilling team members to take up bigger roles as they grow and to create performing teams while resolving and even harnessing conflicts with growth. His work with U&I has been fulfilling and with tons of learning. His role there has been constantly evolving, from setting up the Mumbai chapter 5 years back to now mentoring chapter leaders, who train 40 leaders at individual centers. He does periodic training with all these leaders to mentor them on this path through fun activities and continuous reflections. His goal for most people who join the community is to give them one of their crucible moments in life which makes them have gratitude for whatever they have in life and to appreciate everyone they have. Most people stick with the community for 2-3 years and more often than not, they achieve the goal, which helps build leaders for life.
Sumangal Haldar
Sumangal is a coach for in-service and pre-service teachers. He has helped more than 300 teachers in a span of less than one and a half years to realize their potentials, by motivating them and helping them become effective speakers and communicators. Prior to this, he has also coached undergraduate students (more than 5000) helping them put their best skills forward as they venture into new life and culture. Given testimonial speaks a lot about him: “I always admire Sumangal sir for his humble nature and ever-smiling face. Communication…comes very naturally to him, as he weighs every word, gives examples, and convinces you at the same time. In conversations with the management, I have always seen him dissolving hard negotiations with ease…” He also received the Best Teacher Award and an award “NIPUN” for his overall contribution of exceptional order from the SRM Group of Professional Colleges. He is an amateur artist a photographer and an agronomist because he indulges in learning things that interest him. Presently he is an Academic Advisor to a School and an Editor of a Webzine: Genesis.