Advisors

Akanksha Advisors are talented and generous individuals who provide  pro-bono expertise in areas like legal, marketing and accounting and serve as trusted outside consultants to the Board and staff.

Advisors

Sneha Devadason

Sneha is an experienced corporate lawyer and strategic legal advisor to businesses and investment firms, advising them on domestic and cross-border transactions, corporate governance, fundraising, ESG, regulatory compliance, and risk management. 

Sneha has also been General Counsel at Tailwind Capital and Head of Legal at Citi Venture Capital International after beginning her career doing M&A at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Friedman Kaplan.  Sneha is a founding circle member of Neythri, a global community of South Asian professional women. While fortunate to have access to good education in India, Sneha was always deeply aware of other children who struggled to get a basic education. 

In working towards reducing educational disparity, she is inspired by her barrister father and her doctor mother, who spent many of their free weekends in the villages near Chennai trying to “be the change.”

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Monica Sheth

Monica is a member of the Akanksha Aspire Circle and serves as Co-Chair of the Marketing Committee. She currently oversees a real estate development company based in New York. Prior to this, Monica spent over 15 years in Marketing, specializing in brand management, brand strategy, and product innovation, both in New York and London. Most recently, she was VP of Brand Strategy at Barclays in the UK. Earlier, she served in senior marketing roles at American Express and Cadbury. Monica graduated cum laude from New York University’s Stern School of Business undergraduate college, and later earned her MBA from NYU as well.
 
Monica is a second-generation Indian-American who has traveled to India throughout her life. Each visit to a world so unlike her own left a lasting impression, and solidified her view that all children deserve an education and to be advocated for.  As such, Monica is a strong supporter of Akanksha’s work in reaching the most marginalized youth so they may realize their potential and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
 
Monica lives with her husband and two children in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Hansika Malkani

Hansika is an accountant by profession and completed her Chartered Accountancy from India alongside working with Arthur Andersen as a Tax Consultant in Mumbai, India from 1991 to 1997.  

She came to the US in 1998 and has been involved with the non profit sector since then.  After volunteering with the US fund for UNICEF in Chicago and New York, she worked with the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction from 2003 to 2007 and after a short break, got back to working with the Samaritans of New York, Inc from 2009 onwards to date helping them execute their government contracts and fundraising.  

Hansika has been associated with Akanksha since 1997, volunteering with us once she left Arthur Andersen.  She reconnected back with Akanksha in New York in 2015 and has been involved in some way since then.