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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
Chandrima Poddar
Chandrima joins us with over 8 years of work experience in the financial sector. She has performed various roles including project management, corporate finance, strategic consulting and analytics at American Express. Chandrima grew up in India and completed her bachelors and Masters in Mathematics and Economics respectively from the University of Delhi. After which she moved to the US to pursue her second masters at the University of Chicago. Having grown up in India, Chandrima understands the struggles of the underprivileged to access a decent level of education. She has often volunteered her time to teach and work with kids at the underserved schools in Delhi and Manhattan. Her passion for education and dedication brings her to Akanksha. After a successful career at American Express, Chandrima took a break to raise her family, and is now very excited to join this role with Akanksha.
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.
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.”