Network Capital

Nicole Schwab is author of The Heart of the Labyrinth, an evocative spiritual parable; and co-founder of EDGE Certified Foundation, a global certification system for gender equality at work. She works with National Geographic and her book is now being made into a movie.

A Swiss native with a rigorous scientific background (degrees from Cambridge University and Harvard Kennedy School), Nicole spent several years working on public health in the Andes, before returning to Geneva to co-found The Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, and facilitate the nascent community’s exchanges around a vision for the world in 2020. In 2009, she went on to co-found The Gender Equality Project – now EDGE Certified Foundation – a global scheme that certifies companies for closing the gender gap in the workplace.

More recently, deepening her engagement on behalf of a world that values and honors the feminine principle and is rooted in our connection to the Earth as a living being, she wrote The Heart of the Labyrinth, acclaimed as a "beautiful, exploration of deep mind and the meaning of our existence, offering a message of Earth-centered wisdom reuniting us with the divine feminine."

In this podcast, Azeez shares his journey to Harvard Business School and explains why he decided to come back to Pratham (one of India's most reputed non-profits) after graduation. Among other things we discuss career intelligence, diversity quotient and committing to solving problems over the long term. Take notes as you listen!

This is a bit about Azeez

Azeez Gupta is the National Head of Strategic Initiatives at Pratham, one of India's most reputed education non-profits impacting 5 million children annually. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and IIT Delhi, and was formerly a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. Azeez's responsibilities include scaling the digital learning initiative (reaching 100k children presently) and key organisational functions. Before his current role, he led Pratham's award-winning skills development program, providing livelihoods to 25,000 youth annually.

Azeez is a published opinion writer and speaker in prominent publications and institutions. He was selected as Education Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Institute for Learning and Teaching, and nominated to the Social Enterprise Initiative Advisory Board at HBS. Azeez is a recipient of the Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowship for social entrepreneurship at HBS and was awarded institute prizes for all-round excellence at IIT-Delhi. He is a social impact geek, voracious reader, and plays and follows multiple sports

Rich Horgan is the Founder and President of Cure Rare Disease. Rich is also a Blavatnik Fellow at Harvard Business School with a deep passion for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other rare diseases. With a younger brother impacted by the disease, Rich has a strong interest in accelerating promising treatments for the disease. He formed a collaboration with world-class researchers and clinicians to pioneer the development of customized therapies for Duchenne and other rare diseases. He also launched a company, Myofinity Biosciences, to focus on the commercialization of effective therapies for DMD and is working in collaboration with leading scientists in the field. Prior to making his foray into biotech, Rich had extensive experience working in new business development at Corning Incorporated where he led the successful launch of a new Willow® Glass product. He also launched a successful car washing business in upstate New York. He holds a BS from Cornell University where he graduated as summa cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

We encourage you to donate using this link: https://cureraredisease.org/support-us/one-time-donation/

Arjun Vaidya is the CEO at Dr. Vaidya's: New Age Ayurveda. Prior to his entrepreneurial stint, Arjun graduated from Brown University, USA with a BA in International Relations and Economics. He then worked in private equity at a consumer sector focused fund, L Capital Asia (the private equity arm of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group). In October 2016, Arjun quit his job to take on his 150-year-old family legacy of Ayurvedic formulations that his grandfather left behind. Dr. Vaidya’s aims to take the traditional science of Ayurveda to the 21st century by using innovative packaging, branding and new formats of products. Arjun was recently the first Ayurvedic Entrepreneur to be featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List for 2019! With innovative concepts like LIVitup (Hangover Shield) and Chakaash (Herbal Health Toffees), Dr. Vaidya’s has captured the imagination of thousands of consumers to become India’s largest digital Ayurveda brand. In June 2019, Dr. Vaidya’s raised ~USD 5m (~INR 35 Cr) from the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for the brand’s next leg of growth. Outside of work, Arjun is an advisor to football focused NGO, Just for Kicks, is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a Mentor at the Atal Innovation Mission.

This episode is brought to you by World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution which is a hub for global, multistakeholder cooperation to develop policy frameworks and advance collaborations that accelerate the benefits of science and technology.

Aaina Agarwal is an AI specialist at the World Economic Forum and Amanda Russo is the Public Engagement Lead, World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Through this association with the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Network Capital will share a series of episodes that discuss nuances of deep tech on business, government and society.

Sanjay Kumar currently serves as the India Country Director of The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University. It is an entity dedicated to connecting the University with all the countries of South Asia, prompting two-way intellectual exchange and knowledge creation.

Prior to this, he was involved at leadership positions with SEWA Movement for about two decades that organizes poor self-employed women workers in the informal economy in India. Handling twin task of establishing SEWA in Delhi and overseeing the work of SEWA Bharat, National Federation of SEWA organizations, as its Director, he led several programs including advocacy, microfinance, livelihoods, waste-management, government linkages and skills for youth, to name a few.

As a keen photographer, his inspiring images on the lives of women workers in India was exhibited at the House of Commons, London and other locations.

He is voluntarily leading Edjustice People’s Campaign to rejuvenate the state-run educational institutions.
He has been also writing Op-eds on social issues in the National Dailies.

Sanjay Kumar holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Masters in Political Science from University of Delhi, and a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration as a Mason Fellow from the Harvard Kennedy School. Alongside, he also holds an exhaustive PG diploma in ’Social Security for the Poor’ from ISS, The Hague.

Being a knowledge-driven generalist with a passion for cultural exchange, Jakob is currently Trade and Invest Advisor at Business Sweden c/o Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi. In his professional capacity, Jakob is driving market-oriented R&D-projects together with leading Swedish Industry and institutional Indian partners. Holding a double degree in engineering and international business, Jakob is working in the intersection of business development, technological transformation and international relations. Jakob is also an ambassador of the European Forum Alpbach and a Global Shaper in association with the World Economic Forum. Starting October 2019, Jakob will join the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, for further postgraduate studies.

R Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Prime Minister and the Government of India of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). AIM’s goals are to establish and promote a vibrant culture of innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide.

He was previously Managing Director & CEO of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Ramanan led CMC’s rapid transformation from a domestic government organization to a global IT private sector organization. Under his leadership CMC share price grew over 2100% between October 2001 to 2014, its operating profits over 1338%, 72% of its business coming from the overseas markets and leading to its successful amalgamation into TCS in 2015

Ramanan’s joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Mumbai in Electrical Engg and played an instrumental role in the growth of TCS with a variety of responsibilities ranging from product development, technical marketing, global business development, and general management of large centers of TCS.

In this Network Capital podcast, Mr. Ramanan reflects on the key inflection points of his career and shares why he joined to lead the Atal Innovation Mission. He has a special message for all the mentors part of the "Mentor of Change" initiative, a key component of Atal Innovation Mission, where Network Capital serves as a partner

Vineet is the founder and Managing Director of AVMS and has over 17 years of experience in early stage investing, small business incubation, and microfinance.

Vineet has led the setting up of Aavishkaar I and II and Aavishkaar Goodwell I & II funds. He provides overall leadership to the fund team with key focus on fund raising and post investment mentoring and exits.

Vineet is also the Co-founder and Director of Intellecap, a pioneer and leader in the multiple bottom line investment advisory industry and also chairs the board of Intellecash, a Non Banking Finance Company.

He also serves as the Director of Villgro, a rural business incubator that creates networks for rural innovations. Vineet is an Ashoka Fellow.

In this podcast, Vineet shares insights from his leadership journey, the myriad challenges of helping create and shape the impact investing space. He also shares how young professionals should think about careers in investing.

Rwitwika is the CEO of Swaniti Initiative, a social enterprise that delivers public services to the base of the pyramid. As CEO her role focuses on developing long-term growth strategies and formulating key partnerships with central and state government bodies. Prior to Swaniti, Bhattacharya was working at the World Bank as an Associate on on Labor Market Issues. Her work experience includes working in firms like UNFPA and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. She is a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Political Science from Wake Forest University.
In this podcast, she shares her journey to Harvard Kennedy School, key lessons learned and building Swaniti from the ground-up. This is essential content for anyone thikning about applying to policy schools and building high impact careers in public policy.