Vikram Akula is the CEO and Founder of Swayam Krishi Sangam (self-help society), a Grameen Bank Replication Project in one of the poorest parts of India. Mr. Akula has several years of work and research experience in microfinance and rural development. He has worked as a community organizer with the Deccan Development Society in India, was a Fulbright Scholar in India, and was a researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, a policy institute in Washington, D.C. He holds an M.A. from Yale and is completing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Chicago. He has been awarded an Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship for his work with SKS.

Dr. Vithal Rajan is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. He has over twenty years of experience in rural development. He is a currently the CEO of Polyene Film Industries, a company that promotes solar energy in rural areas. He also serves on the Vision 2020 task force for the AP State Government. He was a founder-member of the Deccan Development Society and served as its chairperson for several years. He was also a founder-member of the Confederation of Voluntary Organizations (COVA) that focus on urban poverty in Hyderabad. Previously, Dr. Rajan served as a Program Officer for the World Wide Fund for Nature in Switzerland. He has published widely on many aspects of rural development and holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from McGill.

Sitaram Rao, Advisor. Sitaram is a Chartered Accountant (CPA equivalent) and Cost Accountant who has held Chief Executive and senior advisory positions with several finance and international marketing companies including the DCL Group (India), Muscat Finance Company (Sultanate of Oman), Laila Group (India), and Paradigm Infotech (USA). He has also served as a visiting faculty member at Management Development Institute (Delhi), Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Computer Maintenance Corporation, and the State Bank of India. Mr. Rao holds degrees in both Commerce and Law from Bombay University.

Jennifer W. Meehan, Consultant. Jennifer is a US citizen who has been based in Asia for nearly 6 years.  She worked at The Chase Manhattan Bank in New York and Singapore before joining CASHPOR, the Asian Network of Grameen Bank Adaptors, as Financial Advisor in June 1998.  Now working independently in Tokyo, her focus is in equal parts microfinance and social investing.  She serves on the Editorial Board of CASHPOR's quarterly newsletter and is a consultant for the Calvert Social Investment Foundation on its Asian and African portfolios.  She has also been invited to serve on the Management Board of the Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, a newly launched social venture capital fund to finance rural innovations in India.  She graduated summa cum laude from George Washington University with a degree in International Economics and is currently a Level III candidate in the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Program

YV Raghunatha Reddy, Chief Operating Officer. The COO is Mr. Y V Raghunatha Reddy, with over 17 years experience in mainstream banking and micro finance. Prior to joining SKS, he was the Associate Vice President of KBS Local Area Bank, promoted by BASIX. He has a Masters in Fishery Science from the University of Agricultural Sciences at Bangalore and is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Srinivas Chakravarthy, District Manager. Srinivas Chakravarthy has over three years of experience in working with micro finance organizations. He is an MBA with specialization in Systems Management from the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupathi.

Dinesh Choudhary, Manager. Dinesh is with SKS as a Project Manager and is responsible for all the technology efforts. Previously, Dinesh worked for with NFO Worldwide, as a Senior Research Executive servicing national (Cadbury’s, Coke, Nickelodeon, Nestle, and TetraPak) and international (Samsung, Turner International) companies in quantitative and qualitative research. Dinesh has a B.Sc. from Osmania University, where he majored in Electronics, and has done his management program from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He has over 4 years of work experience in the corporate sector.

Mr. Vinay Chawla His current focus at SKS as a consultant is development and implementation of a smart card solution to integrate rural field-level transactions with a suite of microfinance back-end applications. Vinay is a Manager for KPMG Consulting in the U.S. where he focuses on IT professional services work for major telecommunications carriers (wireless, wireline, and Internet services). His functional areas of specialization include network engineering, software quality assurance, and e-commerce software implementations. Prior to joining KPMG, Mr. Chawla attended Northwestern University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honors) in Political Science.