Team Category: Our Directors

As Director, Nirmala handles every aspect of Finance and Operations. She comes with 17 years of rich experience in corporate and non-profit finance, and holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance. Previously, she was Head of Finance at Greenpeace India and a Senior Manager at Arghyam.

A serial entrepreneur and an IT professional with over 25 years of experience, Srini currently works with a host of young startups, helping them through the various stages of venture building.

Srini has been the co-founder of Injoos and Kineticglue which have had successful exits to BMC Software. He is also a core member of the founding team of Edgeverve – the product subsidiary of Infosys.

Srini is driven by impact and scale and is an engineer at heart who loves to solve problems.  He believes in using technology to solve real life problems. In his spare time, he is also learning the tricky business of agriculture.

Gupta is an Infosys veteran, who has spent more than 27 years in the company. In Infosys, he has played numerous leadership roles, successfully leading multiple change initiatives. In his last role as a Vice President & Global Delivery Head, he was the key driving force for the Digital Experience unit since its inception and was responsible for growing their Digital business. Gupta is an avid traveller and lives in Bangalore with his family.

Sarah is a midwife from the UK and has relocated to Bangalore. She has more than 20 years’ experience in all areas of midwifery practice. She qualified with a first-class honour’s degree in Midwifery Practice and also holds an MSc in Health and Social Care Leadership.

Sarah’s most recent position in the NHS (National Health Service, UK) was as a Consultant Midwife, this was a senior leadership position which focused on delivering expert practice, professional leadership and consultancy, education, training and development along with research and audit. She has worked on national projects with NHS Improvement and Innovation to improve midwifery services in the UK. Sarah is passionate about ensuring that all women should be able to receive safe high-quality evidence-based midwifery care and are treated with respect and dignity throughout their pregnancy and childbirth journey.

Sarah has joined Aastrika as a Director of Midwifery Initiatives and will be leading the midwifery program.

Sanjeev Belagur is a strategic delivery management professional and a driven technology leader with over 26 years of experience in complex client engagements, project management, thought leadership, and stakeholder management. Prior to joining Aastrika, he has worked with Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Nokia Networks and LTI, India. He is an IIM- Bangalore scholar wherein he studied Executive General Management Programme. Sanjeev has done his Bachelor’s in Engineering from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore University.

Chitra Paradkar is an experienced professional whose love for art brought her to the creative sector wherein she has acquired over 15 years of experience working with corporate enterprises and NGOs. Prior to joining Aastrika, she has worked with DWARAKA((Development of Women And Rural Artisans in Kalamkari Art), assisting their rebranding while keeping in mind the needs of the artisans involved in the art. She has displayed acumen in strategic design and planning business, programme management capabilities, commercial acumen, stakeholder management, and organisational skills. Her passion for design led her to establish her own space called Nine Dots Design Studio. Chitra has completed her Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore.