How We Built Our Board

Some relationships had existed long before THE labs. Nilesh Nimkar, founder-director of Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST), was someone I had known and worked closely with for over a decade. I had learnt from his work what rigour looked like in practice, so I knew he would bring both high standards and pedagogical expertise to our programs.

Ashwath Bharath, Senior Director at Teach For India, came through another chapter of my journey. He had mentored me during my time at The Circle Incubation and helped me navigate early conversations with prospective board members. When I realised he himself would make a great board member for us, I hesitantly proposed the same to him. His response shaped more than his own role. He agreed, with one condition: I should tell him without hesitation once he stopped adding value to the board, and he would be happy to step down. It gave me the confidence to build a culture in which we could have honest conversations about the value each person was bringing, including when that value might have run its course.

Two more board members came into my orbit through ILSS, though in very different ways.

Rita Nag Chowdhury and I were formally connected through the BGP placement process, but the relationship quickly went beyond that. She travelled to the field, attended events where I spoke and hosted me at her home. The time she invested helped her understand our work and allowed me to understand her philosophy.

Shantanu Ghosh came through a 40-minute mentoring call during The ILSS Fundraising Program. He was one of the few people who immediately understood our approach to teaching AI through both a technical and social lens. We connected from that very first conversation, and he generously told me I could reach out whenever I wanted to discuss something. After a few more conversations online, I knew I wanted him on our advisory board.

Our first crowdfunding campaign in January 2024 brought two more people into the fold. A mutual friend introduced me to Jayanti Phadke, then heading Asia HR at TOLL. She supported us through TOLL’s CSR program, opened doors to others for us and has remained a consistent champion of our work. Neelima Thota, then Asia Head of WASH at BMGF, was already an acquaintance who became interested after seeing the campaign. She has since guided me on international grants and pushed me towards working with the government at scale.

And, eventually, Nikunj joined too, two years after that first conversation. Along with Neelima, he continues to challenge me to think about government partnerships and scale.

I reached out to the board members individually whenever I needed advice. But last year, I realised that their collective wisdom could be even more powerful, and we began meeting monthly. Those calls have become my biggest learning spaces. The board inspires me, supports me and challenges me. Their contributions are different, and bringing those differences into one conversation is what makes the discussions so valuable.

I have also learnt that alignment does not mean agreement. It means having people who care deeply about the same vision, even when they challenge how you get there.

Recently, I asked Nikunj what business discipline is genuinely useful for a social purpose organisation, and what corporate practice the social sector should never adopt. His answer was simple: the social sector should learn to leverage boards from the corporate world, but it needs to build empathetic boards.

I couldn’t agree more. I thought of our own seven board members, and how each has helped THE labs reach where it is today.