Adil Zainulbhai

Chairman

Known as one of the world’s foremost management consultants, Mr. Zainulbhai retired as the Chairman of McKinsey & Co., India after a thirty-four-year career. Prior to returning to India in 2004, he led the Washington office of McKinsey & Co. and founded the Minneapolis office helping clients across sectors as diverse as telecommunications, consumer electronics, energy, banking, infrastructure, and healthcare.

Mr. Zainulbhai is the Chairman of Network18 and TV18 and is on the Boards of Reliance Industries Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., and Cipla. He was the Chairman of Quality Council of (QCI) India from 2014 to 2022. As Chairman of QCI, he worked closely with senior government leaders to drive process transformation and enhance efficiency of government programmes and initiatives.

A native of Mumbai, Mr. Zainulbhai holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he enjoys sailing in Mumbai harbour.

Dr. Balasubramaniam (Balu)

Member-HR

Dr. R Balasubramaniam (Balu) is a widely respected development expert, public policy analyst, leadership trainer and author. He has spent several decades living and working among forest based tribal communities in the southern Indian district of Mysore.

He founded the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, a renowned development organization and is also the founder of Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement, a public policy think tank.

Dr. Balu is currently a visiting professor at Cornell University, USA and at IIT-Delhi, India. He also coaches and mentors senior leaders in the non-profit, corporate, government and educational sectors. His books ‘i, the Citizen’, ‘Voices from the Grassroots’ and ‘Leadership lessons for Daily Living’ are globally acclaimed.

After his MBBS, he earned his MPhil in Hospital Administration & Health Systems Management from BITS, Pilani. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University.

Praveen Pardeshi

Member-Administration

With 29 years of experience in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Mr. Pardeshi has served in various senior executive roles. He managed the entire public health structure of Mumbai and led the task force for COVID19 containment as the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai. He has also served as the Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

In addition to his administrative roles, Mr. Pardeshi has held several senior leadership positions in the United Nations. He was the Global Head of UNDP Geneva and Senior Coordinator of UNISDR. Most recently, he worked for the Defeat-NCD Partnership under UNITAR as the Global Programme Coordinator.

Mr. Pardeshi holds an MSc degree in Social Policy, Participatory Planning and Economic Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Prior to getting a Masters Degree in Development Economics from DSE, he was an Economics graduate from DU.

Hemang Jani

Secretary

Hemang Jani is an experienced professional in public policy, governance and innovation systems. For the past two decades, he has worked towards improving public service delivery through technology, designing national innovation frameworks, applying technology and innovation in governance, and enabling private sector development at state, federal and international levels.

Before joining as the Secretary of the Capacity Building Commission, he worked as a Senior Private Sector Specialist at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, USA.

He has also worked with the Government of India, as an Officer on Special Duty (Knowledge and Innovation) in the Prime Minister’s office. He designed and nurtured the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) during this time.