About

Gaurav has over 14 years of experience working both in private sector as well as in the development space (microfinance, health, impact investment, education) largely as a management consultant and now the Founder of the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM). His areas of experience include program management and implementation, strategic planning, organization restructuring and design, sales & distribution management, relationship management and business planning. He is passionate about making a high impact by working in the livelihoods / skill building / education through initiatives in institutional set-up and strengthening, capacity building, social and financial inclusion, livelihood generation etc.

Before ISDM, Gaurav was heading Expansion and Sustainability for Hippocampus Learning Centres, one of the largest affordable rural pre-school chains in the country where he led the effort to start 100+ pre-schools over a single summer. At the Azim Premji Foundation in February, Gaurav was instrumental in co-evolving the strategy around School Leadership and creating a common field connect around the same.

Before the Foundation, Gaurav was with Lok Capital which is a socio-commercial venture capital fund with a huge focus on the broader financial inclusion space (Microfinance being a large part of our portfolio). Here he got an opportunity to liaise and engage with MFIs across the spectrum (size, geography etc.). He managed a strategy repositioning exercise for Lok Fund II, led the delivery of 2 market research projects and developed an investment strategy for low cost healthcare. Gaurav also has the experience of delivering an organization transformation project for one of the largest MFI’s in India. Prior to this, he has been associated with other organizations like Procter and Gamble, American Express, Hay Group etc.