Staff

Samit Aich
Chief Executive Officer
Samit Aich
Samit P Aich is the CEO of the Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund (www.s3idf.in), since early 2016. He has over 25 years of extensive experience in international development, management advisory consulting and also in the corporate sector. His earlier corporate work was associated with Indian multinational conglomerates like the Tata Group, Arvind Mills and Sify Technologies.
Prior to joining S3IDF, Samit spent more than 10 years with Greenpeace India, including about 8 years as its Executive Director and was instrumental in making the organization not just financially self-reliant but also a prominent environmental campaigning player in the country. He was a key member of Greenpeace International’s Global Leadership Team (GLT) in Amsterdam, the highest-level strategic body within Greenpeace worldwide. He also sat on the International Steering Committee of the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency, hosted by the International Budget Partnership, Washington, DC.
Samit sits on advisory boards of select non-profits and is also a member on the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) subcommittee on CSR and Affirmative Action. Earlier, he had been a regular invitee for four consecutive years to the Indian Union Finance Ministers’ Pre-Budget Consultations at New Delhi as a social sector expert to input into country-level budgets. He has also been invited and deposed in front of Indian Parliamentary Standing Committees of the 15th Lok Sabha, on Energy and Agriculture matters. He is and has been a prominent speaker, panellist, observer and moderator on various high level national and international fora including at the United Nations COP 11-Convention on Biological Diversity (UNFCCC-CBD-COP), Social Capital Markets (SOCAP), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and many others. He has been widely interviewed on national and international media, including BBC London, NDTV, India Today TV, German TV network DW, Financial Times New York and several other prominent media houses.
His personal pursuits include practicing the ancient meditation technique-Vipassana, exploring a myriad of interests including Buddhist philosophy, world history, environmentalism, development economics, campaigning and cookery. He is a professionally certified baker, and an amateur collector of vintage mechanical watches, clocks and fountain pens. Samit is a sporadic blogger on contemporary socio-economic issues ranging from entrepreneurship, developmental issues, livelihoods and non-profit governance. He is associated with several prominent business schools as guest faculty and conducts professional coaching and strategic advisory interventions at the senior management level.
Samit has several post-graduate qualifications – he has an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and also an MBA in Marketing. In addition, he has studied Strategic Management at the Harvard Business School in Massachusetts, US.

Gopal B.
Assistant Manager – Finance & Compliance
Gopal B.


Parameshwara B N
Project Associate

Chandrashekhara H.R
Program Manager
Chandrashekhara H.R
Dr. Chandrashekhara H R completed his education up to Pre University at the village level, then studied at Govt Arts College, Tumkur (BU). He completed his post-graduate at Bangalore University and Doctoral degree in Kannada University, Hampi. Prior to joining S3IDF, he worked with the Samuha Organization on their Disability programme in Koppal district, Karnataka.

Shwetha Joshi
Assistant Manager - Project Development
Shwetha Joshi
Shwetha is a development professional having six years of experience in handling grassroots development activities in different thematic areas, as well as a strong background in development studies. She has expertise in the field of livelihood promotion, water conservation, behavior change communication, women literacy, community institution, research, and analysis. Before joining S3IDF, she worked in Piramal Sarvajal for three years as a Manager, worked on community level Awareness and Marketing in Water management and conservation and also worked in Grameen Development Services as a team leader, worked upon agriculture development and women literacy. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Management from Tata-Dhan Academy, Madurai, Tamilnadu and Bachelor’s in Commerce from Bangalore University, Karnataka. In Addition, attended a short term training program on “Making Markets work for the poor” in IRMA.

Avinash Krishnamurthy
Chief Program Officer
Avinash Krishnamurthy
Avinash has extensive experience in the water, energy, solid waste management, and small infrastructure sectors and in project conceptualization, design and implementation. In addition to his role at S3IDF, he serves as Director and Project Leader of Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a consultancy he cofounded to provide sustainable land use practice and development solutions in urban and rural contexts. Avinash has worked in the information technology sector with Infosys Technologies Limited where he managed international client relationships and led teams. Avinash speaks English, French, Hindi, and Kannada, and holds a B.Engineering from the University of Mysore with a specialization in hydro-energy.

Kartik N.
Project Associate
Kartik N.

GKVK, Bengaluru.

Channajamma S.
Project Associate
Intellectual Partners

Mohammad Ali
Administrative and Research Assistant
Russell deLucia
Mohammad Ali has worked at BAAPCO Pvt Ltd and Hairtec International since 2016 in Pakistan. He has held multiple roles in these organizations ranging from operations to strategic management. While still upholding his roles, albeit remotely from the United States, Mohammad found interest in S3IDF’s cause and has joined us to provide critical research and administrative support. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in marketing from the Lahore School of Economics (Pakistan) and an MSC in Supply Chain Management from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom).

Russell deLucia
Innovation Director and Principal Founder
Russell deLucia


Lexi Doolittle
Social Enterprise Manager
Lexi Doolittle


Elizabeth Friend
Managing Director
Elizabeth Friend
Elizabeth has over a decade of nonprofit management and international development experience planning, implementing, and evaluating market-based solutions to poverty. She brings a range of experience from on-the-ground field data collection and analysis to hands-on small business development to organizational strategic planning. Prior to her work with S3IDF, Elizabeth served as International Director of Village Forward where she managed international programming and played a central role in developing operational capacity and enterprise expansion strategies. Elizabeth has presented at numerous conferences and forums on energy poverty and small-scale enterprise financing and development. Elizabeth holds a M.S. Finance from Northeastern University and a M.A. Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University. Her B.A. Leadership Studies is from the University of Richmond. She also completed Digital Frontiers Institute’s Certified Digital Finance Practitioner Program, certified by The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Nitin Gopalkrishnan
Lead - Programs India
Nitin Gopalkrishna
Nitin is a Civil Engineer with a deep interest in civic and environmental issues. He has widely engaged in incubating grassroots entrepreneurs solving contemporary problems. He has also led the development of climate education, adaptation and mitigation programs for rural communities. He looks forward to co-creating solutions that are people and planet centric.

Michael Lesser
Finance Director and Senior Economist
Michael Lesser


Emma Marks
Research Analyst
Emma Marks
Emma has worked in a range of roles in community and international development since 2015 supporting fundraising, project management, communications, and monitoring and evaluation. At S3IDF, Emma supports ongoing research efforts and setting up frameworks for impact assessment across our portfolio. Emma currently splits her time between S3IDF and the World Resources Institute (WRI) where she works as a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Analyst.
Emma holds a newly minted M.A. in Global Environmental Policy from American University’s School of International Service and a graduate certificate in Environment & Sustainable Development from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She received her B.A. in International Development and Social Change from Clark University where she designed a concentration in Environmental Protection and Food Systems

Earl Stephens
Business Operations Manager
Earl Stephens

Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Veena Joshi
Director
Veena Joshi
Somak Ghosh
Board Chair
Somak Ghosh
Dr. B Gangaiah
Board Member
Dr. B Gangaiah
Advisors
Andrew Barnett
Advisor
Andrew Barnett
Nikhil Desai
Advisor
Nikhil Desai
Sabira Lakhani
Advisor
Sabira Lakhani
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