Executive Board
The people listed below are professionals with high integrity, working in various sectors, who proactively volunteer with us beyond their daily jobs and careers. They help us to consistently promote the various ventures within the iCONGO mission. The Executive board of iCONGO comprises of Educationists, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, Software Techies, Bankers, Development Workers, Activists, Media Reporters, Social Entrepreneurs and Senior Corporate Executives who at a young age while in their early 20s and 30s chose to work for the greater public good. Some of them also let go high paying corporate careers and coveted UN positions to lead citizen action for social justice.
Given here are news features (indicative and not exhaustive) in leading newspapers and magazines about some of the people in our Executive Board who lead CITIZEN ACTION for SOCIAL JUSTICE through iCONGO.
Executive Founding Director
Meenu Chopra, a scholarship holder from Delhi University completed her graduation in Physics from St. Stephen's college. Pure passion drove her to the Development Sector and she has been strongly associated with the sector for the past 8 years. She has worked with Key organizations like Action Aid India, iCONGO. Prior to joining iCONGO, Meenu worked with Action Aid India as a honorary adviser and spearheaded their School Fundraising and Karma Mitra campaign. She also worked with school children and youth to sensitize them to social causes through workshops, film fests and screenings, fund raising drives and excursion camps.
As the Executive Founding Director at iCONGO, she has been responsible for shaping the mission and vision of iCONGO, along with various other volunteers who work with iCONGO. She has actively networked with different NGOs working on diverse causes. At iCONGO, she has developed and conceptualized some cutting edge ideas for campaigning and building citizen social responsibility. She has also been instrumental in forming media and other strategic alliances. Meenu has been integrally involved in promoting various knowledge forums and initiatives, including the Right every Wrong Conclave, Civil Society summit, CSR conclave, social innovation forum, Humane Capitalism Conclave and Karmaveer Puraskaar, to create awareness about various issues plaguing the society. She organised four major REW Conclaves, the first one focusing on all the issues afflicting the society, the second one focusing on Climate Change and environmental issues, the third one focusing on Citizen Action for Electoral Reforms and good governance and the Fourth one focusing on Citizen action to combat Corruption. She also has been integrally involved in organizing the regional and national Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity, with UNFPA.
Meenu is now also involved as a jury member and advisor with various development initiatives, competitions and campaigns to promote social awareness for citizen action and has also been integrally involved in the conceptualization and planning of Thinkin' Positive- A Film Festival and competition on HIV/AIDS with top media partners and UNODC, iCARE (Cause related merchandise) and CONGO SHONGO, (www.shopsofngos.com) , which is a livelihood project to give more visibility and ready markets to the products made by artisan communities and iCOZFLIX, India's first cause related cinema. She successfully organised a display of these products, as well as street plays by the NGOs working on education and livelihood, at ITPO for 14 days, in association with Amar Ujala and at IILM, Lodi Road Campus. Meenu was also the founder of iTEAM, which is a industry led livelihood programme for the youth of marginalised communities and Restaurants Against Hunger- A fundraising project to fight against Hunger and Poverty. She is also involved in organising Fundraising workshops through iCODEVGURUKUL and has been a support faculty for these workshops. Last year, Meenu was also involved in the planning of the pioneering initiative for creating an online media movement for citizen reporting with www.dishoooom.com. She is now working with management schools to sensitise and orient the youth in the right direction by designing curriculums on Ethics and values.
In the recent past Meenu also successfully conceptualized and executed an online creative contest and campaign- Go Green, to create awareness about Climate Change and Global Warming with Exchange 4 Media and is currently working on another creative online contest to drive cause related marketing and public service advertising. Through iCONGO she has also worked as a consultant for promoting alliances WOTR (Watershed Organisation Trust), Population first and other organizations.
Meenu is a firm believer that each of us as individual citizens have the right and responsibility to be the change and makes the time to promote social justice through citizen action.
I am a firm believer that each of us as individuals have a right and responsibility to Be The Change. I have been integrally involved in promoting various forums and initiatives to create awareness about issues plaguing our society. I have conceptualized and developed certain cutting edge ideas for campaigning and building citizen social responsibility.
Chairperson
An accomplished multilingual Engineer and a Management degree holder with varied experience for last 45 years with Indian Air Force, NGO's etc. Has a proven record of leading multi-skilled teams to drive projects from pre-development through post-development cycle and capable of mobilizing resources to a phenomenal high level. A high achiever and a well respected person in the development sector. A professional fund raiser who is exposed to both national and international arena of fund raising.
Areas of Expertise :-
Current Employment
- With Haemophilia Federation (India)
- June 2009 till date
- Presently working as Chief Executive Officer of HFI and managing all activities such as Organizational growth, medicine procurement, resource generation, man management, optimum man and material management etc.Deeply involved in increasing the visibility and awareness of Hemophilia in the country through its 67 chapters.
- With Deepalaya
- Director Resource Mobilization
- July 2007 till end March 2009
- Responsible for all aspects of resource mobilization such as direct mail, other forms of direct marketing, corporate fund raising, school fund raising etc. Also responsible for writing project proposals and seeking corporate support for core objectives of Deepalaya. Formulated the long term strategic plan for Deepalaya.which was highly acclaimed by one and all connected with Deepalaya.
- With Global Cancer Concern India
- Country Head Resource Mobilization
- April 2006 till June 2007
- After retirement from Helpage India on 31st March 2006, joined Global Cancer Concern India (GCCI) a national level NGO, working relentlessly to relieve the pain of the cancer sufferers and their families. The focus area of this organization is spreading awareness, early detection, diagnostic services, palliative care and supporting the destitute children of those cancer patients who have left the world leaving the family devastated. I was responsible for their resource mobilization at the national level.In a short span of one year I have been able to increase their Resource growth phenomenally by almost 50%.
- With Help Age India
- Country Head Resource Mobilization
- July 1996 to March 2006
- Joined Help Age India, a national level Charity in 1996 and rose to the position of Country Head Resource Mobilization. I was responsible for mobilizing resources to the tune of 17 to 18 Crores per year by using all modern method of Fund Raising e.g. SFR, CFR, DMA, Greeting Cards, Donation Boxes, Events, Space Selling, Through Internet, Souvenir, Direct Dialogue, Authorized Resource Representative, Government Grants, Foreign Funding etc. I have increased the Donor base of Help Age India from a mere 21000 in 1996 to 1.3 lacs in my tenure of 10 years, which contributed to the phenomenal growth in DM campaign.
- With Development Alternatives
- Senior Manager
- June 1991 to July 1996
- Worked as Senior Manager forTechnology Development with Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA).the marketing wing of Development Alternatives by designing and producing low cost building materials, handloom and allied equipments etc. This organization is a high profile Non Governmental Organization. (NGO) engaged in the field to find technological solutions for environment protection and design/production of eco-friendly products for building materials, textile etc.
Other Involvements
- I am in the board of Alzheimer and Related Disorder Society of India (Delhi Chapter) and associated with Morning Club (A senior citizen forum), Delhi Ballet group, I-Care Charitable Hospital, NOIDA, iCo South Asian Fund Raising Group and many other Societies and Institutes.
- I am capable of introducing and practising New Direct Marketing concept in the capacity of a consultant/ any other capacity.
- An active member of Rotary Club of Delhi - South Metropolitan
Academic Pursuits
- Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University.
- Master of Aeronautical Engineering (Aerodynamics) from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
- Post Graduate Diploma in Sales and Marketing Management.
- Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science and System Analysis.
- Fellow of the Institution of Engineers(India)
Additional Information
I have a son and a daughter. My son is a post graduate in Agriculture (Plant pathology) from prestigious G B Panth University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Nainital. My daughter is a Chemical Engineer from Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur. My wife is working with another NGO looking after the development of slum children.
Honorary Founding Directors
Highly accomplished and dedicated resource generating professional, thoroughly committed and service-oriented, possessing over 20-years' experience in NGO-activities, FMCG-Sales, Marketing, Public Relations and Advertising. Achieved outstanding credentials on the NGO-scenario, providing funding solutions and back-up, developing strategic alliances with Corporate Houses, networking and generating wide-canvas exposure for reaching-out to Below Poverty Line sections of society with extensive benefits. Considered to be a Top Fundraising expert and social activist in the field with excellent business acumen, creating Maximum-Publicity Drive with Minimum expense - shoe string budgeting.
Yashu is currently the Director of iCONGO in Mumbai. With a degree in computer applications, Yashu initially joined Wipro as a software engineer. She soon realized, however, that the desk work of sitting at a computer was not for her, and she made a crossover into the development sector. She worked at Action Aid for a few years, where she successfully initiated and developed a number of programs including the Karm Mitra program, Face-to-Face Fundraising campaigns as a part of Chennai4Change under the India4Change program and lead managed the Bangalore International Marathons in 2005 and 2006. As a part of iCONGO since 2004- first as a volunteer, now as Director, Yashu has spearheaded most of iCONGO's projects including the Right Every Wrong Conclave in March 2007. She also simultaneously works as a consultant with WOTR, having designed and now implementing their fundraising strategy.
Honorary Directors
Each Director heads a venture, campaign or initiative
Akshat Jain is a student of CBS College, Delhi University. While he's interested in a corporate career, volunteerism has always been a part of who he is. He was a part of the founding of a youth NGO called Vindhyachal and has been extremely active in volunteer work through Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti. Marketing, PR and event management are what he is eventually interested in taking up professionally, but in the meantime, he keeps himself busy organizing fests, competitions and conferences both in his college and related fields like the IAVE Conference, and writing articles on issues that interest him. Apart from his displayed interest in both corporate related and volunteer work, Akshat enjoys playing badminton and going on long drives.
A young and motivated Business Management Graduate has always exploited his skills in working towards bringing a change for the better and is constantly involved in doing so.
LS Narayanswami (Ravi) has played the role of both banker as well as brand and entertainment strategist in a career spanning a decade.
Currently in his second stint with Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai, Ravi is part of the India Strategic Initiatives Team. He had previously worked with SCB from 1999 to 2007 in diverse roles across Fixed Income, Structured Finance, Working Capital Management Products and General Management in both India and Singapore.
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Ravi spent a couple of years in the Entertainment industry as well as the Strategic Consulting space. His role as Head of Strategy and New Initiatives for a leading talent management agency saw the group diversify into the Digital Content, Event Management and Film Production businesses. His independent consulting practice included assignments for a foreign exchange trading portal as well as multiple hospitality projects.
Ravi joined Standard Chartered Bank in 1999 after finishing his MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He is 32 years old.
