Our TRUSTEES
Akhila Ramesh
NIVASA’s founder CEO, is trained as an Architect with a Masters in both Urban Design and Project Management from NUS, Singapore.
As the founder of Nivasa, Akhila's vision for Nivasa is to aim to redefine landscapes both rural and urban through social architecture designs approach that are culturally and geographically sensitive while being cost-effective. She has been recognized for her pioneering efforts, receiving awards such as the Woman of the Year 2019-20 by Nandala Seva Samithi Trust and the Sadguru Gyanananda Fellowship from Manava Seva Dharma Samvardhan.
Mr. Ramesh Sundaresan
Mr Ramesh Sundaresan has a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from REC Trichy and a MBA from IIM Lucknow. He joined Olam in 1995 as part of the Coffee division and went on to set up the Commodity Financial Services, Invenio, under the Olam group. He rapidly expanded the company into Singapore, Dubai, Brazil and Geneva. After retiring from his position as CEO, he is now involved with the trading side of Olam Learning Academy, and teaches at IIM Bangalore and Singapore Management University. He is also a partner at Quantient, an algorithmic equity trading firm. He is an Investor/ Advisor/ Board member at several companies such as Chaitanya Micro Finance and Geist Craft Beer. Today, he volunteers with NIVASA and YogaKshema.
Meenakshi K
An Architect with 20 years experience, graduated from the prestigious CEPT (Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology) University, Ahmedabad. Apart from running her own practice, she teaches at Anna University, and heads NIVASA Chennai.
Our Team
Susmitha Alva
With nearly two decades of extensive experience in consulting and organizational governance, Susmitha Alva is dedicated to fostering growth, learning, and teamwork within organizations more in the social development sector.
Her ability to nurture alignment and quality through initiative and creative problem-solving is her strong suit. She is proficient in collaborating with both internal teams and external stakeholders, leveraging her PR experience for effective communication.
Jaya Hariyani
Jaya graduated from Indubhai Parekh School of Architecture in 2018, after which she worked with Waste Warriors, Dehradun as part of the India Fellow program. She has done her internship at DUSTUDIO, Auroville and has worked with Studio spin in Ahmedabad after that. She believes that the built environment creates a huge impact on an individual's life and is keen to observe, analyse and change the same.
Uma
Uma, a graduate of Bangalore University, embarked on her professional career as an Office Administration and Training Coordinator.
Today at Nivasa, she channels her experience into managing the Administration and Finance aspects of the organization.