Abhayraj Naik is a Bengaluru-based activist-educator, community builder, and systemic practitioner focused on art, ecology, education, technology, and transformation. Abhayraj has over 15 years of cumulative experience relating to citizen and community empowerment, design for transformation, environmental and climate justice, and systems transitions. Abhayraj is a Visiting Faculty at Azim Premji University and several other learning institutions, and is also the co-founder of a nonprofit organization called the Initiative for Climate Action, which develops a wide range of programs and projects in the climate action space in India. He is a much sought-after advisor, coach, expert, facilitator, and public speaker.
Ajay used to be one of the top employment lawyers in the world. He was a senior partner at India’s leading law firm, Trilegal, where he built one of the most successful legal practices in the country. After being deeply influenced by what was happening with the planet, Ajay decided to focus his attention on sustainability and climate change. He is incredibly passionate about art, science, sustainability, and wellbeing. Ajay is a strong believer in regenerative cultures, empathy, design thinking and collaborative frameworks. He is a co-founder at the Initiative for Climate Action, a non-profit with a vision to catalyze, enable and accelerate low carbon futures of justice and sustainability through collaborative action. He is also a co-founder at Bangalore Creative Circus 20,000 sq feet Urban Living Lab in Bangalore that was set up to build awareness and promote solutions around sustainable and conscious living, using art and science. He is also on the Board of Dream a Dream a non-profit that works on empowering children from vulnerable backgrounds. Ajay loves art, music, sport, and creativity.
Arundati is a public health professional with close to two decades of experience in health and development programs, research and policy advocacy. She is a passionate advocate of menstrual health and female health, and has been instrumental in shaping policy and programs in India and has contributed to global efforts as well. She is committed to building the female health and menstrual health eco-system through innovations, knowledge sharing, evidence generation, and policy advocacy. Arundati is the Founder of MHAi, a platform dedicated to menstrual health in South Asia. Arundati has previously worked with WaterAid, the Public Health Foundation of India, and Population Services International. She has a Doctorate in Public Health from Boston University, and a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
After working for 6 years at a start-up committed to ensuring effective and efficient use of health care money, Bram decided to turn to an even more pressing cause: climate change. As a volunteer programme manager, he initiated the We Are Tomorrow Global Partnership of youth organizations working on fighting climate change. It combined three aspects that Bram is passionate about: climate change, youth empowerment, and the need for global collaboration in dealing with current challenges. Through the partnership, Bram got in touch with EIT Climate-KIC, a climate innovation agency supported by European Institute of Innovation and Technology, and found a perfect match in the Young Innovators programme, which he is now leading. In this experiential educational programme, students and educators are taught essential competences in facing climate change, such as systems innovation, managing uncertainty and complex problem solving.
Jai's current interests lie in understanding and sharing the diverse systemic transformation pathways that individuals, institutions and systems can and need to take to effectively play their role in climate action, embedding climate action into annual planning and budgeting for different entities, and designing spaces and communities that allow for collective action to thrive. He is the co-founder of the Initiative for Climate Action (ICA), which is making transformative systemic change through climate action for a transition to regenerative paradigms. The ICA is doing this by curating climate action knowledge (solutions and stories) that is contextualised locally and actionable, disseminating it to relevant changemakers (individuals, communities, and organisations), and transforming them into climate leaders who are empowered and enabled to survive and thrive in the new climate reality. Jai is also a Sustainability Consultant, and his personal interests lie in making Coffee and Corporations sustainable and climate sensitive so they can survive and thrive in the new climate reality.
Kathy Walkling is the co-founder of Eco Femme, a social enterprise working to promote healthy, dignified, and eco-friendly menstrual hygiene practices. Founded in 2010, Eco Femme manufactures cloth washable pads offering a safe and healthy alternative to disposable sanitary napkins. Eco Femme products have global reach with products retailed in over 25 countries around the world. Kathy also heads the not for profit arm of Eco Femme’s work which is dedicated to ensuring comprehensive menstrual health education and free or affordable access to cloth washable pads to women and girls from low income backgrounds throughout India. Eco Femme partners extensively with NGO’s and grass roots ambassadors, supporting them in menstrual health education and strategy for introducing sustainable menstrual practices within their communities. Originally from Australia, Kathy has been based as a resident of Auroville (TN) - an emerging international township in South India- since 1997.
Madhukar Varshney is having 26 years of corporate experience for handling large IT and Telecom projects. Passionate to work for betterment of cities by providing Waste Management consultancy and Afforestation using Miyawaki techniques in India. He is founder of NGO called Rise Foundation also provide Teracotta Home composters, Twin Drum composters for Community, RWAs, Schools, College Campuses , Small and Mid size restaurants and Institutes. He is working as Coach with Complexity University , We train, support and fund teams around the world to reduce CO2e emissions at pace and at scale, while benefiting the most vulnerable in local communities, using already-proven methods, with a target of 1,000,000,000 tonnes (‘One Gigatonne’) of CO2e reduction annually.
Munish Kundra who has been working with Nokia for the last 26 years and now fervently invested in endeavors related to environmental initiatives like solid waste management, Miyawaki forests & Eco Bricks. He is an active member of Rise Foundation.
Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan is a conservation & sustainability researcher and practitioner, who tries to develop a new paradigm - ‘Deliberative Democratic Conservation (DDC)’ for the effective conservation and sustainability in the human-dominated landscapes. His efforts in the conservation of Vembanad Lake (Kerala, India)- the largest tropical wetland ecosystem on the southwest coast of India and a designated Ramsar site have been acclaimed by conservationists all over the world. A trained taxonomist and ecologist, Priyadarsanan has described more than 100 species new to science and has authored three books, more than 100 research papers, and popular articles. Currently working as Senior Fellow at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. He is a member of various National and International Scientific & academic bodies, and on the Board of Editors of many journals.
Tanya has over 10 years of experience in market development of health products and services in low-income settings. She has led research and program evaluations on the intersection of health, gender and WASH through her work at PATH and Development Solutions. Tanya is the co-chair of the Menstrual Health supplies workstream at the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition and the co-founder of the Menstrual Health Alliance India and has done extensive work on menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) research and advocacy in India and globally. Her work on MHH has spanned user and supply side research on the market landscape, advocacy on harmonization of product standards, technical support for program design and implementation and mentorship to start-ups in the MHH eco-system. Tanya holds a Bachelors in Economics and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management with a specialization in Finance. She is currently the Director of International Programs at the Pad Project.
Varun Deshpande is Managing Director at the Good Food Institute Asia, where he works with scientists, foundations, governments, and businesses to build the alternative protein sector across the continent. He has been named a leading young voice for climate solutions by India Climate Collaborative, one of Asia’s Most Influential Tastemakers by Tatler Asia, and one of India’s 25 Most Influential Young Citizens by GQ. Varun has spoken all over the world ranging from the Indian Institutes of Technology to Harvard University, and his writing has featured in media including The Hindu, FirstPost, and The Daily Guardian.