Chakravarty, who grew up in New Orleans, has professional experiences in Africa and India.
Indian American Nisha Chakravarty has joined Safe Water Network as its Chief Financial Officer.
She will lead the organization’s financial management efforts, measuring its operational and social impact in India and Ghana, and strengthening data management and financial reporting tools.
“Nisha brings to the management team financial expertise informed by considerable experience in international development,” said Kurt Soderlund, CEO of Safe Water Network. “This is critical, not only to improving our internal financial controls and processes, but also to advancing the financing and impact measurements for our field programs and related initiatives.”
Prior to joining Safe Water Network, Chakravarty founded and led two social enterprises, in India and in Kenya, which focused on base-of-the-economic-pyramid communities. She has served as a senior adviser, consulting on thought leadership, financial systems, and human capital, as well as authoring white papers for companies such as Unitus Capital and UNICEF. Chakravarty has guest-lectured at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School on the subject of social innovation and social enterprises, and collaborated with China’s Tsinghua University on fintech for rural development research.
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Chakravarty has also served as Nuru International’s CFO, KIPP LA’s Chief Financial and Operating Officer, and consulted with StudentsFirst. She led shared-services strategy at Goldman Sachs for India and Singapore and spent time in London, Hong Kong, and Mumbai in her roles as Head of Expense Management for the Lehman Brothers and Nomura India offices. Prior to her time in financial services, Chakravarty oversaw finance teams at Time Inc. and Scholastic Inc.
Chakravarty holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University, two undergraduate degrees from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and is currently pursuing her doctorate at UPenn, where her doctoral research focuses on access to higher education for underserved communities.
Chakravarty, who grew up in New Orleans, has professional experiences in Africa and India. She has personal interest in market driven solutions for base-of-the-pyramid communities, particularly as it relates to the positive effects for women and children.
READ MORE:
Safe Water Network calls for collaborative effort to tackle water problem (October 27, 2018)
Why clean water matters to young girls? (September 10, 2019)