Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

University of Calicut

Chief People Officer @ Akshaya Patra  -  Venture Advisor @Iskcon Bangalore  -  Starting & Scaling Ventures  -  IIM Bangalore Alum

Heading Operations, Central Sourcing, Quality & Food Safety, Process Excellence, Donor Care, Innovation and Capex functions.
Serving 2 Million children every day, an increase of 40% from pre covid levels. Added 12 new centralised kitchens (with a capacity of ~5L meals per day) last year.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Chief Operating Officer

Heading HR, IT & Program Management functions
Responsible for People Ops (HR) & Culture. Taken over when CHRO, Director - HR & Director - L & D left in subsequent months. Mandate to improve the processes and rebuild the senior management team. 
Also acting as interim CIO/CTO from June 2021 on-wards as an additional responsibility.
Built a new top management team - New CFO, CHRO, CIO, Audit Director, Senior Ops GM etc in a record turn around time.

Chief People & Program Officer

Taken over when Akshaya Nidhi was undergoing a struggle (CEO’s departure, cash flow issues like an customer outstanding of more than 1 year, profitability issues etc). 
Turned around the organisation by raising a debt of 35 Million INR within few weeks, collecting the customer outstanding in 6 months, renegotiating the an increment of 50% in selling prices etc
When moved out after 1 year, the organisation was in cash positive, making good profits, and regular customers. 

Also handling various social business ventures with 100% of the profits ploughed back for various social & spiritual projects.

Executive Director - Akshaya Nidhi

Moved to an advisory role from Akshaya Patra, heading Akshaya Nidhi & various sustainability ventures in Iskcon Bangalore.   

Led Iskcon Bangalore’s Venture builder, where we start, scale & turnaround various for-profit social ventures. These ventures contribute 100% of its profits to various social and spiritual causes. Current business interest includes Foods & Beverages, Gifts, Books & Magazines, Banquet Halls, Diary etc under various trusts & private companies – Akshaya Nidhi Foundation (in aid of Akshaya Patra), Iskcon Foundation, Touchstone Foundation, Sri Venkateshwara Seva Trust, Sankirtan Seva Trust & Golden Avatar Ventures.  Responsible for P&L, Operations, Marketing & Business Strategy and building a team of diverse senior leaders to create a high performance inclusive organisation for the above foundations, trusts & companies.  
- Signed up with an investor cum operator to establish Annakoot branded products & restaurants across India - Taken over couple of Banquet Halls, increased the revenue by 6X and profits by 20X in the first year of operations.
 - Turned around loss-making low-cost food business into profitable.  
- Raised 35 Million debt & collected 100 Million receivable to manage vendor partners and statutory requirements in couple of months.  
- Increased the profitability of food business by 60% and Gifts by 30% in one year.
 - Ventured in to new business models and external business grown to 3X in the initial year.

Executive Director - Ventures

Instrumental in setting up/scaling various SBUs like Retail marking, program office, financial analysis & decision sciences, donor care, donor analytics, central sourcing, project procurement, Tele & direct marketing, Individual & HNI giving etc. Also headed venture studio for generating sustainable business income to support social & spiritual projects. 

- Led Central Sourcing & Procurement Cell (Projects, Capex, Food & Non Food Procurements) and Enterprise Services (Donor Care, Individual giving & KPO). 
- Built 100+ seater KPO from scratch, first of kind in nonprofit sector in India.
- Managed cross-functional teams of 140+ people across 15 locations in India.
- Raised donations to serve 30+ Crore meals from close 80K+ small donors.
- 100x growth in donations from individuals and 90x improvement in key business processes.
- Scaling central sourcing to 30+ food factories from 5 kitchens, in less than couple of years. 
- Managed procurement worth of INR 200+ Crore per year.  
- Saved INR 10+ Crore per year through various sourcing strategies and optimization Projects. 
- Helped to streamline Akshaya Patra UK processes based out of London.

Director

Involved in Business and Systems Analysis for Fortune 300 Company and instrumental in creating an offshore division for agency projects. Closely involved in designing & creating couple of analytics products.

First American Corp

Business Consultant/Product Manager

Had a short stint with Asia’a largest software giant in their Investment Banking Practice. 

Worked on a consulting assignment for a US asset management company in designing and implementing Reference Data Solution.

Tata Consultancy Services

Business Consultant

Was Handling ING Treasury (Amsterdam & Belgium) account for Capco.

Leading a team of 5 people including business analysts, technologists & data associates.

Capco

Lead Business Analyst/ Project Manager

Was in US & CA Fixed Income (Treasury/Corporates) team. Started with Corporates team, later moved to US & Canadian Treasury.

Joined as an Analyst fresh out of college, and got promoted to Senior Analyst within an year of joining.

Led a team of 4 analysts and imparted training for 6 new joiners in the areas of Fixed Income.

Saanil Bhaskaran