Olly Donnelly
(Founder & Chief Executive of Shivia UK)

Olly is the Chief Executive and Founder of Shivia Microfinance. Prior to this she worked for Accenture Strategy in London. She started her career at the World Bank in Washington DC. Whilst at the World Bank, she was awarded the World Bank Youth Innovation Fund and initiated "Abhilasha project" in Western Nepal, helping Dalit communities gain access to education.

Olly has travelled extensively and spends much time in India and Nepal. She previously worked on a variety of projects including microfinance, HIV/AIDS, women, education, caste issues and with disadvantaged children. Olly is involved in several charities in the UK and abroad and advises a number of NGOs on their strategies. She is particularly involved with the foster home, Familia, for abused and abandoned children in West Bengal, India. She previously sat on the Leonard Cheshire International Committee working with "People with disabilities" throughout the world. She now sits on the Moonpig Foundation Board of Trustees as well as the MAITS Board of Trustees. Olly has spoken at numerous events about grass-roots development and she is the UK ambassador for BASE, a leading NGO in Western Nepal, working with the indigenous Tharu population.

Olly studied Geography at Oxford University and was awarded a first class honours in her degree. Her thesis was based on the informal sector in Calcutta, focusing on the hand-rickshaw trade. She then got Distinction in her Masters from Oxford University and her thesis was based on Urbanisation in Calcutta. She is now on both her college, St Edmund Hall, and school, St Mary's Ascot, alumni committees.

Olly was included in Management Today's 2009 list: "35 women under 35" and was shortlisted for the Charity Times 2011, “Rising Manager Star”.

Tim Neslen (Director of Shivia UK)

Tim works for Europa Capital, a Real Estate Private Equity Fund, focusing on acquisitions in Southern Europe. Prior to this, he worked for Goldman Sachs in the Merchant Banking Division looking at private equity investments across Europe.

Tim studied Geography at Oxford University, gaining the Shell Prize for Field Work. His thesis was based on the return migration of Antipodean and South African Migrants living in the United Kingdom.

Stuart Tester (Chairman and Director of Shivia UK)

Stuart is currently a Special Adviser on Middle Eastern Affairs to HRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. He is also a Director of S & CTC Ltd, a UK-based independent energy consultancy. Prior to this, Stuart joined Shell as a research scientist. Over subsequent years Stuart moved through a wide range of commercial roles, running a variety of businesses and including assignments into finance and human resources functions and spending time in South Africa. Stuart finished his career with Shell in the UK as Managing Director of Shell Gas, Chairman of Shell Power and Vice President for Europe in their International Gas & Power Business. Stuart studied Applied Chemistry and obtained a First Class Honours Degree.

Annabel Heathcoat-Amory (Director of Shivia UK)

Annabel is a qualified solicitor and previously worked for Herbert-Smith LLP, primarily in its commercial litigation department. She also has experience in corporate, property and competition law. Annabel studied Law at BPP, London and MA History at Oxford University. She is a Governor at Westminster Cathedral RC Primary School and mentored children at Harpley School, formerly a school for excluded pupils.

 Shivia India

Vasant Subramanyan (Director of Nirdhan and Trustee of Shivia India (Chairman of both))

Vasant Subramanyan, is a serial entrepreneur, and has promoted a number of business entities. The entities have been providing services to various healthcare companies in the USA. He has also been a consultant in the Info Tech space to technology ventures in the US which have seen the convergence of platforms in data, voice and picture capture. He was an international corporate compliance & financial administration consultant former multi-national, F200 consultant on cross-border trade, statutory compliance and mergers and acquisitions.

Shourya Mandal (Director of Nirdhan)

Shourya is a Senior Partner at the Indian law firm, Fox Mandal Little, based in Kolkata. He focuses on real estate law and has been named as one of the International Who's Who for Real Estate lawyers. Shourya studied his BSc (Honours) in Economics from Calcutta University and LLB (law) from University of Bombay. He was the former President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce - Eastern Regional Council and Chair of the Banking Finance & Securities Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).

Pramod Marar (Director of Nirdhan and Trustee of Shivia India)

Pramod Marar is presently working as Senior Vice President and National Head - Assets, Business Banking with The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited at Mumbai. In his previous role with the bank, he was heading the Microfinance business, having set up a commercial microfinance unit in 2007.
He has extensive corporate banking experience having handled multinational, large local corporates and SME relationships. He has also worked in domain specific areas like supply chain financing and factoring. During his earlier assignments in the non-banking sector, he has managed corporate treasury and equity research.
He is a post graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore and a commerce graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi. He is also a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Nishant Lalwani (Director of Nirdhan and Trustee of Shivia India)

Nish is currently a senior project manager within Monitor Group, based in Mumbai, India. His focus is on private sector models for poverty alleviation, and he has consulting and development experience in Europe, the USA, Africa and India.
Nish is a core part of the Monitor Inclusive Markets team which focuses on ‘market-based solutions to create social change’. Joining the practice in 2007, he was instrumental to the team that completed the foundational, multi-sponsor, market-based solutions study to identify and scale up the most promising commercially viable approaches to social benefit in India. His current areas of focus are business models that can deliver commercially viable “micromortgages” for India’s urban poor, and also low-cost clean drinking water models for both villages and slums. Before Monitor, Nishant worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Zambia, where he helped develop new financing products for microfinance institutions across the country.