Olly Donnelly
(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 and the World Bank in Washington DC. Olly’s role is to manage both the Shivia teams in the UK and India as well as the local partners in India and Nepal. She forms Shivia’s strategy, drives its direction and fund-raises to support operations.

Brooke Johns (Secretary and CFO of Shivia UK)

Brooke is a Chartered Accountant, who trained in the City of London. He has knowledge of a number of industries having worked for 25 years at a senior level in the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe, the US, Africa and the Far East. He has been a director of two public listed companies and run his own business. He now works as consultant accountant with a small number of companies, where he advises on financial and general management.

Brooke’s role is to help Olly form good financial and management controls throughout Shivia. Brooke helps Olly plan and organise, ensure good governance and prepares all secretarial functions and accounts.

Cécile Coke (Fund-raising, Shivia UK)

Cécile previously worked for Roland Berger management consulting, TNT and also with the Red Cross in Zambia. Cécile is in charge of Shivia’s fund-raising strategy in the UK.

Charlotte Allum-Smith (EA to Olly Donnelly)

Charlotte is Olly Donnelly’s executive assistant helping with a range of administrative, marketing and fund-raising functions. Charlotte previously worked for Fitch Ratings as an analyst in Structured Finance. She then went on to run Neema Crafts Centre in Tanzania as Acting Director, a UK registered charity which provides employment through handicraft training to over 150 deaf and physically disabled people. She has provided business consulting on a voluntary basis to small charities in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Charlotte studied her MA Joint Honours International Business and French from the University of Edinburgh. She is also the founder and director of CPEC Africa, an NGO she set up to transfer skills from the voluntary sector to drive sustainable local community development in Africa. She has spent time living in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Shivia India

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

Vasant’s role is to drive Shivia India forward with Olly, forming the company strategy and providing the support and systems to implement it.

Chandrani Banerjee (Head of Livelihoods)

Chandrani is Head of Livelihoods for Shivia, driving forward our poultry project in West Bengal. She is also responsible for project logistics, activities and managing the relationship between Shivia UK and Shivia India. Aside from Shivia, Chandrani is the “Process Coordinator” for Last Peak, the Indian IT company, in charge of Human Resources. She has held the position for the last ten years.

Aloke Saha (Head of Finance)

Aloke is Head of Finance for Shivia India and is in charge of Shivia India’s budgets, business plans, accounts and money transfers. Aside from Shivia, Aloke heads the Corporate functions of Last Peak, the India IT company. He has held this role for more than 10 years and prior to this, he worked in several corporate houses in West Bengal as a Senior Accounts Officer.

Joe Rao (Head of Partners Programme)

Joes is Head of Partners Programme for Shivia. He manages the relationship with both our local partners: BASE in West Nepal and SAATH in Gujarat, India and visits both on a monthly basis implementing financial and management controls and pushing forward on more standardised reporting from both partners. Aside from Shivia, Joe is Manager of Operations for Last Peak, the India IT company. He joined 11 years ago and now manages a team of over 500 professionals. Prior to this, Joe was in the hospitality industry for 8 years.

Habib Reza (West Bengal Operations Consultant)

Habib is responsible for overseeing the operations at the field level. He visits projects on a regular basis and audits all data. Aside from Shivia, Habib is the assistant accountant for Last Peak, the Indian IT company.