Founder
My name is Adi Arora. I am 20 years old and currently a student at Cornell University. I have a 25-year-old brother Anish, who was born with a condition called Down Syndrome. When he turned 2, he was also diagnosed with Autism.
As a younger sibling, I have grown with Anish and seen him develop into a young adult from his childhood. I have firsthand seen the challenges faced both by Anish and our family. My personal experiences and passion to help special needs children are what motivated me to take the initiative to start this organization.
Tom Varkey: Director
Tom has participated in the management of the Stonehill Capital portfolios since joining the firm in 2001 and has been a partner since 2004. At Stonehill Tom’s areas of focus have included all emerging market investments, large liquidations in the U.S. and Europe, and investments in the education industry.
Prior to joining Stonehill, Tom served for four years as a portfolio manager/analyst specializing in emerging market corporate debt at Lazard Asset Management. At Lazard, he also was responsible for the Asian investments of Lazard’s emerging markets currency portfolio. From 1992 to 1995, Tom spent four years at Fidelity Investments as a fixed income analyst. From 1988 to 1990, Tom worked as an auditor for Price Waterhouse’s joint auditors in India.
Tom received a B.A. with distinction from Loyola College (India), an M.A. from Tufts University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. Tom partially retired from Stonehill in December 2018 and is spending more time with his family in India and serves as an advisor to Stonehill on their investments in India. He is also an active angel investor and has seeded and is on the boards of multiple early-stage companies. Tom is a Trustee of the Groton School in Groton, MA, is on the Board of Advisors to Tufts University and is on the Advisory board of the Harvard South Asian Institute.
Neeraj Gupta: Senior Advisor
Neeraj Gupta is a co-founder and partner at Cervin Ventures. One of his favorite parts of his job is working with entrepreneurs to build their market and competitive strategies – reimagining the world they can create together. Neeraj’s investment focus areas are industry solutions and data infrastructure.
Previously, Neeraj was the founder and CEO of Nexient, a digital experience consulting firm, and Cymbal, a telecommunications consultancy (acquired by Patni/Cap Gemini). He also held engineering and product management positions at Octel and Genesys. Neeraj has a BS in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Punjab University and an MSEE from the University of Alabama. He is a Kauffman fellow.
Outside of the office, Neeraj can be found on a favorite hiking trail or traveling to interesting new destinations. He also loves reading anything about Stoicism, leadership, and public policy.
Gireeja Rajesh: Senior Advisor
Gireeja Rajesh has been an inter country adoption coordinator since 2013. She represents two NGOs engaged in adopting children from India to Finland and Sweden. Her role involves coordinating and follow up on all adoption related procedures. She is a link between CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority)
in India, various children’s’ homes, and the NGOs. She is responsible for making sure that the adoption process runs smoothly by being in regular contact with co-operating agencies/institutions in different states and following up on the
process at different levels after the child has been matched to a prospective parent for adoption.
As a certified adoption counselor for Families of Joy, an NGO in India, Gireeja is a part of a team working towards reimaging the concept of adoption in India. She is involved in counseling parents who are inclined towards adoption by informing them of the guidelines and procedures and also addressing their social and psychological conflicts and dilemmas in relation to adoption.
Recently, Gireeja has been involved with “The Faith keeper’s Project” by Muscan NGO to prevent emotional health crises due to COVID 19. The goal is to reach 100 thousand people pan-India with anxiety management tools. She is responsible for training and handholding volunteers who are helping others in society mitigate anxiety with an intention to avert a mental health crisis.
Gireeja has a graduate degree in Psychology Honors from Lady Shriram College, Delhi, and a Masters in Applied Psychology from Delhi University. After graduating she worked in the corporate sector as an HR manager for Feedback Ventures, (then a start-up) and then as a Senior HR consultant with PriceWaterHouse Coopers where she was involved in Business Development and
in executing HR projects. She moved to New York in 1999 immediately after marriage and began volunteering for a few months in the personnel department at the UN Headquarters. Based on her performance, she was offered a consultancy in UNFPA – the population fund of the UN to conduct a due diligence study of the existing performance management systems. The diversity and challenge of a UN environment was a great professional experience for her. In 2001, Gireeja relocated from New York to San Francisco as a trailing spouse and spent a few years raising a family, traveling, and (trying to) learn Spanish. She relocated back to New Delhi to be with her family in 2007.
Kanuj Malhotra: Senior Advisor
Kanuj Malhotra serves as President, Digital Student Solutions for BNED as well as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development. He founded and launched the Bartleby ecosystem of products and services and is recognized as a leader in the higher education sector. The Bartleby products and services are a leading student success platform that provides invaluable services to millions of students.
Prior to this role, Mr. Malhotra was Chief Financial Officer of NOOK Media since July 2013 after he joined Barnes & Noble as Vice President of Corporate Development in May 2012. Prior to joining Barnes & Noble Inc., Mr. Malhotra was Vice President and Finance Head for Kaplan Test Prep, a division of The Washington Post Company, from 2011 to 2012. At Kaplan, he led a business transformation from physical test centers to a digital online learning platform. Mr. Malhotra has also held various senior executive roles at Affinion (an Apollo Management Company), Cendant, and started his career in Mergers & Acquisitions at Lehman Brothers.
Mr. Malhotra earned his MBA in Finance and his BA in Economics from New York University and previously served on the Alumni Council at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and the Board of Life’s Worc & The Family Center for Autism.