Meet the ARCHers

A Master’s Degree holder in Entrepreneurial and Family Business Operations, Nishant has spent formidable years as Director of Soyventis India and South East Asia.
Presently as Director of ARCH Development Foundation, he brings his vast experience and business acumen in management, sales, and operations of ARCH. He envisions future liaisons, business development and focuses on organization building, managing large teams, and business delivery. His commercial and professional outlook has kept ARCH the preferred corporate CSR management firm for all its clients.

A certified Social Auditor, Sonkee is an experienced Professional Development Consultant with more than 20 years of industry experience. She is an expert in writing social accounts, SROI, and conducting 360-degree impact assessment studies based on multi-stakeholder feedback.
Sonkee Shah currently holds the position of CEO at ARCH Development Foundation and has a prime focus on strategic planning & implementing comprehensive development programs; targeted particularly for issues on health, education, and livelihood. Sonkee strongly believes in sustainability & inclusive growth. With comprehensive knowledge of Development and CSR projects, her forte lies in design, planning, execution, & monitoring self-sustaining strategic programs at the grass-root level. Sonkee approaches her work with passion and an eye for innovation and value addition.
Sonkee has also been bestowed with the 'Gujarat Leadership Award' by CMO Asia for her contribution to the sector.

With an M.Com and MSW from MSU, Baroda, Ms. Hema Mehta is the Director of ARCH Development Foundation. She is apt in handling day-to-day activities in coordination with dealers, customers, and organizational departments for smooth business operations and poses strong communication, interpersonal and organizational skills. Further, she is committed to her passion for empowering women by developing entrepreneurship among women in the lower and lesser privileged sections of society.

Dr.K.K.Upadhyay's a widely respected and seasoned development professional, with over 39 plus years of experience across government, not-for-profits, academia, and corporate. He has pioneered several innovative and outstanding social enterprises - Safal, Aapni Yojana, Bastar Integrated Development Program, and Health of the Urban Poor. An alumnus of GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, and Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Dr. Upadhyay has been a pivotal part of the CSR journey in India as a thought leader, practitioner, and former head of the FICCI Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence.
At present, Professor K.K.Upadhyay is the Chairperson Centre for Sustainability and CSR BIMTECH. In recognition of the positive impact on society, for his humanitarian efforts, Dr. Upadhyay has been bestowed with many awards and accolades including titles like Sterling 25 (CSR Times) Thought Leader, CSR Leader of India, Mahatma, and the CSR Trainer of the Year 2020.

A consummate HR leader and mentor with experience of 30+ years in Human Resources function globally across multiple countries and Manufacturing, Consulting, IT & BPO industries. Mr. Paneesh has been driving strategic HR initiatives to realize bottom-line results and enhance employee engagement in pursuit of organizational objectives.
A creative thinker, problem-solver, and decision-maker, he pioneered initiatives and led large HR interventions intending to create an organizational climate providing workforce strategy and management translating into a wide range of people programs, career development, total rewards, inspire and lead large teams to deliver business needs and stimulate environment. In Mindtree, Paneesh oversees the entire gamut of human resources function and employee life cycle management. Heading a large team of 150+ HR professionals, globally, he drives significant initiatives for creating an organizational climate that fosters innovation, creates high-energy culture, and makes the company an employer of choice.
Paneesh has been conferred with several awards in HR excellence throughout his distinguished career; such as 101 HR Super Achievers in India conferred by World HRD Congress, Best CHRO conferred by Larsen & Toubro, 100 HR Super Achievers conferred by ET Now Best, 50 Most Talented HR Technology Leader awarded by World HRD Congress are a few from a long list.

An Industrial Psychologist and M.M.S. from K J Somaiya, Mumbai Kalpana is currently pursuing a Ph.D. under Dr. Urmi Nanda Biswas. She runs an HR consultancy firm – Abacus Learning and conducts training in Behavioural Sciences. She is an accredited Belbin Team Roles facilitator and also a licensed 16 PF Tester from OPP, UK. She has also been recently certified in the US as Educational Games Designer by the Thiagi Group Inc. Her industry experience includes working with Larsen & Toubro Limited and Powai Works. She is also a visiting faculty at the Faculty of Social Work, Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU).

With years of rich experience with the Government of Gujarat, I. A Vohra, MSW, and LLB, retired as a joint secretary of the Health and Family Welfare department in Gandhinagar. Having worked as Deputy Collector of Vadodara, Director of DRDA, and district Development officer of Valsad he has graced many boards of government corporations as MD and consultant. Passionate about Rural Development and Human Resource Management he is committed to doing more and better work in this field.

Jignesh is a passionate arts activist who uses his skills as a filmmaker, actor, writer, director, photographer, theatre trainer, and advocates for bringing social change. He has been involved with Darpana for Development –the development arm of the prestigious Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, in Gujarat since 2006. Jignesh specializes in training youth in theatre and performance techniques using the medium of street plays to cover social issues like creating awareness on health, woman empowerment, girl education, human rights to name a few. Having worked closely with UNICEF, WWF, John Hopkins University Centre for Communication Program (Bloomberg), USAID, Futures Group International, Public Health Foundation of India, Health Department of Jharkhand, and other government departments of India, he shows a deep commitment to finding creative mediums to augment social change at ARCH.

Ms. Deepa Goyal is a postgraduate in English and Economics. A passionate academician with more than 18 years of experience working with Government and Private schools. As part of her contribution to society, she has conducted numerous training programs on self-development for children from the less privileged section. She is a certified Memory techniques trainer and a Certified NLP practitioner providing training on memory techniques to school children and teachers. She also conducts counseling sessions to address psychological issues.

A teacher more by passion than a profession, Shamita has changed the rule book of being an educator by her unique techniques, indulgent attitude, and dynamic persona. She believes that teaching is not about clearing difficulties and complexities but more about making concepts simple and enjoyable. With an MA in Maths and PGDCA, she heads WISKRAFTERS, Delhi, an institute dedicated to grooming leaders of tomorrow. At Arch Foundation she provides her expertise in conducting training and learning camps among students and teachers in the beneficiary schools in the Delhi area.

Dr. Nazish Campwala, Post Graduate in Social Work from College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. Having a knack for writing, she is engaged in Freelance Consultancies for academic and non-academic research projects and documentation.
She has assisted many firms like Development Support Centre (Ahmedabad), Rizwan Adatia Foundation (Ahmedabad), The Blue Bird Foundation (Vadodara), TISS CSR Hub (Mumbai), Department of Psychology, the M. S. University of Baroda, ARCH Foundation (Vadodara) and many other private clients in their various research-based documentation work and is currently holding the position of Research Officer under the UNICEF Project, Faculty of Social Work, Vadodara.
Her expertise lies in the areas of academic articles, secondary source writing, research-based community organization, socio-economic trends and analysis of communities, research, rural development, and documentation.

Kalpesh Patel is an experienced Project Management Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. He has dedicated around 12 years of his expertise in this sector. During his tenure in the development sector, he has worked in different profiles with organizations like UNICEF, CEE, etc.
Kalpesh has worked in different projects under CEE dedicated to sanitation, hygiene, educational technology, etc. He was also associated with UNICEF for WASH Project in Chhota Udaipur District. He also holds several professional degrees in computer languages like PGDCA, CCNA, CIC & BA in Gujarati.
Kalpesh has strong & rich skills in research, project management, computer hardware, teamwork & leadership. He has been associated with ARCH Development Foundation for the last 4 years where he has been handling several projects under the education vertical as a Program Manager.

Ms. Kanika Salat has a demonstrated experience of 8 years of working in the social development sector. During her initial professional life, she has worked on addressing issues on violence against women more specifically towards domestic violence & human trafficking. She has delivered talks in colleges, organizations, NGOs on similar issues. Kanika also holds experience as a Counselor for Cancer & HIV/AIDS patients. She has been associated with organizations like Saarthi (Mumbai), Cancer Aid Society (Mumbai), GVK EMRS 181 Abhayam Women’s Helpline (Vadodara), Perarna Anti-Human Trafficking Organization (Mumbai). Despite all these, she remains keen to explore opportunities to carve out the niche for personal & professional learning. 
Academically, she has done her Masters in Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi & BA in Economics & Hindi Literature from Sophia College for Women, Mumbai. Kanika Salat has been associated with ARCH Development Foundation for the last 2 years as a Senior Executive, looking after the HR & communications department. Simultaneously, she is also associated with different projects of ARCH as a support team member.

Hardik Pandya has pursued a degree in Civil Engineering and graduated in Sociology. His strength lies in leadership and team management. He holds expertise in planning and execution of projects & problem-solving.
Hardik has a good balance of 3H- Head (the ability to think), Heart (the ability to empathize and the Hand(the ability to do). Hardik is a noble development sector person with all most 11 years of productive experience spent working with good organizations as well as the government sector.
Currently, he is associated as Sr. Coordinator with ARCH Development Foundation. He is handling various projects as a senior team member under the verticals – Livelihood and Education at different locations. He is currently handling a team of 12 people from the project execution site.

Ms. Veena Jadav started her contribution in the development sector around 17 years back in 2004 through Behavioural Science Centre in Kutch as a Development Organizer. From then on, Ms. Veena has worked in several organizations like Anandi, Aga Khan Organization, Bawla Nishvarth Children Foundation & SWATI at different designations.
During these years she had dedicated her skills & knowledge to address the issues related to health, finance & other issues faced by women & children in the rural areas. She holds a deep knowledge & expertise in microfinance management & related fieldwork. Ms. Veena Jadav holds a bachelor's degree in social work. She is handling projects under the vertical – Livelihood focusing on forming SHGs, skill development, and other components aligning women empowerment.

Chandresh Rathod has worked as a social worker for the last 11 years in different posts in national and international organizations associated with social development, rural development, as well as training government school teachers. In DGN SKILL AND MANAGEMENT PVT LTD he was working as a Training Faculty cum Centre Head under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). He was training people from different areas of Rajkot city under PMKVY, the task of keeping a record of all the documents came under his purview. 
Chandresh is a part of the core team of ARCH and holds the position of Project Co-Ordinator under Pahel Project in Rajkot. He is providing overall operational support to the programmatic activities, coordination & collaboration with the community local agencies health centres, government, and NGOs to strengthen the implementation of the program. He holds good skills in fieldwork, communication, coordination, and team management.