Prof. N. Vinod C Menon President
Prof. N. Vinod Chandra Menon is an alumnus of Kerala University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has over 37 years working experience in the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and public policy analysis. Currently he is Adjunct Professor at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Advisor Amrita School of Sustainable Development; Regional Director Asia at The International Emergency Management Society TIEMS (tiems.info; tiems.org), headquartered at Oslo, Norway; Member of the Advisory Board of Quantectum AG, Switzerland headquartered at Ljubljana, Slovenia (quantectum.com); Member of the Peer Committee on “Technological Preparedness for Dealing with National Disruptions” established by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE); President of RedR India (redr.org.in); Senior Advisor and Mentor of the International Institute of Information Technology ISquareIT, Pune (isquareit.edu.in); Member of the Governing Board of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (sspindia.org); Member of the Advisory Board of the Centre of Excellence in Disaster Management (CoEDM) at the Development Management Institute (DMI), Patna; Senior Advisor and Data Evangelist of India Excellence Foundation; and Mentor of engineering students participating in the eYantra Innovation Challenge (eYIC) of IIT Bombay.
Prof. Menon was nominated by the Prime Minister of India as one of the Founder Members of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with the status of a Union Minister of State in the Government of India from 2005 to 2010. Prior to that, he was in charge of emergency preparedness and response in the UNICEF India Country Office from 2002 to 2005, and Professor and Head of the Centre for Disaster Management at the Yeshwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune, responsible for training senior administrators of the Government of Maharashtra. He is a recipient of the 2010 SKOCH Award for his contributions in the field of disaster management. He has authored several publications and is Co-Editor of Humanitarian Logistics, published by Springer in 2010.
Annie George Vice President
Accomplished professional with over 35 years of extensive experience, of which the last 20 years have been in disaster management and humanitarian responses, demonstrating great expertise in recovery, governance, and building community resilience. Proven ability to lead multi-partner initiatives, develop strategic action plans, and implement effective programs that enhance capacity and preparedness. Skilled in stakeholder engagement and fostering collaboration among diverse groups to ensure inclusive and sustainable recovery efforts. Committed to applying innovative solutions to complex challenges, driving impactful change in vulnerable communities while promoting gender equity and social justice. Adept at navigating the intricacies of disaster response, ensuring that interventions are both effective and aligned with community needs.
Rich experience built across diverse disasters, including the 2004 South Asian Tsunami, Kosi and Nargis floods, and cyclones Evan, Phailin, Cloud Burst in Uttarakhand, floods in Kashmir, earthquake in Nepal, Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, Covid-19 pandemic in Maharashtra, and Kerala Floods 2018/2021, Assam Floods 2022, Kerala Landslide 2024, and Manipur floods
2024.
A Post- Graduate in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat
(IRMA).
Mangesh Gupte Treasurer
Mr. Mangesh Gupte is a Senior WASH Expert with a profound 30 years of experience. He has socio engineering experience in delivering result oriented projects in SBM, Water Sanitation Sewerage, SLWM, Decentralized Sewage Treatment, Community Sanitation, FSM, Plastic Waste Management and many more.
Prasad Sevekari Secretary
Mr. Prasad Sevekari has more than twenty years of extensive experience in initiating, planning, monitoring, advocating and capacity-building for participatory development and humanitarian relief programs. He has widely contributed towards coordinating urban and rural water and sanitation interventions in Indian, West African, Middle Eastern, and South East Asian environments including WaSH Cluster Coordination during emergencies. He has comprehensive knowledge and skill in facilitating grassroots-level development initiatives and has helped in ensuring LDRRD, preparedness, and risk mitigation, during humanitarian responses.
He is adept at training needs assessment and training program design and implementation for both, development and relief approaches, with an emphasis on humanitarian motivations, standards, and practices. Prasad has experience of working on database management and sector-specific as well as generic roster development for humanitarian capacity-building networks and organisations. He has a flair for leadership and coordination with stakeholder partners for effective program implementation. He has a fair understanding of attitude and behavior change for development.
Niyati Sareen Member
Ms. Niyati Sareen has over 30 years of experience in the areas of Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Business Development, Corporate Communication, Branding, Corporate Affairs, and Risk Management in the Engineering and Construction sectors. She has represented the sector and India in various think tanks around the world – as a working group member of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement (CRESS), Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (ECRI), United Nations Global Compact’s (UNGC) CEO Water mandate and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction – PPP (UNISDR). She has also been an active member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Catastrophic Risk and Humanitarian Assistance. Projects that she has implemented have become case studies at Kings College UK and INSEAD France. Her strengths are Incubating Out of Box thinking, Execution, and setting processes and systems. She is also good at networking and has the ability to build strong relationships and is known for getting the job done.
Ram Kishan Member
Mr. Ram Kishan, a seasoned professional in the humanitarian and development field. As the Country Director for Plan International in Nepal, he brings with him a wealth of experience in non-profit organization management. Mr. Ram is highly skilled in areas such as nonprofit organisations, policy analysis, proposal writing, capacity building, and international development. His dedication to community and social services is evident in his strong background. Furthermore, he has completed a Management Development Programme focused on Management Training from the Institute of Leadership and Management, UK. With his leadership abilities and field –based expertise, Mr. Ram us making a significant impact in his role as Country Director.
Sriraman Varadarajan Member
Sriraman is an independent professional with a Civil Engineering background and over 28 years of experience in Sustainable development and Disaster management. He has been an active member and experienced trainer for RedR India since the year 2004. Specific areas of sectoral expertise include Shelter and WASH both in development and humanitarian contexts including, but not limited to, training and capacity building of individuals and institutions from grass root level to regional level and; design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of WASH and Shelter reconstruction programmes in various disasters and; design and delivery of various humanitarian Capacity building workshops and training including Emergency needs assessment, Sphere in humanitarian practice, Managing projects and people in emergencies, Disaster Risk Reduction, School safety and DRR, Planning and managing humanitarian response etc.
Just to quote notable contribution to humanitarian and development sector, Sriraman has worked in the Evaluation of Shelter programme post Cyclone SIDR in Bangladesh, Design, management, and evaluation of permanent shelter post Tsunami in India and Sri Lanka; and several training programmes for masons and contractors on Compressed Earth blocks and other eco-friendly construction techniques in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Trinidad and Tobago; humanitarian training courses in South Asia, South East Asia and East Africa, Cyclone resistant shelter construction at the practical level for training masons, carpenters and other artisans in the Typhoon Haiyan affected Philippines as part of shelter programme for IOM. Managed country level humanitarian capacity building programme for RedR International, joint operation of RedR India, UK and Australia, for strengthening humanitarian response and recovery efforts in earthquake affected Nepal in 2015. Designed and delivered Build Back Safer (BBS) training programmes for IOM, Nepal in the year 2016. Worked as Senior Shelter Technical Officer in IOM from 2018 to May 2020 for Rohingya Refugee Crisis Response in Bangladesh. Designed and delivered a training course on “Enhancing Migrant Assistance Programming” for IOM, Indonesia in 2022. Worked with CDRI as Capacity building and deployment expert under RedR Australia-India deployment during 2021-22. Since 2022, Sriraman has been on the RedR India Managing Committee.
