Mr. Ravi Kaimal – Chairman

Ravi has been involved with the school and BAT since it was a germ of an idea in 1990, visiting the area frequently prior to the school founding to collaborate and brainstorm with John and William Bissell.  As the Principal and Founder of Kaimal, Chatterjee & Associates, an architerctural firm in New Delhi, Ravi is responsible for designing the innovative Fabindia School campus, including the use of green space and open buildings. 

Ravi's formal training includes a B. Arch (1987) from the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi and has been practicing in Delhi since 1990. Ravi's interests and experience extend beyond architecture to photography, art direction for films (Art Director of Arundhati Roy's feature film) and rural education.  Ravi has traveled extensively in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, US, Spain, Italy and UK photographing places of architectural and environmental significance. He is the recipient of a prestigious UNESCO award for heritage conservation for his work in Rajasthan.

Ms. Parinita Ranpal – Honorary Member,
Fabindia School Principal

Parinita joined The Fabindia School in June 2006 as the new Principal and as such joined the BAT Board as an Honorary Member.   She brings tremendous experience and insights to the school and as a female leader is a wonderful role model for our students providing inspiration and skillful guidance as the school continues to rapidly expand. 

Parinita has over 15 years of teaching and managerial experience and joined the school from 
Dehradun, where she was the Principal at Kay Cee Public School from 2004-2006.  Prior to that, she served as the Principal at 166 Brigade School also in Dehradun from 2001-2004.  She has also taught English, History and been Class Teacher at schools in Dubai, UAE, Mumbai and Calcutta, ranging from Class V to X.   Parinita has a B.A., B.Ed. and M.A. in English and History all from Garhwal University.  She is a member of the Dehradun chapter of All India Principal’s Progressive Council.

Mr. William N. Bissell - Co-Founder & Member

William is the co-founder of The Fabindia School and BAT, having collaboratively developed the vision and approach of the school since its inception. In addition to his unwavering commitment to the school, William is best known as a leading social entrepreneur and is the Managing Director of Fabindia Overseas Pvt Ltd, a textile company started by his father, John Bissell, in 1960.

After completing his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA in 1988, William returned to India with the goal of working in the rural crafts sector to address economic development issues. Living in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and traveling extensively throughout the state, William helped to form the Bhadrajun Artisans Trust (BAT) in 1988 which was initially envisioned as an artisans cooperative for leatherworkers and weavers based in Rajasthan. After encountering a number of limitations in running BAT as an artisans' cooperative, he changed his approach and helped to launch a Jodhpur based company in 1990 called Desert Artisans Handicrafts (DAH) in which artisans over the next 6 years became shareholders. DAH has grown to witness tremendous success for its artisan members whereas BAT has become solely focused on education, with The Fabindia School as its only project.

From 1990 to 1999 William continued to work in the craft sector and investigated many different forms of "Community Ownership," finally finding a method of allowing small shareholders to buy into community owned companies while gaining access to necessary capital funds. William worked with Banks to ensure that these unlisted companies could offer liquidity to their shareholders. It took another five years to work out an accurate valuation methodology for correctly valuing the assets of these community owned companies, providing artisan shareholders an opportunity to realize this value.

In 1999 William became the Managing Director of Fabindia, which is now actively involved in setting up "Community Owned Companies" based on the paradigm which William has spent many years developing. This large-scale country-wide initiative has a target of working with 100,000 artisan shareholders to develop, support and market rural crafts, relying on Fabindia’s extensive chain of retail stores across India to provide the vital market link.

Throughout his career, William has dedicated his energy to empowering the creative potential of rural India, by promoting access to quality education and providing economic opportunities for its traditional artisans.

Mr. Charley Todd – Honorary Advisor

As a long time friend of the Bissells' and a visionary educationalist, Charley has been interested in the school and its mission since its inception. During his trips to India, Charley would visit the school and often join board meetings to discuss the schools progress and plans. After John Bissell passed away in 1998, Charley joined with Marie Prentice to create The John Bissell Scholars Fund to raise money for girl scholarships at the school.

Charley's educational career stretches back over 40 years and he served as the Head of School at the Watkinson School in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, from 1972-1999. He has served as Board President of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, and was founding Board President of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, promoting respect for all in America's schools.

Since 2002 Charley has lived in Cambodia, where he is Co-President of the Board of Directors, and Senior Projects Advisor for Cambodian Living Arts, working to renew the traditional arts of Cambodia and generate inventive new performing arts work growing from Khmer traditions. He lives in Phnom Penh with his adoptive Cambodian son, Sarin, his daughter-in-law, Ratinak, and his grandson, Apiream.

Mr. A.K. Shiva Kumar – Member

Mr. A.K. Shiva Kumar, development economist and adviser to UNICEF India, is visiting professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. He is a member of the National Advisory Council appointed by India’s Prime Minister and a member of the Mission Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission. He is a Founding  Board Member of IDEAS (the International Development Evaluation Association) and has been teaching economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for many years.

Besides being a regular contributor to global Human Development Reports published by the United Nation Development Programme, he has been associated with the preparation of National Human Development Reports  in many countries. Besides, he has undertaken several evaluation and assessment missions on behalf of the United Nations. His publications include an edited volume “Reading in Human Development” (published by Oxford University Press), the “Public Reports on Basic Education in India” (also published by Oxford University Press) and a United Nation Report on “Women in India: How free? How Equal?”.

Before returning to India in 1993, Mr. Shiva Kumar was Research Associate at HIID and Adjunct Lecturer in microeconomics at the Kennedy School. He received a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government at Harvard in 1992, and a MPA from Kennedy School in 1987. He also has a post graduate diploma in business management from the Indian Institute of Management and an MA and BA in Economics from Bangalore University in India.

Anjana has been contributing to the school by serving on the BAT board since 1993.  With a background in child development and education, Anjana visits the school often from New Delhi where she is currently working as the head of the Public Affairs Department for Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd. 

Prior to her work with Fabindia as a business executive, Anjana was involved in designing and producing toys and teaching aids for children.  In 1979 she started a successful toy production facility which achieved noteworthy success for her innovative designs, including a contract with The National Science Museum to purchase science teaching aids for schools across India, a mathematics kit which was deemed mandatory by the NEP, and preschool materials adopted by the national curriculum agency, NCERT, for use in early childhood learning centers in rural and tribal areas across India.  In 1990 Anjana was elected to serve as an Ashoka Fellow with a new focus on the even more demanding and generally ignored need to develop toys and aids for the one out of every 10 children who are handicapped.

The daughter of a diplomat, Anjana received a master's degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. She also had an opportunity to experience how several societies deal with social problems. She worked briefly as a social worker at Mobile Creches in Delhi, a respected private voluntary program serving the children of the city's poor, generally migrant construction workers. She also worked in a child guidance clinic in London, as a medical social worker in a hospital in Dublin, and in a daycare center for socially deprived children.
These direct-service experiences gave her important insights into the needs of children of every sort. They also left her with the desire to have a broader impact than direct case by case social work permits. Anjana has poured her diverse expertise and talents, from an understanding of the need to incorporate play into children's lives, to professional experience with design and marketing into her commitment to help the Fabindia School thrive.

Ms. Abha Adams – Member

Abha is one of the newest members to the BAT board, joining in November 2006, and brings a tremendous wealth of expertise and insight. Known as an innovative eduationalist of integrity and intelligence, Abha's professional vision matches The Fabindia School's mission of providing quality educational opportunities to a diverse socio-economic population. Through her work on the BAT board, Abha is able to inspire and strengthen the school's core commitment to serving India's rural sector with an emphasis on girls' education.

Abha has a diverse background spanning over 30 years in education in India and the UK and currently runs her own consulting company, the Abha Adams Consultancy, based in New Delhi. Prior to this, Abha worked for The Shri Ram Schools for 13 years in New Delhi. She joined the school as Head of the Senior School in February 1993. Later that year she was initiated as the Principal of the school and in April 2000, she became Director of the Shri Ram Schools. In July 2003 she also became Director of Shri Ram Educare, an education consulting company.

As Director of the three Shri Ram Schools, Abha was responsible for all aspects of their development and management. Her responsibilities included the management of a workforce of over 400 staff. As Director of Shri Ram Educare she was responsible for all aspects of the company's operations. During Abha's time with the Shri Ram Schools she managed the growth and development of two new schools, and an increase in capacity from 700 students to 2500. She was directly responsible for the introduction of innovations in the teaching of Special Needs, Craft Design Technology, Theatre Arts, Sports, and Conservation and Environmental Management. She also successfully introduced the International Baccalaureate. On taking over Shri Ram Educare she turned around the fortunes of the company and developed many new consultancies with schools throughout the country.

Abha is a regular contributor to leading newspapers and magazines dealing with issues on education and the Performing Arts and her publications include: The Reading Habit: Telling Tales, Children's Literature in India, Edited by Amit Dasgupta, - Book published jointly by the Indian Council for Cultural relations and Wiley Eastern Publishers Limited, and The Performing Arts in the Curriculum - A Fairy Tale waiting to Happen. - School Net Quarterly.

Abha has a B.A. and a M.A. in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, and a M.A. and a M. Phil. in Drama and Theatre Arts from the University of Leeds, UK.

Ms. Sudeshna Chatterjee – Member

Prior to officially joining the BAT Board in November 2006, Sudeshna visited The Fabindia School regularly since 2000 and conducted several interactive workshops with children at the school as part of her PhD research on developing child friendly, sustainable environments. Her experiences at The Fabindia School helped to inform her dissertation, titled “Children’s Friendship with Place: An Exploration of Environmental Child Friendliness of Children’s Environments in Cities” (North Carolina State University, US) in which she developed conceptual clarity on the much-used terms “child friendly place” and “child friendly city” from a socio-physical perspective. Her vital research contributed to the understanding of the meaning of environmental child friendliness from the perspective of poor Indian children who actively engage with the physical environment of a local area. North Carolina State University selected this dissertation as the best international dissertation in Fine Arts and Humanities for 2006-2007.

Sudeshna is a principal of Kaimal, Chatterjee & Associates, a New Delhi based firm that practices architecture, urban design and contributes to design research. Her expertise includes designing children’s environments such as schools, and other educational building types, neighbourhoods and housing environments, often including participatory design techniques, for which she is considered an international specialist. She contributes to innovative research on children's environment through her association with the Natural Learning Initiative in Raleigh, NC, USA. She is also a research affiliate of the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA, which is a global leader on research and practice in this field.

She has been a consultant for UNESCO, World Bank and Arab Urban Development Institute on issues related to child friendly cities. She was awarded gold medals for both master's and undergraduate theses, and an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women for being an outstanding woman scholar in the field of architectural and environmental design. Sudeshna's papers have been presented at prestigious international conferences and publications.

One of her current projects is working as the urban design consultant for the new capital city Naya Raipur of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Sudeshna utilizes the findings of her research on child friendly cities to create more human, intergenerational spaces within neighbourhoods. In this and other projects her skills as an architect and urban designer are fruitfully channeled to create large site plans which evolve from concerns of building with nature and designing large and medium scale built forms that take into account local conditions, materials and skill base.

She holds a B.Arch. and M.Arch in Urban Design from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design from NSCU, Raleigh, NC, USA.