Naveen Jha

Naveen Jha
Born 9 April 1977
Residence Hubli Area, India
Alma mater
Occupation
Spouse(s) Neelam Maheshwari
Website http://www.deshpandefoundationindia.org/

Naveen Jha (born 9 April 1977) is a social entrepreneur and former Chief Executive Officer of Deshpande Foundation, India.[1]

He is the Former CEO of Hubli Sandbox, Chairman of Sandbox Startups[2][3][4] and Managing Trustee of Deshpande Educational Trust.[5] He also co-founded Ek Soch Sandbox[6] and is the Patron of Kakatiya Sandbox.[7] He has also contributed significantly to the founding of the Hubli chapter of TiE.[8]

He is also a recipient of the International Ford Foundation Fellowship Award.[9]

Early life and education

Born in Jamshedpur, Bihar (now in Jharkhand) Naveen graduated in Mathematics from Jamia Millia Islamia in 1997 and then went on to earn an MA in Social Work from the same university in 2000.

Later on, he studied at Brandeis University and earned a master's degree in International Development[10] in 2007.[11] He took several courses at MIT’s Poverty Lab and Harvard University.

Career

Naveen Jha started his career in 2000 at PRADAN,[12][13] a social organization actively engaged in the area of livelihoods. In 2006, he worked as a Consultant (Trade Policy Analyst) to Oxfam America.[14] He was a member (2012–2013) of Karnataka Knowledge Commission.[15]

He joined Deshpande Foundation in 2007 as a Program Officer[16] and was responsible for managing the Foundation's India offices in Karnataka. Later, he worked as the Director (Programs) at Deshpande Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (DCSE). In 2010, he founded the Deshpande Education Trust and has been its Managing Trustee ever since. In 2011, he became the CEO and has been leading the organization till date.

In 2010, he co-founded the Hubli chapter of TiE and worked as President [17] of the company. By 2013, he was a member of it's governing body.

He has been working as the Chairman of Sandbox Startups since 2016.

Personal Views

Social Entrepreneurship

In an interview with Firstbiz regarding Deshpande foundation's Master’s program in social entrepreneurship, Naveen stated, "In the past ten years we've seen that there are very few people engaging in social entrepreneurship or non-profit space. To solve India's problems of healthcare, education, sanitation we need people with an entrepreneurial mindset who can create new ideas. We've been building up this (Sandbox) ecosystem in Hubli and so thought that a good master's program will help people engage with these organisations."

He also expressed positive views on the future of social entrepreneurship and the social entrepreneurship program. He said, "In the last couple of years, India has seen the young generation talking about good things they want to do. They want to be active for the benefit of society."[18]

Skill Development

In another interview with National Skills Network, Naveen expressed his concern about the huge gap between education and employment in India. He stated, "It’s apparently because our college and university education systems are unable to catch up with necessary skills and the right mind-set required at the workplace, resulting in a huge ‘skill gap’, forcing enterprises to run parallel training programs."

He went on to explain DET's approach to deliver unique experiential short-term skill training, adhering to global standards of quality and efficiency and supplementing it with strong work ethics culture. [19]

References

  1. ↑ "Naveen Jha, CEO".
  2. ↑ "Chairman of Sandbox Startups".
  3. ↑ "Microsoft Ventures, Deshpande Foundation launch Sandbox Startups".
  4. ↑ PTI (25 August 2014). "Microsoft Ventures ties up with Deshpande Foundation". The Economic Times. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  5. ↑ "Managing Trustee, Deshpande Educational Trust".
  6. ↑ "Co-founder of Ek Soch Sandbox".
  7. ↑ "Patron of Kakatiya Sandbox".
  8. ↑ "Global TiE members mentor Hubli firms".
  9. ↑ "Recipient of the International Ford Foundation Fellowship Award".
  10. ↑ "Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University".
  11. ↑ "Master's Degree in International Development".
  12. ↑ "Executive at PRADAN".
  13. ↑ "Executive at PRADAN".
  14. ↑ "Consultant to OXFAM America".
  15. ↑ "Member of Karnataka Knowledge Commission".
  16. ↑ "Joined Deshpande Foundation as Program Officer".
  17. ↑ "TiE Hubli takes entrepreneurship to schools". @businessline. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  18. ↑ "How the Deshpande Foundation is hoping to change social entrepreneurship in India - Firstpost". www.firstpost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  19. ↑ "Leading from the front: How Deshpande Foundation pioneers excellence in skill development".
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