Team Members

Dr. Samanta has built the world’s largest fully-free residential KG-to-PG institute for 30,000 poorest-of-the-poor indigenous aborigine children, an institute with “Special Consultative Status” with the UN. A visionary social architect who embarked in 1992 on a social development mission using education as the strategic medium to eradicate poverty and alienation from the surface of the earth, a goal envisaged today by global leaders that goes as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a social reformer he has been propagating ART OF GIVING (a philosophy of life), a concept aimed at bringing peace to human minds around the globe.

RS Praveen Kumar is an IPS officer and secretary of the Telangana Residential Educational Society, which runs residential schools for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and underprivileged children. He is famous and highly respected for his pioneering work as a senior police officer and state Secretary, providing a full education for 160,000 disadvantaged children has recently been captured in the film Poorna. His focus is on qualitative education of the underprivileged, which he believes is a silver bullet, hence his focus on the SC Sub Plan Act and KG-to-PG residential education scheme. It has given wings to the dreams of lakhs of marginalised students. The Poorna film captures how he enabled the poorest tribal and Dalit kids, Malavath Poorna and Anand Kumar, to climb the highest point on the earth, Mount Everest.

In a career spanning two decades he has relied on his entrepreneurial thought leadership to contribute to change-making – as an award winning investigative journalist, conflict and war correspondent, editor, strategist on campaigns-communications-advocacy, team builder, entrepreneur and analyst on security and strategic affairs. He has held leadership positions in media and non-profit organisations. In his most recent role, he was a global leadership group member in Ashoka. He has been a practitioner of frame change strategies with the ability to convert uncertainties and adversities into breakthrough opportunities. His leadership as Amnesty International India’s chief strategist was a game-changer in re-establishing the organisation in India. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations.

Currently as the Chief Executive Officer of FXB India Suraksha, a not-for-profit organisation she is managing programmes and operations that directly benefit women and children across 14 states in India. Her work is centered around promoting the basic right of people to live a life of dignity and wellbeing. She has been actively promoting women from marginalised and vulnerable communities to emerge out as social entreprenuers and take charge of their and their family’s life. Mamta is a Synergos Senior Fellow and was selected by the US government for the International Visitors Leadership Program 2016 to share and exchange best practices on gender-based violence.

Dwiti Vikramaditya is the Advisor of KIIT and also a Member of the Board of Management of KISS University. For over two decades, he has campaigned for poverty reduction, human rights and displacement issues, while adding indispensable help with public relations, networking, fundraising and governance to all the organisations with which he has been associated. He has also worked with the Centre for Human Development (CHD), India, as a Project Manager, in addition to holding senior positions with UN Agencies in India, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Netherlands and Tata Steel. He has worked with the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences since 2006, and has been instrumental in helping the institute secure development projects while forging successful partnerships with various departments of the Government of Odisha, the Government of India, UN Agencies, foundations and corporates with KISS and KIIT University. He is a strong supporter of indigenous rights, and through his years of experience, he has helped KISS maintain a strict zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, making it a safe and welcoming space for tribal youth of Odisha.

Mac is the Managing Director of BRIDGE Asia-Pacific and a founding director of the Bridge Institute. He is responsible for the running and building of the leadership practice including P&L management, brand development, government and commercial relationships and applied research. Mac has extensive operational and leadership experience at senior levels in both private and public sector. Prior to BRIDGE, he led the operations team of one of the key global divisions at Reuters with responsibilities for finance, business planning and people development. Prior to his role at Reuters, he was a management consultant with two strategy and transformation firms, Capgemini and Mitchell Madison Group, a spin-off from McKinsey & Co. In his societal work, he has led programmes in education, peacebuilding, water, safeguarding of children, security and sport.

Jane is a founding director of the Bridge Institute and Director of Development at BRIDGE. She has more than 20 years of working in the field of leadership and is the primary thought leader and designer of the Fellowship programmes. Her passion is in developing organisational and societal transformational programmes. Over her time, she has pioneered a number of societal programmes in education, peacebuilding and reconciliation, human rights strategies and safety of women and children. Jane draws from her relentless interest in the human condition and is focused currently on the world’s need for a reversal in style in organisational leadership – she believes small acts of courage are more absent than ever and more vital than big acts of courage right now and therefore dedicated to ensuring that more and more courageous conversations happen in a complex world.

Fredrik works as Global Client Manager at BRIDGE and lead some of the biggest clients. He works closely with all stakeholders as well as with BRIGDE’s client directors, consultants and associates – most of the time he sees himself as “the Spider in the net” pulling everyone and everything together for a successful outcome of all that we do. Fredrik also leads the project management of the Kalinga Fellowship. Prior to working at BRIDGE he held positions as board co-ordinator for a Mayfair/London law firm, communication executive for a FTSE 100 company and he started his career in the Swedish Foreign Office where one of the his positions was as one of three project managers/co-ordinator for Sweden’s first EU Presidency. He studied law in Sweden – his native country as well as political science at Duke University, North Carolina. During his student time he was also the chairman of one of the biggest global student lobby organisation based in Brussels for 1 ½ years. He is a PRINCE2 Practitioner. His passion is to help individuals and organisations to make a real difference In their communities and create a more liberated and safe world. When not at his desk you will see him on the moors and fells with his three dogs or find him with a good book.