Aishwarya is a legal officer with four years of experience in litigation, real estate, and transactional practice, with leading law firms such as JSA and Touchstone Partners.
She has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating real estate documents, advising on fund formation and on various aspects of transactional practice ranging from structuring and due diligence to documentation and closing. She has also worked closely with litigation counsels on various civil and corporate matters.
Aishwarya received her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Hons.) from University of Delhi, and L.L.B. from Amity University, Uttar Pradesh. She also holds an LL.M. from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
Chandana A, joined the Academic Administration Department (AAD) at NLSIU as an Executive, in December 2023.
She has previously worked at the Orchids International School as a financial literacy teacher, and played a pivotal role in educating students about financial concepts, ranging from basic savings to complex topics such as investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies.
Chandana holds an MBA in Human Resource Management and Finance from Jain University. She complemented her B.Com degree from the Mount Carmel College, in Bengaluru. During her college years, she actively participated in various extracurricular activities, including event organization and volunteering for college festivals.
Akanksha, NLS BA LLB 2013, is a lawyer by training and has previously worked as a principal associate at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with the public mergers and acquisitions team. Her work included advising clients across industry sectors on corporate restructurings, stressed asset acquisitions, domestic and cross-border investments, and corporate governance.
As a student at NLS, she was awarded the Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Trust Scholarship for Constitutional Law, and the Temasek Foundation Leadership Enrichment and Regional Networking (LEaRN) Scholarship at the Singapore Management University. She was the Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT) in 2011-12, and was also on the editorial board for the National Law School of India Review.
She joined NLSIU in September 2021 as the University’s first Alumni Officer to handle alumni relations. As an alumni officer, she helped in systematising the University’s continuous engagement with alumni, deepening the relationship with our alumni, broadening access to include alumni from all our programmes, and managing NLSIU’s alumni platform (alumniconnect.nls.ac.in).
In her new role at NLSIU as Chief of Staff, Akanksha will work on a wide variety of administrative and executive priorities, duties, special projects, and initiatives.
Anjali Varma joined NLSIU in November 2021 to establish the People & Culture function at NLSIU. Anjali plans to drive a high level of employee engagement, through identifying, establishing and managing appropriate people policies and processes across a variety of functions at the University.
An alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Anjali is an HR Professional with over 16 years of experience in building and leading HR functions for enterprises.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Carmel College following which she completed her post-graduation in ‘Social Work, Family and Child Welfare’ at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has worked in different aspects of Human Resources spanning talent management, talent development, policies and processes. Since 2019, she has been in the HR consulting space, partnering with small and medium enterprises as well as firms and public institutions on various HR matters. She also works in the area of Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace.
She is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and writes in a variety of publications on topics that explore the intersection of gender, diversity and work life. Links to her publications are available here.
Bijay has a Bachelor’s degree in Science from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta and a Master’s Degree in Economics from Jadavpur University. Prior to joining NLSIU, he was associated with Azim Premji University at the Institute of Assessment and Accreditation, and the Piramal Foundation. At APU, his responsibilities involved setting up the online repository of questions, generating question papers, and providing quantitative analysis on its quality. He also contributed in streamlining student assessment processes for various State boards. During his eight years at the Piramal Foundation, he set up the Center of Excellence-Assessment team to develop quality assessment processes and systems for students.
Della is a counsellor by profession and has a postgraduate degree in Counselling Psychology. Prior to joining NLSIU, she was at Azim Premji University, Bangalore where she worked as a Resident Mentor for five years and also briefly took up a role in Academic Administration. Previously, she has also worked as a child life practitioner, and as an applied behaviour therapist.
Della enjoys working with young adults and has consistently been involved in various activities and sessions to promote wellness and positive mental health. At NLSIU, she works at the Office of Student Affairs along with Ms. Sunita Prabhu to develop and deliver various welfare initiatives for our student community.
Prior to joining NLSIU, he was heading the Centre for Teaching and Learning at IIM Udaipur where he helped implement IIMU’s vision of transformational learning. He led several initiatives that supported the teaching practice of faculty and worked on building a student culture that prioritizes learning in the classroom and beyond. Earlier, he served as the founding Director- Student Life at GITAM University. This role involved building a vibrant student culture, supporting student clubs, activities, and festivals, creating new initiatives for supporting student emotional and mental wellness, and managing student residences, among other initiatives. Before this, he worked as Manager, Student Affairs at IIM Udaipur. His industry experience includes a brief stint in Sales and Marketing with Marico and Unilever.
Joel’s experience as a member of the Student Council at IIMA, and active participation in several clubs and committees on campus as a student, was the start of his professional and academic interest in campus student development. He believes that fostering and catalyzing positive and engaging student cultures helps students achieve the cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal growth that is imperative during higher education.
He holds a PhD from the Ravi J Mathai Centre for Education Innovation at IIM Ahmedabad and specializes in student development in higher education. He completed his PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad in 2007 and BE from University of Pune in 2004.
Justin has over eight years of diverse experience in corporate, government, and higher education sectors. In his previous role as a Lead Venture Coach at GITAM (Deemed to be University), he was integral to creating a vibrant university-wide entrepreneurship ecosystem. He has also worked with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, where he focused on addressing gaps in the employment market through outreach, research, and collaboration with academic institutions and government agencies.
Prior to that, he worked at Cognizant on strategic consulting projects across Healthcare, Banking & Financial Services and Organizational Change Management domains; and at Mobius Knowledge Services in Human Resources, with a focus on recruitment. Justin is a recipient of the 2019 International Labour Organization Fellowship in Turin, Italy, and the 2012 Ford Motor Company Global Scholars Scholarship in Washington D.C.
He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal.
Ms. Jyoti Singh is Manager at the Department of Professional & Continuing Education (PACE). Jyoti holds an MBA with a dual degree in Marketing- Sales, and Operations and a strong operations background. She brings more than five years of work experience, having worked exclusively in the field of education. She joined us from upGrad Education Pvt. Ltd., where she was working as an Assistant Manager and handling online MBA programmes along with the sourcing of subject matter experts.
Jyoti believes in the holistic development of administrative operations, and her constant endeavour has been to create a balanced workspace that will result in better productivity. Through her work at PACE in the University, she hopes to work towards empowering the online legal educational system and making it accessible.
Kalpana is a Chartered Accountant who has worked extensively in the Healthcare sector. She was formerly Group Finance Head of Jain Group of Hospitals, a well-established mutlidisciplinary super-specialty hospital & pharmacy cluster. During her tenure, she was instrumental in fostering an agile, thriving organizational ecosystem, and led all finance activities including ERP implementation with integrated finance module, short term and long term fundraising, and risk management. Her role involved managing finances of clinical research projects, the postgraduate medical education department (accredited by the National Board of Examinations & Medical sciences), and undergraduate clinical teaching for the International Medical School of Malaysian Medical Council.
She has also worked on charity projects funded by Smile Train Inc., USA and World Diabetes Foundation, Denmark which benefited thousands of needy patients. She is an advocate of empathetic leadership – to recognize unique and diverse skill sets, empower team members, and to create a positive culture of higher productivity. She has previously worked with the Rajarajeshwari Group of medical and dental institutions and was also a practicing CA from 1997 to 2004, before she ventured into the industry.
