Savithri joined the University in 1995 as a stenographer. Hailing from a remote area near Sirsi where access to education was very limited, she moved to Bengaluru for the purpose of higher studies. She completed her graduation with a B.A in History, Economics and Political Science from Bangalore University in 1993. Her skills include training in Typing and Shorthand.
Prior to joining NLSIU, she worked at the Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru for a brief period. Over her nearly three decade journey at the University, she has primarily worked in the Registrar’s office and has also managed the Vice Chancellor’s for 10 years.
Seema has over 8 years of experience in higher education and e-commerce sectors.
Prior to joining NLSIU, she was working as an Assistant Director of Academics at Atria University where she was one of the founding members of the Academic Administration team. Previously, she has worked in Naropa Fellowship, Ladakh, Sai University, Chennai, Amazon, Bengaluru, and Infoedge, Noida in various capacities. She has juggled multiple roles in her career as an education consultant, an operations specialist, a career coach, customer service lead as well as team lead in the corporate sector.
Seema is an MBA graduate from Bangalore University and a graduate of the Young India Fellowship Programme, Ashoka University. She is also a trained Bharathnatyam dancer and Yakshagana artist, and an avid Kannada literature reader.
In a career spanning 30 years, Mr. Shailesh has had the opportunity to lead large business units, strategic client relationships and operations at scale across industries and customer segments. Prior to joining NLSIU, he was the Business Head for the Smart World Unit of L&T, driving some of the largest projects in the field of Smart Cities and National Digital Backbone. Before that he spent more than 25 years with IBM and was instrumental in setting up a large domestic base for IBM in India. In the late 90s, he also set up the domestic Sales organization for Adobe Corporation in India.
Mr. Shailesh is an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur.
At NLSIU, he will lead and execute all operational functions to meet NLSIU’s evolving needs and strategic goals across a variety of the University’s functions including its infrastructure projects, estate, facilities, and IT. He will also work in partnership with teams across the University to drive innovation, transformation and improved performance, within and across functions.
Shubha is a Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant with over 25 years of professional experience, including leadership experience in services and manufacturing sectors, managing India and US GAAP accounting, finance, legal compliance, MIS Management and budgeting, and stakeholder management.
She graduated with a gold medal in B.Com from Stella Maris College, Chennai, and holds an MBA in Finance, as well as an MS (Finance) degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. She took charge as NLSIU’s Chief Finance and Administrative Officer (CFAO) in September 2021.
Before NLSIU, she served as Senior Vice President (Finance) at Swasth Digital Health Foundation, where she led treasury, fund raising, business finance and compliance functions. Her previous stints include providing leadership for finance and accounting operations at Azim Premji University, heading Finance & Accounts Center of Excellence (FCoE) at Infosys BPM, providing business finance support at Wipro Ltd, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd, among others. She has also been a visiting faculty for finance and accounting courses at ICFAI, Christ University, and Amity Global Business School.
At NLSIU, Shubha plans to leverage her financial expertise and organisational skills to build strong technology-enabled financial systems with focus on efficiency, transparency and compliance.
Shruthi is a qualified Chartered Accountant with four years of work experience. She has previously worked with B S R & Co. LLP, Bengaluru – Member firm of KPMG in India. Her core responsibilities at the University include Student financials, Compliance, and Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A).
With over 8 years of experience in university library management, Sidlingappa Huded holds a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from Karnatak University, Dharwad, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Library Automation and Networking from the University of Hyderabad. He has qualified for UGC-NET and K-SET.
Before his tenure at NLSIU, Sidlingappa made significant contributions at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, where he oversaw collection development, library services, user training, scholarly communication, and technology implementation. As a core member of the archives team, he contributed to the Schoolbooks Archive—an open-access repository preserving textbooks and related artifacts spanning the last two centuries on the subcontinent. He also played a key role in establishing the Dr. PM Bhargava Archives.
He is interested in community libraries and actively supports village panchayat libraries around Azim Premji University. He has spearheaded various initiatives aimed at engaging community members and improving library accessibility.
His research contributions extend across journals, conferences, book chapters, and newspapers. Sidlingappa’s diverse interests include bibliometrics, user studies, community libraries, electronic information resources, archives, and open access. His publications can be accessed here.
Sneha has over 16 years of professional experience which includes university operations and publishing work. She joined NLSIU in July 2022.
Prior to joining NLSIU, she worked with Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore where she handled academic and non-academic administration, outreach and placement activities, and managing publications at the University. As part of her work at APU, she also worked for different State and Central regulatory requirements such as UGC, KSHEC and AIU. Previously, she worked with Manipal City & Guilds, Tata McGraw-Hill, Aptara Corporation, and Thomson Digital.
At NLSIU, Sneha plans to leverage her professional expertise and organisational skills to streamline and automate the academic administration process.
Soumya is a communications professional with over 5 years of experience in journalism, strategic communications, advocacy, stakeholder-engagement, knowledge management, and migration studies. Over the last 5 years, she has worked as a Communications Consultant with an Inter-Governmental Organization based in Geneva (South Centre) and two United Nations’ entities (UN Women and the World Intellectual Property Organization). She has worked on core global issues such as Gender, Education, South-South Cooperation, Intellectual Property, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among others. She is also a trained broadcast journalist, having started her career with television journalism.
She holds an M.A. International Relations (Research) from the School of Social Sciences (SoSS), University of Manchester; an M.A. in Media Governance from the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi; a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; and a Bachelors’ degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
Suhas is currently helping the National Law School of India University in spearheading its digital transformation initiatives.
Prior to joining NLSIU, Suhas has worked with multiple state governments during his stint as a Principal Consultant at PricewaterHouseCoopers by providing management consulting services in programme management, policy implementation and governance process re-engineering.
After graduating with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from PES Institute of Technology, Suhas started his career as an engineer with Bosch, Bengaluru and Hildesheim, Germany. His area of work specifically focused on smart device connectivity for car multimedia devices. During his stint at PWC and Bosch, he simultaneously pursued his MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, Washington D.C., and a Diploma in Economics, from the London School of Economics and Political Science respectively.
He is also a graduate of NLSIU where he earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. He is passionate about smart cities (and urban sector in general) and public transport.
Sunita is a counselor and a humanistic psychotherapist with a strong administrative background. She brings more than 18 years of work experience, having worked exclusively in the field of education. She previously worked with Yenepoya University, Mangalore, where she was working as Student Welfare Officer for nearly six years.
Sunita believes in the holistic development of young adults and her constant endeavour has been to create a space that will produce well-rounded and well-adjusted young adults. At NLSIU, she looks forward to implementing the vision and mission of the University and doing work that is meaningful and relevant to students and other stakeholders. In her role as Student Welfare Officer, Sunita works with the student body and the Residential Life team.
Please reach out to Sunita for all the aspects pertaining to Student Welfare. Sunita can be reached at or on her extension 136.
