Neeman Global Capital: A New US-Based, India and Women Centric Think Tank Unveils Advisory Board
I’m honored to connect with the vibrant Indiaspora community today. As the founder of Neeman Global Capital, a New Jersey-based think tank dedicated to changing narratives to advance equity, I have exciting news to share in my first blog post: we’ve appointed five extraordinary women leaders to our Global Advisory Board.
These leaders, based in three countries—Switzerland, the United States, and India—bring a wealth of experience across various sectors to ensure strong governance and stability. We are collaboratively claiming spaces for women of color at the policy table, ultimately bridging the equity gap in representation.
Neeman Global Capital is on a mission to advance gender lens investing in the US and India. Our core focus is amplifying the voices of women of color in policy dialogues. We bridge the gap between policy and practice by tackling critical intersectional issues at the crossroads of gender, low-carbon economy, education, public health, and technology. Our team is a testament to our commitment to diversity and inclusion, with over 70% of our leadership and board composed of women from the Global South.
Meet the Advisory Board:
Divya Srinivasan: A fierce human rights lawyer with a specialization in women’s and girls’ rights, gender equality, and international law, Divya Srinivasan has been working with Equality Now since 2017. Divya’s work as Global Lead Harmful Practices has included a focus on various issues affecting the human rights of women and girls, including sexual violence, anti-discrimination, female genital mutilation, and child, early, and forced marriage. She also co-chairs the steering committee of The Coalition for Adolescent Girls convening 85 global feminist organizations. Originally from Chennai, India, Divya is currently based in Geneva. She holds a Master’s degree in law (with a concentration in international human rights) from the Harvard Law School.
Kalika Bali: a TIME100AI honoree for 2023, is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Labs India, Bengaluru, India. With nearly two decades dedicated to advancing human-computer interactions through language technologies, Bali is a pioneer in creating inclusive tech for diverse languages and communities. Her focus on underrepresented languages is exemplified in a project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Her expertise in eliminating gender biases often present in AI training data would be invaluable in guiding new research and pilot projects at Neeman Global Capital that aim to democratize technology access and ensure gender-equitable user experiences.
Nirmala Garimella: A passionate advocate for women and girl’s empowerment, both locally and globally, Nirmala brings over three decades of experience in philanthropy, community building, and leadership. Nirmala is a co-founder of Circle of Hope, a giving circle of women philanthropists in New England. She also serves on the Board of Direct Action for Women Now and the co-founder of the community website Lokvani.com, which covers local Indian American news in Boston. Her expertise as a senior philanthropy strategist and leadership advisor will be invaluable as Neeman Global Capital builds relationships with key partners.
Radhika Pillai: With nearly two decades of experience in communications and advocacy, Radhika's passion for social justice shines through. As a Senior Specialist at Sensata Technologies, Boston, she leads corporate reputation and employee engagement initiatives focused on sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and philanthropy. Her experience working with mission-driven organizations and her skills as an empathetic communicator will be instrumental in guiding Neeman Global Capital's narrative change efforts.
Yeshimabeit Milner: Yeshimabeit “Yeshi” Milner is an American technologist and activist. She is the Founder & CEO of Data for Black Lives, based in New York. She has worked since she was 17 as a movement builder, technologist, and data scientist. She is an Echoing Green Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, and in 2019 became a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. In 2020 she received a New York Times Good Tech Award for Data for Black Lives’s COVID-19 database, and in 2021 was awarded the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, which recognizes leaders under 40 who have made significant contributions to politics and public service.
Antony Nellissery: An educationist and strategist with more than two decades of experience. He leads the Sterlite EdIndia Foundation and also serves as the Vice President, of Corporate Social Responsibility for Sterlite Power, in Mumbai, India. Antony brings a remarkable 26+ year career committed to improving the quality of education in schools. His experience spans renowned government and international NGOs like Save the Children International, Sightsavers, UNICEF, Bharti Airtel Foundation, Rajya Shiksha Kendra, and Don Bosco. His contributions would be instrumental in guiding our teachers training initiatives in priority states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India.
Join the Movement
I invite you to join our journey by:
Supporting our upcoming podcast, 360 View: From Policy to Practice. This podcast will feature conversations to decode complex policies into actionable best practices.
Interested in being a guest speaker, podcast sponsor or collaboration, please reach out to partnership@neemanglobalcap.org.
If you are interested to work at with us as an empanelled consultant, please drop in a line to people@neemanglobalcap.org.
Stay tuned for updates by following our official LinkedIn page.
About the Author
Shweta Chooramani, MPH, MBA, is a seasoned global health and education equity advocate with a two-decade track record of challenging the status quo in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States. As the founder and CEO of Neeman Global Capital, she is at the forefront of reimagining evidence-based development partnerships. Shweta believes that current global policies are heavily tilted towards the Global North, systematically excluding critical perspectives from the Global South in decision making.
She champions a radical power shift to decolonize policy spaces by intentionally engaging with the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, prioritizing gender equity in design and budget appropriation, amplifying minority voices, and fostering a deep understanding of culture and race. A first-generation immigrant from Uttar Pradesh and an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley, Shweta lives with her husband and daughter in Edison, New Jersey.
