NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Guest Blogger Vinay Nagaraju comes from Bangalore, in India. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangalore University. Soon after graduation he started working with Honeywell India and had been with the organization for a little over 6 years. At Honeywell’s Aerospace Business, he worked in various capacities and in a breadth of organizational initiatives. On the personal front, he always nurtured a desire to make a difference to larger communities. In 2001, he co-founded an NGO called ‘Spandana’ aimed at empowering underprivileged children in their education.The NGO is run by a group of committed individuals and has been working with two government primary schools with over 1500 children and also single mothers from a slum, to assist them in enrolling potential school dropouts back to school.

In 2007 he was selected by StartingBloc as one of the 100 young leaders to attend the Global Social Innovation Fellowship at London Business School. He is also an invitee to the IYPF (International Young Professional Summit) to discuss the implementation of UN Millennium Development Goals. His engagements have convinced him of the urgency of a marriage between corporate profitability and sustainable social development. The cusp of these two worlds with distinct agendas is the beginning of a new career opportunity for him. He is currently pursuing his MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and hopes that the MBA will complete the ensemble of his skills, his aspirations and requirements for his chosen path.