Founder - Dr. Vikram K. Akula

Vikram is born in India and brought up in US and founded Swayam Krishi Sangam in 1998 with a vision to serve the marginalized and eradicate poverty in India.

In Vikram's own words on why SKS NGO; "because I learnt that micro finance while gives solutions for livelihoods and enterprise expansion for the poor, Education and Ultra poverty segments need civil society interventions through application of the most community friendly products and services".

Vikram Akula is also the Founder of SKS Micro Finance Ltd., an organization that offers micro loans and insurance to poor women in impoverished areas of India. It is the biggest MFI in India and is the only listed MFI in India. It is a for profit Non Banking Finance Company incorporated in Sept 2003. It has its roots in Swayam Krishi Sangam, a not for profit Society.

Vikram holds B.A. from Tufts an M.A. from Yale, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the impact of micro finance He has received several awards for his work with SKS, including the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship.

Vikram worked as a management consultant with McKinsey&Company. He has over a decade of work and research experience in Micro Finance. As a Fulbright Scholar in India, he coordinated an action-research project on providing micro-credit for food security. He was also a researcher with the World Watch Institute, where he wrote articles focused on poverty and development, worked as a community organizer with the Deccan Development Society in India.

Recognitions

• Time Magazine's 100 people of the year in 2006 .
• Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship
• Karmaveer Purashka r March, 2007

Director - Dr. Raghavendra Tunga

• Anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, practicing for the past ten years in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
  

• Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Illinois.

• Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering; Northwestern University.
• MD and Residency in anesthesiology; Northwestern University.
• Fellowship in pain medicine; Medical College of Wisconsin.

Memberships

• Executive Board Member of the Lake County Medical Society since 2004, and is currently serving as the President of the society.

• elegate for the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Illinois Sate Medical Society (ISMS).
• He is currently a case reviewer for the ASA closed claims study and has served in that capacity since 2002. He has served on the Professional Liability Committee for both the ASA and the ISMS.
• One of the founders of Akshaya, the young-adult Indian group of the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago
• Served as the youth coordinator in the inaugural year of the American Telugu Association.
• Raghu also has helped form and serves on the board of the local school foundation (Oak Grove School Education Foundation) in his community.
• Board Member of SKS Foundation - Swayam Krishi Sangam Foundation is a non-profit arm of SKS Microfinance, or a 501(c)(3) corporation based in the United States founded in 2001 as an initiative to provide holistic services for poverty alleviation through microfinance. SKS Foundation is determined to eradicate poverty in India through initiatives to empower the ultra poor to become self-reliant by providing access to economic, social and health development. The SKS Foundation works to support Swayam Krishi Sangam, the non-profit arm based in Andra Pradesh, India, by raising funds, elevating awareness, and generating innovative ways to expand development projects in healthcare, social development and education through its Ultra Poor Program.

• Litigation Partner. Experienced in all aspects of complex litigation, including: managing multidistrict litigation; defending antitrust, product liability, intellectual property, technology, class action and other claims; handling all phases of discovery (including depositions, contested motions and experts) and trial; counseling regarding potential litigation; and handling arbitrations and mediations.

• Chair, Electronic Discovery and Records Management Group. Experienced in counseling companies on all aspects of the discovery and management of electronic information, including: the development and implementation of policies and procedures for the discovery of computer-based information across multiple litigation and investigations; the development and implementation of records management programs for large organizations; the remediation of large volumes of legacy electronic and paper information; the management of the preservation, review and production of electronic information in major litigation and investigations; and the defense of discovery procedures before federal and state regulators and courts.
• Co-Chair, India Practice Group. Experienced in representing companies in legal issues relating to India, including outsourcing agreements, joint ventures, project financings, mergers and acquisitions, investment agreements, and arbitrations.

• Mayer Brown LLP, Chicago, 1994 to date.
• Law Clerk to The Honorable Charles L. Levin, Michigan Supreme Court, 1993-1994.

• University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1993;
• Member, University of Chicago Law Review
• The University of Michigan, A.B., with highest honors and high distinction, 1989

• Illinois, 1994
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1995
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1999
  

• Executive Editor, "The Sedona Principles: Best Practices Recommendations & Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production," Available at www.thesedonaconference.org (2006); "The Proposed Electronic Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," Defense Research Institute (2006); "The Discovery of Electronic Documents in India," Unpublished Manuscript (2005); "Electronic Discovery," from Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel (Thomson West, 2005); " The Ethics and Due Diligence of Responding to Electronic Discovery," Defense Research Institute (2003); "The Proposed Changes to the ABA Civil Discovery Standards and Electronic Discovery," The Sedona Conference (2004); "Sampling of Backup Tapes," For the Defense (2004); U.S. Discovery of Electronic Documents in Europe, The Sedona Conference Journal (2004); "Strategies for Mitigating Litigation and Regulatory Risk of US Companies Doing Business in India," Practicing Law Institute (2007); "The Practical Implications of Proposed Rule 502," Forthcoming (2007); "Critical Issues in Legal Process Outsourcing," Forthcoming (2007); "Rights Without Remedies: Section 1983 Enforcement of Title IV-D of the Social Security Act," 60 University of Chicago Law Review 197, Winter 1993.

• Northwestern University Center for International Human Rights; The Sedona Conference Complex Litigation Seminar (Sedona); The Sedona Conference Electronic Discovery Working Group Seminar (Phoenix, Vancouver, Santa Fe); Defense Research Institute Electronic Discovery Seminar (Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia) and Annual Meeting (San Francisco); Association of Corporate Counsel, Westchester, New York City and New Jersey Chapters;