Advisory Board

Mr. Vellayan Subbiah is the son of Padma Bhushan MV Subbiah, and part of the fourth generation of the Murugappa family. Vellayan is actively involved in managing and growing the 116 – year old Murugappa Group.

Mr. Vellayan is enterprising, athletic, has a thirst for learning new things and is committed to making a difference. While he is devoted to scaling Tube Investments of India (TII) to great heights, he is also devoted to the concept of “Mens sana in corpore sano” a Latin aphorism, translated as “A sound mind is a sound body.” Vellayan believes that both physical exercises and mental equilibrium are equally important to lead a good life. He enjoys cycling, yoga and running and has a passion for skiing.

Mr. Aroon Raman is a business entrepreneur who successfully built and sold his companies to multinationals. He now sits on the Board of several companies and non- profits.

He is also a bestselling novelist – having written three thrillers. He now divides his time between his business interests, writing and travel.

Ms. Mallika Sen is an educator with more than four decades of involvement in school education. At present she works as an educational consultant , advisor and Mentor to Heads of Schools. Her strength lies in teacher education, auditing of schools and setting up systems that bring about whole-school improvement .

She has received the National Award for Teachers in 2001 (the year it was instituted to include CISCE-affiliated schools) from the highly respected educator President Dr. Abdul Kalam.

Ms. Leena Aparajit has over three decades of experience in education. She has an understanding of this space due to her hands on experiences at various levels of strategy, policy and implementation. Her varied experience ranges from a classroom practitioner who taught Math and Physics, to founding Principal for over a decade at The Shri Ram Senior School, Gurgaon a leading education provider of the country, to an international experience of setting up a ( K-12 A level) school in Dubai. She has worked as Advisor and consultant to The Scindia School, Gwalior a well reputed residential school in India.

She is a member of the Managing Committee of several reputed schools in the country. She was a consultant with Ahvaan, a trust for education that is working in areas of Professional Development of teachers of select Delhi Government schools. She has completed audit of ITC schools in Bhadrachalam , Andhra and West Bengal and done a situation analysis for The Sir Ratan Tata trust in rural Gujarat. A Master trainer for the CAER for Modern Assessment theory that ties in with the CCE, she is also setting up a school in Dibrugarh, Assam and providing strategic direction to a school in Bihar and doing a feasibility study to set up a school in the NCR.

She was the Executive Director of The Shiv Nadar School, that runs three K-12schools in the NCR. She is currently an independent educational consultant. Her greatest pride and joy are her students who walk tall and proud pursuing their dreams and making a mark at home and overseas. Excellence is her credo that is what she lives by and has ensured she has not only imbued it in her students but has brought about her exacting standards to all that she has undertaken.

Mr. Naveen Unni grew up in Chennai, went to school (DAV) and college (IIT Madras) before doing his MBA at IIM Ahmedabad. He joined McKinsey & Company from campus and has  worked there for the past 18 years. He and his family lived in Perth for 9 years before returning to Chennai in December 2020. Mr. Naveen moved back to Chennai with his firm. In India, he currently leads the Sustainability practice for McKinsey India along with the role of Chennai managing partner. 

Over the past 10 years, he has been passionate about a couple of themes: gender equity and education. On education, Mr. Naveen worked very closely with the Fogarty Foundation, a Perth based not for profit that worked with underprivileged public schools in improving educational outcomes for primary and secondary school students in Western Australia. He was also a founder member of the CEOs for Gender Equity, an executive led gender equity action group in WA and was a sponsor creator for the Remarkable Women Program in Australia since 2014 – an annual leadership development program for senior women executives. He still has some linkages back to Australian education – for example, he is on the advisory board of the University of Western Australia business school (a top 100 global university). 

As Mr. Naveen’s family establish their home in India, they are looking for ways to better settle into and contribute to the local community. His children are really enjoying KC High and Mr. Naveen looks forward to contributing to the school through the board.

Ms. Pooja Jhavar completed her schooling from Carmel Convent, New Delhi and graduated from St Stephens College, Delhi University with an Honours degree in Economics. She then went on for further studies to the University of Oxford and specialised in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

With a keen interest in curriculum development and school reform, she pursued a Master’s in International and Comparative Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Upon her return to India, she spent a year conducting research and working together with The School, Krishnamurti Foundation India, in Chennai, before finally realizing her dream and founding The Nirmal Bhartia School, Dwarka, New Delhi, in the year 2006.

As the school’s founding Chairperson, she has been instrumental in shaping its pioneering vision and unique collaborative pedagogy. With the committed efforts and dedication of the School’s leadership and management team, it achieved the honour of being ranked among the top 15 co-educational day schools of India, in the first decade of its existence itself. (Education World rankings based on C-fore surveys). In particular, it is rated among the top ten schools of the country on the key parameters of individual attention to students, parent partnership, life-skills education and quality of leadership and management.

A passionate educator, with an even greater passion for life-long learning, Ms. Pooja enjoys challenging herself in new ways. An avid bibliophile, she loves contemporary art and design, the paper arts and travel.