First Cohort of Women on Boards Program for Senior Women Leaders by ISDM Concludes

By: WE STAFF | Monday, 20 June 2022

The Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) celebrated the completion of the founding cohort of its Women on Boards (WOB) program by organising the closing ceremony at its campus in Noida on June 18, 2022. The event was attended by the participants of the program, their families, social sector leaders and practitioners. The participants were felicitated with certificates presented by chief guest PoonamMuttreja, a pioneering boardroom leader and the Executive Director of Population Foundation of India, a Delhi-based NGO that works on empowering women and adolescents to take decisions regarding their health, sexuality and well-being.

The first cohort, comprising 24 members from diverse fields of the corporate sector, commenced in April 2022. The program was conducted over four modules spanning across three months. The participants were mentored by a diverse group of noted development practitioners and academicians, including Ravi SreedharanDevalSanghvi, (Founder and President of ISDM), Amitabh Behar (CEO Oxfam), Anshu Gupta (Founding Director, Goonj), NachiketMor (Visiting Scientist, The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health) and Sohini Bhattacharya (CEO and President, Breakthrough), among other great minds and experts.

Following the completion of the program, the participants will now be matched with social purpose organisations that can leverage their specific skills and expertise. So far, 42 organisations have expressed their interest for having participants from the first batch of the program on their boards.

Addressing the gathering at the closing ceremony, Chief guestPoonamMuttreja said, “There has been an incremental increase in women joining boards, in India and globally, which we should welcome, but we (women) are still playing catch-up in many ways. Not all women have equal opportunities to start a job and reach a leadership position. When we are on boards, we need to pay special attention to that reality. There is no doubt that it is important to induct more women on boards, for more reasons than diversity. The leadership styles of women leaders globally, including during COVID-19, have been described as more collective than individual, more collaborative than competitive and more coaching than commanding. These are lessons for all of us, as we wish to become effective leaders on boards.”

Reiterating ISDM’s vision and commitment towards transforming the social sector and enabling sustainable impact at scale, ISDM Founder and President Ravi Sreedharan said, “ISDM is committed to catalysing the development and practice of professional Development Management and transforming the social sector to have far greater sustainable impact at scale. The Women on Boards program is a first-of-its-kind program and is the first among more such nation-building programs that we will launch for different critical segments who can have a disproportionate impact on social change in the country. This batch of women leaders from the program are most certainly a force to reckon with and embody the potential to bring together tremendous value to the organisations including the critical ability to recognise the importance and be able to lead and direct work across the three pillars of Samaaj, Sarkar and Bazaar for maximum impact.”

DevalSanghvi, Co-founder Dasra said, "For Dasra, one of the key strategic priorities is to be more intentional about GEDI (Gender, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion), and we strongly believe that while there is a lot to do, this program (Women on Boards) is definitely one step in that direction. There is enough evidence to suggest that women board members will bring in the benefits of diversity to nonprofit boards. We are hopeful that this will eventually impact corporate boardrooms and society at large."

AartiMadhusudan, Founder, Governance Counts, who also designed this unique curriculum, said, “When women join board leadership roles, they bring with them their own experiences of being able to negotiate and be heard. This is a strength that the sector can do wonders with. We hope that with the training that they have received under this program, they will be able to make an impact in leadership roles. It is our hope and ambition that the 100 Women on Boards that we will have, will become a 1000 soon.”

WOB is part of ISDM’s executive education vertical called Strategic Capacity Building (SCB). The SCB programs are designed for individuals and organisations in the Indian social sector to help them leverage opportunities and address the challenges they face in unleashing their potential to create sustainable impact at scale. Some of the core offerings of the program include certified and curated programs, workshops and Nation Building Programs, targeted at specific groups that have significant influence, such as collectors, women leaders, and philanthropists.

Applications for the next WOB Program will open in July 2022.