Shruti Gonsalves

Shruti Gonsalves has been instrumental in setting up of SEWA Grih Rin Ltd., an affordable housing company and a SEWA initiative, with the vision of achieving financial inclusion of women indulged in the informal sector. She has been leading the company as its CEO since its inception in 2013 and has since guided it from idea to maturity. The company has provided credit to around 20,000 women and their families and is poised to double its outreach in coming fiscal year.

Prior to leading SEWA Grih Rin Ltd., she held various positions of responsibility in entities with predominantly social orientation. She has had successful stints at:
– SEWA Bharat as Project Director, Cash Transfer and Financial Literacy project in partnership with UNICEF
– Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company as General Manager- Human Resource
– Friends of Women’s World Banking as Head Operations
– Gujarat State Financial Corporation as Manager- Recovery and Allied Matters

In a career spanning over 27 years, she has had extensive experience in diverse fields of project finance, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and operations management. She also possesses in-depth knowledge of setting up of various kinds of entities including trusts, societies, for-profit companies etc.

She also possesses extensive experience in liaising with several governmental and non-governmental agencies in the development industry, particularly in the field of rural development through institution building, livelihood promotion and capacity augmentation. In this endeavor, she has continually supported partner organization across India to establish teams of professionals, identifying their training needs, and design capacity building inputs through focused technical assistance for both operations and strategic business plans.

She also has significant expertise in fund mobilization and management including equity and debt raise. She has had extensive involvement with financial product designing, credit management and recovery functions.

Throughout her professional experience, she has demonstrated unwavering commitment towards the ideals of inclusive development and women empowerment. She has showcased her ability to provide effective leadership, generate ideas and passionately drive their execution.