Board of Directors

Amita Vyas is the Founder of the Global India Fund. Dr. Vyas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at George Washington University. At the age of 20, Professor Vyas journeyed to Calcutta to work alongside Mother Teresa in the Missionaries of Charity. In one eye-opening summer, she saw what the social determinants of health and well-being really mean to vulnerable populations, and from that extraordinary experience decided to pursue a career in public health. Today, her work focuses on reproductive health care, adolescent health, and the health and development of immigrant children and adolescents. She is also an expert in multi-level research methods and evaluation. Dr. Vyas continues to hold an adjunct position in the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was previously on the research faculty of that institution's Center for Adolescent Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, where she earned its Kann-Trowbridge Award for outstanding research in the area of population and family health.

Sanju Bansal is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Microstrategy since 1993 and was previously Vice President, Consulting since joining MicroStrategy in 1990. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of MicroStrategy since September 1997 and has served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors since November 2000. Prior to joining MicroStrategy, Mr. Bansal was a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, a worldwide technical and management consulting firm, from 1987 to 1990. Mr. Bansal received an S.B. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Computer Science from The Johns Hopkins University.

Victor Barbiero is currently a professor at GWU and has has a long career in the field of global health & development. Professor Barbiero's commitment to international health began shortly after his graduation from college, when he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, and it has continued for three decades. Until his retirement in 2005, Dr. Barbiero was Chief of the Implementation Support Division in the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of HIV/AIDS, where was responsible for setting the technical and operational vision necessary to meet the agency's goals for HIV treatment, prevention and care. In that capacity, he was a liaison to government health agencies, to the donor community and to nongovernmental organizations.

Paresh Patel is a managing partner of Sandstone Capital, an India-focused hedge fund. Prior to Sandstone Capital Paresh started Sparta Group, the private investment company for Desh Deshpande of Sycamore Networks. At Sparta Group, Paresh invested in early-stage US and Indian startup companies and in a variety of public market securities and partnerships. At Sparta, Paresh also managed capital for the family of Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys. Paresh is a director of Tejas Networks, an Indian telecom equipment company. Paresh has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Boston College.

Kate Roberts is the Founder of YouthAIDS; a cause related marketing initiative implemented by Population Services International (PSI). She also serves as Vice President to PSI. In 2001 Kate founded YouthAIDS, a global education and prevention initiative of PSI, that uses media, pop culture, music, theatre and sport to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and reach 600 million young people in more than 60 countries with life-saving messages, products, services and care. Kate has changed the world of philanthropy with her efforts in cause marketing for YouthAIDS. Prior to her role at PSI, Roberts worked with Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising from 1995 to 1999. As Managing Director, Roberts established the promotion agency “141” in Russia, the Ukraine, and Romania, which provided integrated marketing communications for twenty-two clients and she oversaw operations for other Eastern European markets.