Ravi is Managing Director of Gidumal & Sons Limited, a family owned business that distributes internationally branded tableware, gifts and homeware in Hong Kong & Macau. Under the brand name Town House, the company operates seven retail shops and a wholesale distribution business that sells products to leading retailers, hotels and restaurants in Hong Kong. In the 1990s Ravi led a lobby group in Hong Kong that successfully convinced the UK Government to enact legislation which restored full British citizenship to the non-Chinese population of Hong Kong. This community of “ethnic minorities” faced the plight of statelessness as a result of Hong Kong reverting to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Ravi’s interest in public affairs and the plight of minority groups in Hong Kong was strengthened as a result of this lobby initiative and despite focusing more heavily on commercial interests in recent years, Ravi has continued support vulnerable groups and individuals in his personal capacity. Ravi was born and raised in Hong Kong. His family has called Hong Kong their home since the early 1900s.
Team Content para Catherine is a former Allen & Overy Partner, who worked in the firm's London and Hong Kong offices for over 20 years advising on a wide variety of finance-related matters. She was heavily involved in the firm’s social responsibility and pro bono activities, as the Hong Kong office Pro Bono Partner and a member of the firm’s Global Foundation Executive (which oversees the use of funds donated by Partners globally to help support Allen & Overy’s pro bono and community investment initiatives). Catherine is currently dividing her time between working on a voluntary basis for a number of NGOs and indulging her passion for travel. Catherine is an Ambassador for Crossroads Foundation and a Board Director of Community Business Limited. Catherine also has a consulting role with Allen & Overy as Head of Pro Bono and Community Investment, Hong Kong. Catherine is involved in projects supporting access to justice and rule of law in a number of areas, including helping displaced people, fighting online child exploitation and human trafficking, and supporting migrant workers. At Allen & Overy, she is able to bring together teams of lawyers, professional support staff, alumni and clients to share their knowledge and experience on international projects, as well as focusing on local communities. In her broader work, Catherine encourages collaboration between a range of diverse stakeholders to bring new and original ways of thinking to the challenges faced by those seeking access to justice and to address a broad range of social needs.
Team Content para Kishore Sakhrani is a Director at Greater Asian Advisors Limited, Hong Kong. His area of expertise is in commercial and private client matters, assisting North American SMEs to strategically incorporate and do business in Asia as well as providing high net worth clients with estate and tax planning advice. Previously, Kishore was a founding director and owner at ICS Trust (Hong Kong) Limited prior to its sale in 2012. With over 25 years experience, Kishore advises on taxation, corporate structuring, accounting, regulatory and trust related matters for both corporate clients and high net worth individuals. Kishore chairs the board at Community Business Ltd., a social enterprise promoting community involvement, diversity and non-discrimination and whose members include some of the largest multi-nationals doing business in Hong Kong. He is the co-founder of The Amber Foundation Limited, a recently established local charity and a board member at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Hong Kong
Mr. Guneet Banga is the Executive Director of The Caravel Group, based in Hong Kong. The Caravel Group Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a diversified global conglomerate focused on providing leading maritime services, the trading and logistics of dry bulk raw materials, investment management, and strategic asset ownership. Guneet joined Caravel at its inception in 2013 and has remained with the Group since then. Guneet is also a General Partner and member of the Board of Directors of Aera VC, a Cayman Islands registered private investments firm. Aera VC is investing today, for a better world tomorrow and invests in ventures that are defined by both purpose and profit—believing that these two elements are not only equally important but propel each other forward. Aera’s mission is to catalyze a global community of investors, advisors and families to accelerate entrepreneurs to be the best in the world and the best for the world Guneet has an AB in Economics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Guneet has lived in Hong Kong for over 30 years and considers Hong Kong to be his home. He has been involved in numerous philanthropic projects, including with the Caravel Foundation and with Mothers Choice.
Shalini Mahtani is one of Hong Kong’s most authoritative and respected voices on social issues, particularly diversity and inclusion.In addition to founding The Zubin Foundation,among the city’s most accomplished think tanks on issues related to ethnic minority welfare and patient welfare, Shalini is the founder of Community Business, the first organisation in Asia that brings together companies and their management around women, LGBT and disabilities at work. In 2009, Shalini was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, and a year prior she was awarded an MBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her services in corporate social responsibility in Hong Kong. She was also recognised by the HKSAR Government for her contribution to issues related to ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Shalini has authored research and opinion pieces on diversity and inclusion and is a frequent speaker on the topic.She is also a co-host on both BBC World Service and RTHK Radio 3. Shalini is from Hong Kong. She is a graduate of The London School of Economics. She is married and has three children.
Sandy's main responsibilities at The Zubin Foundation include managing the day-to-day execution and management of the various projects being undertaken by the organisation. She is also responsible for organising events and talks to spread awareness on issues that the organisation is focusing on. Sandy Chan is from Hong Kong. Prior to joining the Zubin Foundation, she worked at Community Business from 2008 to 2014. Her main responsibilities at Community Business included managing the disability workplace initiatives of Community Business and addressing employability of people with disabilities. Sandy has taken a lead role in planning The Zubin Day at Community Business on or around 31st May (Zubin’s death anniversary) in 2009 and 2010, where the Community Business team go out and volunteer in a community of their choice. Sandy’s passion is community outreach and on a personal basis she regularly volunteers with a youth centre for ethnic minorities. She has also worked with Produce Green Foundation as a project coordinator. Sandy holds a bachelor degree in English for Professional Communication from City University of Hong Kong.
Team Content para Winnie's main responsibilities at The Zubin Foundation are to oversee the operations of Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre and to drive funding proposals and applications for new projects. Winnie started her journey in India in 2005, where she volunteered with the Unite Way of Mumbai on its fundraising efforts. She has since dedicated her career to CSR and has worked for both NGO and the private sector. Winnie previously worked at Hogan Lovells as Citizenship Manager, looking after the firm’s pro bono and other citizenship efforts in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Prior to that, she worked in Cathay Pacific, running the airline’s major CSR programmes including I Can Fly, an aviation education programme for over 300 youths, and Change for Good, an inflight fundraising programme. She also worked in Community Business, managing its key projects, including the Diversity & Inclusion in Asia Network which is a network of leading companies in Asia that devotes in progressing diversity and inclusion in the region. Winnie was born and raised in Hong Kong. She holds a bachelor's degree in social sciences from the University of Hong Kong. She lives with her husband and with two young children.
Matthew is responsible for developing and implementing The Zubin Foundation’s Opportunity Bank project, connecting ethnic minorities with resources. Prior to joining The Zubin Foundation, Matthew had worked for a not-for-profit organisation in Hong Kong for 5 years where he was responsible for driving the programmes and campaigns to promote accountability and awareness related to diversity and inclusion and responsible business. During his three years at university, Matthew had also worked as a part-time tutor in his alma mater, teaching Liberal Studies to senior secondary school students, which further developed his critical thinking, public speaking skills and the most important - a sense of becoming a rational and responsible citizen of the local, national and global community. Matthew holds a bachelor degree in Arts from the University of Hong Kong, majoring in Translation and minoring in both German and Sociology. In his penultimate year, he received a Reaching Out Award from the HKSAR Government. Leveraging the scholarship from the Award, he went to Berlin, Germany, to polish his German as well as broaden his horizons, where he reckoned the significance of a socially inclusive environment. His studies and working experiences make him passionate about creating a community value – making a positive social impact. Matthew speaks four languages – Cantonese, English, Mandarin and German and he wishes to learn more.
Maggie's special interest is Chinese language education for ethnic minority children. Maggie was born and bred in the UK, studying Chinese at Leeds University. She worked with the BBC World Service in London before coming to Hong Kong in 1995. She has worked as a journalist at TVB, RTHK and on many freelance projects. Maggie has a PGCE in teaching Chinese as a Second Language and is an EDB registered teacher. Maggie is a volunteer tutor with ethnic minority children studying in Chinese medium schools. She is endlessly frustrated by the challenges they face and is convinced that some of the tools, techniques and strategies used to teach Mandarin as a second language, could be adapted for ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. Maggie’s main hobby is music. She plays flute to a fairly high level and bassoon to a very low level.
At The Zubin Foundation, Sindhu is responsible for running support groups for women and girls and parents with children with special needs, raising awareness of mental health in the ethnic minority community and supporting our women and girls initiatives. Sindhu has a Master’s in Counselling degree (Distinction) from Monash University, Australia and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Madras, India. She has worked in the UK, Canada and Hong Kong. She has worked as a special needs teacher in Hong Kong and the UK and has considerable experience in working with children and young people. She has helped them address stress, including examination stress. She has also worked with children with low self-esteem. She has counselled teenagers and young children with PTSD, anxiety and depression. Sindhu gained a broader experience in counselling whilst working at Christian Action, Hong Kong and International Social Service (ISS), Hong Kong where she counselled refugees and asylum seekers. She is passionate about women’s empowerment and is a strong believer in education, especially for girls. She has helped refugees and asylum seekers understand the importance of education and personally helped children under the age of 18 years to pursue full time education. Whilst working at ISS, Sindhu also educated women on healthy eating and the benefits of providing children with a healthy and balanced diet. She also emphasises the importance of maintaining a healthy life style in order to achieve good mental health. Sindhu is a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Shinnie is a qualified counsellor and coach with more than 15 years of experience. Through her counselling she has addressed issues such as Personal Growth, Personal Critical Incidents, Job Stress, Job Loss, Depression, Work Conflict, Interpersonal Issues, Mental Health, Workplace Harassment, Child Sexual Abuse, Marital and Parenting Issues, etc. She is passionate about developing people through training and coaching. She has a natural ability to connect with diverse groups of people. She has spent more than a decade in the non-profit sector providing counselling and training services to organizations and government institutions. As Director of Programmes, she also managed a team that provided counselling and training services to corporate clients and beneficiaries of the organization. She has supervised master level students and professional counsellors. Shinnie has completed Master’s in Psychology. She is also trained in REBT from the Albert Ellis Institute, New York. As a coach, she has counselled business leaders, managers across levels and general staff on career, relational, work-life and issues related to emotional wellness in Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Zubin, she worked as a psychological therapist in Justice Centre, Hong Kong, providing counselling services to the asylum seekers and refuges population of Hong Kong
Rubina handles the day-to-day accounting at The Zubin Foundation. Rubina brings to the team over 10 years' experience as a financial planning consultant, and 25 years' experience working across various sectors including trading, sales and elderly homes.
Ravina is responsible for Call Mira, Hong Kong’s first helpline aimed at supporting marginalised ethnic minority women and girls in Hindi, Urdu and English. In addition, she designs and leads autism and ADHD workshops for parents of non-Chinese speaking children with special educational needs. Ravina specialises in existential psychotherapy, EMDR and mindfulness-based interventions for those suffering from grief, loss, anxiety and trauma. Prior to joining the team, Ravina was exposed to a wide range of clinical settings and populations as an intern. Her experience includes working at The Justice Centre and Christian Action, offering counseling to refugees and asylum seekers. She spent at year at Jadis Blurton Family Development Centre, learning about psycho-educational assessments. Ravina also interned at the Nesbitt Centre, Hong Kong’s only English language programme for adults with learning disabilities. Ravina holds doctorate in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Widener University. She is fluent in English and Hindi.
Poonam is a pro bono accountant at the Zubin Foundation. Poonam is from India and moved to HK in 2014 with her husband and son. She is a Finance professional - a Chartered Accountant and has worked with Citibank India for 10 years before moving to HK. Poonam's time is spent with her family, her friends and pursuing her interests. She is a keen supporter of cultural diversity in our lives and livelihood and she volunteers at the Zubin Foundation because she supports the cause of the organization and also because she wishes to give back to Hong Kong, which has been her home since 2014.
Vinee is responsible for implementing meaningful projects at The Zubin Foundation aimed at benefiting young girls from ethnic minorities, focusing on their education, self-identity, and fulfilment of aspirations. She will also be actively involved in the foundation’s fundraiser. Vinee is passionate about the empowerment, of women and the youth, and about sustainability. She believes that civic responsibility – providing for the underprivileged and underrepresented in society – is a way of balancing the scales. In order to contribute her share to this cause, she wants to enhance intercultural awareness among people who live in global cities like Hong Kong. Vinee has a Master’s in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, India and has been a data analytics professional in academia, and before that, in the financial industry. She has always been very active in community service and has worked on projects with The World Bank, GE-Community Service Fund, HKUST Sustainability, and for the Asian Migrants Credit Union in Hong Kong. Vinee is responsible for implementing meaningful projects at The Zubin Foundation aimed at benefiting young girls from ethnic minorities, focusing on their education, self-identity, and fulfilment of aspirations. She will also be actively involved in the foundation’s fundraiser. Vinee is passionate about the empowerment, of women and the youth, and about sustainability. She believes that civic responsibility – providing for the underprivileged and underrepresented in society – is a way of balancing the scales. In order to contribute her share to this cause, she wants to enhance intercultural awareness among people who live in global cities like Hong Kong. Vinee has a Master’s in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, India and has been a data analytics professional in academia, and before that, in the financial industry. She has always been very active in community service and has worked on projects with The World Bank, GE-Community Service Fund, HKUST Sustainability, and for the Asian Migrants Credit Union in Hong Kong.
Anky Chau is the Office Manager at the Zubin Foundation. Her main responsibilities at The Zubin Foundation include supporting the team through office administration, accounting, and event logistics. Prior to joining The Zubin Foundation, Anky worked as a race manager for an event company to organize a trail running event during 2014 to 2016 and worked as an office manager at Community Business from 2007 to 2014. She feels grateful to be re-joining her former team members in a new venture and looks forward to doing more meaningful work for Hong Kong. Anky holds a Profession Diploma of Volunteer Management from IVE. She has been a guide runner and board member for the Blind Sports Hong Kong and loves to serve the community and make new friends.
Axel is a seasoned corporate executive and entrepreneur who has a strong track record of building and growing financial services and technology businesses. As the former Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific for Siemens Financial Services Commercial Finance, he has established greenfield finance operations in China and India, driven corporate investments and M&A transactions with a combined enterprise value of over USD300m and led a regional organization with over 300 professionals on general management and board level. After a 20-year corporate career he founded a technology start-up in 2015 which he successfully sold in 2019. Axel lives in Hong Kong which is his home since 1994. He has also spent 7 years living and working in Beijing.
Mehvesh Mumtaz Ahmed has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research, analysis and impact measurement across the nonprofit and corporate sectors. She is currently Director of Research at the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS), where she leads the generation of evidence-based insights to maximize private resources for doing good across 18 countries and territories in Asia. Prior to joining CAPS, Mehvesh worked in strategy consulting, for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit at the World Bank, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget under Mayor Bloomberg. Mehvesh completed her graduate education at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and undergraduate education at the London School of Economics. She speaks Urdu and Hindi fluently.
