Board of Directors
Minhaj Chowdhury (CEO/Co-Founder), as a Fulbright Fellow to Bangladesh with BRAC - the largest NGO in the world - researched villager willingness to pay for clean water in 2012. His work has been acclaimed by UNICEF, WaterAid Bangladesh, the US Ambassador to Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh Health Secretary, and serves as the basis for Drinkwell's growth strategy. Minhaj has prior experience as a Consultant with Exeter Group where he held roles in product development for state-based health insurance exchanges as well as project management for an operational turnaround of a large non-profit organization with an annual budget of $3B. Minhaj holds a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins and has won multiple awards from organizations such as the US State Department, SXSW, and others. He is a 2014 Echoing Green Fellow, 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, and 2017 Ashoka Fellow.
Email: minhaj@drinkwell.com
Dr. Mike German (Head of Products/Co-Founder) was a 2013 Fulbright-Nehru Fellow to India where his research was titled "Empowering Women to Transform a Water Crisis into Water Business in the Indian Sub-Continent." He is applying technology and infrastructure lessons learned from the non-profit operations of the Tagore-SenGupta Foundation to Drinkwell's growth strategy. Currently pursuing his PhD in Environmental Engineering under Professor SenGupta, hehas helped develop the resin technology within the SenGupta Research Lab. Mike's findings in discovering social business models to tackle the arsenic and fluoride water crisis has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Mike holds a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Lehigh University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland - Baltimore County.
Email: mike@drinkwell.com
Sanjay Verma (Director) works with start-ups and small organizations by helping them use strategic principles of building businesses and elicit support and resources to bring the impact of creative technologies to market . He has more than 25 years of senior management experience in technology and software companies. Sanjay was the Founder and CEO of ITC InfoTech, a key player in the planning and execution of “e-Choupal” a rural initiative empowering farmers across India with an Internet infrastructure .He is currently the Board Chair of Virtalis. Virtalis is a leading company in Industrial VR technologies ,based in the UK.
Samir Shah (Director) is the Managing Partner at Peak Sustainability Ventures, one of India's first institutional sustainability VC funds. He is a veteran in the field of climate investing, having made numerous investments in the space, and achieving a number of exits. Prior to Peak, Samir ran a multi-strategy hedge fund in Hong Kong, and previously held senior principal risk-taking positions at Goldman Sachs (Hong Kong), Salomon Brothers (New York) and Deutsche Bank (New York). He graduated with an MBA from Wharton (with distinction), and holds a Law degree and Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bombay University. He is a certified Chartered Accountant.
Valerie Mazon (Director) is General Manager of Danone Communities. Danone Communities, Danone's social investment arm, brings together men and women, as well as financial resources, to help social entrepreneurs develop sustainable businesses that address challenges such as malnutrition, access to water, and overall poverty reduction. Currently, Danone Communities supports several social businesses across seven countries (Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Cambodia, Senegal, France and China).
India Management Team
Sudip Sarkar (India Director) is the Chief Coordination Officer and a seasoned water industry expert with 10+ years of experience. Sudip began as an intern with Drinkwell while studying in Commerce at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata as well as during his MBA studies from Heritage Business School, Kolkata where he forged partnerships with Tata Trusts, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Water Aid, as well as the West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh Public Health Engineering Departments. He leads a team of 20 employees in India and enabled the company to reach profitability in the last four fiscal years through his leadership.
Email: sudip@drinkwell.com