Shridhar Venkat is a distinguished business leader, social entrepreneur and development-sector professional serving as Chief Executive Officer of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, one of the world’s largest non-profit organisations implementing school meal programmes. With over three decades of professional experience, including more than 21 years with Akshaya Patra and approximately 12 years as its CEO, he has successfully brought together corporate management expertise, technology-driven innovation and a deep commitment to social development. His professional mission is guided by the Foundation’s vision: “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.” He strongly believes that addressing classroom hunger and childhood malnutrition is fundamental to improving school attendance, educational participation and the long-term development of children.
Before joining the development sector, Mr. Venkat held senior leadership positions with leading multinational organisations, including Philips, ABB and Webex Communications (now part of Cisco). He last served as Vice President – Sales at Webex, where he gained extensive experience in business strategy, sales leadership, organisational management and technology-driven business transformation. His transition from the corporate sector to social development was motivated by a desire to apply his professional experience towards a larger societal purpose. Having initially engaged with Akshaya Patra as a volunteer, he joined the Foundation in 2005, recognising the opportunity to build a large-scale social initiative addressing childhood hunger and education.
Under his leadership, Akshaya Patra has strengthened its technology-enabled operating model, combining large-scale centralised kitchen infrastructure, public-private partnerships, process innovation and rigorous quality management. The organisation has evolved from feeding approximately 1,500 children across five schools in Bengaluru to serving more than 2.35 million children every school day across 16 states and three Union Territories. Its network has expanded to 76 locations and 26,894 government schools and Anganwadi centres, supported by an extensive kitchen infrastructure. A significant innovation has been the use of steam-based cooking, vertical kitchen designs and automated food-production systems to ensure that nutritious meals can be prepared and delivered efficiently at scale. More recently, the Foundation has expanded its outreach through a morning nutrition programme, providing approximately one million additional servings alongside its daily school meals.
Mr. Venkat has also championed the use of technology, data and operational innovation to strengthen programme accountability, improve supply-chain management and maintain food quality and consistency. His leadership emphasises the importance of financial sustainability, transparent governance, strategic partnerships and continuous process improvement in scaling non-profit operations. In March 2025, he represented Akshaya Patra in receiving the Best Civil Society Award 2023–24, presented by the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, recognising the Foundation’s commitment to governance, transparency and societal development.
Academically, Mr. Venkat holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Marketing Management from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai. He is an Eisenhower Fellow (2014), recognised for innovation, and an alumnus of the Advanced Management Programme at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His combination of engineering expertise, management education and extensive corporate leadership experience has helped him bring professional management principles to large-scale social development.
Driven by a deep commitment to addressing classroom hunger and enabling children to access education without nutritional barriers, Mr. Shridhar Venkat continues to champion the integration of technology, operational excellence and collaborative partnerships in social development. His journey demonstrates how business leadership and institutional innovation can be leveraged to create sustainable social impact at scale, contributing to a healthier, better-nourished and more educated generation.
