About us

Tirukurungudi Santhanam Padmapriya
Chief Executive Officer, India

Priya has over twenty years of experience in top management roles of leading international development organisations such as CARE, Save the Children UK, University of Washington I-TECH, and British Council to name a few. Prior to her current role, she was the Country Director of Lebara Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lebara Telecom in the UK.

Georgina Harding
Chief Executive Officer, UK

Georgina is the CEO of the UK team. As a passionate ambassador to The Cycle for the past 10 years, Georgina has successfully launched multiple creative campaigns on behalf of the charity. Georgina is a highly experienced brand consultant, strategist, and campaign designer. She co-founded the media platform Semaine and was named one of Forbes 30 under 30, 2017.

Nisha Kesavan
Head of Projects, India

Nisha has a decade of experience in programme monitoring, data analysis, documentation and communications with both corporate and not for profit organisations. She is well versed in case study preparation, social media reporting, data ware-housing and IEC material design and development. She is passionate about social reporting and fundraising through impact stories.

David Crosweller
Co-founder, UK

David has managed all aspects of the charity’s work, from literally digging wells and mixing mortar, through to negotiating contracts at the highest level of government. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people on non-sewered sanitation and is frequently asked to take part in conferences to share his expertise.

Kumar Mohanasundaram
Head of Finance, India

Kumar has been our Director of Finance since 2018, and has been instrumental in setting up and implementing financial processes and procedures to achieve financial excellence, accountability and trust among donors. He has over twenty years of experience in leading finance operations. He has been leading the finance and administration verticals in international organizations such REACH TB (USAID Project), CARE, University of Washington and British Council.

C. Sundara Manickam
WASH Specialist, India

Sundara Manickam is a construction engineer, WASH specialist, hydrologist and disaster management specialist with over thirty years of experience working with international and UN agencies. He has proven success in constructing, monitoring and evaluating WASH infrastructure, water quality monitoring and surveillance, community training, post-disaster relief and rehabilitation WASH programmes, and solid waste management for rural and urban settings. Prior to his stint with Sanitation First, Mr Manickam has been a technical consultant with RedR India, UNICEF, WASH Institute and ADRA.

Velliangiri N
Training Specialist, India

Velliangiri has over eight years of experience as a WASH master trainer for children and young adults with leading NGOs such as Save the Children and Hand in Hand. He also has rich experience in training Government school teachers, student leaders, community leaders and Govt. Officials at the block and district level on these subjects. He specializes in developing customized curricula using activity based or adult learning principle-based approach depending on the audiencefor training. He has a master’s degree in social work from Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore and functions as the Chairperson of the Board of Studies of the Department since 2018.

Selvakumar Sukumaran
Project Officer – Waste to Wealth Project, India

Selvakumar has over eleven years of experience in the development sector, directly handling projects related to education, child labour, displaced communities, nutrition, health and safe drinking water. Selva is also a native farmer and is currently using his ground level experience in rolling out our Wealth-to-Waste project. In his previous assignments, Selva has worked with both national and international organisations, such as SEA, REAL, ADRA India and Lebara Foundation.

Andy Barrs
Co-Founder, Chairman

With a successful history in the property sector, Andy now utilises best practice and his knowledge of finance and marketing to assist The Cycle in becoming a world leader in ecological sanitation. His focus is always on ensuring that donor’s money is used as effectively as possible.

Manda Lakhani
Trustee

Manda stepped up as acting CEO of The Hunger Project in 2020-2022, and successfully steered the organisation through the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. She was instrumental in re-launching and growing their Unleashed Women network. As an experienced business consultant working across multiple fields including marketing and finance, Manda has led teams in a variety of organisations including UK Atomic Energy Authority, Prudential, Hill Samuel, and Nomura Asset Management.

Dr Jane Galton
Trustee

Jane has 30 years’ experience in business development/fundraising in the private and charity sectors and in international development. Latterly, she was Head of Business Development at Options Consultancy Services (Marie Stopes), focusing on maternal/child health, and HIV/AIDS in Africa and Asia, including India. Jane is a Trustee for Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) UK and USA. She has built CCF UK into a sustainable charity and, as part of CCF’s international team, won large government bids. Jane brings her knowledge of fundraising in the charity sector to The Cycle.

Mark Collins
Trustee

Mark has worked in the technology and management consulting industries for over 30 years. He was a Senior Partner in IBM and PwC. During his career Mark advised major banks, airlines, utilities, retailers and government departments in over 15 countries in Europe and Asia. He is a qualified accountant. Mark retired in 2020 and has since been providing pro bono consultancy advice and services to charities and trusts in the NGO sector. In 2021 Mark successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean to raise funds for one of the Cycle's projects in Chennai.

Jules Peck
Trustee

Jules is a social entrepreneur and currently the Founding Director of Avon Mutual Bank, a Fellow of The Democracy Collaborative and Fellow and past Trustee of The New Economics Foundation. Jules has had a very varied career working across the SDGs on sustainability and inequality in politics and policy in Westminster, with the UN and at the EC in Brussels. He has also advised many of the world's largest companies and worked in charities such as WWF as well as being a founding Trustee of Share Action and a number of other charities.

Lynn Strongin-Dodds
Trustee

Lynn is an American born financial journalist, living in London. Lynn is editor of Best Execution and writes for publications including derivsource, Investments and Pensions Magazine, European Pensions, Pensions Age, Funds Europe and the Desk. As politics has become the driving force in economics and finance Lynn has rediscovered her passion for political journalism.

Rama Murali
Trustee

Rama Murali is a public health expert with 20 years of experience in workforce development, international health, program planning and management, education, and research. She has spent more than a decade in leadership roles with government agencies, non-profits, and community-based organizations in the United States, India, and Latin America. She is currently the Director of Workforce Development at CAI Global and holds an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and an MA in Psychology from the University of British Columbia.

Ayesha Shand
Advisory Council

Ayesha is a Brand Director (Partnerships and Relationships) who is an endometriosis sufferer and advisor of The Cycle. Away from the charity, she oversees special projects and relationships at Hauser and Wirth and is an ambassador and fundraiser for her family's charity, The Elephant Family.

Chelsea Leyland
Advisory Council

Chelsea is the co-founder of menstrual wellbeing brand; Looni. Chelsea cut her cloth in the fashion industry as an acclaimed DJ. She is a well known activist raising awareness for conditions that affect her personally; endometriosis and epilepsy.

Smita Lasrado
Advisory Council

Smita is a creative director and the co- founder of Feat Artists a model, talent and casting consultancy. Previously working as a model between Paris, London and New York City, Smita has used her modelling experience working with the top internationally, as well as her extensive fashion network to platform, build and connect the best in the industry on projects in India and globally.

Maksmilian Kallhed
Advisory Council

Maksimilian is an awarded innovation consultant and entrepreneur. He has developed creative processes and agile strategies for global brands, advertising agencies, and educational institutions. In 2018 he was listed as one of the top 50 male advocates for equality in marketing and media, globally. Today Maks is serving as a board member at The World Woman Foundation, Chairperson at Hyper Island AI Business Consultant program and strategic advisor to the Cycle.

Pia Stanchina
Advisory Council

Pia is a creative, entrepreneur and transformational business coach. She has coached dozens of leaders at multinational corporations such as VFCorp, Mastercard and IKEA on value creation through innovation and hundreds of women on a 1:1 basis. Pia’s mother is Indian and always role modelled volunteering, fundraising and educating, having helped at Mother Theresa's charity in Calcutta as a child. Pia is honoured to follow in her footsteps as an advisor for The Cycle.

Shreya Lakhani
Advisory Council

Shreya is a Regional Governance Associate at Dalberg Asia. She is on the ground in India connecting us with powerful women and activists in the menstrual space. Over the past 14 years she has undergone multiple surgeries for chronic menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea and is passionate about helping women who are unable to seek the medical help they need.