Welcoming Three New Trustees to Jeevika Trust

When women thrive, communities and ecosystems thrive with them. This isn't rhetoric at Jeevika - it's the cornerstone of everything we do. As we scale our work across sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, and women-led development, we're acutely aware that governance is not a luxury. It's the scaffolding that holds impact in place.

Today, we welcome three trustees who understand this work intimately and bring the expertise we need to deepen and expand it.

Lara Prost | Strategy, Sustainability, Investment

Lara has built her career at a proving ground most social entrepreneurs avoid: the space between what investors believe is possible and what communities actually need. As a serial founder across sustainable consumer goods and community infrastructure, she's learned something critical - you can't scale impact without first scaling investor conviction. That means understanding how capital actually works, not just how to pitch it. Her background in architecture (Kingston, TU Munich, Auckland) taught her systems thinking; her MBA from LSE gave her the language to translate that into financial models that hold. Her track record scaling climate-driven ventures - profitable ones - proves it works. For Jeevika at this stage, that matters deeply. As we move from proving our model to scaling it, we need someone who understands how to structure partnerships that strengthen rather than constrain us, and how to build financial sustainability into our DNA, not bolt it on later. Her fluency in French, German, and Luxembourgish, combined with her networks across the EU, means we can credibly access European climate funding, impact investors, and partnership models currently out of reach.

Supraja Russell | Transformation, Accountability, Execution

Supraja has built her career in the gap between what organisations say they want to change and what actually sticks. Two decades leading transformation and digitisation in large corporates taught her something most charities never learn: scaling without losing your soul requires embedding accountability into the system, not just announcing it. She's learned to convince sceptics at the highest levels that change is both necessary and possible, then she proves it through measurable outcomes. Her recent pivot into sustainability - energy accounting, carbon reporting, Green IT - isn't a side interest. It's her testing ground for the question that matters to Jeevika: how do you make climate accountability operational, not rhetorical? As we scale, we risk becoming just another NGO checking boxes. Supraja's expertise in building high-performing teams, coaching leaders through uncertainty, and embedding values into the fabric of operations as they grow is exactly what we need. She brings not just strategy, but the emotional intelligence to take people with us.

Charith Konda | Policy, Finance, Regional Insight

Charith has built a career understanding something most organisations skip: how policy and capital actually work together. Nearly twenty years in government, research, and advisory roles focused on energy transition and climate finance have taught him that scaling sustainable development isn't just about better farming practices or stronger women's groups. It requires navigating regulation, accessing climate funding, understanding how government incentives shift behaviour. That expertise matters deeply as Jeevika moves into its next phase. His Master's in Finance from ICFAI and his base in Hyderabad, India position him to strengthen our ability to access climate finance mechanisms, engage with government partners, and build financial models that survive policy shifts. He brings not just knowledge, but the networks.

What This Means for Jeevika

Lara, Supraja, and Charith bring something we need as we move from impact at the margins to impact at scale: the ability to think across three domains simultaneously - entrepreneurship, systems change, and policy. Governance that works at this stage isn't about compliance. It's about unlocking what's already possible.

Our next phase is clear: deepen our work with women-led communities while building models that are financially sustainable, climate-resilient, and can be replicated. We can't do that alone, and we don't need to. We have the team on the ground. Now we have the governance to match.

We're grateful to have these three joining us. The work ahead is demanding. With this strengthened leadership, we're ready for it.