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Founding Curator

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Aashmi Rajya Lakshmi Rana

Alumni

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Shivanth Pande

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Amod Rajbhandari

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Sneh Rajbhandari

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Kaushal Silwal

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Riken Maharjan

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Lokesh Todi

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Shiwani Neupane

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Surath Giri

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Sachet Manandhar

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Gaurav Kandel

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Arpit Agarwal

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Harsh Sanghai

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Ankur Agarwal

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Avinash Jha

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Hitman Gurung

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Kessang W Lama

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Mridula Saria

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Naviya Kafle

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Pushpa Basnet

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Rajneesh Bhandary

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Sadikchya Singh

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Sangye Dekyi Sherpa

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Shivani Basnet

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Shristi Mishra

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Utsav Shakya

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Vidhan Rana

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Anne McGuinness

Shivanth Pande

Shivanth is currently the founding CEO of NIBL Ace Capital, one of the first fully fledged investment banks in Nepal, He was the youngest CEO in the financial sector in Nepal. NIBL Ace Capital provides corporate finance, bond and equity finance, and advisory. NIBL Ace Capital also provides Mutual funds management and Portfolio management services and manages share services for over 600,000 clients. Shivanth is also the co-founder and current chairman of MNepal a social venture initiated to facilitate banks and microfinance companies extend outreach of financial products to the unbanked poor, both urban and rural. He helped to co found ICRA Nepal, the first credit rating company in Nepal. Shivanth's family is a controlling stake holder in Nepal Investment Bank, the largest private bank by capital base. Shivanth has served as a youth advisor to the United Nations Nepal mission for 3 years helping review youth and gender participation in the country programs. He is also a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, Nepalese Young Entreprenuers Foundation, SYEF and a Global Shaper Alumni

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Amod Rajbhandari

Amod is currently the Chief Investment Officer of the Mercantile Group of Companies. After having studied and travelled extensively all over the world, Amod has developed a multinational perspective on economics, politics, entrepreneurship, and relationship development. He is currently overseeing Mercantile’s investments in areas crucial to Nepal’s economic advancement, namely, Financial Services, Energy and Infrastructure, Information and Communication Technology, Real Estate, and Agriculture.

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Sneh Rajbhandari

Sneh Rajbhandari is the Communications Director at Curves n’ Colors, a private company working in the nexus of art, design and technology to optimize online presence for organizations in diverse sectors. She became the Curator for the Hub in 2015, where she co-led the largest project of the hub to date. She is currently a member of the World Economic Forum, Regional Stewardship Board for South Asia where she is part of the working group focused on Accelerating Digital Transformation for Education & SMEs; a Board Member of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Nepal, and an Advisory Member of the Nepal Economic Forum. She initiated her professional career in the development sector, as the Programs Manager and Co-Founder of INCLUDED, a non-profit working to provide education and social services to internal migrant families living in slums and squatter settlements. She has experience working at the grassroot level on issues related to urban poverty, and working on issues related to Public Affairs & Communications for an MNC and a non-profit education foundation. She is interested in issues related to strategic communications, sustainability, public-private partnership, increasing participation of women in the workforce and leveraging technology for positive impact in the community and business. She is a graduate from the London School of Economics with an MSc focused in Development Management.

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Kaushal Silwal

Director at Pokhara Grande

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Riken Maharjan

Riken Maharjan is the CEO of RB Diamond Jewellers and a director at RB Group. He is a graduate Gemologist working as an advisor to the Department of Mines and Geology of Nepal. He holds a Guinness world record for the "Highest Altitude Fashion show on land". Riken is passionate about youth in sports and education. Riken is also the president of Maya Foundation, a not for profit organization that focuses on culture preservation and promotion, youth training, and Women.

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Lokesh Todi

Lokesh Todi manages the operation of Yeti Polychem and Yeti Carpet at Reliance Group Nepal. He is also the founding Chairman of Nepal’s largest Private Equity company Avasar Equity. Prior to working at Reliance Group, Lokesh was a Senior Analyst at Analysis Group in Boston where he provided his economic expertise in litigation related cases to various government organizations and Fortune 500 firms such as Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Toyota, British Petroleum, and the Israeli Finance Ministry. Lokesh received his MBA degree from Yale University where he was an Emerging Entrepreneurship Fellow. He received his BA degree from Colby College where he was awarded the prestigious Baker Scholarship and graduated the school with magna cum laude honors with a distinction in Economics and Political Science in 2009. He was part of the Global Shapers Kathamandu Hub from 2014-2019 and served as the curator in 2018. Lokesh represented Kathmandu Hub in Davos in Jan 2016 and in the India Economic Summit in 2017.

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Shiwani Neupane

Shiwani Neupane is an entrepreneur and writer. Shiwani founded and worked in a financial-technology company called Lenden for several years before it was acquired in November 2021. She has eight years of business experience, working most of the time in her family owned business group - Ambe Group. At the moment she is working on a novel and a podcast featuring the Nepali diaspora doing interesting work worldwide. Her podcast is featured in the Hamro Patro app. You can find her on twitter, where she often gets into a lot of trouble.

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Surath Giri

Surath Giri is an entrepreneur. He currently runs two companies – Onion Films Nepal, an audio-visual production company and Nepal Language and Research Solutions, a translation and research agency. Before starting these companies, he worked as a researcher for Samriddhi Foundation, a think tank that promotes entrepreneurship and economic reform in Nepal for more than 6 years. He has published 4 research papers on various economic issues of Nepal including economic contribution of the tourism sector in Nepal, ground realities of doing business in Nepal, and the status of contract enforcement, and policy options for electricity transmission system in Nepal. He also published over 25 articles and op-eds in various national dallies of Nepal. He is an alumnus of US Embassy Youth Council (2013), Global Shapers Community (2013-2020), and US Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (2015). He holds a Master's Degree in Economics from Tribhuvan University and is currently pursuing Masters in International Cooperation and Development from Mid-West University. He is also an alumnus of Asia Institute of Political Economy (AIPE), a summer course by Hong Kong University (2010).

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Sachet Manandhar

An active learner, Sachet is an engineer turned educator working towards introducing a hands on approach to education. Currently, serving as the Chief Operating Officer his organization, Karkhana, he works with middle school students to prepare them for the imminent Fourth Industrial Revolution. Before co-founding Karkhana with his colleagues, Sachet was involved in the group 'Robotics Association of Nepal [RAN]' from 2012 to 2015, working on encouraging tinkering and experimenting among robotics enthusiasts. Through RAN, they have organized annual event 'Yantra', which began as a robotics competition which has evolved into a art-tech exhibit. He believes making mistakes is a part of growing. Hence, the faster you fail, the greater the chances of you succeeding. Besides work, he likes playing futsal, basketball or working out.

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Gaurav Kandel

Mr. Gaurav Kandel currently a Program Project Consultant for several national & international organizations is well known for his youth activism since his teenage. Having contributed to the UN Youth & Student Association Nepal, US Embassy Youth Advisory Council Nepal among many others he is also one of the Founding member of Global Shapers Community, an initiative of World Economic Forum. He has contributed to several startups, scaling up ventured through his mentorship as well as involvement with incubators & accelerators in Nepal & Abroad. Gaurav also runs ViewYourChoice.org a web blog platform for positive influencing stories. Gaurav contributed Global & Regional Leadership at Global Shapers Community led project "" Shape Love "" across 100+ cities world-widely.

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Arpit Agarwal

Arpit Agrawal is the Executive Director of Vishal Group, one of the biggest South Asian conglomerates, dedicated to building better lives across Nepal. Arpit drives the FMCG vertical for VG, which reaches every household in Nepal and sells 1.3 million SKUs per day. He also spearheads the VG Foundation, the group's private operating charity that catalyzes sustainability transition in Nepal via corporate, humanitarian and governance instruments. Arpit’s specialization lies in strategic planning and goal setting. He holds an undergraduate degree in Operations Management and Economics from Florida Southern College and a dual-masters degree in Business and Finance from Hult International Business School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Arpit is also a Global Shaper, EO South Asia Member and a National level Table Tennis player.

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Harsh Sanghai

Harsh currently serves as a Director for Triveni Group, a well diversified business conglomerate in Nepal. He is primarily involved in the construction of two hydro power projects with a combined capacity of 134MW located in the eastern part of the Country. His main responsibities include managing the Social Impact of the projects, and has spearheaded several social development projects that positively improve the livelihood of the communities that have been effected from these projects.

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Ankur Agarwal

Ankur Agrawal is the managing director of Aakash Group, Nepal. Among the group's verticals, Food and Beverages (F&B), Information Technology (IT) and Merchant Banking (MB) are under his direct leadership. Ankur is the founder and CEO of Aakash Labs, a data mining & digital marketing services company based out of Kathmandu, Nepal. He is the founder and Chairman of Aakash Capital Ltd (ACL), a public company and certified Merchant Bank by SEBON (Securities Exchange Board of Nepal). ACL provides Portfolio Management, PE placements, underwriting, listing (IPO/FPO) in NEPSE (Nepal Stock Market). Ankur is also leading Aakash Foods, a packaged foods manufacturing, distribution and fast-food restaurant chain in Nepal. Ankur graduated from Bentley University in Boston, where he pursued his BSc. in Finance (2010), and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the McCallum Graduate School of Business. As an undergraduate student, Ankur initiated a fundraiser campaign (Project H2O) in 2009 with the objective to provide safe drinking water in Nepal. To raise funds for Project H2O, he collaborated with Microsoft and Liberty Mutual with a series of fundraiser activities in Boston. In partnership with UN HABITAT, Ankur used the funds raised through Project H2O to build pipelines and access to safe drinking water for over 250 families in a village in Lalitpur. With the success of the Project H2O campaign; Ankur formed a student body in Bentley University with the purpose of sustainable future fundraising activities for various causes. Project Haiti was the first campaign initiated by this student group to help the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Ankur moved to Nepal after the earthquake of 2015.

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Avinash Jha

Avinash leads a parallel career as an educator and an engineer. As an Education Director of non-profit United World Schools, he leads education development across 52 community-based schools in rural Nepal. The organization is providing quality education to over 8000 children. An alumnus of the U.S. Department of States International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), he has more than eight years of experience in Community Leadership. He is also co-founder and president of Digo Bikas Institute, a research and advocacy-based organization committed to promote ecological sustainability and social equity at the policy and community level. Prior to that, Avinash has supervised the implementation of hundred plus projects on Solar Home Systems, Solar Water Pumping for irrigation, Micro-Hydro, and Improved Cooking Stoves in rural communities of Nepal. In 2014, he was awarded a winner of Ncell App Camp, [email protected] Challenge, and ICT for Mountain Development by ICIMOD for his tech-based initiatives that help Nepal’s farming communities. Furthermore, Avinash does not shy away from volunteering his free time for any inspirational opportunity that comes his way. Avinash holds a Master’s in Public Policy degree from Kathmandu University, specializing in Federalism and Local Governance.

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Hitman Gurung

Hit Man Gurung is an artist based in Kathmandu. Gurung’s works are concerned with some of the most pressing socio-political issues of Nepal, including internal and international mass migration, the legacy of the decade-long Maoist insurgency in the country, as well as the recent pervasive effects of global capitalism in Nepal. Deeply concerned with the impact of these larger forces on individuals, communities, and society at large, Gurung infuses his paintings, documentary photo collages, performance and installation works with political conviction and personal poetry. He is co - curator of Kathmandu Triennale 2077. Gurung participated in major national and international art exhibitions including 'NIRIN' Biennale of Sydney 2020, 'Nepal Art Now' Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna 2019 , The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Brisbane; The 1st Yinchuan Biennale, MOCA Yinchuan; 1st Kathmandu Triennale as well as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th editions of Dhaka Art Summit, a.o. He is co-founder of an artists collective ArTree Nepal . .

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Kessang W Lama

Operational Information Management & Performance Reporting Officer at UN World Food Programme

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Mridula Saria

Educationist Parenting Coach Co-founder of Grooming Tales. I spend most of my time studying and researching on child behavior and development. I aim to practice and preach the best methods for children to learn and thrive. My purpose is to help bring out the best in children, while ensuring that they love the process of learning, and also to make parenting a rewarding and efficient journey for all.

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Naviya Kafle

Naviya Kafle is a researcher in the field of Environment and Public Health. After graduating with from college in 2017, she worked at a leading cancer hospital and research institute in New York City co-ordinating clinical trials in thoracic cancers for 3 years. She moved back to Nepal in 2020, soon after which she conducted research at the Nepal Health Research Council on issues of climate, environment and public health for 6 months. Simultaneously, she started a venture in November 2020 called 'MindBodyMovers with Naviya', to promote a culture of health and well-being among youth in Kathmandu by making accessible virtual and in-person fitness sessions and nutrition counseling.

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Pushpa Basnet

Pushpa Basnet is the founder/president of Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her organization works to strengthen the rights of children living behind bars with their incarcerated parents. Her efforts have been recognized by national and international media since she was nominated for CNN Heroes Award, which she subsequently won in 2012. She has won the 'CNN Super Hero Award' in 2016.

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Rajneesh Bhandary

Global Multimedia Journalist | Filmmaker | Investigations Editor | Fulbright Humphrey Fellow

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Sadikchya Singh

Sadikchya Singh is currently working as the Coordinator of Himalayan Circular Economy Forum at Nepal Economic Forum. She previously coordinated Himalayan Consensus Summit, a multi stakeholder event convening leaders across the Himalayan region to forge solutions to the contemporary development issues. She has also worked in increasing the media literacy and capacity of Nepal with Strategic Partnership Programme of Free Press Unlimited- The Netherlands. Besides that, she has been involved in the Generation Green program of WWF Nepal and has been actively working in environment conservation and management.

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Sangye Dekyi Sherpa

"Sangye Dekyi Sherpa is a director Hotel Mulberry Pvt. Ltd., a luxury hotel at the heart of Kathmandu with 67 rooms and one of the first full service lifestyle hotels in Nepal. She is the director of finance at the hotel and involved in the strategic planning of the hotel. She has an under graduate degree in Mathematics and Accounting from Hartwick College, NY, USA. She wishes to play an active part in promoting Nepal as a tourist destination through her hotel & through other new businesses. She is also on the board of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (Young Entrepreneur’s Forum), Hotel Association Nepal & Entrepreneurs Organization."

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Shivani Basnet

Under Secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal

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Shristi Mishra

Ms. Shristi Mishra is the Education and Governance Officer at IIDS with seven years' experience in education development, including five years in research, monitoring and evaluation of education projects. Prior to joining IIDS, she worked as a Management Analyst at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), D.C.’s state-level education agency, where she led research and data analysis projects to inform data-driven public education policies in D.C. She has also worked on various international development projects with the World Bank, World Learning, and USAID to evaluate the impact of education programs in developing countries. She was a trainer, field coordinator, and supervisor for the Annual Status of Education Report 2018 and led the school improvement team in a private school in Kathmandu for three years. In addition, she coordinated the school rebuilding projects as part of the ‘Nepal Earthquake Relief Project 2015’ for Global Shapers Kathmandu Hub in partnership with the Ministry of Education. Ms. Mishra holds a M.Sc. degree in International Educational Development from the University of Pennsylvania and is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.

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Utsav Shakya

Utsav heads the communications team at the British embassy in Kathmandu. He is interested in startups, social media culture and digital tech. In his downtime, he can be found enjoying a good Nepali coffee, reading his favorite newspapers and magazines and planning his next trip outside of Kathmandu.

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Vidhan Rana

Vidhan Rana is an Entrepreneur and Researcher with experience in launching multiple enterprises and social initiatives. He started his professional career working as a research analyst at Whittaker Associates, an economic development consulting firm based in the United States. At Whittaker, he provided guidance and support to economic development agencies at state and local level on issues of employment generation. In July 2011, he established Biruwa Ventures to support aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own ventures. Over the course of ten years, he has mentored over 500 entrepreneurs and invested in six startups.

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Anne McGuinness

Director at The WE United Project

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Aashmi Rajya Lakshmi Rana

Aashmi Rana is currently a Senior Advisor for KPMG in India for the Nepal Corridor Program. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Rana Global Pvt. Ltd, a public relations management consultancy firm that helps clients solve issues, create value, maximize growth and improve business performance. The profile of clients she works with include IFIs, BFIs, Bilateral & Multi-lateral agencies, along with non-profits and government. As the MD of Rana Global, she currently provides business development strategy support to international firms who are looking to establish and expand their businesses in Nepal. She is the sole manager to oversee production, design and manufacturing of pashmina and knitwear through her company Rana Collections. The company is also involved in real-estate development, renewable energy and banking sector. Aashmi was the only participant from Nepal in the International Women Leadership-Mentoring Program that was jointly organized by the US State Government and Fortune 500 Most Powerful Women in May 2007 in USA. Bringing back her experience from the program, she successfully conducted a similar Mentorship Walk jointly with US Embassy in Nepal. She has been working on various mentorship programs for women empowerment through We for Women. Aashmi was a part of the Advisory Council for the Ministry of Industry in 2017, strategically guiding the leadership. Further, she serves on the Board for Shahid Gangalal Hospital, the best cardiac center in the country. She was also a national council member of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries and lead the women’s group in CNI. In addition, she’s on the Executive Committee for the Nepal Britain Chamber of Commerce. She is currently an Advisory Council member of the British College. She's the global chair for G100 wing overseeing Partnerships & Collaborations, and VP of the Management Association of Nepal. She completed her MBA from the University of Southampton in the UK, and has worked in diverse fields from banking, industry, women’s empowerment and youth development. In 2008, the World Economic Forum, recognized Aashmi as the first Young Global Leader, and till date she is the only female YGL in Nepal. She has invested her network and resources in post-disaster relief and reconstruction in Nepal through both the Young Global Leaders community and the Global Shapers Community Kathmandu, of which she is the Founding Curator.

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