Subhashini Chandran

Vice President

Social Impact, Asia Pacific

Subhashini Chandran has championed inclusive growth for 25 years focusing on small businesses and women-led enterprises in global value chains, sustainable livelihood solutions, job creation, business models to promote shared prosperity and catalyzing multi-stakeholder partnerships. As Vice President, Social Impact, Asia Pacific, Shuba oversees the Center’s investments and initiatives in the region, covering programs, data and insights, strategic engagement, and partnerships. She is a graduate of the Yale World Fellows program and Chevening Gurukul Fellowship for Leadership and Excellence, and alum of the Young Global Leaders program of the World Economic Forum.

In her earlier work, Shuba led social impact at Yara International across Africa and Asia markets and Xynteo’s India business. She set-up Yara’s social impact vertical and crafted the first five-year strategy. She also directed Vikaasa, a business-led coalition of nine global companies including Unilever, Aditya Birla, Shell, State Bank of India and WPP, convened to accelerate India's progress on the UN SDGs.

Shuba brings broad social impact experience having served as a Principal Adviser for Private Sector & Agribusiness Development leading CONNECT, the economic development component of UK Aid’s flagship infrastructure project, Rural Access Programme 3 in Nepal, and as Senior Adviser to AgDevCo, a UK-based social venture capital fund investing in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. As an entrepreneur early in her career, she grew her family’s tea farm in South India, to one of India’s largest privately owned tea companies, employing over 7000+ women. 

Shuba has served as an Adjunct Professor at XLRI Jamshedpur, a premier business school in India. She read Economics at the London School of Economics, Law at City University UK, and is a Member of the Bar Council of India. Shuba has completed executive education programs at Oxford University’s Said Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Stanford University.