Enhancing heart care across India

Ajit is a first-generation entrepreneur and the chairman of India’s largest business services provider, Quess Corp. He has been recognized as a nominee for the India Forbes Leadership Award and voted as a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award. His entrepreneurial journey includes the establishment of People One Consulting, later acquired by Adecco Group, and Quess Corp, which made history with its public offering in July 2016, boasting an oversubscription rate of 144X.

A philanthropist at heart, Ajit founded the Careworks Foundation and The Isaac Family Foundation to positively impact healthcare, livelihood and education for marginalized communities. To further his impact on child health and public health, Ajit joined the Children’s HeartLink India Foundation board.

Ajit holds a master’s degree from the Madras School of Social Work and is a British Chevening Scholar from the University of Leeds, U.K. He is a distinguished Founder Trustee of Ashoka University and serves on the Board of Governors of St. Joseph’s University at Bangalore.

Dr. Raman Krishna Kumar is presently a clinical professor and head of the Department of Pediatric cardiology at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) and Research Center, Amrita University, Kochi, India.  He initially trained in Internal Medicine and Adult cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.  He then chose to focus on pediatric cardiology and was a fellow at the Boston Children’s Hospital from 1994-1996.

He helped establish the pediatric heart program at the AIMS, Kochi in 1998. Under his leadership, this program has acquired global reputation in quality of clinical services, affordable care, research and training and a substantial proportion of the national work force in pediatric cardiology have been trained at AIMS. The program is recognized as a center of excellence for research and training by the Indian Council of Medical Research and Childrens HeartLink.  He has established large population based epidemiological studies for rheumatic and congenital heart disease and published extensively on addressing contextual challenges on pediatric heart disease in low resource environments.

He is a member of the steering committee of the International Quality Improvement collaborative on congenital heart disease and has served as a member of the Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis and Kawasaki Disease Committee (RFEKD) of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young of the AHA (2017-2019).  He has published over 280 indexed original and review articles and co-edited four major textbooks including the Anderson’s Textbook of Pediatric Cardiology.

Based in Coimbatore, Veera is the inaugural Executive Director of Children’s HeartLink India Foundation. A natural connector, Veera specializes in building and enhancing relationships with hospitals, donors, and foundations to advance the foundation’s mission.

In addition to her current role, Veera serves as the Country Director for India at Children’s HeartLink, where she plays a pivotal role in expanding the organization’s presence and fostering collaborations across the country.

With a background in social work education and practice, Veera holds a postgraduate degree from the University of Madras and a predoctoral degree from NIMHANS in Bangalore, specializing in psychiatric social work.