Ramya Venkataraman

Ramya is an alumna of the Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management from the 1990s and then had a 15-year career with McKinsey & Company, from 1999 to 2014, including as part of the India office leadership group, before founding CENTA in 2014. Passionate about education since her young days, Ramya did significant amounts of volunteering work along with her early career, and made a switch in 2009 to build and head McKinsey’s education practice in her last 5 years with the firm.

Ramya has been widely recognized for her work: among 15 ‘Women Transforming India’ by NITI Aayog and United Nations, among 50 ‘leaders reviving India’s education’ by EducationWorld, as an Ashoka fellow, global network of social entrepreneurs, as Distinguished Alum of IIM Calcutta, for ‘Outstanding Contribution to National Development’ by IIT Delhi, with a ‘global entrepreneurship award’ by McKinsey in 2013, and so on. Ramya was also a WISE Prize finalist in 2021.