Role Players 2023

Kruti Bharucha has 21 years of experience in various leadership and management roles in the education, management consulting and advisory sectors as well as with multilateral institutions. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Peepul, she provides strategic direction and vision, managing the portfolio of programmes and identifying innovations and partnerships that will lead to significant improvement in learning outcomes in government schools. Peepul was previously known as Ark India and was spun-off into a fully India-based entity in 2017. Peepul current works with governments to strengthen their school education systems, with the mission to help every child achieve their potential. The current programme operations are spread across Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, working with governments to support 100,000 schools and 320,000 teachers that impact the lives of 9.5 million children, many of them from the most vulnerable communities.

Prior to Peepul and Ark, she was a Senior Director and led Corporate Executive Board's (CEB) Finance Practice in India. She also worked in CEB's Washington DC office, where she managed the research, product development and client advisory in the Technology Practice. Her previous work experience also includes McKinsey and Co., where her expertise was in the field of consumer goods, retail and agri-business. She has also previously worked at The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, where she specialized in fiscal policy reform, education sector policy and financial sector reform.

An economist by training, Kruti has completed her MSc (Development Studies) with Distinction at the London School of Economics, MA (Economics) from the University of Maryland and her BA (Economics) with Distinction from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. Kruti has been selected as a Rainer Fellow by Mulago Foundation in 2020, the only Indian selected. She was also recognised as Top 100 Women Transforming India by Niti Aayog. She received the Social Innovation Leader Award by World CSR Congress in 2020 as well as the Excellence in Leadership Award by Women Economic Forum. She was awarded Social Entrepreneur of 2019 by Business World and also on BusinessWorld's 40 Under 40 List for 2019. In 2018, Kruti was selected by The Economic Times in their Women Ahead List of 26 women leaders and as Disruptor of the Year by Business World.