Leadership

Stonehill International School, Bangalore, is a not-for-profit school and is proud to be an education initiative of Embassy Group. The school is governed by a six-member, appointed Governing Council consisting of prominent business leaders, former parents, and the Founder’s representative. The Governing Council acts under the delegated authority of the Board of Stonehill Education Foundation. The Head of School and the Business Manager are also part of the Governing Council, and are supported by the Educational Leadership Team and Admin Team, respectively.

EMBASSY EDUCATION

Stonehill International School (SIS), is a part of Embassy Education, the education vertical of Embassy Group. It was the first school that Embassy founded fifteen years ago, and is a model to look up to when it comes to child safety and the delivery of quality education.

Stonehill was established in 2008. With a talented team of highly trained international faculty, a diverse learning community and world class infrastructure, the school soon became one of the most preferred international institutions in Bangalore.

Their experience has proven that the Education and Real Estate sector seamlessly complement each other. Building innovative spaces, coupled with a safe and secure learning environment, enables them to offer an outstanding experience to their diverse community. This has given them much encouragement to initiate more educational institutions as they continue to deliver high-quality education.

Executive Members of the Governing Council (GC)

Shaina Ganapathy

GC Chairperson

About Shaina

About Shaina

Shaina is part of the Leadership Team at the Embassy Group and heads the Group’s Outreach Initiatives across India that focuses on Education, Health, and Sustainable Infrastructure.

She has been a part of Embassy Group for over fifteen years and has been an integral part of the core strategic team. Shaina was responsible for coordinating the Design & Development process of Hilton Residences, Embassy’s Corporate office and Stonehill International School.
Shaina has been part of the founding team of Stonehill International School. She has served as a Governing Council member since its inception in 2008, been an integral part of the school’s journey and has contributed to its strategic growth. She has been responsible for overseeing the development of the master plan of the school campus over the years.

Prior to joining Embassy, Shaina spent over 9 years in Sales and Marketing in the Hospitality Industry. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master’s degree in International Marketing.

Mona Bopanna

Governor

About Mona

About Mona

Mona Bopanna is the Founder of 1065 North Consulting, a Social Sustainability and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Assessment and Advisory practice that helps companies initiate meaningful change through DEI projects, learning programs, and leadership coaching. She has over two decades of executive search experience for leading corporations across Asia, Europe, and North America.

Living and working across multiple geographies has exposed her to diverse cultures and perspectives, giving her an enlightened appreciation of the world.

Prior to returning to India, Mona worked in Singapore and Atlanta, US, where she served as the Executive VP of DHR International, a Chicago headquartered global search firm. During her time in Singapore, Mona worked with Carmichael Fisher, an Australian executive search firm and with Olmec Consulting where she was a Partner.

Mona has a postgraduate degree in English and has an accreditation in Diversity and Inclusion from ILR School, Cornell University. She also facilitates several psychometric assessments for talent development and mapping.

Kishore Thota

Governor

About Kishore

About Kishore

Kishore heads Product Development and Marketing for Amazon India. He oversees Shopping experience, shopping platforms, and research to acquire and engage millions of emerging customers in India and worldwide. Kishore has been with Amazon for over 13 years, building various products and helping launch Amazon in India and making it one of the top brands and most used services in India.

Kishore has 20+ years of experience leading Product, Technology, Marketing, and Business Development teams. He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from The University of Houston, Texas and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Preeti Sawhney

Governor

About Preeti

About Preeti

Preeti Sawhney is a Bangalore-based career brand strategist and Principal, BrandRx Strategy Advisory, also serving as Advisor, Board Member and Mentor to several organisations and entrepreneurs. Preeti is passionate about making brands healthier, and sees good health as key to their long-term success. She believes healthy brands have an inside-out alignment between their Intention (What they want), Action (What they do), Reality (Their context), and Speech (What they say), and ensures this harmony with her unique BrandRx Quad method. Preeti graduated in Math. Stats. (Hons.) from Delhi University, and did her MBA (PGDM) from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, specialising in marketing. She has honed her thinking and strategy skills through programmes at Columbia Business School, Section and Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She relaxes with exercise, cooking, reading, sketching, travel and writing on LinkedIn.

Maria Zakharova

Governor

About Maria

About Maria

Maria Zakharova heads the education vertical of Embassy Group as the Director of Education Services and School Management. She Chairs the Governing Council of Embassy Academy since its inception in 2024 and has been responsible for managing and guiding the overall development of school campus and its operations and is an integral part of the school’s journey.

Maria brings nearly 13 years of experience with the company; she has been based in India for over 5 years and previously spent 20+ years in Dubai.

Zeena Fruitwala

Governor

About Zeena

About Zeena

Zeena Fruitwala has worked across multiple roles within Dell Technologies in the last sixteen years in Customer Service, Sales Operations and Sales. Prior to Dell, she has had diverse industry experience across FMCG, Hospitality, Logistics and Telecom. She enjoys leading large teams and driving results across different markets and cultures. She is an Executive Sponsor for Women in Action ERG for Asia and is passionate about mentoring and developing women to explore their full potential.

Saraswathy Ramanathan

Senior Project Manager - Governance and Strategy

About Saraswathy

About Saraswathy

Saraswathy Ramanathan has an MBA in Marketing from Cardiff University, UK where she specialised in Market Research, Strategic Marketing and Consumer Behaviour. She worked as a Media Marketing Planner with GroupM Media for three years where she planned, executed and budgeted marketing campaigns for some of India’s biggest brands.

She has previously worked as a Brand Consultant for a start-up Travel and Tourism Company. Before joining Stonehill, she worked with ACTS Group of Institutions and International Needs Incorporated, an NGO for four years. At ACTS, she liaised with global offices who work towards establishing the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations in their respective countries.

Kirthana Karumbaiah

Project Manager – Governing Council

About Kirthana

About Kirthana

Kirthana Karumbaiah comes armed with demonstrated experience in Marketing, Operations Management and Digital
Cataloguing. Having worked for some big e-commerce players in India, namely Ajio (Reliance Retail Ltd) and Nykaa,
she was able to successfully help create and be part of the operation teams for well-known Indian and international
brands.
While pursuing her MA in Marketing Management and Communication Studies, she participated in a Global
Marketing Programme helmed by Al-Zayad University, Abu Dhabi, which she describes as a turning point in her life.
This led to her building a career in marketing and communications.
A people person, she loves to listen to what others have to say, which helps her make friends easily. This, combined
with her education, has given her a lifelong passion for communication, people, and travel.
During her free time, she loves catching up on her latest manga and ‘tries’ to learn a new language.

Ex – Officio Members of the Governing Council (GC)

Joe Lumsden

Head of School

Stonehill International School

About Joe

About Joe

Originally from the North-East of England, Joe has been in international education for the last 20 years, including 13 years of leadership experience in international IB schools. He has a Bachelor's degree and two Master's degrees, one in English Literature and one in Education Leadership and Management. During his career in education, Joe has worked as a programme coordinator for both the IB MYP and the IB DP, a workshop leader for the MYP, an examiner for both the MYP and DP, and an Accreditation team member and chair for both the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

Joe is firmly committed to providing students with a broad, balanced education and ensuring that all individuals have appropriate pathways to success. During his time in leadership, he has worked to expand course offerings for students, differentiate assessment practices, open up opportunities in arts and sports, promote co-curricular programs and encourage community service programs. As well as coordinating and supporting these efforts, Joe also enjoys getting directly involved in school activities and has played in school bands and musicals, coached football and basketball, and contributed to countless service projects over the years.

Catherine Charles

Business Manager

Stonehill International School

About Catherine

About Catherine

Catherine Charles did her undergraduate studies in Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and has a Master’s Degree in Commerce from Bangalore University. She started her career as a Secretary to an Aviation Consulting Company in February 1994 while pursuing a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Studies at St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore.

Catherine was a member of the start-up team at one of the International Schools in Bangalore. She grew to the position of Business Manager with her sincere efforts and dedication. She is a highly competent administrator and successfully manages the non-academic team.

An adroit multi-tasker and a skillful negotiator, she looks after the supervision of various departments at Stonehill, including, finance and budget management and human resources. She values loyalty and dedication and believes strongly in work ethics and sincerity. The line that she lives by is ‘Honesty is the best practice’. She believes that by following this principle, people can be stress free, feel light at heart, enjoy their work and walk with pride.