Leadership - Stonehill International School

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 five-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 more than ten 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)

Stefano De Napoli

Governing Council Chairperson

About Stefano

About Stefano

Stefano was born in Torino, Italy, and has a Master’s degree in Electronic Engineering. He is currently the CEO of Embassy Knowledge Infrastructure Projects Pvt. Ltd.

After ten years of experience managing manufacturing companies in Italy, Stefano De Napoli relocated to India in the year 2000, as the CEO and Executive Director for the Asian HQ of a multibillion diversified Industrial Conglomerate. In 2005, he set up his own firm in Bangalore, specializing in cross border Mergers and Acquisitions and PE projects. With over twenty five years of experience in industrial, engineering, and applied technology companies, Stefano has spent the past ten years structuring M&A and Joint Venture projects between European and Indian firms. He has consolidated knowledge on emerging markets and areas such as Strategic Analysis, International Business, International Negotiations, Business Development and Project Management.

Shaina Ganapathy

Governor

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.

Maureen Stewart-Nordberg

Governor

About Maureen

About Maureen

Maureen Stewart is from the United States. She lives in Seattle, WA and has spent the last 20 years in the US, minus the 2.5 years in Bangalore, India. She grew up as an Airforce brat and moved around every two years to the next adventure with her family. She was fortunate enough to have lived and traveled to many places like Germany (where she was born), Indonesia, Turkey and Spain. Within the US, she spent most of her time in the Midwest and East coast living in New York State, Ohio and Texas. She completed her undergraduate studies in Spanish and Linguistics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her Masters in Software Engineering at Seattle University.

She is currently working at Amazon in Seattle as Sr. Manager, Customer Loyalty Insights Benchmarking, focusing on qualitative analysis of the customer journey on Amazon products and services worldwide. Prior to that, she has worked at Deloitte & Touche and Boeing. She has been “Having fun, working hard and making history” since 1999 at Amazon. She has been involved in a number of projects and roles throughout Amazon’s growth and enjoys using some of her tools attained over her time at Amazon.

Preeti Sawhney

Governor

About Preeti

About Preeti

A career brand strategist, Preeti works with brands and organisations helping them shape their future with a purpose-driven approach.

Having schooled across India, Preeti graduated in mathematical statistics from Delhi University, following it with a PGDM from IIM Calcutta where she specialised in marketing and consumer behaviour and later honed her brand strategy skills at Columbia Business School, US.

She started her career at Lintas Advertising where she spent 12 foundational years working on some great brands. Thereafter, she left her job as Associate Director to begin her practice as an independent brand strategist, advisor and mentor. Today, she works to the credo “learning, doing, giving” in her work with mature companies, startups, social impact organisations and individual entrepreneurs.

Preeti enjoys simplifying the complicated whether the lens is meta or micro, by staying stakeholder and task-centric. Her unified prescription for brand health is to ensure integrity and alignment between intention, talk and action. She relaxes with her family and enjoys reading, fitness, sketching, and making probiotic pickles.

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.

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.

Mona Bopanna

Governer

About Mona

About Mona

Mona Bopanna is the Founder of 1065 North Consulting, a 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 Language and Literature from the Mahatma Gandhi University, India. She has an accreditation in Diversity and Inclusion from ILR School, Cornell University, and is also an accredited facilitator of the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator. Mona currently lives between Bangalore and Coorg with her husband Vijay and their dog Barney.

Saraswathy Ramanathan

Officer of the Governing Council (GC)

Project Manager

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.

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.