Governance

Dr. Olinda Timms
Chair
Dr. Olinda Timms is a medical doctor and adjunct faculty at the Division of Health and Humanities at St. Johns Research Institute, Bangalore. A graduate of Christian Medical College, Vellore, she specialized in Anesthesiology, and worked as Consultant at Private and Mission Hospitals in Bengaluru since 1987.

Dr. S. Alfred Devaprasad
Vice Chair
Dr. S. Alfred Devaprasad, is CEO of Rapha Education Pvt Ltd and is currently involved in the establishment of Christwood School in Chennai. He was earlier the President and CEO of Alpha Group of Educational Institutions. Dr. Devaprasad did his M.Sc. and M.Phil. in Physics from Madras Christian College, and subsequently Ph.D in Physics at Loyola College, Chennai.

Mr. David Appasamy
Treasurer
David Appasamy heads Brand & Strategy at Social Beat, an award winning and fast growing digital marketing company in India. He was earlier Executive Director of a micro-finance company serving a half million rural women in India’s Tamil Nadu state. Prior to this, he was the Executive Vice President of Sify Technologies in charge of marketing, corporate communications and investor relations. His experience of over 35 years covers General Management, Business Strategy, Brand & Marketing Management & Digital Marketing.

Mr. Arun Mammen
Arun Mammen is the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of MRF Limited, an Indian multinational corporation with a diverse range of products from tyres to toys. He comes with robust experience at the executive level, having developed and implemented the growth and corporate strategies of the organization. Mr. Mammen is also the Chairman of Funskool (India) Limited, a leading toy manufacturer and holds a Directorship in other MRF group Companies as well. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in commerce from the Madras Christian College and holds an MBA from Ashland University, USA. He is passionate about Cricket and Motorsports.

Ms. Kavitha Vijay
Ms. Kavitha Vijay is a Senior Partner of IC Universal Legal, a pan-India law firm. She heads the Chennai office of the firm and has been in practice for over 18 years. Her areas of expertise are corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and private equity. She serves as an independent director on the board of several listed and unlisted entities and is a POSH committee member for a number of businesses.

Prof M. S. Mathews
Prof M. S. Mathews worked at IIT Madras for 40 years and retired as the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering. He then joined IIT Pallakad as a Professor and Dean. He has decades of experience in teaching methodology at Universities in the US and India.

Ms. Jemima Marak (Class of 2002)
Ms. Jemima is an alumna of KIS (class ’02). She is a trained teacher with a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology and is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Storytelling as Pedagogy. She is a certified career counsellor and has been working with children since 2005 as a teacher and counsellor. She established a library for children called The 100 Story House in the Garo Hills, Meghalaya. Since its inception in 2016, it has been a valuable resource for the community and has been covered by several newspapers and magazines across the country. Ms. Jemima recently joined Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, as Director of Community Outreach. Prior to her current assignment, she worked as Program Head with a Delhi-based NGO called Anant Foundation for Innovation and Social Inclusion (AFISI), implementing a rural livelihood development project with the Govt of Meghalaya among farmers of the state.

Mr. Ian Lockwood (Class of 1988)
Ian Lockwood is an educator, photographer and explorer who has had a long association with KIS, the Western Ghats and India. He graduated in KIS’s class of 1988 and has served several terms on the board. Ian completed his Bachelor’s Degree at the College of Wooster (1992) and holds an MEd (The College of New Jersey, 1998) and MSc (Lesley University, 2009). Promoting high-quality environmental and experiential education at KIS are key interests. His freelance work has focused on themes of biodiversity, conservation and land use change in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. Ian and his wife Raina work at the Overseas School of Colombo in Sri Lanka. They have two children, Lenny and Amy.  

Dr. Prateep V Philip
Dr. Prateep V Philip is a retired IPS officer with over 35 years of experience spanning a variety or roles with the Indian Police force. He served as the Director General of Police and Director, Tamil Nadu Police Academy, Chennai prior to retirement. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Arts from the Bangalore University, a Masters Degree in Political Science from Bangalore University and a Ph.D in Management from Madurai Kamaraj University.  He has travelled widely, published several books, conducted workshops for a wide range of audiences and has received 8 awards for his innovative work in the Indian Police force.

Ms. Anita Lazarus
Ms. Anita Lazarus is a qualified teacher, counsellor and resource person for seminars and counselling training in India as well as Malaysia; the latest being a three module course for Lay Counsellors conducted by the Malaysian Baptist Seminary in Penang in 2020. She has also been involved in governance with several schools in both countries, and has an interest in education for children with difficult backgrounds. An army kid and an Air Force wife, she is well-travelled, with the privilege of operating in varied multicultural situations. In 2021, she wrote a paper on the Tamil women of Malaysia; as part of a book soon to be published by the GLOBAL DIASPORA INSTITUTE, Wheaton College. Anita’s strong Christian faith underpins all that she is involved with. Anita and her husband (a distinguished IAF fighter pilot) have two adult married sons and two grandchildren, who live in different continents.  

Mr. John Ravindran
Mr. John Ravindran is a Chartered Accountant with over three decades of experience working mainly with Charitable and Christian organizations providing services across both Audit as well as IT consulting. He has held several board level positions including Treasurer of CSI Madras Diocese from 2011 to 2014, Treasurer of Bethel Agricultural Fellowship for several years, Treasurer for Wycliff India and Managing Trustee of ‘Satya Trust’ a charitable trust which supports the education of 40 economically disadvantaged children. He is a resource person of The Christian Institute of Management and is involved in training Church and NGO leaders in complying with various fiscal laws of our nation. He has also contributed articles on fiscal compliance in a new Legal Hand Book published by the Christian Institute of Management.  

Ms. Shalini Ambrose
Ms. Shalini has worked at KIS for over 12 years in a variety of roles spanning teaching, department manager, coach, scheduler and front–end designer. This year, she will be taking over as the Information Systems Manager in the IT department! On a personal note, Ms. Shalini has a green thumb and enjoys cooking.  

Mr. Nakul Toshniwal (Class of 1993)
Nakul Toshniwal is Managing Director of Toshvin Analytical Pvt. Ltd., a leading high technology laboratory, scientific and biotechnology instruments sales, marketing and services company with a pan-India presence. Nakul graduated summa cum laude from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has a Masters degree in International Public Policy from The School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He is an alumnus of KIS (Class of 1993) and past president of the Mumbai chapter of the KIS alumni association.

Dr. John Thomas (Class of 1998)
Dr. John Thomas is Assistant Professor of History at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam. He is an alumnus of Kodaikanal International School (Class of 1998). He is a graduate of St Stephen’s College Delhi and has a doctoral degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He writes and teaches on topics ranging from the history of Christianity in south and north-east India to the history of ecumenical movement in India to the social history of everyday technology.  

Ms. Nalini Haridas
Nalini Haridas is a Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks India, a premier software consultancy and works as a domain specialist for the Financial Services and EdTech sectors. Previously, she was co-founder of the Centre for Teacher Accreditation, an organization which certifies teacher competencies. Nalini studied engineering at IIT, Delhi and did a certification in financial risk management from IIM, Bangalore. Nalini lives in Bangalore, India with her husband and three children.

Ms. Malati Mukherjee
Malati Mukherjee is a Writer, Editor and Translator. She runs Words and Space, a pro bono writing and editing service. She is a Trainer and Coach. Earlier, she worked in the IT industry for 25 years, and served on the board of Mastek (UK) Ltd. as Director of Operations. She leads Astitva, a program that works with the Empowerment of Tribal Women and Children through Nutrition and Education. She lives with her partner and two beautiful dogs in Coonoor, in The Nilgiris.  

Ms. Maya Thiagarajan (Class of 1994)
A global educator, Maya Thiagarajan has taught in India, Singapore, and the US. She began her teaching career in the US with Teach For America and later taught at The United World College in Singapore. Maya is the founder of TREE, an organization that recruits, develops and inspires teachers. She is also the author of “Beyond the Tiger Mom: East-West Parenting for the Global Age,” a book on education and parenting. She earned a BA in English Literature from Middlebury College and a Masters in Education Policy from Harvard University.