Santanu Mishra

Santanu Mishra is the Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation. He is an alumnus of Sambalpur University, Institute of Company Secretaries of India, New Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

During his 15-year long career in the corporate sector, Santanu handled various leadership positions across industries including ferroalloys and power, education, hospitality, finance, and investment banking. In 2005, he quit the corporate sector to take up the responsibility of conceptualising, structuring, steering, and scaling up of Smile Foundation, a voluntary organisation. Today the Smile Foundation, has over 400 ongoing welfare projects spread across 1,000 villages and slums in 25 states of India that directly impact the lives of more than 1,500,000 children and families every year.

Santanu’s approach of adapting and applying result-oriented management practices in the development sector have helped create a culture of maximising impact on the ground. Some of these pioneering concepts are social venture philanthropy, the lifecycle approach, civic-driven change, good governance, and social return on investment. It is owing to these innovative practices that till date more than 350 global organisations have come forward to partner with Smile Foundation and support its vision and mission. Santanu has also received several awards in the social sector.