Nishant Pandey

"Nishant Pandey is the CEO of the American India Foundation (AIF). In this capacity, Nishant provides strategic leadership to AIF’s operations spanning the US and India.

Nishant began his career as a banker but soon realised that development sector was his calling. He joined a global charity called Oxfam as the Programme Officer for South India where he designed and developed value-chain programmes on the theme of ‘power in markets’. Subsequently, he moved Oxfam’s global HQ in Oxford to lead on programme development and management in 12 countries including Russia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Albania, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Jordon. In his work on Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area and its impact on small farmers in European neighbourhood, he demonstrated a rare ability to link high-level policy with community-focussed projects on the ground and was soon given the opportunity to lead the entire policy and campaigns portfolio for Oxfam in the region. Before moving back to India as AIF’s Country Director, Nishant was based in Jerusalem where he had one of the most complex and challenging assignments as Oxfam’s Country Director for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel...

"Nishant was recently invited by the Confederation of Indian Industry to speak on “Volunteerism as a Key Enabler for Nation Building” at the India@75 Summit. He was also invited to speak on “Systemic Intervention and Scope of Technology in Education” at NASSCOM Foundation’s 2017 CSR Leadership Conference.

"As a British Chevening scholar, Nishant acquired his Master’s in International Development & Finance from the University of Leicester, UK. He also holds M.A. in Economics, B.A. in Anthropology and Economics as well as Advanced Management Programme from the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. Nishant lives with his wife, Nupur, and son, Abeer, in New York City. "