Neela Saldanha
Behavior Change Consultant

Neela helps Surgo to design and test behavioral interventions across the globe. Neela loves to use her marketing and behavioral science skills on challenging problems of poverty alleviation: public health, financial inclusion and charitable giving.

She was previously the Founding Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) at Ashoka University, India. CSBC is funded by a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the mission of designing, advancing and enabling evidence-led communication interventions for low-income & marginalized populations in India.

Before her transition to the development sector, Neela worked for more than 15 years leading teams in the private sector. She has led teams in strategy consulting, consumer insights, branding & innovation and behavioral science across leading multinationals such as Nestle, Unilever, PepsiCo and Accenture. She has extensive work experience in India and in global teams in the US.

Neela has a PhD in Marketing (Consumer Psychology) from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), India.

She is also a board member of The Life You Can Save, the organization founded by Peter Singer, around effective charitable giving to end global poverty.