FOUNDERS
Dr. Archana Nayar
(MBBS – Medicine, Masters in Public Health)
Dr. Archana is the founder of ACE and The Special Child Trust (TSCT). As a parent of a child with autism, she experienced the gaps in India for children with special needs compared to services available globally. She brought together international experts in the field of autism to build a program which provides research-backed interventions in an ethical and professional environment. Her goal is to bring about a systemic change in the Indian Autism landscape. She works actively with multiple stakeholders to create greater awareness and sensitization of society towards mental health issues. She serves as the Director at ACE overseeing all aspects of the school program.
Sameer Nayar
Founder and CEO at BuildSupply
Sameer is a real estate investment and finance professional with over two decades of industry experience. He brings his global experience and strategic thinking to the various organizations that he is involved with. He is the Founder and CEO at BuildSupply, a software development company focused on solving intractable problems in the real estate sector. Prior to this, he was Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Finance for Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse.
Sameer co-founded The Special Child Trust and ACE, driven by his passion to establish a world-class ecosystem in India for children with special needs. At ACE, he is involved in setting the strategic direction for the organization. He is also a co-sponsor and a member of the Board of Directors of Children First, India’s first fully integrated institute for child and adolescent mental health.
Admin Team
Equipped with engineering degrees from IIT Kanpur and UT Austin and MBA from ISB Hyderabad, Preeti spent 13+ years working with various corporates and startups across India and US, including Philips Electronics, Aker Solutions, Sequoia-funded education startup and Cyient Ltd. Throughout her career, she worked closely with CXOs in strategy, marketing and operations. She decided to switch her career focus to non profit sector in Autism, having seen some of her close family grappling with challenges that Autism presents to the parents and the broader family.
She serves as the Assistant Director at ACE overseeing strategy and expansion, outreach, finance and employee engagement among other areas.
Sameer has played a vital role in setting up ACE, being part of the inception team. Previous to ACE, he has spent 8+ years working in education space with ILFS Education and Universal Learn Today (Part of India Today group). He has a Bachelors in Business Administration from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Having spent time in education space and witnessed the lacunae, Sameer strongly believes that a program built on a strong foundation will yield long term benefits to the children with special needs and their families.
He manages Operations and Administration as the COO for the center.
