Srini Swaminathan

Runner. Cyclist. Teacher.

Hailing from a low-income community in South India, graduating from college (BITS, Pilani) on a Government scholarship changed my life. After many years of working in the oilfields of Venezuela, Egypt, Sudan, Malaysia and Australia, I joined Teach For India in 2010 as a Teacher in Dharavi, Mumbai. After that fellowship, I moved back to Chennai to in 2012 to start Teach For India as its founding City Director. In 2014, I left Teach For India and started working independently on various non profit projects, mostly focused on education, women’s livelihoods and handicrafts. In the winter of 2013, I completed the Chevening Gurukul leadership program at the London School of Economics (LSE). At present I work on several non profit related projects in India and Myanmar.

I continue to walk on this path, learning and helping individuals and teams working relentlessly to change the life path of families in low income communities.

I am a long distance runner - I have completed 28 full marathons (42 kms) and 20+ half marathons (21 kms) (including one 200km Ultra Marathon) and a long distance cyclist - I have completed several 200 km and 100 km rides and the 33 day/4400 kms Kashmir to Kanyakumari cycling (in November 2016) and Kutch to Guwahati 3200 kms cycling in November 2019, often using these to raise funds for the causes I support. I have raised more than ₹70 lakhs for various causes via online crowd funding.

I have traveled to 43 countries and lived in 7.