Dr. Poonam Kapoor

Her work has moved between entrepreneurship, organisational development and strategic thinking for over two decades, expressed most often through institutions she has helped start, lead or shape rather than through any single role or title. She recognises what is needed, considers what is possible, and works through people to help ideas take organisational shape.

She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Mumbai, with doctoral research on international trade in services, particularly maritime transport services — a grounding in evidence and analysis that has stayed with her even as her career took a more entrepreneurial turn. Alongside her husband, Pawan Kapoor, she helped build ISF Group into a business spanning maritime services, learning and assessment, and human capital development, and co-founded Inner Search Foundation, a charitable trust promoting yoga as a way of life that has grown to support research and publishing platforms, community well-being programmes and cultural initiatives. Later came The Confluence and KAP Rural Progress Initiatives.

As a teacher, counsellor and psychometrician, she has long been interested in how individuals actually grow and change, an interest that has stayed with her through years spent building organisations and the people within them. In recent years, that interest has grown into a quiet commitment to mentoring emerging entrepreneurs and individuals building new ideas.