MEET

Our TEAM

Lavanya Soman

Founder and Director

Lavanya, Founder and Director of SStraight Circles Foundation, is a visionary leader and a passionate changemaker dedicated to fostering global diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces and in the communities, we live in.

Haritha

Co-Founder and Director

Haritha, Co-founder and Director of SStraight Circles Foundation, is a woman of many talents. A national athlete, artist, mainstream actor, and model, she has been working in Tamil feature films for over 5 years. She is not only a person full of life and compassion for others but is passionate about her cause.

Vijay Amarnath

Head - Solutioning and Delivery

Vijay Amarnath heading the Solution and Delivery of Programs at SStraight Circles Foundation is a seasoned business coach with over 20 years of experience helping industry leaders enhance their soft and managerial skills with emotional and spiritual intelligence.

Rebekha Paul

Program Manager - Operations and Training

Rebekha Paul is a visionary social worker committed to serving disadvantaged youth and children in the developing world. With over 8 years of experience, she is the Program Manager at SStraight Circles Foundation.

Lavanya Soman
Founder and Director

Lavanya, Founder and Director of SStraight Circles Foundation, is a visionary leader and a passionate changemaker dedicated to fostering global diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces and in the communities, we live in.

With over 20+ years of experience enabling cultural transformation in Fortune 500 companies, she founded SStraight Circles, which empowers organizations with the tools and resources to cultivate inclusive workplaces for employees from diverse backgrounds. SStraight Circles Foundation is an extension of her vision to live in a discrimination free world.

She is certified as a PoSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment of women @ the workplace) Enabler and an Authorized Resource Person with the Government of India for Women and Child Care Development. She is also a PoCSO (Prevention of Child Sexual Offences) torchbearer.

Additionally, she lends her expertise as an external member of Internal Committees for organizations dedicated to fighting sexual harassment at the workplace. Her exclusively curated prevention of work place harassment campaigns for several organizations has been a game changer to ensure zero tolerance towards any form of harassment irrespective of gender. Her research and experience in working with different LGBTQ+ communities and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) has been instrumental in curating and promoting Inclusion initiatives across several Organizations. Her travels and experiences across U.S., UK, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka has helped in inculcating a global thought process while designing Inclusive solutions. 

Lavanya describes herself as a “Learner for life” and believes strongly that the only way we can manifest Inclusion in a diverse world is to create a positive influence through impactful conversations and community actions.

Haritha
Co-Funder and Director

Haritha, Co-founder and Director of SStraight Circles Foundation, is a woman of many talents. A national athlete, artist, mainstream actor, and model, she has been working in Tamil feature films for over 5 years. She is not only a person full of life and compassion for others but is passionate about her cause.

Haritha has volunteered for several social causes involving children, women, LGBTQ+ and the visually impaired. A clothing donation drive for an NGO, brought her and Lavanya together and after 5 years of volunteering together on several initiatives and sharing the joint vision of living in a discrimination free world, Haritha is determined to make this vision a reality. Haritha’s storytelling sessions with kids have been a huge hit and have created an impact in transforming little minds. She strongly believes that children have the highest capability to influence change in adults and to inculcate inclusion in our communities.

Haritha strives to bring a visual impact in line with the vision of the SStraight Circles Foundation using her creative skills in Art, Films and Media.

Vijay Amarnath
Head- Soultioning and Delivery

Vijay Amarnath heading the Delivery of Programs at SStraight Circles Foundation is a seasoned business coach with over 20 years of experience helping industry leaders enhance their soft and managerial skills with emotional and spiritual intelligence. With a graduate degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur, certifications in Neuro Linguistic Programming from Sue Knight, and Leadership Skill development from Franklin Covey, Vijay is a highly qualified professional in his field. His exceptional ability to drive business growth and expansion is reflected in his work with leading healthcare businesses such as Ranbaxy Diagnostics, Siemens Ltd, and Sivantos Ltd.

He draws his inspiration and passion for Diversity and Inclusion from people around him. His experience in working with SIEMENS dealing with devices for the hearing impaired gave him a deep understanding of why it is integral to be compassionate to special needs and that all that is needed is to equip environments for Persons with Disabilities for them to function normally. Over the years, he has seen many people, especially women and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), struggle in workplaces. When he came across Lavanya’s vision with SStraight Circles Foundation, he knew he had found the perfect way to use his warm and innovative approach to help people drive growth and success. Vijay’s belief in spirituality and emotional intelligence as driving forces has enabled him to align with the vision of SStraight Circles Foundation.  

His journey also highlights his dedication to self-realization to gain clarity amidst turbulent times, making him a compassionate and professional coach to create awareness and empower people.

Rebekha Paul
Program Manager - Operations and Training

Rebekha Paul is a visionary social worker committed to serving disadvantaged youth and children in the developing world. With over 8 years of experience, she is the Program Manager at SStraight Circles Foundation. With a Master’s in Social Work, her core focus is to provide soft skills training, communicative English, and job readiness sessions to underprivileged graduates. She has completed training from the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPPCD) on counseling and interventions and is also a POCSO (Prevention of Child Sexual Offences) Torchbearer. Her passion for promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and women’s rights is evident in her work. She is a role model for the next generation of social workers, dedicated to making a positive impact. Rebekha is also a return-to-work mom after a brief career break and is determined to inspire and build confidence and courage in women to become socially and economically independent.