Swarup Nanda — Chairman & CEO

Swarup is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA in marketing. He has over a decade’s experience in multiple business domains. He is the business head of three separate and privately-held firms working in various domains of Book Publishing, Content Creation, Angel Investing, and Business Consulting. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, he has worked with several MNCs in the media space.  His passion for literature and books is his motivation for building Leadstart Publishing. He oversees all aspects of the expanding business.

Sunil K Poolani — Executive Director & Editorial Head: Fiction

Sunil has had a wide and varied career graph. Was a hardcore political activist, clerk, telephone operator, typist, travelling salesman, proof-reader and ran a computer business before he ventured into journalism as a last resort. He held senior editorial positions in the Express Group, The Sunday Observer, The Free Press Journal and Blitz. Later he was a regular contributor to mainstream publications like Hindustan Times, DNA, The Asian Age, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle, Sahara Time and Oman Tribune. After leaving journalism in disgust, he founded Frog Books, which was later incorporated into Leadstart Publishing.

Chandralekha Maitra — Executive Director Editorial: Non-fiction & Children / Head: Human Resources

Chandralekha brings to Leadstart Publishing 25 years of experience as a book publishing professional. She began her career as a features writer and columnist, working with a wide spectrum of newspapers, magazines and periodicals across India, before moving into book publishing full time with India Book House, Mumbai. Over the years she has had the exposure to the finest publishing houses both in India and abroad, and various genres and markets. She received her training in editorial title management from Book House, London. Chandralekha has a parallel and specialist career in the domain of Human Resource Management. She has been widely involved in people management and training, most recently as Head, Programme Management at the Tata Group. She continues to write, train and mentor in this domain as her publishing commitments allow.

Mishta Roy — Executive Director, Leadstart Design Studio

A graphic designer with a BFA (First Class First) from Delhi College of Arts and an MFA from Central Saint Martin’s, University of London, Mishta has worked with various organisations since 2000, notably Tehelka, Saatchi & Saatchi, Explocity and Rave magazine. She continues to work with Artindia magazine, India Foundation for the Arts and Breakthroug, among others. She is located in Bangalore.

Anoo Kulkarni — Head: Marketing

Anoo has over a decade-and-a-half of varied marketing and business experience. She has had headed marketing teams of several organisations in various sectors, from being the vice-president of Procam Intl, to managing brands of  Future Brands (a Future Group company), to working in top advertising outfits; managing brands is something which comes to her naturally. She takes care of the trade and consumer marketing for Leadstart.

Raj Supe — Advisor Emeritus

Raj Supe, aka Kinkar Vishwashreyananda, a poet, storyteller and novelist, is also a seeker and bhakta – a devotee of Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. An MBA, his career has spanned advertising, research and creative consulting, before devoting his time to literature and spirituality. His works include Three No Trumps (a novel, 1998), Sagarika Anusagarika [Echoes of Nine Rivers] (poetry, 2001), Pilgrim of the Sky (spiritual memoir, 2010), and translations of religious texts such as Cloudburst of A Thousand Suns and Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hari. He has also worked on film scripts with Ram Gopal Verma and Ashutosh Gowariker and on plays with Makarand Deshpande.

Rhonda Lee Carver — Associate Editor

Rhonda a published romance writer and an editor for Leadstart since 2009. She writes suspense, contemporary, erotica, and paranormal with passion and romance as the core. Crafting page turners for her readers, she believes everyone deserves romance; one page at a time. Her published books are Diamond in a Rose, Double Dare, Second Chance Cowboy, and Delaney’s Sunrise. She is based out of the US.

Abhirami Sriram — Associate Editor

Abhirami has over 10 years’ experience in publishing, having worked with prestigious publishers including Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, Rupa & Co, Sage Publications, EastWest Books and Katha Books. She has been working with Leadstart since 2008, editing mostly non-fiction.

Derek Bose — Associate Editor

Derek is a senior journalist, author, magazine editor, film jurist and columnist. Over the past 25 years, his writings have appeared in leading news journals in India and abroad. He has authored seven best-selling books on cinema. In 2007, he was awarded the Rashtriya Ratna, as the best Indian film journalist of the year. He has been a Consulting Editor with Frog Books since its inception.

Oswald Pereira — Associate Editor

For the past 30 years, Oswald Pereira has worked in various media jobs as journalist, communication specialist and teacher. He ran his own technology-specific image-management firm for four years and during the lean business spells wrote his first novel Beyond the Newsroom that exposed the unholy alliance between the media and the mafia. After working for brands like the Times of India, Outlook and Financial Express, he has found his true calling in the last few years — editing books for Leadstart.

Shubham Gupta — Associate Editor

Is a writer, essayist, researcher, painter and a cartoonist, all rolled into one. His varied interests have seen him work as correspondent to various newspapers and put him on several editorial boards, until he found solace in settling down to become a storyteller. Apart from being a Consultant Editor since 2005, he operates between Bangalore and the US.

Ramkrishna Salvi — Graphic Designer

RK  is a  designer who has worked with several national and international newspapers and magazines. He has a wide experience of over 30 years in print design and publishing and has been designing for Frog Books since its inception.

Goutam Dass — Head, Sales & Distribution: Eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan & Bangaldesh

Goutam has over 25 years’ experience in book sales and distribution. He currently oversees Leadstart’s business across Eastern India and neighbouring eastern countries. He has worked with several leading book publishers that include McMillian UK, Pretince- Hall and Elsevier (formerly Harcourt India Pvt. Ltd.).

Harjeet Singh — Head, Sales & Distribution: Central & Western India

Harjeet was an entrepreneur before joining Leadstart. With a decade of experience, he now oversees the sales and distribution of Leadstart in Central and Western India.

Manohar Chapa — Head, Business Operations: South India

Manohar brings with him 15 years of retail experience, spread over various business domains. He has worked in India and West Asia before joining Leadstart. Manohar oversees the business in South India.

Iftikar Shaikh — In-charge, Author Relationships & Business Operations, Mumbai

Iftikar has had a decade of experience prior to joining Leadstart. He managed key business processes of MNC banks along with other outfits. He, and his team, take care of business operations efficiency along with handling author relationships.

Rajesh Bale — In-charge, Purchase & Sales Support, Mumbai

Rajesh handles the critical area of the sales support team of Leadstart that services its entire distribution pan India. He has 15 years’ experience in managing back-office and business operations.

Advisory Panel

Gouri Chatterjee is a well-known columnist, contributing to many national papers. She was also senior editor with The Telegraph and DNA.

Ramachandra Guha is a name that needs no introduction. He was named as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world. His latest book, Makers of Modern India, has garnered worldwide acclaim.

Taslima Nasrin is the controversial author of Shame. In her poems, novels and newspaper columns, she has advocated equal rights for women and attacked male chauvinism in her homeland, a country run dominated by conservative Islamic codes.

Sudeep Sen, an acclaimed poet, lives in London and New Delhi. He is the editor of Atlas, and sits on the editorial boards of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature and Six Seasons Review; and is an associate of The Paris Review.

Shashi Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and author of nine award-winning books, was a minister in the Indian Union Cabinet and is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He has been described as the  ‘global leader of tomorrow’ by the World Economic Forum.

A J Thomas is a translator and poet, writing in both English and Malayalam. He was the editor of the Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature, and a winner of Crossword Book Awards, Katha Award and the AKMG Prize.

Abraham Verghese‘s celebrated non-fiction works are My Own Country and The Tennis Partner, a bestseller all over the world. His first novel is Cutting for Stone and is board-certified in internal medicine and in pulmonary and infectious diseases.