Kavita Ramdas


Kavita Ramdas is senior advisor to the Ford Foundation's president, Darren Walker. She assumed the position in 2015 after serving for 3 years as Ford's India country representative, representing the office in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She is the former President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women.

Background and affiliations

Kavita Ramdas is the daughter of Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas, former Head of the Indian Navy. Both of Kavita's parents, Retd. Admiral L Ramdas and Lalita Ramdas, and her sister Sagari Ramdas have been closely associated with the AAP through its core committee.
Kavita Ramdas was born in Delhi, India and grew up in Mumbai, Delhi, London, Rangoon, and Bonn. She attended high school at the Nikolaus Cusanus Gymnasium in Bad Godesberg, Bonn, Germany; the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, and graduated from Springdales School, New Delhi, in 1980. She studied Political Science at Hindu College, University of Delhi for two years until 1982. In 1983, she was awarded a scholarship to Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she received her B.A. in international relations in 1985 and her M.P.A. in international development and public policy studies from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1988.
In 1990 Ramdas married Zulfiqar Ahmad, a peace advocate, whom she had met in college. Zulfiqar is the nephew of the Pakistani academic and anti-war activist, Eqbal Ahmed, one of the Harrisburg Seven. Given her father's stature as a senior naval officer, there was speculation that their relationship could compromise India's national security.
Ramdas is a former member of the Global Development Program Advisory Panel to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and serves on the Board of Trustees at Princeton University, on the Council of Advisors on Gender Equity to the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and on the Advisory Council to the Asian University for Women and the African Women Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights. She is a member of the Henry Crown Fellow's Program of the Aspen Institute and previously served as a board member for the Women's Funding Network.

Work at the Global Fund for Women

Kavita Ramdas has been the President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women since 1996. During Ramdas’ tenure, the Global Fund for Women assets have increased from $6 million to $21 million. Grantmaking has risen to $8 million per year, and the number of countries in which the Global Fund for Women has made grants has nearly tripled to over 160 countries. Ramdas has also overseen the Global Fund for Women's first endowment campaign and the creation of the Now or Never Fund to ensure women’s participation on critical international issues.

Work at MADRE

MADRE is international non profit organization partners with grassroots women’s organizations facing war, disaster and injustice to meet their basic needs as a bridge to develop their advocacy and leadership.
Kavita N. Ramdas has joined the organization as its new Strategy Advisor on June 14, 2017.

Honors and awards