Lakshmi Karan

As Director of Impact Assessment, Learning and Utilization for the Skoll Foundation, Lakshmi Karan manages a variety of grant relationships as a member of the Program and Impact team.

Prior to working at Skoll, Lakshmi was a consultant to Fortune 500 companies. She helped them determine and prioritize projects to enhance their competitive advantage and specialized in knowledge management and training.

In 1999 she decided to dedicate herself to social betterment. She interned with the Asia Foundation and worked as a consultant to Earthwatch Institute, Oxfam America and the Reebok Human Rights Program, specializing in economic development and human rights. She also served as Program Manager for the Alchemy Foundation.

Lakshmi grew up in South India and came to the United States in 1993. She completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Madras and a master's degree in Systems Management from the National Institute of Information Technology, both of which are located in Madras, India. She earned a master’s degree in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and is currently a Ph. D. candidate at The Fletcher School, researching program evaluation utilization. She is fluent in Tamil and Hindi and intermediate in French.