Amit Sinha MBA '04
Amit was born and raised in the state of Bihar, India, where the Haas team will focus its efforts. He has fond memories of wheat crops, cattle and the game of cricket. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, focusing on globalization and social development issues. Amit majored in Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, where he founded India's largest science and technology festival and a campus newspaper. His recent projects include development of new communication technologies for the Chicago Fire Department and a consulting assignment for Accenture to develop strategies for reuse of computers to reduce the digital divide and electronic waste. With the IBD project for Janani, he hopes to contribute to the development of his native Bihar state. In his spare time he loves to sleep and prefers watching "Popeye the Sailor" to TV reality shows.

David Plink MBA '04
David Plink was born and raised in Holland, which he says is not only the land of wooden shoes, tulips and windmills, but also a fantastic place to grow up. After school, he took off to Leiden University, where he graduated in 1996 with a Master's degree in Public Administration. He was set to embark on a career in public service. But upon graduating, David realized that his skills and commercial instincts would be best utilized in business. So David started at TMP Worldwide, an international advertising agency, as an account manager. He specialized in recruitment advertising and frantically tried to convince potential employees of the virtues of working for Microsoft, Heineken and others. After three years David decided to move over from the advertising buying to the selling side. From 1999 to 2002 David was active in various sales and sales management roles within VNU Business Publications, a Dutch-American publisher. At Haas David is a Haas Student Ambassador, a volunteer for the Young Entrepreneurs at Haas program (YEAH) and fulfils a role in the European Business Club. David brings specialized marketing and advertisement skills to this project that will be key to leveraging future expansion plans for Janani.

Dhruti Patel BA '03
Dhruti is currently an undergraduate student at the Haas School of Business and is graduating on May 25th. She has been involved with various student groups such as Berkeley Consulting and the professional business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, which she loves. She has been involved with health promotion through numerous venues such as Associated Student Government and the Community Health Impact Program. Dhruti will be working for Computer Sciences Corporation in the Global Health Solutions Practice starting this fall. She enjoys dancing, music and especially likes to travel in her free time. She will be staying behind in Berkeley to provide research services to the group in India.

Julie Earne, MBA '04
Julie Earne is currently pursuing a joint MBA and master's in public health (MPH) at Berkeley. Julie began her career as a corporate finance associate in Citibank's global banking group. After wearing a suit for three years, she decided to serve the other end of the global financial market and went to Africa to work with a microfinance institution, providing small loans to economically active poor women. While in Africa, Julie managed the strategic planning and finance areas for a network of five local microfinance affiliates in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia. Julie is very interested in the application of business discipline to international development and is looking forward to working with Janani this summer in India. Her interests include wine, scuba diving, skiing and international travel.

Mona Gavankar MBA '04
Mona Gavankar was born in Maharashtra, a state located in Western India, and moved to Hong Kong at the age of one. She enjoyed many summers at her grandparents' farms, and looks forward to returning to rural India. She came to the U.S. to study biology at Stanford University, and embarked on a career in finance. After a number of jobs over five years, most recently in corporate finance at Gap Inc., she joined the dual degree MBA/Masters of Public Health program. During this trip she will draw on her knowledge of biology, public health and finance to determine how Janani can best finance the clinical services needs of the rural population of Bihar. Mona is particularly excited by the challenge of interviewing villagers in Hindi, a language she picked up through watching Bollywood flicks, in the sweltering heat of the Bihar summer!