Rakhee Karumbaya

RAKHEE KARUMBAYA Program Coordinator, Snow Leopard Network, Executive Assistant, Snow Leopard Trust Senior Consultant, Nature Conservation Foundation SNOW LEOPARD TRUST SNOW LEOPARD NETWORK NATURE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION Email:--Mob:- DATE OF BIRTH 29 July, 1971 NATIONALITY Indian MARITAL STATUS Married CURRENT POSITIONS EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION – SNOW LEOPARD TRUST(SLT) AND COORDINATOR OF THE SNOW LEOPARD NETWORK (SLN- AND ACTIVITIES I am responsible for handling incoming communications such as email and formal letters, electronic and paper files, managing calendars, planning meetings and conferences, and making travel arrangements. I also engage in HR and PR for the Trust. I uphold a strict level of confidentiality and help to develop and sustain a level of professionalism among staff and clientele. As Executive assistant, I am responsible for coordinating between the five range countries that we work closely with i.e. China, India, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. I coordinate with them for budgets, Annual and mid-term reporting, organizing meetings and any other requirements that may arise. I also interact with the US office in Seattle to send them budgets and expenditure and any reporting or information that may be required from the range countries. At times, a lot of these duties often come with tight deadlines. I also work with our researchers and scientists in Sweden, whilst they are in the field in Mongolia, to help track our collared animals for our Long Term Ecological Survey (LTES) and maintain and update the GPS app. As the SLN coordinator, I handle the front end of the website and promote the network on social media. I run an annual grants program, where we give out small grants to deserving candidates. It has a rigorous two level review, by several international senior scientists, whom I coordinate with, and the whole process is conducted over a period of 6 months. I also manage a list serve, to where I upload relevant scientific papers to our bibliography. We have about 700 members worldwide and I update them, regularly, with news and happenings in the research of snow leopards. I remain a Senior Consultant with NCF, Mysore and am actively involved in coordinating the NCF Ethics Committee. I receive the proposals that are submitted to the committee and handle the complete review process, communications of comments between the committee and applicant and issuance of the final approval. I also continue to work and support the organization in any capacity that is required. ACADEMIC PROFILE Bachelor of Arts: 1993 Maharaja’s College, Mysore Journalism, English Literature, Public Administration Grade 12: 1988 All Souls’ and St Gabriel’s School Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia Grade 10: 1986 Pinewoods International School Goroka, Papua New Guinea WORK EXPERIENCE BRILLIANT’S COMPUTER CENTRE, MYSORE Worked as a counsellor and helped to recruit students to the computer courses offered by the centre. Also maintained the administrative documents and accounts for the centre. Was involved in counselling and guiding the students. TAJ WEST END, BANGALORE Worked with the West End Hotel as a management trainee and trained in all the departments from Corporate Sales, Housekeeping, Food and Banquets and Front Office. TRANS OVERSEAS TRAVELS, MYSORE Worked with the travel agency as the manager and within a year increased the turnover from 1 crore to 3 crore rupees NATURE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION, MYSORE (NCF) Joined NCF in 2005 as their program manager and streamlined processes to facilitate efficient operation of the organisation and administration. Also helped the students with their requirements, monitored funding, interacted with international funding agencies and assisted with the PhD program. They are based in Mysore and work with the goal of contributing to the knowledge and conservation of India’s unique wildlife heritage with innovative research and imaginative solutions. The highly qualified and motivated conservation scientists work in a range of wildlife habitats, from coral reefs and tropical rainforests to the high mountains of the Himalaya. They are funded through international support from organizations such as The Ford Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, National Geographic Society, International Snow Leopard Trust and many more. I worked to coordinate the different grants, projects and the work/travel of the scientists and students. I handled all the management, accounts, budgeting, adhering to NGO guidelines and administration, as well as interacted with the overseas funding organizations. I was also involved in their Corporate Marketing Strategies, promotion of the foundation and was a member of the Executive Board (the supreme governing body of the institution). During my full time tenure with NCF, I also doubled the size of the organization’s corpus, through safe and sensible investments. STUDENT CONFERENCE OF CONSERVATION SCIENCE, BANGALORE (SCCS) In 2010, I was the Administrator for the first Cambridge student conference to be held in India. I set up the whole process of conference promotion, student registration and the event itself. Today SCCS is being held for the tenth year running and attracts students from all over the world. Having relocated to Bangalore in October, 2008, I continued to work, part time, with Nature Conservation Foundation, in an advisory capacity and guide the administration and accounts team, with their day to day tasks and functioning. I also worked with the Financial Committee to help advise and follow up on investments for the trust. In August, 2009, being based in Bangalore, and also being familiar with all the Committee members, I took up the responsibility of organizing the first ever Student Conference for Conservation Science, (SCCS), started in Cambridge, U.K., to be held at Bangalore in June 2010. The Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) - Bangalore aimed to facilitate interaction, exchange of research ideas and methods, building contacts and building capacity of young researchers in all aspects of conversation science. As a sister conference to SCCSCambridge, http://www.sccs-cam.org , SCCS-Bangalore focused on attracting student participants, primarily from countries in South and South-east Asia. This geographical scope was expanded later, after the first two conferences were held. The first conference was held at the Tata Auditorium,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on three days in June 2010 (tentatively 16th to 18th), and on roughly the same dates in subsequent years. TOP SKILLS Proficient in Microsoft Office, Management, Leadership, Team Building and Motivation. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION I grew up in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and was educated in PNG and Australia until Grade 12. I was offered a scholarship by James Cook University, Queensland, for two years, once I completed Grade 12, but returned to India to attend University. I subsequently got married and moved back to Papua New Guinea, where my husband was involved with sourcing and trading coffee. I was actively involved in meeting and entertaining the overseas buyers and traders, who visited our operations from Europe, America and Australia. I was an active member of the golf club, which had a total of 300 expatriate members from all over the world, and was involved with organizing events and occasions for the club. My skills in public relations and event management were highly appreciated by the Club and its members. Armed with my work experience and having travelled, as well as interacted at various levels with a wide variety of people, I would CONTRIBUTION/VALUE describe myself as a very amicable, determined, ambitious and goal TO YOUR orientated person. I work well independently, as well as with a team. I ORGANISATION AND am extremely efficient, organized and a strong leader. I ensure that tasks TEAM are carried out timely. I also have strong problem-solving skills and am very assertive in challenging situations. I have a strong willingness to learn. My strength lies in Administrative Management, HR and PR, which seems to be most of the qualities that are required for the position of Executive Assistant I have formed a deep interest, fascination and belief in the work that I do, as well as the work done by my peers, in the field of conservation. I feel that I would definitely benefit your organisation, with my willingness to work hard, integrity and dedication to duty. MY LANGUAGES KNOWN English