Mr. Rajesh Kapoor is a social development practitioner and researcher and has been working in the areas of Natural Resources Management, Nutrition, Education, Water, Sanitation, Dairy, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Urban Poverty Alleviation for more than thirty eight years now.  A Postgraduate in Management from IRMA- Anand and Dairy Technology from NDRI- Karnal, he has held various positions in Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Dalal Consultants. His areas of specialization include Research, Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Institutional Development and Social Development aspects working across PAN India.

He has closely worked with government, networks and organizations alike on inclusion of the marginalized, decentralized governance and gender issues. His other areas of interest include program and strategic planning, organizational development and stakeholder participation and interfacing. He has been heading Cohesion as CEO since 2001 and his passion for rural development has helped Cohesion evolve into a professional NGO with deep rooted understanding of the grassroots. He is also a trainer on Project management, Participatory Approaches, Social Analysis and Gender Analysis. As CEO he is involved in giving direction to multiple projects, Process Documentation, Research, Evaluations and Impact assessments He has hands on experience in the capacity building of different stakeholders.

He actively involves with his peers as an IRMA alumnus. As a CEO at Cohesion he has been able to focus on developing different layers of human resources, including the second line of professionals. The noteworthy feature is that he practices the values of non-discrimination and gender just in all his work, not just with internal human resources but with external stakeholders too. This has led to Cohesion having the women leaders in most of its locations, besides having leaders from the other disadvantaged social status. This has been possible due to the positive environment and freedom provided to the team members, besides him having lot of trust in the team. He considers Cohesion’s human resources to be its biggest asset.

Membership and role in different forums

• Board member of different networks and Organizations like WGWLO, Sajjata Sangh and Setu Abhiyan
• Steering Committee member of different Committees of NABARD.
• Member of The Task Force on Media & Fund Raising for National Level Coalition – Rapid Community Response to COVID-19 (RCRC)