Satish Kalra is an engineer by education. He completed his under and postgraduate studies in India and worked for over 30 years in senior management positions with Unilever and Ciba-Geigy in India, Switzerland and lastly Singapore — where, by his own admission, he was bitten by the 'cleft bug' and decided to join The Smile Train as Regional Director for South Asia. "There is something inherently addictive about working with kids, watching their lives being transformed, their faces light up with smiles that make you want to carry on," he said. There are now more than 150 partner hospitals in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Under Satish's leadership, The Smile Train has provided more than 137,000 free cleft reconstructive surgeries on kids who would otherwise never have been able to afford them.

Satish can be reached at satish_kalra@sify.com.