Philanthropy Innovation Summit 2025 | Salon Sessions

A progressive, dynamic, and inspiring leader, driven by her passions and an unwavering resolve to give back to society responsibly. Neerja Birla is global leading sociopreneur and mental health alchemist. She is the Founder and Chairperson of the Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), a social enterprise committed to the Spirit of Service.

As the visionary behind several successful initiatives, Neerja Birla has transformed her diverse passions into thriving entities, continually redefining the landscape of innovation and leadership. She is known for her contributions to education, mental health and menstrual hygiene through multiple centres of excellence.

Mental Health: Driven by personal experience and a deep understanding of mental health’s complexities, Neerja has been at the forefront of advocating for systemic change and innovation in mental health practices. Under Birla’s dynamic leadership, Mpower is a revolutionary initiative that has brought about a paradigm shift in India’s attitude towards mental health by spreading awareness, alleviating stigma, and providing holistic and quality mental health care to individuals from all walks of life. The initiative has touched over 120 million lives in India.

Menstrual Hygiene: Ujaas is a social endeavour that fosters the young and future generations with a CHANGE-centric approach. Working on deep-rooted problems, stigmas, taboos, and challenges that even boil down to mental health and reproductive issues in India. Led India’s first initiative to spread awareness across 120 locations across the country.

Education: She has pioneered the integration of Mind Matters curriculum and Founder of inclusive learning schools. The Aditya Birla World Academy, an international school with an Indian soul that promotes the holistic development of its students over and above their academic achievements, has been ranked the 2nd Best International School in all of India.

Also, the Aditya Birla Integrated School, ranked the #1 Special Needs School in the country, provides ground-breaking inclusive education to children with different learning or emotional needs.

Recognized for ground-breaking work, Neerja Birla has received accolades and recipient of a multitude of Indian and international awards as acknowledgment of her contribution like G20 Empower India ‘Woman Achiever Award 2023’ and the ‘Golden Peacock Award 2023′ for Social Leadership, the 50 Top Global Mental Health Leaders Award by the World Mental Health Congress (2019), and The Global Impact Leader of the Year Award at the UK-based Private Wealth Institute’s Global Annual Summit (2018). She was recognized in Fortune India’s ’50 Most Powerful Women’ (2021, 2023, 2024) and Business Today’s ‘Most Powerful Woman in Business’ (2020, 2022 & 2023).

Neerja serves as G20 Alliance Advocate, G100 Global Mental Health Chair, Mumbai Police Foundation Trustee and a member of the National Managing Body of the Indian Red Cross Society, the Indian Advisory Council of the British Asian Trust and the Asia Gender Network of AVPN.

On a more personal note, Birla holds a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Derby, lives in Mumbai, is married to Kumar Mangalam Birla, and is the proud mother of three children – Ananyashree, Aryaman Vikram, and Advaitesha.

She is also a committed fitness and outdoor sports enthusiast, loves reading and listening to music, and is extremely fond of traveling and trekking Neerja is a patron of Ikigai, the Japanese philosophy for a fulfilling life, and Wabi-Sabi, which embraces beauty in imperfection.

Cynthia Bissett Germanotta is president and co-founder of Born This Way Foundation, which she launched with her daughter Lady Gaga in 2012. Born This Way Foundation empowers and inspires young people to build a kinder, braver world that supports their mental health. Under Cynthia’s leadership, Born This Way Foundation has reached millions of young people around the world and continues to demonstrate the transformative power of kindness and its impact on mental health through youth-driven initiatives, research-based programming, and strategic partnerships.

Cynthia and Born This Way Foundation have been the recipient of numerous honors, including a 2022 Anthem Award for the launch of the Be There Certificate with Jack.org, an honoree of the 2021 Webby Awards for their annual kindness campaign #BeKind21, the 2019 Behavior Research Foundation’s Honorary Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health for their advocacy work surrounding mental health, the 2018 Children Mending Hearts Global Changemakers’s Award for their commitment to positive change through empathy, and the National Association of School Psychologists Special Friend to Children Award.

Cynthia also serves as the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health as appointed by the United Nations in 2019. In this role, she works to educate and promote healthier lives, improved workforces, and overall mental health on a global scale. Cynthia also served on the Board of the Empowerment Initiative at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an alumni member of the Board of Governors for the Parsons New School of Design.
Cynthia is a former telecommunications executive whose career in sales and management spanned 25 years. A graduate of West Virginia University, she earned her master’s degree in public administration from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., which she considers invaluable to her work with the foundation.

Born and raised in West Virginia, Cynthia now resides in New York City with her husband, Joe Germanotta. Joe and Cynthia have two wonderful daughters, Natali and Stefani, and are owners of a charming NYC neighborhood restaurant, Joanne Trattoria.  In her free time, Cynthia enjoys writing, walking, and practicing ballet, a lifelong passion. She is honored to work alongside young people, hear their stories, amplify their voices, and collaborate on ways to make the world a kinder and braver place.

Xin Liu, founder and president of Enlight Foundation which focuses on education equality and youth. Xin’s philanthropy is motivated by her optimism and deep convictions that young people must be empowered to lead the way to a more sustainable future, and that collaborative efforts among stakeholders are essential in solving the big issues we face today. Her work at the foundation focuses on three primary pillars this decade: improving youth mental wellbeing, engaging young leaders in developing climate solutions, and investing in next-generation social change makers. To create systems change, Xin invests in young people, elevates youth voices, and works collaboratively with other foundations, researchers, and nonprofits.

Prior to funding and leading the Enlight Foundation in 2004, Xin Liu was an award-winning writer and photojournalist both in China and the United States. Her work has been published in China Youth Daily, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Palm Beach Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Fortune Magazine, and more. More recently, she published two books in China: At the Still Point of the Turning World and Become One With the Dust. Most recently, she was awarded “Outstanding Asian American Women Who Dared”.

Jeff Hancock is the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University and Founding Director of the Stanford Social Media Lab. A leading expert in social media behavior and the psychology of online interaction, Professor Hancock studies the impact of social media and AI technology on social cognition, well-being, deception and trust, and how we use and understand language.

His award-winning research has been published in over 100 journal articles and conference proceedings and has been supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense. Professor Hancock’s TED Talk on deception has been seen over 1 million times and his research has been frequently featured in the popular press, including the New York Times, CNN, NPR, CBS and the BBC. 

Professor Hancock worked for Canada Customs before earning his PhD in Psychology at Dalhousie University, Canada. He was a Professor of Information Science (and co-Chair) and Communication at Cornell University prior to joining Stanford in 2015. He currently lives in Palo Alto with his wife and daughter, and he regularly gets shot at on the ice as a hockey goalie.