Name:
Thomas Chandy
Birth - April 1960
Death - November 2019
Early life and Education:
Thomas Chandy was born in Kottayam Kerala on 28 April 1960 to TChandy and Achiyamma. He had a twin brother Varghese Chandy and two older sisters Elimma and Mariamma. Thomas’s father T Chandy was a journalist at Malayala Manorama and his mother Achiyamma a teacher at Baker Memorial Girls High School.
His schooling was from Baker Memorial Lower Primary School and MT Seminary High School in Kottayam. His MSc in Chemistry was from Madras Christian College and MBA from International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi.
Career:
Thomas started his career in 1984 with Parle as a Franchise Chemist and went on to become the right-hand man of the then Chairman of Parle Soft Drinks, Ramesh Chauhan. He led Ramesh Chuhan’s dream project the Limca Book of Records launched by Parle on the lines of the Guinness Book of Records.
With his wide experience of the industry Thomas joined Coca- Cola, India in 1995 at the position of General Manager, Coca-Cola, Pune and went on to take on various senior roles with increasing responsibilities with the company. From operational management roles, Thomas moved into roles of training, mentoring and capacity building including organizing a comprehensive first-of-its-kind in India, “Coca-Cola Bottling School”.
In January 2006, after an 11-year stint, he left a well-settled corporate job at Coca-Cola to shape the Indian arm of a global organization for children. As the founding CEO of Save the Children in India Thomas truly believed and lived the organization’s mission to bring immediate and lasting change in the lives of children. He would describe his move from the corporate to the social sector to serve children as follows –“For me this job is a vocation; it is a higher calling. When you are driven by vocation, it is the passion that keeps you going.”
Within a decade, Thomas took Save the Children India from Rs. 15 crores to close to a Rs. 200 crore leading child rights organization. He steered the organization to achieve a stronger member status of the Save the Children movement within 2 years of its full-fledged operations, 5 years ahead of the original plan. Prior to 2008, Save the Children existed in India with support from international Member countries – but now it was an Indian entity, capable of raising money and implementing programmes on its own. It’s a feat not accomplished by any other recent global Save the Children member.
Thomas proudly wore the organization’s programmatic and advocacy achievements like feathers on his cap – be it the then J&K Government’s approval of the Juvenile Justice act, successfully amending the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, being the secretariat for the nutrition and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) coalition, to setting on ground operations for the most marginalised communities like the Musahar and Rohingyas.
A visionary leader, Thomas recognized early the burgeoning issues facing children in urban settings, at a time when most of Save the Children’s work was rural – and he was an early champion of bringing this context into Save the Children’s work. A decade back, despite demographics, urban children did not figure in most of Save the Children’s country or global strategy. Thomas helped to launch Save the Children’s Urban Strategy Initiative and facilitated bringing data to the table on urban children – notably with the report co-produced with PwC India called ‘Forgotten Voices’.
His focus on improving the lot of children was relentless and focused. He would say: “How can we allow 2 million children to die? Why should millions of children continue to drop out of schools?”
In 2019 Thomas joined the India Sanitation Coalition as the CEO. Though his tenure at ISC was brief, he worked towards and brought a focussed approach to ensure long-term sustainability of the coalition taking it to newer heights of relevance and importance in the country.
Thomas was also associated with the Woodstock School in Mussorie as a member of the Board since 2003 and served as the Board President on two occasions. He saw this as a great opportunity to be a part of children’s future- children who would be empowered to identify themselves as global citizens, and therefore be moulded into natural peacemakers. With this association, Thomas aimed to maintain the school’s leadership position as one of the best international schools in India; one that allows creativity and lateral thinking, with no academic pressure for rote learning.
Position of Responsibilities:
Founder CEO / 2006 - 2018
Other associations:
Managing Trustee- Avanti Fellows
Member - National Advisory Group of Rashtriya Bal Swasthaya Karyakram
Member - Advisory Board for Young Lives in India, an international longitudinal study of childhood poverty designed by University of Oxford.
Board member- Resource Alliance
Board member- SCORE Foundation
Member Advisory Group- Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research, Jamia Millia Islamia University
Distinguished achievements:
Thomas was acknowledged as one of the finest advocates for children across the globe when, in 2015, he was invited to represent civil society at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) panel on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) a platform offered to a select few.
Awards and honours:
Personal Life:
Thomas was married to Monica Chandy on 26 February 1987. They have one daughter Shekinah Chandy and a granddaughter Tara.
Thomas’s early days, especially the ones at college in Kottayam, defined his pathway towards a committed Christian life. He was a member of the Delhi Bible Fellowship and served on the leadership team of the church for many years. Thomas was a voracious reader. His faith based on reasoning, evidence for the historicity of Christ and reliability of biblical documents, was strengthened by his reading of books by C.S Lewis, Schaeffer and Bonhoeffer.
Publications:
Thomas was a thinker, writer & a poet. He used to express his anguish, his victories and his passions through poems. Some of his selected poems and articles are published in a book of memoirs ‘Thomas Chandy – A Life Well Lived, A Man Much Loved’, compiled by his wife Dr. Monica Thomas Chandy and his brother Varghese Chandy.
Articles
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2012/10/20/indias-malnutrition-problem-is-a-systemic-issue
Reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Chandy-Life-Lived-Loved-ebook/dp/B08HLNKLNF
https://www.woodstockschool.in/tribute-to-thomas-chandy/
Shri. Thomas Chandy the founding CEO of Save the Children in India truly believed and lived the organization’s mission to bring immediate and lasting change in the lives of children. He would describe his move from the corporate to the social sector to serve children as follows –“For me this job is a vocation; it is a higher calling. When you are driven by vocation, it is the passion that keeps you going.”
Thomas proudly wore the organization’s programmatic and advocacy achievements like feathers on his cap – be it the then J&K Government’s approval of the Juvenile Justice act, successfully amending the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, being the secretariat for the nutrition and reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health (RMNCH) coalition, to setting on ground operations for the most marginalised communities like the Musahar and Rohingyas.
A visionary leader, Thomas recognized early the burgeoning issues facing children in urban settings, at a time when most of Save the Children’s work was rural – and he was an early champion of bringing this context into Save the Children’s work. A decade back, despite demographics, urban children did not figure in most of Save the Children’s country or global strategy. Thomas helped to launch Save the Children’s Urban Strategy Initiative and facilitated bringing data to the table on urban children – notably with the report co-produced with PwC India called ‘Forgotten Voices’.
His focus on improving the lot of children was relentless and focused. He would say: “How can we allow 2 million children to die? Why should millions of children continue to drop out of schools?”
