Neha Aviral

Neha Aviral is a Principal at ghSMART. She advises investors, boards, and corporate clients on their most significant leadership priorities, including leadership assessment, development, and succession, and organisational change and effectiveness.

Prior to joining ghSMART, Neha was a founding team member and Associate Director at The Larry Ellison Foundation, where she worked to help define and execute Mr. Ellison’s philanthropic vision. She led the Foundation’s portfolio of philanthropic and impact investments in global education, and also established the Foundation’s marine conversation strategy. She was formerly a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she served clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors on topics spanning corporate strategy, leadership succession, organisational effectiveness, and systems and process reform. She began her career at BlackRock, managing client analytics and financial technology adoption for institutional investors across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and leading the growth of BlackRock Solutions’ EMEA business and its London team. Throughout her career, she has also worked extensively on recruiting, talent development, mentorship, and firmwide diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Neha is a Trustee of The International Institute for Strategic Studies, the world’s leading think-tank on international affairs, defence, and security. She is also a Trustee of Reach to Teach, a non-profit working on state-wide education systems reform in partnership with state governments across India. She is a former Board observer at Central Square Foundation, an education venture philanthropy fund and policy think-tank, and former Board member for the Quality Education India Development Impact Bond, the world’s largest impact bond for education.

Neha holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BA in Government and International Relations from Cornell University, and studied History and Politics at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University. She has lived and worked in Europe, North America, India, and the Middle East, and is a native Hindi speaker.