Satish Kalra

Chief Programs Officer

Satish joined Smile Train in 2000 and is currently the Chief Programs Officer, overseeing all aspects of program development and implementation. Prior to taking on this position in 2011, Satish spent 11 years as Smile Train’s Regional Director for South Asia. Under his leadership, Smile Train’s programs grew to more than 160 partner hospitals in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, performing over 300,000 free cleft reconstructive surgeries on children in South Asia who would otherwise never have been able to afford them.

“There is something inherently addictive about working with kids, watching their lives being transformed, their faces light up with smiles, that makes you want to carry on,” he recently reported to us while in Smile Train’s office in New York.

Before joining Smile Train, Satish held a number of senior management positions during a career that spanned over 30 years with Unilever and Ciba-Geigy in India, Switzerland and Singapore.

Today, Satish is utilizing his management and interpersonal skills in Smile Train’s largest region, helping to cure poor children born with clefts by recruiting and motivating our many partner-surgeons in South Asia. He and his team are committed to “spreading the smiles” and have assisted other regions with training and oversight as Smile Train expanded around the globe.

Satish was educated as an engineer, completing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in India.