Mr. Vasudevan Nair Presanna Raj

Chairman of L’école Chempaka Society for Educare, Tagore Educational Trust, and Mira’s PMC Lakeshore Resort in India, as well as founder and former Managing Director of a K-12 education group in the Middle East, Mr.Vasudevan Nair Presanna Raj is a former banker turned entrepreneur and philanthropist in the sectors of education, healthcare, and hospitality.

The entrepreneurship of VNP Raj is focused on attainment of social grace through four support pillars. These pillars are building quality of its products; continuous creation of value to shareholders; organized policy, process, procedure, and governance to add value as well as transparency to regulators and all other stakeholders of a business; and continuous improvement through efficiency of product and execution through research, development, and centralization via digital and artificial intelligence.

A second-rank holder in M.A. (Economics) from the University of Kerala, India, Mr. Raj has over 42 years of experience working in the banking sectors in India as well as in the UAE. He served the banking sector as an Officer, Branch Manager, Development Manager, and Staff Trainer with Karnataka Bank (India) and Emirates NBD (UAE) from 1979 to 2014. According to him, “Humbleness, simplicity, truthfulness, and purity in thoughts are great virtues of a human soul. Sharing one's money and time with the needy as well as caring for and respecting all are ways to achieve social grace. And, educational institutions are the ideal places where children can acquire these virtues to be responsible citizens of tomorrow.”

As Mr. Raj believed that the onus to create a better future society is on schools, he created an educational group in the Middle East in 2015 with a business model that acquired profit making schools which enabled the teachers to collaborate with students as well as parents to nurture the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth and well-being of all groups of students in an inclusive, responsive, liberating, and stress-free learning environment. The group ensured the implementation of differentiated teaching practices and personalized learning through effective strategies, intervention, accommodation, and modification of the curriculum as well as assessments of all groups of students. This ensured that all groups of students are fully prepared to pursue their individual college and career goals upon graduation. In a short duration of 5 years, the group acquired 9 schools offering British and American curricula.

It was his dreams to spread value-based education to the world. As part of this he acquired L’école Chempaka group of schools- 5 schools (under L’école Chempaka Society for Educare) and Chempaka Kindergartens with 12 branches (under Chempaka Kindergarten Pvt. Ltd.) in 2019 as well as Sree Vivekananda Memorial Public School (under Tagore Educational Trust) in 2021 in Kerala, India. The philosophy of education in Chempaka and Tagore schools is “We Value an Inclusive Education System”. The schools are committed to celebrate an inclusive culture where every student feels seen, heard, valued, and empowered as a learner with the potential to succeed alongside peers of the same age. The school team believes that every child can become an unpredictable contributor to the world, provided he or she is allowed to explore his or her mind to the fullest. The education provided by Chempaka and Tagore schools celebrate 3 core values of learning such as assuring learning independence, allowing inner sense of discipline, and finding excitement of seeking knowledge as well as skills through application. In addition, they promote 6 Pillars of Teaching and Learning Provision, 21 Ways of Learning for Children, as well as 28 Driving Principles for Children. In these schools, learning shall be stress free to every learner as well as the learning facilitator. It shall not discriminate any learner. Children develop values of good friendship, caring, sharing, and collaboration. The schools ensure that there shall be no competition or rivalry among the children. The teachers are the best friends of the children. As the Chairman of the Chempaka and Tagore schools, Mr. Raj ensures that the schools are home away from home for the children where they freely explore their mind, cultivate good values, and develop their talents as well as literacy and digital skills.

Mr. Raj has also made his presence felt through the health rejuvenation resort- PMC Lakeshore Resort in Alleppey, Kerala and Chempaka Hills in Kumarakovil, Tamil Nadu. As the Chairman, he focuses on creating theme-based resorts for physical and mental health improvement based on Indian authentic herbal treatment under Ayurveda from Kerala and Siddha Vaidyam (Naturopathy) from Tamil Nadu. These two lines of treatment are India’s authentic contribution of health rejuvenation to the whole world. PMC Lakeshore Resort has water as its theme that includes waterfront land, paddy field, three independent islands, honeymoon cottages, premium houseboats, shikari boats, speed boat, as well as herbal treatment centres. The centre also promotes organic food for its customers. The Chempaka Hills promotes mountainous terrain for its customers. PMC Estate located in the hills of Munnar has plantation of cardamom in 22 acres of beautiful land covered by the mist of Munnar.

According to Mr. Raj, “Business creates value by quality embedded services, but always with a commercial sense, that provides happiness to every stake holder of a business.” He believes in “building good relationships for achieving a set of predetermined goals by a set of people who are well directed and disciplined to work together.”