Vishal Talreja

Biography

Vishal co-founded Dream a Dream along with 11 others. Cofounded in 1999, Dream a Dream has invested in mainstreaming Life Skills within education ecosystems and helping transform the core purpose of education in India over the last two decades. Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow and a Board Member at PYE Global and Goonj. He has previously been a Founder Director of Unltd India and Board Member of India Cares Foundation.

Vishal is a Steering Committee Member of Karanga – A Global Alliance on Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills. He is a Founding Member of The Weaving Lab – A Global Learning Ecosystem of weavers who are advancing the practice and profession of weaving thriving learning ecosystems. He is a Founding Member of Catalyst 2030 – A global movement of social change innovators collaborating to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also part of the Informal Working Group on the Future of Education & Skills 2030 project by OECD where he has been a Co-chair and Moderator at various convenings.

Vishal has been recognized as an “Architect of the Future” by the Waldzell Institut in Austria. He is also an advisor and mentor to Reap Benefit and is deeply committed to mentoring start-up NGOs and young social entrepreneurs. He is a TEDx Speaker, active writer on development challenges and human-interest stories (https://medium.com/@vishaltalreja) and a poet (http://mysoulstirring.blogspot.com/). In 2018, he was awarded the ‘Heroes of Bengaluru’ award.

Vishal believes that if we can re-imagine learning to develop empathy, creative thinking, problem solving and collaborative working skills amongst young people, they will be able to overcome adversity and flourish in this fast-changing world.