Shashank Vira is Managing Partner and Director of Hearth Advisors Limited (Ireland). Hearth Advisors is a leading research and consulting firm based between Europe and Asia, with offices in the UK, Ireland and India. It has a deep understanding of national and international best practices and seeks to make a tangible impact across its focus sectors of Education, Healthcare and Sustainable Development.

Shashank is an entrepreneur, educator, and social infrastructure financier, with three decades of experience. He has been the CEO of international companies, led private equity investments and debt financing of education, established several high quality international academic institutions, master-planned and overseen the development of townships and founded technology-in-education companies. He has led multilateral funded projects for the World Bank and the Commonwealth of Learning and developed national or regional education plans in Canada, the Caribbean, Brunei, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

He is involved with curriculum reform and pedagogical innovations at school and university levels in several countries and deeply in the UK, Europe and India. He has led the design of new schools, university departments and curricula and is on the Board of some of the top schools, colleges and education companies.

Shashank is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge.