Chair
Mr. Shekhar Mehta is a chartered accountant, cost accountant and company secretary, and he runs the Skyline Group of Companies in real estate development, within and outside of West Bengal. He graduated from St. Xavier’s College and holds a Master of Commerce degree from Calcutta University.
Mr. Mehta believes strongly in his responsibility to give back to his community. “Service is the rent I pay for the space I occupy on this earth,” he says. He has led a variety of significant service and health-related projects in India, including the construction of 500 homes and distribution of 10,000 shelter kits for survivors of natural disasters, an initiative to provide more than 2,500 heart surgeries for children and the establishment of a state-of-the-art eye hospital in Kolkata. He has been very involved in Rotary – as a club member, chair of international and national committees, and as worldwide president of Rotary International. During his presidency, he visited 40 countries and met about 30 of their heads of state. He has been working tirelessly to promote literacy in South Asia and is also an advocate for women’s empowerment. He has conceived, designed and scaled up the Rotary India Literacy Mission by starting initiatives like the T-E-A-C-H program.
Mr. Mehta has received a number of awards through his Rotary involvement, including the Meritorious Service Award, Distinguished Service Award and Service Above Self Award. He was awarded the Mahatma Award for global social impact in 2022. He has been conferred upon the Honorary Doctorate Award for his contribution in the field of literacy, and he continues to devote a significant amount of time to humanitarian programmes for communities in India.
As someone who is dedicated to making a change in the world with a track record of making an impact through his efforts, Mr. Mehta is a great asset to Operation Eyesight’s India Board of Trustees. His guiding principle is, “You see things as they are and ask why; I dream of things that never were and ask, why not?”
Mr. Mehta lives in Kolkata with his wife, Rashi, who also has an impressive history of humanitarianism. They are proud parents to their adult children, son Chiraag and daughter Chandni.