Our Team

Saurin Nanavati is the Manager of Partner Relations and Learning for the Committee on Sustainability Assessment. He leads work with dozens of global organizations that are formulating diagnostic tools with COSA to better understand Producer Organizations and he also manages key processes for the overall learning that is generated together with COSA Research Partner Institutions. Saurin specializes in Organizational and Business Development processes and has spent the past 12 years managing international development programs and formulating systems for producer organizations to access information, capital and markets.

Prior to COSA, Saurin served as Vice President of Root Capital and developed the organization’s Financial Advisory Services program, which delivered financial management training to 300 producer organizations across Latin America and Africa. Saurin previously worked with the Grameen Foundation where he managed the collaboration of a multi-stakeholder partnership, using mobile technology and agriculture research to track plant diseases affecting food security in Uganda. In India, Saurin served as Program Director for Zameen Organic, where he supported the organization of 5,000 small scale cotton farmers into a certified Fair Trade-Organic supply chain. He served 2 years in Peace Corps Panama and received a Bachelor degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He resides in New Jersey and in his spare time supports Haitian coffee farmers as an advisor for the Singing Rooster Coffee Company.