Chalkbeat

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Chalkbeat

Charter School Business Management

New York
April 28, 2011

For charter school finance reform, one company dominates

From L to R: Sharon Denson, Vice President; Raj Thakkar, Founder & CEO; Stephen Reid, Vice President; Karen Daniels, Chief Operating Officer Disenchanted with the corporate world, Raj Thakkar was skimming job openings in 2003 when he found an ad from a charter school looking for a chief financial officer. He didn't have any experience in education, but then again, the charter school barely did either: Explore Charter School was only a year old. Years later, Explore is a growing charter school network and Thakkar has his own company, Charter School Business Management Inc., that has become one of the most widely consulted financial advisors by New York City charter schools. In a phone conversation yesterday, Thakkar estimated that he'd worked with more than 40 percent of the city's charter schools at one point or another over the last five years. Yesterday, the New York branch of the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized Thakkar, giving him and his company the New York City Small Business Person of the Year Award. Thakkar's company is unusual in that he has little competition: few firms do the same sort of work in New York, and none specialize in support for charter schools alone.