Lessons in Learning

How Grace Pinto became the reckoning force behind Ryan International Group of Institutions.

- Punita Sabharwal

With 135 schools in India and five in the Middle East, Madame Pinto literally lives her life out of a suitcase. Back from Dubai for the interaction with our magazine, she is now off to Daman & Diu to be with her students of Ryan International. As you get to know her better as an entrepreneur, you will understand that she is a teacher at heart who enjoys being amidst kids. Her curiosity to interact with children and listen to them patiently remains the same as it was in 1976, when it all started. This was the year after she got married to Dr. A F Pinto, an entrepreneur, who envisioned building his own group of educational institutions. His wife, Grace Pinto became the executing partner to this vision.

COUPLE PRENEUR SUCCESS

Their entrepreneurial journey embarked from the need of the society to have good English medium, privately owned schools to re-shape the education system. They initially began with a school in 1976 and after running it successfully progressed on to open their second school, St. Xavier’s High School in North Mumbai. Pintos developed an alternate model of learning at St Xavier’s which was unheard of, and was thought ahead of its time, which led to the success of the school and others that followed. With the opening up of the economy in 1991, the group started spreading its wings in other states. Owing to their success, bankers came upfront to finance their projects and several state governments supported this new model of education.

FROM MRS GRACE PINTO TO MADAME PINTO