For the day-to-day management of the Foundation, the Central Government appoints a Secretary who is responsible to the Chairman of the Governing Board.
The Secretary is a high-level officer from the Indian Administrative Service or a similar organisation. The Secretary lives in Auroville. The last Secretary was Mr. S.R. Sharma, I.A.S. who functioned  as Secretary from August 2003 to October 2005.
Previous secretaries were:

• Mr. L.K. Tripathy, I.A.S.,
• Dr. S.C. De, I.P.S., and
• Mr. N. Bala Baskar, I.A.S. (In October '01 Mr. Bala Baskar's term came to an end.)

 Shri.M.Ramaswamy, IAS, has assumed the post of Secretary,Auroville Foundation from 1st November 2006.