Meet the EvolveCareers Board
Sanjeev Gupta
Executive Director for Financial Services, Africa Finance Corporation | Chair, EvolveCareers
Sanjeev Gupta is Africa Finance Corporation’s ('AFC') Executive Director for Financial Services and a Member of the Board of Directors. His overall responsibility in AFC includes Treasury, Trade Finance, Debt Syndication, Country Relations and Financial Advisory.
Mr Gupta has 30 years of experience in Investment and Fund Management, Private Equity and Corporate Finance. His forte has been to blend together global and indigenous corporates, financial investors and governments to develop commercially viable business and development models that leave a sustainable impact on emerging market economies.
Prior to joining AFC, Mr Gupta was the Managing Partner of Emerging Markets Mergers and Acquisitions Center of Excellence at Ernst and Young. He has also been the Chief Executive Officer of Sanlam Investment Management Emerging Markets operations and was a Founder & Managing Partner of Emerging Opportunity Consulting, a boutique advisory firm specializing in SME financing.
Mr Gupta holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Calcutta, India and is an Alumnus of the Said Business School, University of Oxford, England and also an alumnus of the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India (FCA).
Vandana Saxena Poria OBE
The Chief Alarmist, The Human Alarm Clock & Co, Author and Thinker
Vandana Saxena Poria OBE is a counterfactual thinker, internationally recognized speaker and Penguin author based in India. A UK Chartered Accountant, she founded and set up companies from Eastern Europe to India at the beginning of the start-up era.
Under The Human Alarm Clock & Co, combining her 30-year international experience with her interest in the nascent field of complexity anthropology and science, she has created globally applicable methodologies that challenge corporate hierarchy and traditional goals, and instead, focus on organizations as ecosystems. This approach disrupts mindsets and brings in a change in thought patterns. She implements this through frameworks that develop a deeper focus on evolving all major aspects of participants’ lives. An imbalance in their personal lives, will impact their business life significantly, so a core part of the programme building and enriching their own people eco-systems so they can ask for support where they need it as well as give support to those around them. This accelerates cultural transformation and acceptance of new ideas.
Vandana co-authored ‘Let Me Hijack Your Mind’ with the late, acclaimed Indian advertising guru, Padmashree Alyque Padamsee, which was released by Penguin March 2022. Their aim is to encourage people to question the social norms that are holding them back. Billionaire Ronnie Screwvala wrote the introduction and revered author/politician Shashi Tharoor praised Vandana’s unique ability to draw complex insights and explain them simply. Renowned personalities such as Gurcharan Das, Shabana Azmi, Cyrus Broacha and Tushar Gandhi have all attested to the ideas in the book.
A well-known voice in the space of Diversity and inclusion, Vandana has curated and deliver multi-country global workshops to build relationships between the organization and their new employees and delivered experiential transformation programmes with organizations both large and small.
Vandana teaches Unlearning on FLAME University’s entrepreneurship courses. She also actively mentor’s startups through The Indus Entrepreneurs Pune Chapter and is a Global Trustee of ‘Leadership across Boundaries) Common Purpose.
Pulling all her experiences together, for the past decade Vandana has been writing a series of visionary fiction novels exploring different planets with different value systems. In her work with corporates, Vandana guides teams to transform using this form of fictional storytelling and her experience in learning design, to encourage participants to be playful, courageous and curious.
Vandana has been an active champion in the UK-India ecosystem, honoured with an OBE for services to trade and investment in India in 2008 (Padma Shree equivalent), and a top 100 UK India influencer in 2019. She works closely with organizations across the world including the Tata Group and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Vandana has two amazing children, Jai and Zara and a host of imperfect interests including playing the saxophone badly, capoeira, yoga, running and juggling responsibilities.
Cedric Crocker
Strategist | Advisor | Board Member
Cedric Crocker is a Partner at Sage Partners, a growth advisory firm serving scaling to mid-cap companies, where he helps founders, CEOs, and executive teams start and build sustainable enterprises.
Crocker's client base spans professional services, edtech, work tech, and enterprise and consumer software. He also supports equity and research firms as an expert advisor.
Crocker works with clients on clarifying their purpose, building focused strategies, and assuring intelligent execution. His work spans strategy, business model and product/service innovation, organization building, accretive acquisitions, and smart partnerships. He also advises on integrations, spin-outs, and business sales.
His deep expertise is in the talent + tech space: education, school-to-work, recruitment, professional certification, talent management, and executive development.
Crocker is committed to creating positive social impact and supporting enterprises that tackle the most pressing challenges of our time.
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Steve Cantin
Partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants
Steve is on the Board of Directors for EvolveCareers, starting in 2024.
He has over 20 years of strategy consulting experience where he has worked with many Education businesses across K-12, University/Higher Education, and professional education, including working with textbook publishers, eLearning providers, instructor-led teaching, and educational software tools. This work has given him a rich understanding of the needs and buying preferences of Education customers which he is excited to contribute to the EvolveCareers team.
Steve is passionate about creating inclusive learning environments in his professional roles. While in executive roles at EMC Corporation and at Dell Technologies, He constructed custom learning programs for his teams including a blend of 3rd party trainers, executive coaches, custom content, and elearning content. He has also delivered broad manager training on DEI leadership.
Steve lives in Boston MA with his wife Shirley and two daughters.
Meet the EvolveCareers team
Andy Coxall
Managing Director
Andy Coxall is Managing Director of EvolveCareers, where he’s responsible for the success of the business and team. He focuses on business development, partnership management, and everything else in between! Andy’s purpose is to provide young people with equal access to the opportunities they need for their future success.
He has over 15 years’ experience in this space, most recently as Chief Executive of Common Purpose Student Experiences, working with a diverse range of employers, education institutions and youth organisations, everywhere from India to Indonesia, South Africa to Singapore.
Andy has also had a range of Board and mentoring roles at The Pace Centre, Worldwide Cancer Research and Chance UK. He’s a Fellow at The Royal Society of the Arts and has a MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from The University of Edinburgh.
Everything else is focused on his two kids, cooking Asian food and running in his local forest.
Deepti Skaria
Partnerships Coordinator
Deepti Skaria is a Partnerships Coordinator, responsible for forging and nurturing relationships with our partners and other key stakeholders. Deepti firmly believes in the impact that technology and education will have on the future generation and is keen on playing her part in moulding the leaders and global citizens of tomorrow. Deepti holds a Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis International University, India.
When not working, Deepti is usually trying to catch up with her boisterous 6-year-old son and on rare days when that is possible, loves burying herself in the latest mystery novel or ET podcast or watching a Seinfeld/The Office re-run.
Veena Haran
Partnerships Director
Veena Haran is a Partnerships Director, specialising in business development. At EvolveCareers, she is responsible for growing a number of our global B2B partnerships with institutions, organisations, and governments. Veena’s personal purpose is strongly connected to young people and women at work. Supporting them to develop the crucial skills, capabilities, and mindsets to thrive in their lives and workplaces sit at the centre of her work.
Veena’s inclination for problem solving led her to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from India. She has also been a speaker at conferences globally, and the lead facilitator for experiential programmes bringing together large cohorts of senior leaders and young people.
When she is not scouting for the next partnership, Veena can be found plotting her next travel, running her next outdoor run, or deepening her spiritual practice.
Ronah Naluwooza
Social Media & Content Manager
Ronah Naluwooza is a dynamic Social Media & Content Manager. She develops authentic content strategies that resonate with audiences, driving meaningful engagement. She believes in the power of storytelling to foster genuine connections and build a thriving digital network. Ronah is enthusiastic about exploring innovative ways to merge creativity and community, constantly seeking new avenues to enhance online interactions and user experiences.
Holding a degree in English Literature and Language from The University of the West of England, Bristol, she combines her formal education with hands-on experience to create impactful online experiences.
Beyond her digital expertise, Ronah is an avid content creator and traveller, capturing the essence of different cultures through her lens.
Yulia Green
Lead Product Designer
Yulia Green is our Lead Product Designer who oversees the entire design process. Her job hits the sweet spot for her interests in education, storytelling, art, technology, psychology and design. Her mission is to create learning that stirs up people’s emotions and makes their life easier. She loves workshops and is always brimming with new ideas.
When she signs off for the day, she either goes wandering in the countryside with her dog or goes out to meet new people.
Steve McLennan
Digital Marketing Director
Steve McLennan is Digital Marketing Director at EvolveCareers. With over 20 years of experience in senior-level marketing roles, Steve brings a wealth of expertise from renowned companies such as Procter & Gamble, Campbell's, and Diageo.
In a former life Steve was a Corporate Solicitor and has a degrees in Business from Edinburgh University and Law from Cambridge University.
Steve has a passion for building high-performance marketing teams, training, mentoring and excellent taste in GIFs.
Deekshith KR
Learning Design Coordinator
Deekshith KR is our Learning Design Coordinator who is responsible for managing and overseeing the EvolveCareers learning management system and engaging learning path design. As a Learning Design Coordinator, Deekshith collaborates closely with lead our product designer, social media manager, content producer and partnerships coordinator to develop, and implement comprehensive learning modules and create seamless experience for learners.
Deekshith is always passionate and very interested in making a real impact on the lives of young people and he believes that technology within learning makes young people grow faster and stronger.
Deekshith is trained in Innovation Management from IBMI, Berlin. He is also a certified coach with an impact of 1000+ young people in India.
When Deekshith isn't crafting learning designs, you'll likely find him immersed in travelling, bike riding, trekking, exploring nature and even sometimes keenly upskilling within innovative technologies.
