Our People

Aashti leads the team at GSF, and is responsible for the organisation’s strategy, growth, delivery and impact. Aashti is inspired by the idea of creating, growing and sustaining a vibrant platform for people to support and learn from each other, to partner and collaborate, and to work together to solve some of our challenges in global education.

Ajay previously worked with The Citizens Foundation as a Senior Manager Organisation Culture and Mother Tongue based Multilingual Education. Ajay led the research and design team studying and implementing benefits of using familiar language as a medium of instruction throughout students’ educational journey. Prior to that he founded an educational consultancy ‘Ek Nuqta’ and was associated with Aga Khan University Examination Board.

Alina leads on supporting education entrepreneurs to scale education innovations that improve learning for underserved children. She is passionate about achieving better outcomes in education through evidence-based collaborations between innovators, funders, and governments. Prior to GSF, Alina was part of the co-founding team at the Education Outcomes Fund leading a pioneering results-based financing partnership with the government of Sierra Leone. She has experience consulting on education evidence and policy, and working as an Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister in Moldova.

Eric is a passionate advocate for leveraging technology to drive positive change. He oversees the organization's technological infrastructure and operations, ensuring technology becomes a strategic enabler for the team to achieve its objectives effectively and efficiently. Prior to joining GSF, Eric honed his financial and data management expertise at a leading East African investment firm. He then leveraged those skills to spearhead digitization efforts at GIZ Kenya, gaining valuable experience in implementing technology solutions for complex organizations.

Habeeb previously worked as Programme Manager for Wennovation Hub, where he led the design and implementation of incubation, acceleration and entrepreneurship programmes. His role also involved helping businesses prepare for investment, including pitches for investors. Before this, Habeeb was the Growth Manager for ed-tech start-up Studylab360.

Joan has experience working with different ventures to refine their product offering, grow market share and achieve operational efficiency, and profitability. In her previous role as the Accelerator Manager for Global Disability Innovation Hub at Innovate Now, she managed and coordinated project activities including selection of ventures for the accelerator programme, active learning workshops, design thinking initiatives through live labs, venture building and execution and investment facilitation

Kavita leads on growing and strengthening the GSF community. She brings over a decade of experience in education in India working with both government and low-cost private schools. She has experience designing and implementing large-scale training programs for teachers and school leaders and supporting state governments with their education intervention.

Kiran has designed and is delivering the first Impact at Scale Labs that supports 3 organisations scale their innovations for post-covid learning recovery. Kiran is deeply passionate about understanding how to effectively scale impactful innovations. Kiran’s favourite project is the scale readiness framework project, as she sees this as an important step to supporting the education community understand scale in the education context much better.

In her previous roles working in HR, Learning and Development, and Business Psychology, Maria helped organisations create safe and supportive environments for their employees and has experience in promoting mental health at work. Maria has been involved in various organisational development projects such as assisting organisations through periods of change and transformation.

Mercy promotes community member growth and engagement. This includes identifying potential community members in the non-state education sector, supporting in the application and on boarding process as a first point of contact; and member mapping the GSF community to reflect the geographic spread, areas of work and expertise, their needs and priorities to better align the GSF programmes with the community's requirements. 

Minha designs and disseminates the Impact at Scale Labs initiative. As a Sociologist of Education, Minha's work at GSF allows her to learn about and collaborate with education systems around the world. Her favourite experience at GSF has been the in-person workshops that bring a wealth of knowledge together and create opportunities for learning.

Peter works as a consultant in international education and health. Peter worked previously for the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and for DFID, where he was latterly Head of the Human Development Department in DFID’s Policy Division. Peter has worked as an education specialist in Africa, Asia and the Balkans. 

Philippa leads on the internal operations at GSF. Her primary focus is on people and culture and creating the best possible environment for the team to thrive, the organisation to run smoothly and our resources to be applied effectively to create the impact we want to make in the world. Philippa is passionate about learning and is excited to support GSF through a phase of growth and change and ensuring a fun, engaging, efficient and effective workplace for the whole team to learn and grow together, while supporting the GSF community to do the same.   

Poornima has close to 10 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, governments, and other ecosystem partners in education. At GSF, her work includes leading on the second cohort of the Impact at Scale Labs focused on childcare and ECED organizations in East Africa, as well as scoping out and building opportunities for innovative financing in education. Prior to GSF, she has worked as a management consultant advising public and private ecosystem players in education and skills on programme design, market strategy, policy design and evaluation, and impact assessments.

Priyanka has over 7 years of experience in the education sector in India. She was a Fellow with Teach For India for 2 years, teaching a primary classroom, and later worked with the Training Team to design student learning curriculum and assessments. Priyanka has also worked with Central Square Foundation, supporting grants, research, and policy design related to Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN).

Stephen brings over a decade of experience in communications, marketing and advertising, working in both agency and client-side creative communications roles. Stephen joined Guardian News & Media in 2013 as part of the launch team for their award-winning branded content agency, Guardian Labs. He then moved to ESI Media’s Story Studio, their in-house creative department working across The Independent and Evening Standard.

Tejaswini began her career as a Software Engineer at Schneider Electric before transitioning into the development sector in 2018. She worked in KPMG India's ‘Education & Skills’ practice, providing strategic consulting and implementation support for public & private sector clients in K12 and higher education space. She worked with clients on projects ranging across - strategic growth, GTM strategy, performance management & global ranking improvement.

Ekaterina Cooper, an educator and researcher, possesses over 17 years of research experience and has empowered approximately 150 educational enterprises to leverage research and integrate evidence-based practices into their products and business development. Her expertise in mixed research methods and psychometrics has enabled her to significantly contribute to understanding how to support learners in their educational journeys. Her research endeavours extend beyond theoretical exploration, encompassing implementation projects and evaluations of various interventions. Her passion for improving education is evident in her research and teaching, as she actively translates her research prowess into impactful teaching practices. Ekaterina holds an MSc in Public Health and a PhD in Developmental Psychology, reflecting her commitment to blending research and practical applications to improve education systems.

Jazib is based in Lahore, Pakistan. He has experience in managing software product development including edtech ventures, teaching in higher education with a particular focus on AI and entrepreneurship trainings and being involved in consulting engagements to bring evidence to education. He has a BS Electrical Engineering from Stanford and an Ed.M in Technology, Innovation and Education from Harvard.

Sarah is a teacher and researcher with a decade of experience promoting positive learning outcomes in Kenya. At GSF, she provides technical support to strengthen MEL capacity for education organizations. In her past work, she has supported non-state organizations to develop and improve their systems for data-based decision making. She has also conducted research to understand how teachers make instructional decisions for foundational learning. She is passionate about using data to refine and scale education programs equitably.