Introduce yourself in three words or phrases.
Perseverant, ambitious, and empathetic.
What do you like most about your job?
The team, the work, and the people I get to interact with on a daily basis.
Best work trip/Worst work trip?
My best work trip was my first visit to Ireland. My worst work trip, on the other hand, was when I had to travel by car from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to another city – it was a terrible experience.
If you could learn a language instantly, which would you pick and why?
I want to learn Spanish. Latin America is a place I really want to visit because I am a big football fan! So I want to learn the language.
What makes you get up in the morning?
My daughter makes me get up in the morning.
Champion/cheerleader which we should all follow and why?
There are many icons we can look up to, but perseverance stands out as a key quality – someone who keeps coming back despite multiple defeats. For example, Sourav Ganguly, who, despite being dropped from the Indian cricket team several times, made remarkable comebacks and proved critics wrong.
Best international ed conference and why
I think The PIE conferences are genuinely good, especially The PIE Live Europe. Conferences like the ones by EAIE are a bit too big [in my opinion].
Worst conference food/beverage experience?
Many of these European conferences, not the British ones, have terrible food.
Book or podcast recommendation for others in the sector?
I think Atomic Habits is one good book that I have read and is useful for the sector. But I also think reading the works of someone like Oscar Wilde will give you a lot of life lessons.
People keep talking about self help books but reading Wilde, Ruskin Bond, etc, is far better. My suggestion is to read some classics.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you.
I think our plans to open a new office in Vietnam is definitely exciting and we are also looking at doing some transnational education activity in Sri Lanka, wherein we will take some of our partner universities to the country.
What are the major factors behind your decision to open a new office in Vietnam, and how will this enhance its presence in the broader Southeast Asian region?
OneStep Global‘s decision to establish a presence in Vietnam is part of a strategy to strengthen our footprint in Southeast Asia. Alongside Vietnam, we are also planning to open an office in Indonesia.
Similar to our approach in the Middle East, we will establish our own entity with fully operational offices in cities like Hanoi and Jakarta.
Southeast Asia presents a significant opportunity to help universities find sustainable solutions that align with their strategic goals in the region.
