Srivatsan brings in invaluable experience in sales, distribution and marketing in the domestic and Sub-continental markets. He has worked with Nestle, Dabur, Gillette and Pepsi in a career span over 2 decades. He has also spent five years in the service industry as a CEO/Start-up head in the Telecom and Financial verticals which vouch for his expertise in new venture operations. His strong network in Trade, channel & franchising space will be a major asset for Vocational Academy.

He has also been on the board of Collabrant Incubators Pvt. Ltd., Xindia Steels Ltd., Sigma MinMet Ltd. and Hampi Industrry Ltd.

P.K.Sambamoorthy, Promoter Director

Sambamoorthy, a qualified FCA, AICWA and an ACS, is also the co-founder and director of Collabrant Group. Over a two decade long career, he has proven credentials in the areas of Finance, Accounts, Secretarial and Legal with professional career in start ups like BPL Mobile (Mumbai) and ZIP Telecom. He was also associated with General Insurance Industry, Essar, Calypso and Gajra Group of companies.. He was one of the nominees for the Best CFO Award by IMA-American Express Corporate Services in the year 2003 when he was associated with Zip Telecom. He specializes in Capital Structuring, Joint Ventures, Corporate Finance and Funding for start-up ventures.

A postgraduate from IIM Calcutta, Suresh founded STRiVE (www.striveindia.com) in October 2007 with a vision to make employment more accessible to the un-reached and under served youth through the medium of vocational education. Having experimented with various models to combine employment with vocational education, he felt that there was a definite need to collaborate with the large number of training institutions and content providers spread across the country and also a need of the network wherein employers can access students from various locations. It was this thought that led to setting up Vocational Academy.

Prior to STRiVE, he had set up the first branch of Kotak Mahindra Bank in Hyderabad and went on to head the region. He was also instrumental in setting up the pre owned car channel for Ford Credit India in the Delhi region. His stint at Ford Credit also saw him managing the Ford dealer network in the north and eastern parts of the country. He also worked with ICICI bank and ONIDA in a career span of nearly a decade.

N. Deepthi Reddy, Director

N. Deepthi Reddy has extensive experience in screening, appraising and monitoring of venture capital and private equity deals and investments. As a Vice President at the Network Enterprises Fund (NEF), sponsored by IFMR Trust, Deepthi is currently responsible for fund structuring and investments into early-stage-India-focused private equity investments in the rural supply chain of the NEF focus sectors. Deepthi's academic background combines technology, legal and secretarial subjects that have been critical in decision making and investments in VC/PE industry. Deepthi holds a dual Bachelors degree in Science and Law from Osmania University, India. She is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. Deepthi also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in 'Intellectual property' from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University (NALSAR), India. Deepthi has attended many professional development programs on the venture capital industry conducted by institutes such as UTI Institute of Capital Markets, IVCJ and IIM, Bangalore, India.

Tilak Mishra, Director

Tilak Mishra has a keen understanding of customer and market needs that has helped him to build robust and sustainable business models. Tilak's expertise lies in cultivating, building, and forging client relationships to design entrepreneurial market-based solutions. At IFMR Trust, Tilak is working on building solutions that ensures India's rural and semi-urban youth have improved choices to completely access employability enhancing tools and resources and other employment opportunities. Prior to IFMR Trust , Tilak worked at SKS Microfinance as an Assistant Vice President in its Business Development team. At SKS, Tilak initiated the inclusion of non-financial products (clean energy and water) into the portfolio of this microfinance institution.

Prior to SKS Microfinance, Tilak was a graduate student at University of Pennsylvania, attending Wharton School of Business and School of Social Policy and Practice. Tilak also holds a B.E in Electrical Engineering. His past experiences include working as a consultant and business development manager for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India, Sweden, and Holland. At TCS, Tilak contributed to the enterprise-level vision, strategy, decision-making, and leadership that translated into improved project operational efficiency and new business development. Post TCS, Tilak managed an agricultural products manufacturing company where he was the primary driving force behind the turnaround and growth of the firm.