#11 'education transforms lives' Sanjeev Gandhi founder of Reach to Teach

Sanjeev Gandhi founder of education charity Reach to Teach. He launched Reach to Teach in 2003 with the aim of providing education to children living in poverty in Gujarat (Western India). British born Sanjeev had been a regular visitor to the region from birth. Gujarat is his parents homeland and they installed not only a love for the area and its people but also a respect and passion for education. Those values along with formative experiences lead him to launch Reach to Teach. It wasn’t easy though with some stern challenges thrown down from local leaders who initially doubted his sincerity and his staying power. They along with a rather forceful aunty wanted to know what value he could add to the lives of children living in India when he was British. And young. Sanjeev’s perseverance won the day though and Reach to Teach went on from strength to strength. His genius included attracting the attention of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. Larry’s foundation along with Indian state government helped Reach to Teach to develop a unique high quality, low cost primary education system which has grown to reach tens of thousands of children in India Sanjeev has also held leadership roles in the media, technology and investment management sectors including as partner at Marwyn Investment Management, Director of Strategy at Yahoo! Europe and Head of Strategic Development at BBC Worldwide.   channel television market; at Yahoo! Europe Sanjeev was Director of Strategy, where he was one of the leadership team which established the business in Europe in early 1998 growing operations to every major European market in less than three years and turnover to over $100m. Sanjeev has a deep understanding of the need for companies to be seen as a force for good.  This is based on the direct experience of growing a not-for-profit enterprise which has reached significant scale.  He. Sanjeev is non-executive chair of the Eden Project Ltd, a non-executive director of the ECB’s New Competition Board and a trustee of the Fidelity Foundation.