Mayur set up Career Accelerator based on his own experiences growing up as an LGBT+ person of colour, as well as well as his experience working in state schools with 100s of students. Mayur observed how lots of hard working young people from diverse backgrounds were missing out on relatable and impactful career support, affecting what they feel capable of achieving and their future career destinations.

Mayur is driven by the notion that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not and through Career Accelerator tries to address this by connecting young people from diverse backgrounds with inspiring and relatable role models from top businesses through a combination of mentoring and wider career support. As CEO of Career Accelerator Mayur leads and owns Career Accelerator’s strategy, including building paying partnerships with businesses, designing and delivering on the business strategy and maximising the social impact for Career Accelerator’s young people.

He is passionate about supporting young people from diverse backgrounds, the role of businesses for social good and business entrepreneurship. Mayur is also a frequent guest speaker. He has spoken at The Economist, The Labour Party and Teach First and has contributed towards 2 books – DiversityEd and 26 Friends: Lessons to Learn Before It’s Too Late. He has been recognised on the OUTstanding and Empower Lists four times and was named as a LinkedIn Top Voice in 2022.

After graduating from Cambridge University in 2017, Rebecca started the Teach First Leadership Development Programme in West Yorkshire as a history teacher. During this time, Rebecca succeeded in her additional roles which focused on supporting students in their next steps after leaving full-time education.

Following this, she continued her teaching career in East London, as a history teacher and the school’s Head of Department for PSHE.

Rebecca now works as Career Accelerator’s Head of Youth Programmes Manager, where she uses her experience of working with students in schools to ensure that the programme has the best possible impact for the young people with whom we work.

Whilst studying English Language and Linguistics at Warwick University, Jhanay participated in delivering courses of traditional martial arts to young people who are newly arrived into the U.K (refugees, asylum seekers) alongside young people from marginalised communities and low socio-economic backgrounds.

Jhanay additionally volunteered for ‘Warwick in Africa’ where she virtually contributed to supporting young people in Ghana with an enhanced educational experience. Jhanay is also an alumnus of ‘The Black Collective of media in sport’, a programme whose objective is to increase diversity and career opportunities for minority young people within the media.

Jhanay currently works as The Youth Programme Officer at Career Accelerator where she aims to make a positive impact in the professional career development of young people.

Umbreen graduated from Aston University, Birmingham, in 1999 with a BSc in Business Administration and Management (1st Class). A university placement at Prudential’s headquarters in London led to Umbreen joining the project team that launched Egg plc – one of the UK’s first online banks. The team at Egg went on to sponsor Umbreen for her final year at university and offered her a marketing role on graduation.

She has over 20 years experience as a marketing and campaign manager in both traditional and digital media – working in a variety of sectors from Financial Services to Utilities to her role as CRM manager at Weight Watchers UK.

Umbreen works as Career Accelerator’s Marketing & Communications Manager helping to showcase Career Accelerator’s work with young people and its corporate partners.

She is also a Trustee for Riverside Counselling, a leading Oxfordshire based mental health social enterprise – advising on its business and marketing.

Tracy has a love for all things digital! With a passion for bringing things to life, her personal motto is: ‘Dream the impossible, live the dream…never stop believing’.

If you don’t dream it, you won’t see it; and if you can’t see it, it can never happen!
Having 9 years’ experience in web design and development, Tracy has a passion for beautiful designs and a flair for the creative.

Along side her website design work, Tracy is also in her 3rd year of Cybersecurity studies.

Originally from South Africa, she moved to the UK in 2011 and currently lives in Reading, Berkshire with her wife Zané and two cats, Fuzz & Lily

Sanjeev is honorary finance manager for Career Accelerator. He holds a MSc in Business Studies from the London Business School and has done varied banking roles with international banks like Standard Chartered Bank, UBS AG and Emirates NBD over a 35 year period.

Along with Mayur, he is the co-founder of Master Money Ltd which provides financial coaching to young professionals.

With 20 years’ experience in a variety of roles within the retail and marketing section of the energy industry, Kate has a wealth of knowledge and experience in administration and business support.

As a SmartPA partner, Kate is a self-employed Virtual Assistant who has supported Career Accelerator in its early days with social media, proofreading, document production, and email management.

Kate continues to provide support with research and other tasks that help Career Accelerator to grow and develop.

Kathryn is a strategic communications consultant with over 20 years public relations experience. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work with a diverse range of corporate clients in various sectors including financial services, technology, retail, not for profit and education.  

Kathryn has developed strong relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers across various channels. These connections have allowed her to successfully work with leading business brands, start-ups, charities, and industry associations to deliver effective, compelling thought leadership campaigns.

As a PR consultant for Career Accelerator, Kathryn is focused on raising our profile in the media and promoting our range of programmes, research and activities and highlighting how effectively we are supporting leading businesses to achieve greater inclusivity and diversity and widen their talent pools.

Jake volunteers as Career Accelerator’s LGBT+ Ambassador for Career Accelerator’s LGBT+ Mentoring Programme.

He has supported Career Accelerator ever since their first LGBT+ programme and has sat on Career Accelerator’s Youth Advisory Board for 2 years. Jake has a particular interest in promoting Career Accelerator’s work to the North East, Yorkshire and Humber and Midlands regions, and uses his role to increase the number and diversity of mentees from across the UK.

Roan is a passionate activist especially when it comes to people who are Neurodiverse and LGBT+, having themselves been diagnosed with autism.

Roan has pushed boundaries especially after being told to give up on job hunting. Roan has worked in hospitality for 7 years. Roan was  diagnosed with autism when they were 18 and found ill prepared for the world of work. Roan is passionate about making sure others don’t suffer as they did when they started out in their career. Working with Career Accelerator is one way they are doing this.

What our mentees are saying

What our mentees are saying

Some captured moments

From our events, workshops, assemblies and mentoring sessions.