Our Team
Mayur Gupta
CEO & Founder
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.
Rebecca Lewis
Head of Youth Programmes Manager
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.
Jhanay Otto
Head of Youth Programmes Manager
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 Lenoire
Marketing Manager
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.
Sanjeev Gupta
Finance Manager
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.
Kate Vayle
Virtual Assistant
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.
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.
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.
Our Advisory Board
Career Accelerator is supported by a team of Business Advisers who contribute their expertise and professional network to help Career Accelerator develop successfully and positively impact its clients.
Bruna Gil
Partnerships at LinkedIn
Dominic Arnall
CEO at Open for Business
Liam Hackett
Global CEO of Ditch the Label
Ashley Ainsley
Co-founder Colorintech & Black Tech Fest
Lord Rumi Verjee
Founder, The Rumi Foundation
Robin Chu
Director of Strategic Projects at the School for Social Entrepreneurs
Charly Young MBE
Co-founder, The Girls' Network
Rosie Wright
Social innovation consultant
Bruna Gil
Leading Partnerships at LinkedIn
Bruna is a Channel Sales Leader with extensive experience in the tech industry, marketing, partnerships, and digital advertising. Currently working at LinkedIn, she leads Channel sales in the Ad Technology space, driving the growth of LinkedIn’s Marketing Partner Program in EMEA.
Bruna has a global role within LinkedIn’s LGBT+ network leading investment efforts in LGBT+ leadership. As a member of LinkedIn’s Social Impact Board, she has worked with numerous non-profits to create opportunity for youths from diverse backgrounds. In 2018 and 2019, Bruna has been recognised by OUTstanding in the Financial Times and Yahoo Finance as a top LGBT+ Emerging Leader. In 2020, she was shortlisted by the British LGBT Awards under the Diversity Hero category.
Dominic Arnall
CEO at Open for Business
Dominic is the CEO at Open for Business. Open For Business is a response by a number of leading global businesses to the growing backlash against LGBT+ inclusion in many parts of the world.
Before this, Dominc was the CEO at Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity. Their mission is to empower young people to champion LGBT+ equality. They want all young people to know that being LGBT+ is something to be celebrated. Before this, Dominic was Head of Programme Management at Mind, who provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem.
He also used to be head of Projects and Programmes at Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBT+ charity who imagine a world where all LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves and can live their lives to the full.
Liam Hackett
Global CEO of Ditch the Label
Liam Hackett is a social entrepreneur, consultant, and mentor with a passion for empowering young people. He is the founder and CEO of Ditch the Label, one of the largest youth charities in the world, which has reached over 3 million young people during 2022.
In addition to his role at Ditch the Label, Liam sits on advisory boards across the third sector and governmental departments, contributing to various academic and government reports in the UK, EU, and US. He is a sought-after speaker, regularly addressing audiences on issues surrounding bullying, cyberbullying, equality, discrimination, gender, self-esteem, masculinity, digital technology, and youth empowerment.
Liam’s debut non-fiction book, ‘FEARLESS: How to be Your True Confident Self’, is published by Scholastic and available in most major bookstores.
He has spoken at prestigious venues such as the White House, the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the Houses of Parliament. Liam also frequently speaks at public events with audiences of up to 12,000.
As a consultant and mentor, Liam provides invaluable insights and expertise to individuals and organisations looking to create positive social impact.
Ashley Ainsley
Co-founder Colorintech.org & Black Tech Fest
Ashleigh is currently leading Colorintech, The UK’s leading non-profit focused on Diversity and Inclusion in technology backed by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Atomico, eBay and many more.
Ashleigh also works on an advisory basis for the World Economic Forum, has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 and holds advisory positions across universities and schools.
Lord Rumi Verjee
Founder, The Rumi Foundation
Rumi Verjee has had a varied career as a multiple entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2013.
Born in Uganda, Rumi was educated in the UK from the age of six and adopted Britain as his home following the expulsion of the Asian-Ugandan population during the regime of Idi Amin. He studied Law at Downing College, University of Cambridge where he is now an Honorary Fellow.
In business, Rumi founded Domino’s pizza in the UK, owned Watford football club with Elton John, and Mayfair’s luxury china and glass emporium, Thomas Goode & Co. His current focus is on real estate, having undertaken a number of high-end investment and development projects in London and Brazil.
Through his charity, The Rumi Foundation, he supports a broad range of innovative initiatives tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues in education and inequality. He is also Chairman of the international development and youth empowerment movement, WE UK.
Rumi was awarded a CBE for charitable services in 2009 and served as a member of the Advisory Board of the British Olympic Association for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In parliament, he takes an active interest in areas such as health, international development, social mobility, entrepreneurship and ensuring equal opportunities for all within society.
Robin Chu
Director of Strategic Projects, School for Social Entrepreneurs
Robin is the Director of Strategic Projects at the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
He is responsible for driving forward Enterprise Grants and Match Trading, grant funding that pound for pound matches trading income, all designed to increase the sustainability, agency and impact of social enterprises and charities.
Before this, Robin founded and ran CoachBright. CoachBright supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be socially mobile. They do this through running tutoring/coaching programmes in partnership with schools, universities and employers. Sir Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor of University of Exeter said “CoachBright tackles one of society’s biggest social problems, their coaching helps young people improve their attitude, work ethic and performance which ultimately transforms their life chances.”
Charly Young MBE
Co-founder, The Girls’ Network
Charly Young co-founded The Girls’ Network. The Girls’ Network believes that no girl’s future should be limited by their background, gender or parental income.
The Girls’ Network is building a network of passionate and committed women and girls, organisations and individuals, to support teenage girls from the least advantaged communities across England.
Charly believes that mentoring, access to opportunities and the support and confidence to seize them, can be transformational. She wants to use her experience as a teacher and an entrepreneur to find the most effective way to support the future generation of female leaders. Charly wants to use her platform as charity CEO to share what works well, and to mobilise others to help ensure that neither one’s gender nor their family income determine the opportunities that are available to young people.
Rosie Wright
Freelance social innovation consultant & post-graduate student at the University of Cambridge
Social innovation researcher and consultant working to ensure that emerging technologies are used for good.
Rosie’s career has been driven by wanting to make the changes which really change the world.
That desire has taken her on a journey from understanding how to fight poverty fatigue in the international development sector to improving the data systems that underpin economic justice in the financial industry. Throughout it she’s always tried to understand the reality over the rhetoric which has naturally led her back to academia and the opportunity to contribute both her research and lived experience to the conversation.
That journey has also allowed her to develop her own leadership skills whilst learning when to step back and empower others around her. As a result, in addition to her studies at Cambridge, she also runs her own consultancy, allowing her to learn through collaborating with inspiring innovators.
She is also passionate about serving through volunteering with mental health and homelessness being deeply important issues to her. Outside of work she’s a photographer, performer and author.
What our mentees are saying
See all of our video testimonials.
Video Testimonial - Parineeta
Video Testimonial - Mohamed
Video Testimonial - William
Video Testimonial - Tanya
Video Testimonial - Charlotte
What our mentees are saying
See all of our video testimonials.
Video Testimonial - Parineeta
Some captured moments
From our events, workshops, assemblies and mentoring sessions.
The businesses and organisations we work with
