Nirmala Sankaran

Over two decades ago, I left a rewarding corporate career at Citigroup to pursue a mission close to my heart - to make the learning of Math joyful and to help address the global shortage of Math teachers. With a passionate, multi-cultural team - we blended rich pedagogy, human centric design, and visualization to turn that idea into reality. That was the birth of HeyMath!, an EdTech venture created in 2000 in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. Over the past 25 years, HeyMath! has reached more than a million students and 10,000 teachers across Singapore, South Africa, India, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, and Malaysia - helping schools raise the game in Mathematics. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, cited HeyMath! as an example of globalization in education in his bestseller The World is Flat. Along the way, I’ve seen how innovation and collaboration can unlock remarkable possibilities - whether scaling HeyMath! globally or mentoring early-stage entrepreneurs. I had the privilege of leading the Stanford Seed Transformation Network (South Asia), a community of over 400 founders driving social and economic change across diverse sectors. Those three years deepened my belief that entrepreneurship, when rooted in purpose and community, can transform not just businesses but entire societies. In 2023, I joined Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) - a life-changing year that felt, at first, like skydiving into an exhilarating world of ideas. From designing a GenAI app for book clubs to studying Sanskrit and the Indian epics, Neuroscience and Brain Plasticity, Irish, Japanese, South Asian history, and Foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific, I rediscovered the joy of being a student again. Working with Stanford scholars and bonding with DCI Fellows from around the world reminded me how curiosity and community can fuel reinvention at any stage of life. That experience renewed my sense of purpose - to keep learning and building bridges across disciplines and geographies. Today, I’m focused on bridging the India - Africa entrepreneurial corridor; helping adapt and deploy science-backed innovations that drive inclusive growth across Education, Agriculture, and Renewables. I love bringing people and ideas together - drawing on my leadership experience, global perspective, and respect for local cultures - to turn possibilities into meaningful impact.