Our Team

 

Alim Abubakre (Founder and Executive Director)

Alim, the founding Director of These Young Minds, has a proven track record in project management, consulting, stakeholder management and organising international conferences in the United Kingdom. Two years ago with a team of different multinationals, he conceived and organised the first student-led international conference on the global financial crises in the UK titled, "Managing in turbulent times", which gained international media coverage due to its sheer success. Read more >>

  

Sandeep Aulakh (Project Manager I)

Twenty year old Sandeep Aulakh is an exceptional University of Leicester third year Banking and Finance student who believes adding value even outside her studies is her ultimate aim. Her ability to identify solutions to challenges, great interpersonal skills and enthusiasm stands her out as a project manager in the emerging sector of social entrepreneurship.  Sandeep’s project-like attitude to life gives her twenty years of real life successful project management experience.

 

Lydia Adigun (Project Manager II)

Lydia Titilope Adigun is a 28 year old project manager, who has a masters degree in MSc Engineering Project Management from Coventry University, where she graduated as the overall best student. She has world class skills in managing and planning various types of projects cutting across different sectors. One of which is the exceptional success attained in the project for youth development in Africa where she was able to achieve high deliverables. Also, she has attained these skills from working as a vessel planner at APMoller Terminals and as an engineer at NNPC. She has great passion for planning of projects from start to finish. She is also a highly flexible individual capable of taking initiative to ensure business objectives and goals are attained.

  

Rieneke Slager (Project Manager III)

 I’ve always been interested in doing research that is useful in the ‘real world’ and has applications for sustainable management and economic development issues. This is one of the reasons why, after my graduation in 2006, I decided to go to India to do field research for the microfinance industry in the area of West Bengal. During my MA degree in International Relations at Groningen University in the Netherlands I had focused on multinational companies, but in India I was talking to entrepreneurs on quite a different scale! My time in India fuelled my interest in sustainable economic development and sustainable finance. Read more >>

 

Oduwole Mufutau Bamidele (Project Manager IV)

A 31 year old project manager, who is at present studying an MPhil programme in Advanced Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University. He Obtained a First Class degree in his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He is a versatile project manager with various skills and innovative ideas in executing project successfully. Recently, he was the project coordinator to the Management of Technology and Innovation (MOTI) Consultancy Project with Schlumberger Oil servicing company research centre, Cambridge, which was successfully completed in time, within budget and met the required specifications.

  

Obinna Ajuruchi (Project Manager V)

Obinna Ajuruchi is an information Technology professional with interests in user-generated content, developing mobile and web applications and ICT for development. He has a Masters in IT and Data Communications from Lancaster University and a Bachelors degree in Physics. He is currently responsible for the ICT related projects for These Young Minds.

 

Nasir K. Mohammed (Project Manager)

An enterprising individual, Nasir K. Mohammed has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from King's College London and is currently a Master’s student at the London School of Economics and Political Science studying Management, Organisations and Governance. He has demonstrated his passion for value adding activities having served as Secretary-General to the Nigerian Model United Nations where he presided over a conference with over 1,300 participants including members of the diplomatic community. He also formed part of a Nigerian delegation to the United Nations during his time at an NGO. Apart from his interest in development, Nasir has worked with an innovation-consulting firm in the UK prior to joining These Young Minds as a Project Manager. During his time at These Young Minds, Nasir has demonstrated the diversity and focus of his skills having presided over several high profile projects.

  

Anupama Rathod (Business Development)

Anupama graduated with a Bachelor in Psychology from University of Pune, India and went on to obtain a Masters in Clinical Psychology from SNDT University, India. She has a postgraduate diploma in school psychology from Jnana Probodhini, India. She is also a certified Art Based Therapist and began working as a school psychologist for a public school in India. After one year, she started her own consultancy working as a psychologist as well as a trainer. She has also worked with a number of schools, training teachers and conducted various workshops on creativity, alternative methods of teaching, motivation and awareness about child issues.

 

Anupama remained a private consultant for two years, before she came to Leicester to pursue the MBA at the University of Leicester. She worked with Manipal Cure and Care, a private health care company, for a year as a full time clinical psychologist and corporate trainer; conducting workshops on stress management, job satisfaction and employee assessment. Given her background in psychology, her research interests lay in employee performance and training and development and posses a wealth of specific and transferable skills relevant for this role.

 

Thomas Lynch (Volunteer)

Thomas Lynch, a modestly unassuming 27 year old, who has seen more than his fair share of adversity. Having spent much of his childhood in care, and losing both parents due to drug addiction before he reached the age of 15, Thomas had more than enough excuses to cry ‘woe is me’ and accept that he would never amount to much. He left school in 1997, without a qualification to his name and after working three jobs for over 70 hours a week from the ages of 15 to 17, walked past the Armed Forces careers office and with no thought joined the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy’s slogan, ‘Life without Limits’ can be said to say the same about Thomas. Read  more >>

  

Ziad Abdelghani (Volunteer)

Ziad did his Bachelors in 1993 at University of Jordan in Accounting and Business Administration University. He did the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) course in 2008 from Institute of Management Accountants USA. Ziad has worked as Internal Auditor Housing Bank Jordan from 1993 to 1997 and as Credit Audit Manager at the Commercial Bank International UAE from 1997 to 2008 and just completed his MBA at University of Leicester in 2009.

 

With relation to the present financial crisis, as an internal auditor, he believes that internal audit may play a very important role in enhancing internal control, risk management and corporate governance. He suggests that in order to play this role, internal audit should be able to perform their duties effectively. Accordingly, his dissertation was on studying the factors that affect the effectiveness of internal audit functions.

 

Elmar Puntaier (Volunteer)

Elmar was born in in South Tyrol, Italy, close to Switzerland and Austria, where he grew up bilingually in a German and Italian speaking environment. He started a bachelors degree in Production and Logistics with Specialisation in Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino and the Free University di Bolzano, Italy, in 1999 and, upon graduation, he worked as a Junior Consultant at the Daimler Production Plant at Mannheim, Germany.

 

He thereafter worked with an international operating automobile supplier – specialised in designing, producing and assembling of major car plastic components – with its headquarters based near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and production plants in the Czech Republic, Italy and Portugal. Elmar has held positions as product co-ordinator, project manager and commercial manager – taking charge of a number of management issues as budget planning and reorganisation of the sales department for current projects and after-sales parts. Also he holds an MBA from the University of Leicester.

    

 

THESE YOUNG MINDS

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