Meet The Team 📇
We are a lean team of experienced startup founders and professionals, specialising in migrant & refugee entrepreneurship.
Usman Iftikhar, CEO & Director
Usman Iftikhar is an award winning systems entrepreneur with 14 years of diverse global experiences, passionate about utilising the power of entrepreneurship to collectively solve global problems such as global climate emergency and the global refugee crisis. He co-founded Catalysr X and Catalysr Foundation in 2016 to support migrapreneurs like himself to launch their own businesses in Australia.
Usman is also a co-chair of the Programme Design and Delivery working group at the Global Refugee Entrepreneurship Network, run by Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) UK. Usman is currently a venture partner at Backbone Partners, which is an early stage VC fund for immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. .
Aruna Venkatachalam, Senior Consultant
Aruna has a focus is building equitable representation in entrepreneurship and leadership, particularly within diverse and under-represented communities. With 15+ years' experience in strategy, partnerships, and operations in various sectors and contexts across Australia and internationally, Aruna works to create and scale positive social change through innovative cross-sector partnerships.
Sakshi Thakur, Senior Consultant
Sakshi Thakur is a Catalysr Foundation alumni and Entrepreneur in Residence. She is also the co-founder of Sewing the Seeds - a social enterprise that provides textiles education and employment with women in India. Prior to this, Sakshi was a manager at Social Enterprise Network of Victoria (SENVIC), and worked at EY in Finance. She also has a Masters of Entrepreneurship from Melbourne Business School where she worked on her tech startup.