Skollar 2004/05
Prior to coming up to Oxford, Sujeet Kumar worked as a software engineer for four years with companies such as Infosys, before shifting from the corporate sector to the social sector. Believing that technology was a key engine of change, Sujeet started working in rural Kalahandi to bring digital technology within the reach of the poorest people. He also worked with the United Nations Development Programme, leading its “ICT for Development” project in the field.
Sujeet decided to study for an MBA to support his goals of becoming a political entrepreneur and using politics as a platform to effect lasting social change. He selected Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in preference to a stand-alone business school because of its worldwide reputation and because he would be able to benefit from exposure to the wider intellectual community at Oxford.
“The year in Oxford, as a Skollar and an MBA student, was undoubtedly the best year of my life,” Sujeet says, “challenging, inspiring, very intense, yet lots of fun.” Highlights of his year included attending the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Project that forms a compulsory part of the course. For this Project Sujeet, along with three classmates, developed a plan for the Saïd Business School Venture Philanthropy Fund, the first fund of its kind at any major business school.
After completing the programme, Sujeet joined the World Economic Forum as a Global Leadership Fellow and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibilities included identifying, selecting and managing the Community of Young Global Leaders from Asia and the Middle East; and managing the education taskforce, which engages Young Global Leaders in championing and facilitating innovative education models for schools in rural areas in developing countries.
More recently, Sujeet returned to India to run for public office and embark on a political career. In addition, he serves as an Executive Director of the Kalinga Kusum Foundation in the state of Orissa. The organisation currently runs seven vocational skills training centres, imparting livelihood skills to rural, underprivileged youths aged 18-30 and supporting them to become successful entrepreneurs. The Foundation plans to expand to 100 centres by end of 2009.
“The Skoll Centre compelled me to reassess the ways I approached community development and poverty eradication,” Sujeet says. “I am applying much of that learning in my work with the Kalinga Kusum Foundation. At Oxford I met outstanding social entrepreneurs, from all across the world, learnt so much about so many subjects and developed my world view. All of this helped me to identify myself more intimately with the social entrepreneurship movement.”