Selva Nominated for Best Asian Professional

Selva has been nominated for Education Awards 2014 hosted by Asian professional awards…

This form is designed to make the application process easier. As some of the questions will require detailed answers you can answer the questions in this document and then copy and paste them into the online form once ready.

Note: all applications much be made through the offical online form to be considered.

 

 

Select Award Category*
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Education

Nominee Details
The Nominee is the person you are nominating

Full name of Nominee*
This name will be used as the nominees’s username so will need to be unique. Please include any middle names should you be asked to do so after submitting the form online.
Selva Panka

Gender of Nominee*
Male

Nominee contact details
Email address of Nominee*
selva@rtc.uk.net

Contact number of Nominee*
Please enter a contact number without spaces
07957544579

City where Nominee lives*
London

Nominee application details
This is the most important part of the nomination. Please include as much information about the Nominee as possible in order to improve the likelihood of the Nominee being shortlisted.

Current Company or Organisation of Nominee*
Regent Group

Current job title of Nominee*
CEO

LinkedIn profile of Nominee (if available)
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/selvapankaj

List the Nominee’s educational achievements and professional qualifications*
Masters in Business Administration at Middlesex University. Master’s Thesis on “European Real Estate
Investment Matrix” sponsored by Prudential Financial Inc, assisted by SDA Bocconi – Milan.
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants – Associate membership in March 1997 and Fellow membership in December 2005
Associate Member of Chartered Management Institute – January 2000
Associate Member of Institute of Management Consultancy – December 2005
Member of the Association of MBAs

Describe the Nominee’s major professional achievements*
Selva is unusual in that his career has spanned sectors such as investment management, investment banking, fund management, finance, merchant banking, education, consultancy and guest lecturing and he has worked in high profile firms which include Prudential Financial Inc, PRICOA Property Plc, Schroders Investments, Grosvenor Group, Fortress Investment Group, also, the University of Westminster though most recently, he has concentrated on his role of CEO of Regent Group since 2009.

During his time working in the City, where Selva started work after completing his educational and professional qualifications, he has managed various Joint Venture projects with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other major investment banks in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has successfully launched and managed various businesses over two decades with in the corporate finance sector, developed strategy proposals for recommendation to management boards and ensured that agreed strategies were implemented, introduced effective change management strategies, led various mergers and acquisition transactions to successful completion and led various executive teams including effectively overseeing the resolution of performance management issues.

He also set the culture and developed the strategy and direction of senior management teams and oriented, educated and engaged board members to maximise effectiveness and productivity. Selva brings the city and corporate finance experience to the education sector which needs professional solutions

2014 was a fantastic year for Regent Group under the leadership of Selva Pankaj. Regent Group was nominated for three industry awards as an award finalists by Education Investor in the categories below in reflection of this, the finalists being named in mid-November. Education Investor has been running these awards for the pastfive years. Education Investor has achieved itself a status as a prominent publication covering the UK/EU fast growing education industry. The award promotes excellence and recognises innovation in this increasingly important sector.
Education Business of the Year 2014: This is a major achievement, as Regent Group has been recognised alongside well-established educational organisations in the UK, including some FTSE companies. The award finalists include well known and respected organisations such as Pearson,Cambridge Education Group, European Electronics and Prospects to name but a few.
Higher Education Provider of 2014: This is a very proud moment for Selva to be in the list of finalists with the Open University and other substantial and reputable providers, given that as a provider, wehave butthree to four years of history in the higher education sector.

Private Tuition Centre operator of 2014: This is a fast growing sector and the ever changing educational needs of students in a fast growing demographic with numerous immigration challenges to the UK means that students and schools need the support of this sector to supplement the full-time education of our future generation.

The entire list of Award Winners and their profiles can be found at:

www.educationinvestor.co.uk/

The success of this recognition is indeed the hard work of the team of Regent Group staff, but the leadership of the organisation is achieved by Selva Pankaj. He has been the major architect in motivating the staff and realising his vision of growing a very successful educational group with a global focus with core educational values.

Some of his key achievements in the lifespan of his career have been:

Launching Regent Group in 2000 from a side project into a thriving education business with an estimated turnover of circa £8-9m by March of 2015, with an EBITDA of £2.5m which can value the group at circa £25m in current market expectations. Regent Group has not only increased its financial values but also, under the leadership of Selva Pankaj, has grown into an organisation with strong values, a team spirt, community focus, entrepreneurial vision and an innovative culture with unyielding integrity in leadership.

In 2006 Selva’s father died unexpectedly in an accident, altering Selva’s outlook irrevocably. As a legacy to remember his parents he started the Selvanayagam Foundation. The Selvanayagam Foundation has since undertaken a mission to implement educational, social welfare, and charitable projects in economically depressed areas of Asia and the United Kingdom. The Foundation’s priorities will be to educate the masses and spread education, particularly among the under privileged, in order to bring about a sustainable change in society. In the UK since 2006, thePankaj Family has extended generous educational support to many students. The family believes in the ethos that the details of their assistance should be confidential and not to be shared with the wider world.

Prior to 2009 – Involvement in major capital raises amounting to over €1.5 billion of capital alongside Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. These were projects to fund various investment opportunities. This skill will be very useful in the ever growing educational sector.

Restructuring the tax structures of closed end investment companies that invest and manage a diverse portfolio of Commercial Real Estate, derivatives and investments.

His direct involvement, including negotiating deals and establishing a purchase price, in the acquisition of Legg Mason Real Estate Inc whilst working for Grosvenor Property Fund Management.

Co-ordinating IPOs in the NYSE, the LSE and European stock markets.

Has worked in various corporate entities in the United Kingdom, United States and in Europe, in particular Germany, at a range of senior positions.

All the above corporate finance experience will assist Selva in his vision of establishing an education focused investment vehicle in the UK, US and Europe would be welcome, one with such an agreeable ethos, even more so. Selva’s major aspiration is to leave a legacy in the country that he loves and respects.

Whilst working in the City, whilst already having an extremely demanding career, he began to undertake private tuition for A-Level students at home in 1999; this later developed into a lecturing role at Westminster University and Hendon College. Between 2000 and 2009 he continued to pursue his career but spent an increasing amount of time working for Regent Group in the evenings and weekends, after Regent Independent School & Sixth Form College was established in 2000.

Since concentrating fully on his educational pursuits, from 2009 onwards, with the support of other key members especially his wife Tharshiny Pankaj, he grew Regent Group from just one entity: Regent Independent School & Sixth Form College to become the multi-faceted entity that Regent Group stands at today providing educational services to children who are just three years old to mature students.

Indeed, in the past five years whilst Selva has been holding the role of Regent Group CEO, he has overseen and managed the opening of two further RLC tuition centres, one in Wembley and one in Edgware, the opening of private candidate centre, Burlington College, the establishment of a thriving Higher Education division and most recently, the introduction of Regent Skills Training, providing further education services, via funding from the Skills Funding Agency, to the Group. Selva is also looking to found another college, Albany College, in the locality. Recently Selva has been instrumental in launching Regent English Academy to support the local linguistic needs of North West London’s incredibly diverse and cosmopolitan student population.

Since childhood, Selva was fascinated by the concept of leadership. He wrote his first article about leadership when he was only 19 years of age at his school in Sri Lanka, the school was the oldest British School in Sri Lanka which celebrated its 200th Anniversary in June of 2014. Leadership was Selva’s passion and he completely adored the work of Stephen Covey and his various leadership and management publications. To realise his childhood passion and to assist the younger generation and to shape the world, Selva is in the process of launching Regent Leadership Academy in London and the United States with his management and thinking guru from Harvard University – Prof. Luis Huete. Prof. Huete is a managing partner of Huete and Co, based in Madrid, but with clients all over the world including Google, Facebook, and various senior business leaders. Prof. Huete is mentoring Selva with the launch of Regent Leadership Academy in early 2015 with a view to nurture leadership in a very unique manner via managing and resolving conflicts.

The world now is torn apart with conflicts ranging from the Arab Spring, to Russia and the Middle East. The list will not stop, so the Huete/ Pankaj partnership is to launch effective learning tools for “Conflict Management”. The world needs this at this junction, otherwise we may all need to encounter a 3rd world war. This thought is from a very macro perspective, however, “conflict resolution” starts from our home, husband/ wife, parents/ children, teacher/ pupil, manager/ sub ordinates and indeed people/ people – Selva Pankaj wants to take this challenge head on and launch Regent Leadership Academy to plant a seed to foster harmony between future leaders.
As we move into the 2014/15 academic year, there were many significant achievements to celebrate in the year just finished – 2013/14. One of the highlights was a particularly strong year in our higher education division, Selva oversaw several regulatory inspections, one by QAA: the Review for Educational Oversight, and two by Edexcel: the Annual Monitoring Review and the Standards Verification visit. All three visits were successful and the reports generally very complimentary about the provision. Another highlight was winning a sub-contract from well-respected further education provider 5E to provide Level 3 and 4 courses, via the 24+ loans system.

Meanwhile he has been instrumental in the foundation of a new free school, due to open in the borough of Brent in September 2015 of which further detail is provided below.
Further details about Selva and his pursuits can be viewed at: www.selvapankaj.com. Full details of his career achievements thus far are also visible at https://www.selvapankaj.com/SelvaPankajCV.pdf

Regent Independent School & Sixth College continues to flourish welcoming students, from state schools, grammar schools and independent schools alike, who are all looking for a slightly different and special experience. We frequently refer to ourselves as ‘problem solvers.’ Though some parents come to Regent Independent School & Sixth Form College as a first choice, many come with their son or daughter, having not considered us as an option originally, but finding that they are looking for something that a traditional school cannot provide. We are sympathetic, flexible, accommodating and willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Over the years, there have been countless students that we have ‘turned around.’ One such recent student whom we shall never forget was Vinu. Vinu joined us from a local school with a whole host of bad habits ingrained, he continued to hang around with a questionable set of friends outside of school and his studies naturally suffered. His attendance was terrible and his commitment to his studies non-existent. One day, our then Co-Principal, Tharshiny Pankaj, Selva’s wife, sat him down for a very long chat about his disappointing attitude. From then on we saw a completely different Vinu. He attended every day, handed in his homework and was even known to chastise other students when they spoke out of turn to teachers. We were delighted when he received his results in August and in September 2013 went off to Coventry University to study Aviation Management. Sometimes, it’s simply the change of environment that we offer that instigates the improvement. Another student, Shiv had gained very average grades of CCE, he happily left us one year later with BBB.

Last autumn we were pleased to see students progress to some of the top universities including Queen Mary’s, Kings, Birmingham and UCL studying a wide range of subjects, from Accounting to Engineering. However, we deem success with a student is not always down to a student’s university destination. We try our very best to nurture and support each student during their time with us, encouraging them to reach their own personal goals. Indeed this is reflected by our school motto: ‘The End of Education is Character.’

One such example of this is our GCSE student Lauren. Lauren attended a local school and had started upon her GCSE course when a very traumatic event occurred with her parents resulting in severe mental and psychological ramifications for her. The school was unable to cope with the situation and she ended up leaving school and spent time having treatment for her resultant mental health issues. After a period of time, Lauren embarked upon another course at another college but it did not go to plan. It was suggested that she visit Regent to see if she might feel confident to take a GCSE English and Maths course here. Fortunately, she took a brave step and started off the course. It has not been easy and there have been times where Lauren has struggled to cope with her studies, and periods when her health issues have swept everything else aside, but with the warm and close atmosphere at the College and extra efforts from her teachers, perseverance on her own part and close monitoring from the College team, she has managed to complete the year and sat the exam just recently, a feat, no-one would have thought possible a year ago. It is most rewarding to help a young lady, who has, at no fault of her own, had significant obstacles thrown in her path, succeed.

Whilst our school and college has grown substantially over the years, interest from parents led us in 2002 to open Regent Learning Centre, a tuition centre offering a wide range of supplementary educational programmes including Maths, ICT and English tuition for primary and junior children, Maths, English, Science, and ICT for students in Key Stages 3 and 4 and private tuition for our GCSE & A-Level students. We also offer a popular programme for parents preparing their child to sit exams to enter independent schools at 4+, 5+, 7+ and 11+ and those looking to sit the highly competitive grammar school entry exams. One such student was Nandini, sitting the 4+ at a range of the top independent schools in the area. Her parents were thrilled when she was offered a place at five schools.

RLC has also been very busy this year, working alongside a couple of our local secondary schools providing tuition to their students via the pupil premium. We are also excellent at dealing with students who have special needs, such as Lewis who joined us for some one-to-one tuition in English. Lewis did not find English easy as he had limited vocabulary and difficulty in remembering new words and could not proof read his work because he could not see his own errors. However, with persistence and dedication to his work, sometimes repeating work three times, and the support of his tutor, he learnt one new strategy a week, such as checking his spellings backwards, to allow him to complete an English Language GCSE paper.

As part of the Group expansion Regent Nursery School was opened in 2004 providing childcare and early education to children aged two to five. Regent Nursery School has had a very busy year. We have had the nursery revamped, re-decorated and introduced new equipment. The children have enjoyed exploring all the new resources and they have certainly helped to enhance the children’s learning.

As a strategic measure, we divided the age groups; the younger children (2-3 years) are now using the space downstairs, the older children (3-5 years) are now solely using the upstairs space. Parents are very pleased with the decision to divide the age groups, as they feel that the younger children will benefit from their own space and it allows us to provide more age appropriate activities in the space provided.

The nursery is also working towards an accreditation with the Pre-School Learning Alliance; this accreditation encourages everybody (parents, children and staff) to contribute towards goals that we have identified as further ways to improve the nursery.

In line with governmental healthy eating initiatives and a growing public awareness of the importance of nutrition in developing minds and bodies, the nursery has decided to introduce a new healthy eating scheme in the nursery. At present children bring in packed lunches, the contents of which we are only partially able to influence. The new company we shall be working with will deliver, hot, fresh, healthy, well balanced and appetising lunches to our youngsters. This will simultaneously help our parents by removing one daily task from their busy schedules.
In 2010 Regent Group opened up its Higher Education division in response to demand from some of our A-Level students at Regent Independent School & Sixth Form College. Some students decided that instead of taking a traditional academic route on to university, felt that they wanted to pursue something more vocational. Thus it was that we decided to offer higher education programmes and we now run six Edexcel HND in Business programmes with various specialities available at our new site in Wembley Park. This year has been one of great growth, having seen the second year of significant growth in new students, and successive events at the College. Most notably, the College has been through three quality assurance checks including the Quality Assurance Agency’s Review for Educational Oversight process, Edexcel’s Annual Monitoring Visit and Edexcel’s Standards Verifier inspection all of which it has passed with flying colours, receiving many commendations on the standards of provision and the care shown for its 1,000 students.

In early 2014, Regent was approved to enter the Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA) Register of Training Organisations. This meant we were able to tender for contracts directly from the SFA or act as a sub-contractor. Regent Skills Training, as this division has been named, has very recently passed a due diligence check and been offered a sub-contract for funding via 24+ loans from long-term industry experts, 5E. We are most excited to be embarking upon this project under the guidance of such an experienced partner and to learn much more about the sector. We are planning to offer Edexcel Level 3 and 4 qualifications and look forward to taking our first batch of students shortly. Regent Skills Training has also been invited to take a sub-contract from other FE providers.

Regent Group is also sponsoring our public trust’s (Innovation Academies Trust) first school: Gateway Academy. Gateway Academy is a secondary school due to be located in Brent with four principles of global citizenship, academia, the arts and enterprise underlying its provision with a strong focus on British values. We aim to turn out articulate, confident and well-rounded individuals. The school was originally due to open in September of 2014 and we had garnered significant parental support but the school is now deferred until September 2015 as regrettably, the DfE was unable to secure a site in time.

Regent Group is diverse and very busy. Our current turnover is £7 million. We anticipate a projected turnover of £9 million for this academic year. We have, over the years, also grown a large staff team, currently over 150 individuals and value greatly their dedication, effort and care for Regent. To this end, we are in the process of introducing a performance related remuneration scheme to incentivise staff. Looking ahead we have many potential projects in the pipeline including the Regent English Academy aimed at providing key literacy skills, the Regent Leadership Academy and investment management projects in the education sector.

We believe Regent Group is unique. There are many businesses that start small and expand, but it is relatively rare that with time, an entity will grow to provide services which can span a complete educational life cycle of one individual. Further, it is rare that one sees a business that deals directly with, not only customers, but also other businesses and government functions. We have seen students join us as children and leave, years later, having moved through our different divisions, all the while, changing, developing and blossoming into fully fledged adults and it is such experiences and indeed such privileges that makes us feel proud to play such an important part of another human being’s life…

Whilst all of the above, takes time, effort and dedication from a whole team of staff, without the leadership of Selva Pankaj, the Group would not have the vibrancy and diversity that it does now. He has been responsible for expanding the Group, in an unusual, and dare I say, risky manner in the eyes of some, but the results of this ambitiousness have been nothing but fruitful and Selva has successfully built up a team, over time, and directed the Group in the right direction and those factors are behind all the achievements laid out above.

Describe the Nominee’s additional contributions to his or her industry/profession over and above his or her daily role.*e.g. contribution to professional associations, articles in publications/journals, industry blogging / tweeting / youtube channel, contribution to research etc

In addition to his endeavours in Regent Group, Selva, in conjunction with leading educationalists from the Brent area, and with the support of certain former colleagues from his colleagues in City, made an application in 2012 to the DfE to open a secondary free school in Brent with the aim of widening choice in the borough and bringing some independent school concepts into the state sector. This new free school was approved and Selva has been working hard with his colleagues towards the school’s opening ( now expected in September 2015 due to the DfE being unable to secure a site in time for the original opening of September 2014). The school, Gateway Academy, http://www.gatewayacademy.org.uk/ was founded on four cornerstones: Global Citizenship, Academia, The Arts and Entreprise and it is hoped that this school will both foster British values and give children in the borough, and their parents, greater choice when making decisions about where to pursue their schooling, which is much needed at present and provide the children of Brent with a solid, well-rounded education which will prepare them for future employment and adult responsibilities.

Selva Pankaj launched the Free School after his experience of coming back to West London after his time in the city in 2009. To his surprise and astonishment it was Remembrance Sunday week and in the educational establishment he was managing none of the staff or students seemed to appreciate the importance of wearing a “poppy”. This event was what inspired Selva to do something about this to promote the values of the great nationthat is Great Britain. Thus he decided to spread an important message at various ethnic community events. What he wanted to convey was that whilst it was important to pass on cultural heritage to ones’s children, that it was important for those who had migrated to the UK to recognise the welcome they had been given, and the opportunities, and to ensure that their children appreciated the benefits of being brought up in a country with a high standard of living. He wanted to encourage parents who had moved the UK to ensure that their children respected the values of Britain and do their utmost to contribute to British society. In fact, one of his favourite quotes is JFK’s, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country…’

Gateway Academy is the first of the initiatives to spread this valuable message. At the time of Selva’s vision for British values, even our Prime Minister, David Cameron had not yet pressed this message of British values on schools. Selva is fully committed to this ideology and intends to promote these values in all his future endeavours.

Regent Group activities will be supportive to this initiative and Regent Group will continuously work on the ethos of “The End of Education is Character.”

Does the Nominee have any extracurricular activities outside of work?*
e.g. hobbies, charitable work or any other activities that might differentiate them from other nominees.

In addition to the above, Selva is also part of Huete & Co, a well-respected company of management consultants, based out of Spain, and works closely with Luis Huete, often considered to be one of the top ‘management thinkers’. Prof. Luis is a well-respected professor at Harvard University and he is a well renowned mentor for many world leaders and has identified Selva Pankaj to lead his leadership academy in UK and also accepted Selva as one of this consultants on Huete and Co and more importantly agreed to mentor him to realise his educational vision and ethos.

Selva Pankaj also sits on the board of the Epikurean Hospitality Group, a well-established hospitality group led by an entrepreneur who has great success stories in that sector. Selva’s role is to look after the educational and financial aspect of the board of Epikurean.
Please look for more info on: http://epikureanhotels.com/company/#prettyPhoto[board]/0/
Selva also provides valuable advice and guidance and takes great pleasure in his role of Vice-President of the Harrow Business Club, alongside local and national politician and Club President Hannah David, which aims to promote the work of SMEs in the Harrow area.

Indeed, Regent Group has hosted several events since the club’s inception and Selva has been delighted to welcome some figures of great note as guest speakers and has watched as word of mouth has attracted many new members since its inception.
Harrow Business Club information can be obtained at: http://www.harrowbusinessclub.com/about-us.htmක

Please also refer to www.selvapankaj.com in the events section to illustrate some of the events in 2014. Selva Pankaj has co-hosted various business events with number of key figures including various secretary of states , including Sajid Javid – Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs and Lord Popat of Harrow from the Asian community.

Has the Nominee’s contributions been recognised on TV, Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, Radio or other media?*
Please provide links for any media appearances where applicable.

Selva is a well-known business man and educator in the local community. Regent Group and Selva Pankaj has been in many local articles in Harrow Observer, Harrow Times and other local publications in the last decade, however, his name has reached ears further afield and just recently was the subject of an article, ‘Prince Regent’ by the editor of Education Investor, Daniel Thomas, the article can be viewed here: http://www.educationinvestor.co.uk/AccessDenied.aspx?ReturnUrl=/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=4087
If you are unable to access the page, please refer to the Articles section on www.selvapankaj.com.
Selva has also been nominated at the Education Investor Awards in the Outstanding Contribution by an Individual Category, the results of which will be announced in the November 2014 awards ceremony as they have not shared the list of finalists.

As if that weren’t enough for his busy schedule, he is now co-hosting an Education InvestorRound Table with twelve key movers and shakers in the education sector in October 2014 to promote, how to lead an educational business with unyielding integrity –Some of the themes of the Round Table areas follows:

All around the world the need for leaders has been never been greater. we need smart leaders with vision and integrity to get us through the minefields – hold firm to their values and proliferate those norms across the educational organisation.

effective leaders are needed to retain and enhance our ever increasing free enterprise system in the educational sector in UK.
Leadership in education is all about high quality and high values with integrity.
Values don’t come from some vacuum, they result from a strong heritage of trust and integrity – an internal transparency of the values of integrity, leaders who have clear teachable point of view on integrity, who can effectively teach them to emerging leaders at all levels of educational organisation.
All educational business leaders should have the ability to internalize core values, to compel their attention, grab them emotionally, challenge them raise the ethical bar with the ability to manage The Ethical Challenge.
All successful business leaders have great ideas, great companies are built with great ideas. Robust values, winning leaders articulate values explicitly and shape them to support their business ideas, but always at the context of the times.
Winning leaders needs to have clear set of believes with emotional energy and actions for motivating others. leaders energise others when they personally interact with them.
Edge: Great leadership is about making tough Yes/ No decisions. Winning leaders face reality, and then make the hard decisions about innovation, entrepreneurship ethical/ model development, corporate conformity, ability to face tough dilemmas.
Developing the next generation of leaders in the education sector is a crusade for Selva Pankaj?

Reasons for nominating
Why does that Nominee deserve the award? Please explain what makes the Nominee the best Asian professional in his or her industry?*
We believe that Selva deserves the award because of the range of educational activity in which he has been involved. He has been integral in guiding thousands of students through their education on to professional careers at all different levels, and has established an educational Group that is quite unique in its span of offerings and brings together many parts of the community.

In the leadership of Selva Pankaj – Regent Group students have achieved various successes and some of those who have taken their GCSE and A-Level qualifications in most recently are listed in the below link: https://www.regentcollege.uk.com/success-storiesas well as other historic stories of achievement which can be seen on our RPI: https://www.regentcollege.uk.com/success-stories/a-level-results/. As well as educating students within our organisation, we also help students achieve their dreams of reaching some of the most respected educational institutions in Britain, such as a young man a couple of years ago, who desperately wanted to gain a place at Eton. After months of coming to us for preparation, even after long days at school, he won the coveted place he held so dear.

Whilst examples have been provided above, we have seen fifteen years of successes and watched as teenagers develop into young men and women, one example very close to our heart is that of Assad, Assad joined the College to take his GCSEs and stayed with us for his AS and A-Levels. A quiet student, he blossomed in the College environment, and shortly after finishing his studies, joined the College on a part-time basis for admin, he then used his talents gained during his studies to teach ICTto RLC students on the weekends for several years, and he has now joined us as a full-time co-ordinator for RLC. It has been lovely for Selva and the team watch someone grow with us and put the knowledge gained at the hands of our teachers, to become one of the teachers himself, passing on that knowledge to another generation, in a full circle.

Inspired by the values of his father who was instrumental in developing the Group at its inception in 2000, Selva has continued to nurture a culture of educational care, as exampled by the free school places he has offered to a number of students in the Senior School at Regent College this year as part of his endeavour to give back to the community and promote the importance of education for the young of the country.

Selva Pankaj launched the “Selvanayagam Foundation” in the name of his parents after their departure and has great plans and a vision to serve the community in the UK and around the world to take the education mission forward. The Foundation operates with the ethos of his parents in not publicising the work they do nor external fund raising for their activity but this is a wholly personal project for Selva. Selva’s parents have written a will to this effect and nurtured him from very young age to serve the community, in the same manner which the parents under took in their birth town in Asia.

The Foundation’s activities will be governed by the heritage and ethos of the Selvanayagam family, which has great history and tradition in their birth town. Selva Pankaj’s vision is to extend this message and serve the community in his beloved country – United Kingdom, he is certainly very very proud to be British.

The Selvanayagam Foundation Guiding Principles are as follows and it is hoped that through these principles, that the spirit of the Foundation will go on forever:

The principles below reflect the Selvanayagam family’s beliefs about the role of education and the impact they want this foundation to have. The principles guide what we would do, why we would do it, and how we intend to do it.
While many of them are fundamental to the way the foundation would operate, we will remain open to amending them as we grow and learn more about our work.
This is a family foundation driven by the interests and passions of the Late Mr & Mrs Selvanayagam
The focus of this Foundation is clear—and limited—and prioritises Education.
We will always be dedicated to helping students reach their full potential.
We will at all times be humble and mindful in our actions and words. We seek and heed the counsel of outside voices.
We will treat our grantees as valued partners, and we will treat the ultimate beneficiaries of our work with respect.
Delivering results with the resources we have been given is of the utmost importance—and we would always seek and share information about those results.
We would at all times demand ethical behaviour of ourselves.
We will treat each other as valued colleagues.
We leave room for growth and change.
Our quest is to help as many as possible: to spread our wings as far as we can reach, but we know that it will not be possible without the help and support of passionate individuals. We need hands that come forward to help; to assist; and to make a difference.
“Come let us light ‘one candle of hope’; then others will be lit by the same one to dispel the darkness of illiteracy and illuminate the world with radiance of Education”

In 2014/15 Academic Year a moment of commitment to the latest happy chapter of the foundation’s service to community. Our aim is that children from less privileged backgrounds elsewhere in the world are provided with access to education and gain access to better opportunities. Currently there are globally 200 Million children who never go to school; apparently 1 good year of schooling may increase 10% more earning capacity. Educating a child will bring benefits, not only to the child itself, but also to his or her family and the wider community. The foundation’s commitment will bring that opportunity to many more children around the world.

Is there anything else you would like to say in support of the Nominee?
Having a keen interest in economics, management, finance, politics and philosophy to name but a few, Selva has an ever inquisitive mind and is always on the look-out for ‘out of the box’ solutions for business challenges and is a true entrepreneur with innovation in his DNA. Selva is a man of many talents who does not shy away from any challenge. He possesses the presence of mind to be able to devote himself to multiple projects whilst always looking for new opportunities, and that is no common quality.

Outside of the Group, Selva continues to be of considerable assistance to the Principal of Gateway Academy in working alongside the DFE to secure a site for the school. Gateway Academy, part of Innovation Academies Trust (IAT), due to open in the London borough of Brent in September 2015 is being sponsored by Regent Group and Selva very much sees it as his chance to give back to the community. The school, which was inspired after a meeting with Selva’s close acquaintance, Lord Popat,(who was an ex-Regent parent of 2002) will also give greater choice to students and parents in a borough with many struggling secondary schools, and will foster British values, something which Selva has a passion for, thus enhancing community cohesiveness, and naturally, given his background, Selva is delighted that the school will have Enterprise as one of its four cornerstones. He was also thrilled when several of his former colleagues agreed to be part of the IAT board bringing highly valuable corporate experience to public sector education. This includes Ian Baker, Finance Partner at Rockspring, previously Finance Director at Prudential Financial Inc and, Paul Smith, Finance Partner at Blick Rothenberg , previously Global Tax Director at Prudential Financial Inc, Simon Winters OBE, previously an advisor to Bill Clinton and Colin Powell, and local professionals from the IT and legal sector.
Unbelievably, Selva still finds time to fit more into his packed schedule and recently created his own website to kick off his consultancy and public speaking business. He has also been invited to join Huete & Co, a very well respected and successful company of consultants, led by the famous Luis Huete, considered one of the top management thinkers according to the Institute of International Research, and he is greatly looking forward to all the challenges that this will bring. Luis has also expressed an interest to Selva in launching the Regent Leadership Academy in the UK along with some of his colleagues.

Aspiring to give back to the local community, Selva is also the Vice-President of the Harrow Business Club, as noted above an initiative to help Harrow’s small and medium sized business community to connect, promote and grow. Not only is Selva acting as the Vice-President, Regent Group is also a sponsor for the Club and has hosted several events including ones at which Lord Dolar Popat, Ian Duncan Smith, Oliver Letwin, Lord Howard Leigh, Liam Fox and Matthew Hancock MP, Minister for Skills and Enterprise were guest speakers.

Selva has also been recently appointed to the board of the Epikurean Group in Thailand which specialises in hospitality management. Selva brings valuable knowledge of corporate finance experience and educational expertise to the board.

Selva’s philosophy is, ‘Teach and Share as you go.’ Selva believes that you learn best when you teach someone else and that your learning is ‘internalised’ when you live it via teaching others.
Selva’s mission now is to bring his experience he gained in the Global Blue Chip organisations in to the Education Sector with dedication, determination and a desire to succeed with the core motto of Regent Group – ‘The End of Education is Character.’ Having a combination of experience in the corporate sector and the education sector gives Selva a unique perspective as he can recognise the challenges and pitfalls and thereby can help the education sector flourish by sharing his knowledge and experience to provide solutions which he is happy to share.

Since fully taking over Regent Group in 2009, Selva has achieved the following. Turnover has increased from £1 million to £7 million, and is projected to increase yet more to £9 million in the 2015 financial year. Staff numbers have increased from 40 to over 150 and this is predicted to increase to 250 by the 2015 financial year. Regent Group had a property asset value of £2 million; it now stands £10 million and is predicted to increase to £15 million over the next three years. The enterprise value has grown from almost a start-up to £25 million today and is projected to double over the next five years to £50 million.

As you will see, Selva is a man of many talents who does not shy away from any challenge. He possesses the presence of mind to be able to devote himself to multiple projects whilst always looking for new opportunities, and that is no common quality….

Selva believes that success will only come with sheer hard work that you will face lots of challenges in life, you will meet different calibres of people, at times you will even question your own ability butin any situation that one mustalways stay focused, be positive, be assertive and be confident, but hisrule of thumb is to always be humble and develop an enquiring mind with constant questioning.

In summary, Selva works with the ethos of what he believes, he practices what he preaches in short. As any human being, he tries his very best in all his endeavours, whilst he does sometimes make mistakes, a fact which he recognises, he believes that nothing is a disaster if you can learn something from it for next time. His ethos is that life moves on and one must make the most of every opportunity available, whilst recognising his duty, in his cherished role in the education sector, that he must encourage every individual to do the same.