Meet the disruptors driving the future of AI-powered
digital education

We are a highly diverse and talented team comprising over 300 people from more than 40 countries

Our Team

Leadership Team

GEOFFREY ALPHONSO
GEOFFREY ALPHONSO
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
In his role as CEO, Geoffrey Alphonso brings a wealth of experience in strategic thinking with over 25 years of experience implementing business transformations in the North American, Australian, and Middle Eastern markets. Prior to joining Alef Education, Geoffrey was General Manager and Head of PMO/Solutions for Pearson Education’s Middle East and Africa business practice for over nine years, where he grew and led a cross-functional team to drive Pearson’s digital strategy with a combined portfolio of over $30 million across both the K-12 and higher education markets. Before Pearson Education, Geoffrey held senior leadership positions across the EdTech, telecommunications, and finance sectors in Toronto, Canada, and Brisbane, Australia. Geoffrey is an avid enthusiast for the use of technology in education. He also sits on the board of THAKI — a non-governmental organization that provides digital education products and services to underprivileged children in the MENA region. Geoffrey is a member of the elite Forbes Technology Council, an exclusive community of world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology leaders. He holds an MBA from London Business School.
DR. AISHAH AL YAMMAHI
DR. AISHAH AL YAMMAHI
BOARD ADVISOR, ALEF EDUCATION
Dr. Aishah Al Yammahi has over 22 years of experience in the education sector. She holds a doctorate in Philosophy in Education from The British University in Dubai and a master’s degree in Human Resource Management from Massey University of New Zealand, where she studied the impact of a positive work environment on employee performance. Dr. Aishah has held many roles in education, including the UAE Ministry of Education, where she oversaw the rollout of the Alef Education learning platform to 57 public schools in Abu Dhabi. Before that, Dr. Aishah was the principal of the first public school in the UAE to learn about Alef Education’s innovative approach. Dr. Aishah has worked alongside UNESCO as the Director of the UAE National Commission for Education, Culture and Science and is familiar with many different education systems worldwide, including Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States. She has participated in many educational conferences around the world. She strongly believes in using technology and artificial intelligence in education to encourage and motivate the new generation to learn.
JOE EL SEBAALY
JOE EL SEBAALY
CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER
Joe El Sebaaly has over 15 years of experience working with technology and ed-tech firms with an emphasis on digital transformation. Prior to Alef Education, he led education services initiatives at Pearson and McGraw-Hill across Higher-Education, K-12, and Vocational markets. He focused mainly on leveraging global expertise and capabilities to develop innovative products. Joe is currently leading the product team in Alef Education with a focus on crystalizing the vision of the product and creating value propositions for end-users. Joe holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science from the American University of Beirut and a Master in Business Administration from London Business School.
AMJAD KHAN
AMJAD KHAN
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Amjad Khan is a highly experienced and motivated Technical Professional with over 20 Years experience in the IT arena with around 14 years working as an independent consultant in a wide range of roles and sectors from government, telecommunications, digital, media and service sector industries. In addition to his strong customer facing ability, his key areas of expertise lie in agile software development, automation, design, deployment, operations, governance and architecture, which have been achieved with a diverse range of technologies, environments and a range of methodologies. He is passionate about agile methods, open source, software craftsmanship and is still actively coding to ensure he keeps up to date with latest tech. Amjad holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Manchester.
Will Lock
Will Lock
Chief Growth Officer
Will has over 15 years experience delivering global growth for disruptive digital businesses. Now an EdTech specialist, Will started his career as a strategy consultant before moving into the media industry where he launched and managed several groundbreaking initiatives across Europe. A highly focused commercial leader, Will has gained a passion for Education at Discovery where he held the position of President and Managing Director Discovery Education International and launched the business into China and India amongst other markets. Most recently Will was Global Director of Partnerships for CENTURY Tech.
Amit Choudhary
Amit Choudhary
Chief Financial Officer
Amit Choudhary is a seasoned CFO and results-oriented, dynamic team leader with 22 years of multinational experience in Europe, the Bahamas, the Middle East, and India, including the last 16 years in the UAE. Amit initially spent 13 years with Big Four accounting firms, including Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, followed by Waha Capital, where he was the Executive Director of Finance and Compliance. Before joining Alef Education, Amit was the CFO of Qatar First Bank, Wall Street Exchange, Instant Cash, and FINTX. He has a proven track record of leading change, turnaround, and cost optimization strategies that have resulted in significant company-wide improvements. As CFO, he was instrumental in setting strategic business direction, leading finance and treasury functions, and maintaining active oversight of governance, compliance, and audit. Amit qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He also earned the Associate CMA and CGMA titles from CIMA, United Kingdom. In continuously striving to further his education, Amit earned prestigious certifications in Leadership from Harvard Business School and Corporate Finance from London Business School.
GREGOIRE PROVOT
GREGOIRE PROVOT
DIRECTOR OF SERVICE DELIVERY
Gregoire Provot brings tremendous leadership and hands on practical experience in Customer Services and IT Service Delivery. For the past 28 years Gregoire has been successfully leading large teams across multiple countries and regions mainly in the telecom and IT sectors, having held various senior positions at BT, C&W, NCR, DELL EMC and more recently at NTTDATA Services. From setting up the first Outsourcing support center of BT in France to efficiently driving Service Delivery in the US, setting up remote resolution teams across Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) from the Netherlands, managing large scaled customer service desk in Scotland, leading PMO teams and ITO service delivery across EMEA, Gregoire has a great passion for operational efficiency, customer excellence, leveraging technology innovation and transformation to improve service delivery.
Heather Kotyk
Heather Kotyk
Director of Organizational Development & People
With nearly 20 years of Human Resources and Organizational Development experience working in both United States and United Arab Emirates. Heather has gained well rounded experience on how to best design, develop and deploy organizational solutions with focus in education, customer service and technology sectors. Over the past ten years, her focus as an executive leader and consultant with Deloitte Middle East has been to help organizations address a range of Human Capital issues including workforce capabilities and recruiting strategies. Heather holds an MBA from the University of Colorado and has multiple certifications in Human Resources in the SPHR.
Tina Kapp
Tina Kapp
Head of Quality & Learning
Tina Kapp is Head of Learning at Alef Education, in UAE. Before joining Alef, she worked in both digital and print development divisions of international publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson. Her roles have included digital publishing, LMS and metadata development, international product R&D, and content design strategies for below-level learners. She has also taught in pre-K and university classrooms. Tina holds a doctorate in eLearning from the University of Central Florida, where she researched learner engagement and success factors in first-person player educational games. Her areas of specialization include digital publishing, UDL frameworks for digital and blended learning in K-12, and the development of digital infrastructure for international schools.
Daniel Abela
Daniel Abela
General Counsel
An accomplished UK qualified and practising head of legal/general counsel, corporate/commercial lawyer and strategic adviser, with 20+ years of combined in-house and private practice blue-chip legal experience, gained both in the UAE and the UK. A demonstrable record of successfully providing comprehensive and systematic support to senior executive management and wider business units on legal, reputational, operational and strategic risks across multiple areas of law. Effectively leads and manages legal departments and the delivery of sound and impactful legal advice and frameworks for implementing and executing key business objectives and strategies. Specialised in all aspects of corporate law, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and private/public fundraisings.
Caroline Depirou
Caroline Depirou
Head of Risk & Compliance
Caroline Depirou has 23 years of experience in risk management and was most recently Vice President of ESG and Risk at Aldar Development. With a background in corporate risk management, she has extensive experience in building and improving risk and compliance systems, defining key risk indicators, and implementing control systems. Caroline developed a comprehensive enterprise risk management framework in her previous role and led crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic. She holds an M.S. in Management from ISC Paris and is certified in NCEMA 7000:2015 (Business Continuity Management Standard) and Change Management.
GEOFFREY ALPHONSO
GEOFFREY ALPHONSO
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
In his role as CEO, Geoffrey Alphonso brings a wealth of experience in strategic thinking with over 25 years of experience implementing business transformations in the North American, Australian, and Middle Eastern markets. Prior to joining Alef Education, Geoffrey was General Manager and Head of PMO/Solutions for Pearson Education’s Middle East and Africa business practice for over nine years, where he grew and led a cross-functional team to drive Pearson’s digital strategy with a combined portfolio of over $30 million across both the K-12 and higher education markets. Before Pearson Education, Geoffrey held senior leadership positions across the EdTech, telecommunications, and finance sectors in Toronto, Canada, and Brisbane, Australia. Geoffrey is an avid enthusiast for the use of technology in education. He also sits on the board of THAKI — a non-governmental organization that provides digital education products and services to underprivileged children in the MENA region. Geoffrey is a member of the elite Forbes Technology Council, an exclusive community of world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology leaders. He holds an MBA from London Business School.
DR. AISHAH AL YAMMAHI
DR. AISHAH AL YAMMAHI
BOARD ADVISOR, ALEF EDUCATION
Dr. Aishah Al Yammahi has over 22 years of experience in the education sector. She holds a doctorate in Philosophy in Education from The British University in Dubai and a master’s degree in Human Resource Management from Massey University of New Zealand, where she studied the impact of a positive work environment on employee performance. Dr. Aishah has held many roles in education, including the UAE Ministry of Education, where she oversaw the rollout of the Alef Education learning platform to 57 public schools in Abu Dhabi. Before that, Dr. Aishah was the principal of the first public school in the UAE to learn about Alef Education’s innovative approach. Dr. Aishah has worked alongside UNESCO as the Director of the UAE National Commission for Education, Culture and Science and is familiar with many different education systems worldwide, including Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States. She has participated in many educational conferences around the world. She strongly believes in using technology and artificial intelligence in education to encourage and motivate the new generation to learn.
JOE EL SEBAALY
JOE EL SEBAALY
CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER
Joe El Sebaaly has over 15 years of experience working with technology and ed-tech firms with an emphasis on digital transformation. Prior to Alef Education, he led education services initiatives at Pearson and McGraw-Hill across Higher-Education, K-12, and Vocational markets. He focused mainly on leveraging global expertise and capabilities to develop innovative products. Joe is currently leading the product team in Alef Education with a focus on crystalizing the vision of the product and creating value propositions for end-users. Joe holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science from the American University of Beirut and a Master in Business Administration from London Business School.
AMJAD KHAN
AMJAD KHAN
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Amjad Khan is a highly experienced and motivated Technical Professional with over 20 Years experience in the IT arena with around 14 years working as an independent consultant in a wide range of roles and sectors from government, telecommunications, digital, media and service sector industries. In addition to his strong customer facing ability, his key areas of expertise lie in agile software development, automation, design, deployment, operations, governance and architecture, which have been achieved with a diverse range of technologies, environments and a range of methodologies. He is passionate about agile methods, open source, software craftsmanship and is still actively coding to ensure he keeps up to date with latest tech. Amjad holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Manchester.
Will Lock
Will Lock
Chief Growth Officer
Will has over 15 years experience delivering global growth for disruptive digital businesses. Now an EdTech specialist, Will started his career as a strategy consultant before moving into the media industry where he launched and managed several groundbreaking initiatives across Europe. A highly focused commercial leader, Will has gained a passion for Education at Discovery where he held the position of President and Managing Director Discovery Education International and launched the business into China and India amongst other markets. Most recently Will was Global Director of Partnerships for CENTURY Tech.
Amit Choudhary
Amit Choudhary
Chief Financial Officer
Amit Choudhary is a seasoned CFO and results-oriented, dynamic team leader with 22 years of multinational experience in Europe, the Bahamas, the Middle East, and India, including the last 16 years in the UAE. Amit initially spent 13 years with Big Four accounting firms, including Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, followed by Waha Capital, where he was the Executive Director of Finance and Compliance. Before joining Alef Education, Amit was the CFO of Qatar First Bank, Wall Street Exchange, Instant Cash, and FINTX. He has a proven track record of leading change, turnaround, and cost optimization strategies that have resulted in significant company-wide improvements. As CFO, he was instrumental in setting strategic business direction, leading finance and treasury functions, and maintaining active oversight of governance, compliance, and audit. Amit qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He also earned the Associate CMA and CGMA titles from CIMA, United Kingdom. In continuously striving to further his education, Amit earned prestigious certifications in Leadership from Harvard Business School and Corporate Finance from London Business School.
GREGOIRE PROVOT
GREGOIRE PROVOT
DIRECTOR OF SERVICE DELIVERY
Gregoire Provot brings tremendous leadership and hands on practical experience in Customer Services and IT Service Delivery. For the past 28 years Gregoire has been successfully leading large teams across multiple countries and regions mainly in the telecom and IT sectors, having held various senior positions at BT, C&W, NCR, DELL EMC and more recently at NTTDATA Services. From setting up the first Outsourcing support center of BT in France to efficiently driving Service Delivery in the US, setting up remote resolution teams across Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) from the Netherlands, managing large scaled customer service desk in Scotland, leading PMO teams and ITO service delivery across EMEA, Gregoire has a great passion for operational efficiency, customer excellence, leveraging technology innovation and transformation to improve service delivery.
Heather Kotyk
Heather Kotyk
Director of Organizational Development & People
With nearly 20 years of Human Resources and Organizational Development experience working in both United States and United Arab Emirates. Heather has gained well rounded experience on how to best design, develop and deploy organizational solutions with focus in education, customer service and technology sectors. Over the past ten years, her focus as an executive leader and consultant with Deloitte Middle East has been to help organizations address a range of Human Capital issues including workforce capabilities and recruiting strategies. Heather holds an MBA from the University of Colorado and has multiple certifications in Human Resources in the SPHR.
Tina Kapp
Tina Kapp
Head of Quality & Learning
Tina Kapp is Head of Learning at Alef Education, in UAE. Before joining Alef, she worked in both digital and print development divisions of international publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson. Her roles have included digital publishing, LMS and metadata development, international product R&D, and content design strategies for below-level learners. She has also taught in pre-K and university classrooms. Tina holds a doctorate in eLearning from the University of Central Florida, where she researched learner engagement and success factors in first-person player educational games. Her areas of specialization include digital publishing, UDL frameworks for digital and blended learning in K-12, and the development of digital infrastructure for international schools.
Daniel Abela
Daniel Abela
General Counsel
An accomplished UK qualified and practising head of legal/general counsel, corporate/commercial lawyer and strategic adviser, with 20+ years of combined in-house and private practice blue-chip legal experience, gained both in the UAE and the UK. A demonstrable record of successfully providing comprehensive and systematic support to senior executive management and wider business units on legal, reputational, operational and strategic risks across multiple areas of law. Effectively leads and manages legal departments and the delivery of sound and impactful legal advice and frameworks for implementing and executing key business objectives and strategies. Specialised in all aspects of corporate law, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and private/public fundraisings.
Caroline Depirou
Caroline Depirou
Head of Risk & Compliance
Caroline Depirou has 23 years of experience in risk management and was most recently Vice President of ESG and Risk at Aldar Development. With a background in corporate risk management, she has extensive experience in building and improving risk and compliance systems, defining key risk indicators, and implementing control systems. Caroline developed a comprehensive enterprise risk management framework in her previous role and led crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic. She holds an M.S. in Management from ISC Paris and is certified in NCEMA 7000:2015 (Business Continuity Management Standard) and Change Management.

Advisory Board

GEOFFREY CANADA
GEOFFREY CANADA
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE
Geoffrey Canada is internationally recognized as a leading advocate for children and innovator in the field of education. Canada created the Harlem Children’s Zone, a birth-through-college network of programs that today serves more than 13,000 low-income students in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City. The concept of the Children’s Zone is to do whatever it takes to help children in areas of concentrated poverty overcome the entire range of barriers to their success – whether it is failing schools, the threat of violence or instability at home. The organization offers after-school programs, in-school supports, parenting classes, community-building, health and social-service programs, as well as running two public charter schools. The unprecedented success of the Harlem Children’s Zone has attracted the attention of the media and leaders around the world. In 2011, Canada was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine and as one of the 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine in 2014. President Barack Obama created the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone model across the country, giving 58 matching grants totaling almost $290 million. The initiative was included in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, guaranteeing its lasting impact across the country.
RALPH TABBERER
RALPH TABBERER
OWNER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BBD EDUCATION
Ralph Tabberer is an expert educator with more than 40 years’ experience in the school sector, in higher education and in government. He was Director General of Schools in England between 2006 and 2009, responsible for the development and performance of 23,000 schools in the UK. Between 2009 and 2012, Ralph was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education where he steered the company through the recession and prepared it for faster growth. In 2012, Ralph established the first of his own businesses, supporting investors, operators, governments and schools in the region. He now owns and chairs four educational businesses providing consultancy, solutions, management and HR support for regional and international clients. He has worked with government reform programmes in the UAE, Libya, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; he has held contracts with leading technology players including Pearson, SEGA and the BBC. He is particularly proud of the work his teams do with individual schools on school start-ups, school improvement, professional development, financial benchmarking, executive search and teacher recruitment, procurement and digital marketing. He was recently engaged to help open more affordable international schools in Singapore and Japan. Ralph is a graduate of Cambridge University and a qualified teacher. In the New Year’s Honours list of 2009, Her Majesty The Queen invested Ralph as a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) in recognition of his services to teacher training and to schools. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University College of London and an Honorary Professor at Warwick University. He has a Honorary Doctorate from the University of East London. In the last year, he co-authored reports on low-cost schools in Africa and Asia, and on the expansion of international school chains, globally.
RYAN BAKER
RYAN BAKER
ASSOC. PROF. EDUCATION & COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dr. Baker researches how students use and learn from educational games, intelligent tutors, and other kinds of educational software. Drawing on the fields of educational data mining, learning analytics, and human–computer interaction, he develops methods for mining the data that come out of the interactions between students and educational software. He then uses this information to improve our understanding of how students respond to educational software, and how these responses influence their learning. Prior to joining Penn GSE, Dr. Baker was an associate professor in the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. While at Teachers College, he taught the “Big Data and Education” MOOC twice, with total enrollment of more than 50,000 students. He has served as founding president of the International Educational Data Mining Society, where he currently serves on the board of directors. He has been co-author on nine award-winning papers. He serves as co-lead of the Big Data in Education spoke of the NSF Northeast Big Data Hub.
GEOFFREY CANADA
GEOFFREY CANADA
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE
Geoffrey Canada is internationally recognized as a leading advocate for children and innovator in the field of education. Canada created the Harlem Children’s Zone, a birth-through-college network of programs that today serves more than 13,000 low-income students in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City. The concept of the Children’s Zone is to do whatever it takes to help children in areas of concentrated poverty overcome the entire range of barriers to their success – whether it is failing schools, the threat of violence or instability at home. The organization offers after-school programs, in-school supports, parenting classes, community-building, health and social-service programs, as well as running two public charter schools. The unprecedented success of the Harlem Children’s Zone has attracted the attention of the media and leaders around the world. In 2011, Canada was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine and as one of the 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine in 2014. President Barack Obama created the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone model across the country, giving 58 matching grants totaling almost $290 million. The initiative was included in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, guaranteeing its lasting impact across the country.
RALPH TABBERER
RALPH TABBERER
OWNER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BBD EDUCATION
Ralph Tabberer is an expert educator with more than 40 years’ experience in the school sector, in higher education and in government. He was Director General of Schools in England between 2006 and 2009, responsible for the development and performance of 23,000 schools in the UK. Between 2009 and 2012, Ralph was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education where he steered the company through the recession and prepared it for faster growth. In 2012, Ralph established the first of his own businesses, supporting investors, operators, governments and schools in the region. He now owns and chairs four educational businesses providing consultancy, solutions, management and HR support for regional and international clients. He has worked with government reform programmes in the UAE, Libya, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; he has held contracts with leading technology players including Pearson, SEGA and the BBC. He is particularly proud of the work his teams do with individual schools on school start-ups, school improvement, professional development, financial benchmarking, executive search and teacher recruitment, procurement and digital marketing. He was recently engaged to help open more affordable international schools in Singapore and Japan. Ralph is a graduate of Cambridge University and a qualified teacher. In the New Year’s Honours list of 2009, Her Majesty The Queen invested Ralph as a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) in recognition of his services to teacher training and to schools. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University College of London and an Honorary Professor at Warwick University. He has a Honorary Doctorate from the University of East London. In the last year, he co-authored reports on low-cost schools in Africa and Asia, and on the expansion of international school chains, globally.
RYAN BAKER
RYAN BAKER
ASSOC. PROF. EDUCATION & COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dr. Baker researches how students use and learn from educational games, intelligent tutors, and other kinds of educational software. Drawing on the fields of educational data mining, learning analytics, and human–computer interaction, he develops methods for mining the data that come out of the interactions between students and educational software. He then uses this information to improve our understanding of how students respond to educational software, and how these responses influence their learning. Prior to joining Penn GSE, Dr. Baker was an associate professor in the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. While at Teachers College, he taught the “Big Data and Education” MOOC twice, with total enrollment of more than 50,000 students. He has served as founding president of the International Educational Data Mining Society, where he currently serves on the board of directors. He has been co-author on nine award-winning papers. He serves as co-lead of the Big Data in Education spoke of the NSF Northeast Big Data Hub.
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