Meet the Team
The Mastermind Group
Surya Singh, Vancouver, BC / India
Director of Business Development
Surya operates at the intersection of public policy, international diplomacy, and emerging technology ecosystems across Canada and India. Trained in political science and shaped by direct engagement with government and industry, his work focuses on translating geopolitical alignment into executable outcomes. Through disciplined execution, Surya has enabled direct engagement with multiple Indian state governments and catalyzed active policy-level dialogues with education ministries, materially advancing institutional readiness for Learnova’s offerings.
His work leverages the Canada–India strategic partnership and the growing policy emphasis on trusted digital industries, including AI and advanced education infrastructure. By aligning Learnova’s initiatives with sovereign priorities, he has helped move conversations beyond exploration and into structured adoption pathways.
Pavan Aujla, Vancouver BC / India / Italy
Founder of Learnova Tech Inc (Canada) | CEO of Learnova Advisory Pvt Ltd. (India)
Pavan Aujla builds the governance and human capital layer that allows sovereign AI to move across national borders without a nation surrendering control of it. As founder and CEO of Learnova, she works at the center of the Canada India economic corridor, where two national agendas are converging faster than the infrastructure to govern them exists. Canada brings hard won depth in responsible AI, accountability, and regulatory rigor. India brings the talent, demand, and deployment scale to put AI to work at civilizational scale. What has been missing is the connective layer that lets each nation draw on the other's strength without inheriting its risk. That is the layer she is building.
Her thesis is that in the age of AI, capability without governance is not power but dependency, and that the corridor's durable value lies in an exchange that runs in both directions, accountable to both governments at once. Learnova exists to make that exchange real: sovereign AI literacy, credentialing, and governance capability delivered to the institutions doing the deploying, built to a standard Ottawa and New Delhi can each stand behind. She approaches this not as a series of transactions but as a decade long institutional build, the kind of infrastructure that outlasts the cycle that created it.
She brings to the work two decades of accountability inside Canada's regulated financial system, a career built on proving that a consequential decision can be explained, defended, and audited. That is the exact discipline AI governance now demands, and few entering the field arrive already fluent in it. She writes on AI governance, ethical deployment, and the future of work, and moves with equal ease between regulatory reality and technological ambition, captive to neither. Her position in the corridor is not inherited or assumed. It is being built, deliberately, in the space between two nations that need what she is making.
Dr. Abhijit Sen, New Westminster BC
Senior Advisor and Expert
Dr. Abhijit Sen is a senior computing scientist, institution builder, and systems architect with over four decades of experience shaping computing education, distributed systems, and applied artificial intelligence. He played a foundational role in establishing the Computing Science and Information Technology programs at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, where he later served as Professor of Computing Science and IT.
He holds a PhD from McMaster University, an MSc from the University of California Berkeley, and a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. His career spans senior engineering and research roles, public and private sector consulting, and global academic engagement.
Dr. Sen has been invited as a keynote speaker at international conferences and has served as a visiting professor across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America, reflecting peer-level recognition of his expertise and thought leadership. Widely respected for his ability to translate foundational engineering into durable, real-world systems, he brings deep technical judgment and long-horizon systems thinking to his role as an advisor to our organization.
A recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award and a Life Member of IEEE, his perspective anchors our work in rigor, responsibility, and future-ready design.
Olia Stasuik, Vancouver BC / Europe / Advisor
Founder of Bonzaiai.com
Olia Stasuik is the Founder of Bonzai AI, an AI-powered training platform created to address a persistent gap in enterprise learning: training content that fails to engage, scale, or deliver measurable outcomes. After observing how traditional decks, PDFs, and compliance modules are routinely underused across large organizations, Olia built Bonzai AI to help global enterprises rapidly convert existing materials into ready-to-launch, AI-driven courses. Bonzai AI works exclusively with L&D, HR, Talent Development, and Compliance leaders, particularly within Fortune 500 organizations.
The platform enables organizations to upload decks, SOPs, playbooks, or PDFs and transform them into structured courses with AI-generated video, avatar narration, and one-click multilingual deployment, often in under 15 minutes. This approach supports global consistency, reduces training costs through content reuse, and accelerates time-sensitive compliance and safety rollouts.
Clients report reducing course build time by over 70 percent, doubling learner engagement, and deploying training across more than ten countries within six weeks.
Olia is also the author of AI Growth Code (August 2025), which explores how organizations succeed by applying AI in practical, operational ways.
Inderjit Makkar, India / CTO / Tech Partner
Founder of Factacy.ai
Inderjit Singh is a visionary entrepreneur and the founder of Factacy AI, spearheading disruptive AI solutions in Data Analytics and the Analytics of Things (AoT). With around 20 years of experience, including a tenure as Associate Director at Standard & Poor’s, he possesses a deep mastery of machine learning, big data, and capital markets. Inderjit previously served as the Chief Product Officer at Proxgy, a Shark Tank-funded Industrial IoT startup, where he refined his expertise in scaling innovative technology and optimizing industrial operations.
Beyond his technical leadership, he also founded startupinvestors.ai to bridge the gap between emerging founders and the investment ecosystem. A recognized thought leader, his insights on fintech, AI, and ESG have been featured in many news journals and articles. By blending street-smart growth strategies with cutting-edge robotics and automation, he is dedicated to shaping the future of industrial intelligence. Inderjit remains a passionate advocate for the startup economy, consistently driving innovation through data-backed transparency and a commitment to solving complex global challenges.
Greg Kular, Surrey BC/ India
Board Member
Mr. Greg Kular is a seasoned entrepreneur, board advisor, and business mentor with more than four decades of diversified experience scaling startups and growth-stage companies. Renowned for leveraging contact centre innovation and, more recently, AI-driven lead and demand generation, he brings a practical, execution-focused lens to enterprise growth.
Greg is recognized globally for his ability to design and implement scalable systems, policies, and strategies, with a strong emphasis on talent development, coaching, and leadership formation. He provides hands-on mentorship to founders across early-stage to global-growth enterprises, helping them navigate complexity, sharpen decision-making, and accelerate scale.
He is a pre-seed investor and a mentor with Futurpreneur Canada, supporting Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurs. Beyond his professional work, Greg is an avid golfer, pickleball player, hiker, and triathlon enthusiast.
Ben Gill, New Westminster BC / Brazil / Dubai
Director of Global Procurement - Agri Commodities / Oil and Gas
Ben Gill is a senior financial and commercial leader with over 30 years of experience in capital markets, business formation, and international trade execution. He has successfully built and exited multiple ventures, delivering strong capital outcomes through disciplined strategy and operational leadership.
Over the past four years, Ben has managed cross-border agricultural contracts and shipments across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, working closely with partners in markets including India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Kenya, and Belarus. His work focuses on contract integrity, supply-chain reliability, and long-term trade relationships.
A trusted operator with a global outlook, Ben combines financial expertise with practical execution. He is also a father of two adult children and values building meaningful connections across cultures and markets.
