Our team and board members are comprised of many refugees and immigrants, and are currently based in 9 different countries. We work hard to ensure our vision and process are centred around the voices and needs of vulnerable people and refugees.
Having served as an interpreter for his own refugee and immigrant family, Atif has always been passionate about creating language access. He graduated from MIT during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis. When the travel ban was announced, he left his job as a Product Manager to launch Tarjimly to help thousands of refugees and humanitarian workers overcome language barriers. He has been awarded Forbes 30 Under 30, SVBJ’s 40 Under 40, the Echoing Green Fellowship, the MIT Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award, and was featured in Forbes and TechCrunch after launching Tarjimly with Y Combinator.
Aziz leads Tarjimly’s product development leveraging the latest technologies in communication and machine learning to increase the efficiency of humanitarian services and global volunteering. Previously, he worked as a Software Engineer for Palantir Technologies in Silicon Valley enabling data-driven decision making in finance, aircraft manufacturing, and oil & gas. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science from MIT, with a focus on Machine Learning. He is a Y Combinator Alum, Echoing Green fellow, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee for Social Entrepreneurship.
Sara leads the development of partnerships with organizations that can benefit from or contribute to Tarjimly's services. She has experience working with immigrant and refugee populations both nationally and internationally and has seen firsthand the negative effects of language barriers on access to various services. She received her MSW from UC Berkeley and believes in the importance of relationship-building in creating long-lasting partnerships to achieve shared goals.
Ismail is your average Joe with several years of experience in building software for companies like MySense.ai and NewsCorp UK. He is very passionate about the intersection of Islam and technology, hoping to please The Creator through his work. He is the father of three girls and likes cats, reading, and many other things.
Alex coordinates interpretation and translation projects, and oversees Tarjimly's product management. She has several years of experience working for grassroots organizations in Greece that responded to the influx of refugees. Alex is passionate about language access for refugees, having witnessed the obstacles they face in accessing information about their rights and available services due to language barriers, and how this disproportionately affects illiterate and underserved communities.
Pablo is a software engineer and is part of Tarjimly’s development team. He is passionate about problem-solving and building software that makes a difference. He enjoys playing sports like football and tennis, as well as video games and board games.He ensures that the app remains healthy and functional while contributing to the design and implementation of new features.
Pranishka works as Operations Associate of Tarjimly, where her mission is to serve and grow the Tarjimly community, to ensure quality of interactions and a safe working space for refugees, translators and aid-workers. She also manages Tarjimly’s marketing and social media campaigns initiatives. Pranishka is a seasoned consulting and operational executive who has worked within reputable international organisations around the world including many NGOs. Her family migrated from South Africa to New Zealand in the early 1980's while the country was in a state of emergency due to the Apartheid Regime., so working at Tarjimly is heart and soul work for her.
Irtaza holds a Master's degree in Development Studies and has experience working at different national and international NGOs. At Tarjimly, he supports fundraising and grants management. Irtaza is a strong believer in equal rights and opportunities for all.
Fortunate is a product designer with five years of experience ideating and designing digital solutions in accommodation, logistics, socials and health industries to name a few. He previously led the Product Design teams at Rhics Technologies, The Thread Group and CribMD. He is also a dad of two and enjoys playing chess, video games and swimming. Fortunate is currently driving all the design changes we are making to improve the quality of our users’ experiences.
Abubakar serves as Tarjimly’s President overseeing strategic direction as a nonprofit. He is a PhD candidate and Soros Fellow at Stanford university with a focus in machine learning. He is published in Nature and worked on Tarjimly’s first matching algorithm.
Value Creation Director at Littlejohn & Co and former Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey working cross-functionally in international and US markets, especially public sector entities in the Middle East. Background in education for underprivileged communities.
Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Margo Drakos plays a lead role in sourcing new investments and working with the leadership of organizations in the DRK portfolio as an operating partner and board member as they grow to build capacity and to achieve their maximum impact. Margo spent the past decade as a founder, working with private and public sector institutions to leverage technology to realize scale, revenue generation, and sustainability. She has recruited, led, and motivated matrixed and dispersed organizations of engineering, product, marketing, strategy, and growth teams.
Yamen is a partner at Olive Tree Capital that was instrumental in Tarjimly’s founding and research. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and worked with the BMG Foundation for 10 years.