MAM
Majid Yazdani appointed as VP of Byju’s Lab
Mumbai: Ed-tech major Byju’s has announced the appointment of Majid Yazdani as vice president of Byju’s Lab to propel and further shape the future of education at the company. Based in the UK, he will lead a team of researcher scientists to help him innovate powerful learning experiences for students.
“Working on personalisation and other AI applications to the education sector, Yazdani will be responsible for incubating new ideas and delivering breakthrough solutions across Byju’s ecosystem of learning products at Byju’s Lab,” the company shared in a statement on Monday.
“We are excited about having Majid on board and scaling up Byju’s Lab by harnessing the global pool of highly skilled technical talent,” Byju’s chief innovation and learning officer Dev Roy said on the appointment. “At Byju’s, we are entirely student-centric at our core. By assembling a robust team of high-caliber specialists, Byju’s aspires to make technology accessible and approachable. This will allow us to push limits, create value, and create more impactful learning programmes for students globally.”
Yazdani has over 15 years of experience in technology and AI, having graduated from Sharif University of Technology in 2008 with a BSc in computer engineering. He previously worked as a staff scientist at Linkedin and at the Idiap Research Institute in Switzerland. He joined Facebook AI (Meta AI) in 2018. He also holds three patents and has 24 research papers in the fields of natural language processing and artificial intelligence.
“Technology in education is not just about automation, but also about harnessing it in the best way possible to empower students into becoming lifelong learners,” remarked Majid Yazdani. “Education has the power to change the world, and I’m pleased to be joining the Byju’s family and embarking on an exciting new path to delivering tech-driven learning to make quality education accessible, equitable, and contextual for every student.”
Byju’s Lab was launched in 2021 with the aim to be an incubator of new ideas, provide cutting-edge technologies and deliver breakthrough solutions across Byju’s ecosystem of learning products. As a global company, the company is attempting to tap further into the global talent pool by actively recruiting a wide range of applicants in the United Kingdom, the United States, and India, said the statement.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
