upGrad Inc. strengthens UK leadership team with two senior hires

Tom Atkinson joins upGrad as VP for Sales and Partnerships and Octave Auger joins as VP for Growth.

upGrad, South Asia’s largest online higher education company, has announced the appointment of two senior hires to strengthen its leadership team in the UK.

Tom Atkinson joins upGrad as VP for Sales and Partnerships. Atkinson brings with him a wealth of experience in international expansion, having led the successful sales growth of edtech businesses ITPM and Ducere Global Business School.

At upGrad he will be responsible for increasing the business’s foothold in the UK, Europe and Middle East. This will include launching upGrad’s B2C arm in the region, developing industry partnerships across sectors and creating innovative new B2B offerings.

With a strong track record leading the growth of some of the most successful scale-ups in Europe such as Paddle, GoCardless, and Skrill, Octave Auger joins upGrad as VP for Growth.

Passionate about lifelong education and upskilling, Auger will oversee upGrad’s marketing and communications. This will include brand building across social media, PR and events, growth-driving initiatives across bought, earned, and owned channels and improving the end-to-end customer journey.

The new hires join upGrad as the business continues its transformation into a global edtech leader with big growth ambitions in the UK.

“We are thrilled to welcome Tom and Octave at such an important juncture in upGrad’s growth journey”, said Saranjit Sangar, EMEA CEO of upGrad.

 “There is a serious need for digital upskilling in the UK which is why we have chosen to focus our efforts on this market. Leveraging Tom and Octave’s expertise across sales, partnerships, and growth will be key to building more world-class partnerships and products that will help to plug the digital skills gap.”

The UK is currently one of the largest markets for digital learning. Building on the success of established partnerships with institutions including Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Business School, upGrad will be accelerating growth efforts from its international headquarters in London where it will employ more than 50 members of staff by the end of next year.

Tom Atkinson, VP for Sales and Partnerships, said:

“upGrad has huge growth ambitions and I am joining at an exciting time as we make further inroads in the UK. The UK is synonymous with quality education, and we are poised to help UK universities reap the benefits by exporting services to geographies all over the world where demand is high. It couldn’t be a better time to help our new partners unlock this potential.”

Octave Auger, VP for Growth, said:

“With a huge global demand for outcome-driven, lifelong learning upGrad’s blend of unique content and engaging technology could help a new standard for higher education. upGrad occupies a unique space in the market by combining the excellence of academic education with the real-world knowledge from industry experts, offering a fantastic springboard to help universities reach more global students and help these students reach the career outcomes they desire. I look forward to driving this growth across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.”