Biographies

Thileepaan Sivamathavalingam is a young professional engineer, who has been residing in London for the past 11 years. He was born and raised in Germany before moving to the UK in 2006.

Thileepaan has been working in the technology industry since October 2014, where he was able to gain business management skills and further develop his knowledge in this sector. During his daily engagement with various customers, who were focusing on a range of different technologies, he appreciated the importance of fundamental skills and education, which are essential to bring out the greatest individuals such as engineers.

Due to the passion for education since his very early days, he decided to start up Exceed To Succeed (E2S), an organization that has been established to support children with their 11+ examinations. Thileepaan believes in developing ‘Efficient Learners’ by leading a child through a defined path to a brighter future.

Thileepaan holds a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) honors degree in Electronic Engineering, including a one year industrial placement as part of his undergraduate degree and a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Mobile & Satellite Communications from the University of Surrey. After his postgraduate degree he secured a graduate job at a technology company, where he is in full time employment. As a Field Applications & Sales Engineer, he gained international experience in Germany and the USA during his graduate program. This allowed him to not only grow his engineering knowledge, but also his commercial expertise in a highly advanced technology industry.

Thileepaan is fully trained in First Aid and holds a certificate for a range of business training courses, which he attended over the last 3 years such as “Effective Negotiations” and “Make An Impact”. In addition, Thileepaan is fluent in three languages; German, Tamil & English. Furthermore, he volunteered for Mathematics challenges in the past, where he prepared exam papers and marked them, demonstrating his desire to support the next generation.

Mithra Vijayathasan strongly believes that education is the key to endless opportunities. She has been involved in numerous activities with the desire to help particularly younger children with their learning experience. She was born in Sri Lanka and moved to the UK in December 1999.

Having volunteered to read with nursery children in Year 6 and having worked at a primary school as part of her Year 10 work experience, Mithra has continuously demonstrated passion towards helping children. She has always been keen to pass on her enthusiasm for learning, from a very young age. After her A-levels she joined the Explore Learning tuition centre in West Hampstead as a tutor in Maths and English. Since then she has been working there part time for the past four and half years, whilst pursuing her university studies. This has been a great learning experience, as she had been working with children of all abilities, and ages ranging from 4 - 14. She has been participating in many different training courses as part of her role as a tutor in order to keep up to date with the curriculum, striving to constantly improve her skills.

Currently Mithra is studying towards a Master of Science (MSc) in Economics and Finance, after graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Financial Mathematics from the University of Surrey. She also had the opportunity to complete a one-year industrial placement at one of the UK’s leading awarding organisations (AQA), where she worked for the Centre for Research and Education Practice department, thereby gaining proficient understanding in the national education system.

Mithra is excited to be part of the Exceed to Succeed (E2S) team. She is entirely committed to inspiring children to reach their full potential and support them with a major hurdle in their early life. In her view the mindset is everything and being part of Exceed To Succeed, she would like to support children to approach education with a positive attitude.

Sindu Shanmugam was born in Germany and moved to the UK in 2003. She is currently in her final year studying Economics and Mathematics at the University of Surrey.

After her GCSEs, Sindu secured work experience at JP Morgan, where she got an opportunity to get an insight into the role of operations at a global banking and financial institution. Following her work experience, she was keen to gain a greater understanding of the financial sector through her higher studies.

Since leaving Sixth Form, she has been tutoring Mathematics to children in Years 7 - 11 at A+Tec. While managing children with different academic abilities, Sindu is also responsible for preparing regular class tests aligned with the national curriculum and accommodating each lesson to the children’s needs.

Sindu also underwent a 4 week placement at George Abbot School. During the placement she had the opportunity to gain additional experience in the education sector, by working closely with the Mathematics department. This stirred her interest in secondary education and therefore she opted to undertake “Mathematics Education” as one of her final year modules. This will enable her to actively use her experience by having the chance to teach children from different year groups.

Sindu believes that her contribution towards Exceed To Succeed (E2S) will nurture the philosophy of ‘supporting others in need’ and retain those ideals in a stable environment over future generation to come.