The Tamil Creator

Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam ( @sanjeev.sockalingam ) is the Senior Vice President of Education and Chief Medical Officer at CAMH ( @camhnews ), Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital. He is also Vice-Chair of Education and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto ( @uoft ), Scientific Director at Obesity Canada ( @obesitycanada ) and the author of more than 160 peer-reviewed publ...

Senthu Velnayagam ( @senthuvelnayagam ) is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and growth strategist who has built his career around scaling companies through execution, operational excellence and sustainable growth. Senthu is the co-founder and CEO of Kimp, one of the pioneers in the subscription-based creative services space. He is also the Managing Partner of Scale Shift Ventures, a venture studi...

Hapbishan “Happi” Vijayakumar ( @hxppi ) is a Toronto-based storytelling barber known for blending Tamil culture, fashion, travel and modern barbering into a unique digital presence. After nearly pursuing a career as a paramedic, Happi began cutting hair during the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually dropping out of university to pursue barbering. His journey started with cutting people’s hair on a wood...

Pirasaanth Varatharajan (@thepvrajan) is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA), real estate investor and co-founder of Foundation Capital. After starting his career at PwC and later becoming a Partner at Galleon CPA, he transitioned into building a real estate private equity firm focused on multifamily investing, asset management and helping investors create long-term wealth beyond traditi...

Anitta Krishan (@anittakrishan_) is the Chief Culture & AI Transformation Officer at Hoogly and a globally recognized people and culture leader who has helped companies like TikTok, Trivago and Grab build high-performing teams across North America, Europe and Asia, living and working in Germany, Singapore and now Bali. She joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss what it takes...

Supendra Chandrakumar ( @supendra ) is the founder behind the viral #LoveMyCityProject and one of Toronto's most recognizable digital storytellers. He joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how he spent nearly a decade building content creation from a passion into a career, the mindset shifts required to bet on yourself, collaborating with Google Pixel, navigating AI as a cr...

Michele Peter ( @missionswithmcmichie ) is a host, public speaker, @amazingracecda contestant & woman of faith. She joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how she found her calling as a social worker, the stories behind her appearances on various TV shows (Family Feud Canada, Amazing Race Canada, etc.), meeting Lily Singh ( @lilly ) and being dubbed her doppelgänger, how she...

Siva Balakrishnan is the Indian-based Founder Of Vserve Ebusiness Solutions ( @vserveebusiness ) and Angel Investor with the Mumbai Angels Network. He joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how observing the scarcity mindset around him while growing up in India taught him to come up with solutions on the fly, why your first customer is always buying you as the founder (not the pr...

Meena Kothandaraman ( @meena_ko ) is an Experience Strategist at twig+fish, UX Expert, a long-time graduate lecturer at Bentley University ( @bentleyu ) and a proud Canadian Bostonian. She joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss growing up in Ottawa with Indian-Tamil roots, how she enhances users experiences and the importance of connecting to peoples’ stories, how her & her b...

Sivathasan “Siv” Sivasamy ( @siv.sivasamy ) is the New Business Director at Charles Square as well as the UK-Based Co-Founder Of The Mayfair Collective, a trusted circle of family office advisors that builds business relationships with purpose. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to drop countless gems while discussing arranged marriages, why the Mayfair Collective was created,...

Sujatha Sivarajah ( @sujatha_sivarajah ) is the Vice President of Strategic Execution & Operational Excellence for McKesson Canada ( @mckessoncanada ). She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the significant impact of her parents while she was growing up, being a part of a graduating class that comprised only 10% females, building teams at multiple companies includi...

Arunan Arulampalam ( @mayorarunan ) is the Mayor of Hartford (Connecticut). He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss South Asian representation slowly growing in the politics, his parents’ belief that “no one would vote for someone with the last name, Arulampalam” because of the world they inherited and overcoming these underdog odds, being the CEO of a non-profit before...

Khamshajiny “Kamzy” Gunaratnam ( @kamzy_gunaratnam ) is a Member of Parliament in Norway and former Deputy Mayor of Oslo. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how she got recruited into politics, being elected (at a time) as the youngest Deputy Mayor in Oslo’s history, why taxes are a good thing for the collective, what she hopes to achieve in the next few years (min...

Hari Mahesh ( @harimahesh ) is Founder of ar•ram•bam ( @arrambam__ ), a modern third space for the next generation of Tamils and Southern South Asians, as well as the Director of the New York Chapter for The Knowledge Society (TKS, @tksworldhq), an accelerator for unicorn teenagers.  He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss early exposure to tech in Seattle, his favourite...

Swathi & Shurabi Anphalagan ( @twintalesproject ) are twin sisters who both attend the University of Western, pursuing healthcare-related careers.  They use science knowledge to promote inclusion in the “Twin Tale” series of books they’ve created. They join Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss being their innate curiosity and interest in science, choosing Western Universit...

Vijay Kumar ( @chef.vijayakumar ) is a chef-partner at Semma ( @semmanyc , the only Michelin Star [ @michelinguide ] Indian restaurant in New York City), one of the hottest food spots in the city! He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss transitioning from engineering to being a chef to excel in the culinary mecca of New York, going from starting a business in only two mo...

Sujani Siva ( @sujanisiva ) has worked for 12+ years in public health across various sectors (not-for-profit, academia and government) & founder of PH SPOT ( @phspot ). About 7.5 years ago, while concurrently working full-time for the government of Canada, she decided to build and launch PH SPOT to support the workforce in public health. To help them build their dream public health careers, wh...

Nish Ithayakumar is a Vancouver-raised tech entrepreneur currently living in San Francisco, running Ponyrun (formerly Nimbus), an AI-based sales tool that helps automate research for high-quality results at scale, and the company was part of the prestigious Y-Combinator program. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss growing up in Vancouver (including the Grizzlies), pl...

Usha Srinivasan has a fascinating career spanning over 30 years - as a scientist, market research consultant, innovation ecosystem builder, entrepreneur, and now also an Angel investor. She is the Founding Director of Brampton Venture Zone ( @bvzbrampton ), a non-equity, purpose-driven incubator operated by TMU and funded by the City of Brampton. Before that, she was VP of Partnerships at Elevate...

Peter Duraisami ( @ peter.duraisami ) is the CEO at The Scott Mission ( @ thescottmission ). He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss his journey from working in a kitchen to becoming CEO, an innate desire to bring justice to the poor and finding his faith in 1997, not wanting to leave India but feeling compelled by God, seeing unseen levels of poverty during COVID, makin...

Suba Umathevan ( @suba.umathevan ) is the CEO of DROSOS FOUNDATION, a Switzerland-based non-profit committed to unlocking the potential of young people. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the work she's done in the non-profit work for the last 10+ years including at the DROSOS FOUNDATION and Plan International Switzerland, being raised in Switzerland and havin...

Alex Emmanuel is a UK-born, Canadian Expat living in New York City who went to work his way up at several start-ups (Skillshare, Grailed, etc.) before going all in with some friends to co-found a gaming app called 1v1me ( @1v1meapp ) that successfully raised a Series A while also being profitable. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss wanting to have gone to culinary s...

Cheyanne Ratnam ( @rising.phoenix7 ) is the Co-founder & CEO of the Ontario Children's Advancement Coalition. She is passionate about equity, developing inclusive and accessible anti-racist spaces and processes, and social innovation. As a social entrepreneur she has dedicated much of her life/expertise in child welfare, homelessness, and equity issues. She is passionate about youth homel...

Nitesh Pillai ( @nitesh.pillai ) is professional model that was discovered on TikTok (where he has 100K+ followers & over 5 million likes). He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss immigrating from Malaysia to Australia, going from being a victim of bullying to being discovered by IMG Models (an international leader in talent discovery), juggling school and his modell...

Angela Asiana (@angelaasiana) is a Swiss-based musician, model & social media star.   She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss her unique way of networking through Instagram, navigating the negative side of social media, gradually winning her parents’ approval, who her dream collaborations would be with including The Weeknd (@theweeknd) & A.R. Rahman (@arrahman),...