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The Tech Nation Visa Alumni Network
Whether you’re moving from Europe, North America, Or far East Asia, making the decision to relocate is a big one. Knowing that there will be people who have made similar journeys before you, and are available to help you build a comfortable professional life can make all the difference. The Visa Alumni Network is one of the greatest advantages that comes along with the Global Talent Visa: a ready-made support system prepared to introduce you to all the practicalities, emotional support and guidance you need to start your life in the UK.
So, whether you’re an applicant researching opportunities in the UK tech sector, or a Global Talent Visa holder thinking about joining the network, rest assured – through the Global Talent Visa route you’ll find like-minded individuals to celebrate your achievements with. This is your opportunity to join an eclectic group of ambitious founders, tech experts and industry disruptors. The Visa Alumni Network is all about building connections, creating community and championing each other’s accomplishments.
How will you benefit from the network?
Once you’ve received the Global Talent Visa, you’ll be able to connect to individuals that have navigated all the highs, lows, technicalities and documentation involved in practically setting up a life in the UK. They’ve been there, done that and can support you to make the transition smoothly. Why? Because these talented individuals are committed to paying it forward.
Plus, our Visa Alumni have incredible stories, and harness incredible skills. With more than 1600 active members, it’s a growing community of experts in key technology systems, all of whom contribute to world-class innovation in digital technology. You’ll build personal and professional relationships.
Who wouldn’t want to join them? Don’t just take our word for it though. Explore our Alumni stories now – spanning countries, skills, job titles and showcasing the amazing impact they’ve already had in the UK.
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Yulia Ogoordnikova
Head of Marketing at Tools for Brokers
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £8m
Roles created: 2



Yana Abramova
Managing Partner at Pretiosum Ventures
Sector: VC Investment
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £1000m
Roles created: 80



Taras Lanchev
Chief Engineer at Erised
Sector: No Code
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £20m
Roles created: 6



Subhash Ghosh
Founder at Technoplat Ltd
Sector: VC Investment
Visa Granted: 2018
Economic contribution: £75m
Roles created: 15



Steven Chan
Snr. Principal Product Manager at Oracle
Sector: Data Science
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £1.5m
Roles created: 7



Saurabh Doshi
Founder at Virtualness (ex Sr. Director – Meta)
Sector: Metaverse
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £280m
Roles created: 27



Slaviana Pavlovich
Product Manager at J.P. Morgan
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £125m
Roles created: 2



Sarveen Chester
Head of International Expansion at Shares
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2022
Economic contribution: £30m
Roles created: 5



Sarah Gall
Data Scientist at Sarah C Gall Ltd
Sector: Political
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: N/A
Roles created: 1



Sanjana Govil
Data & Digital Manager at Social Finance
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £2.5m
Roles created: 5



Pavel Odintsov
Co-Founder and CTO of FastNetMon
Sector: Cyber
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £60m
Roles created: 2



Nitish Mutha
CTO at Genie AI
Sector: AI / Machine Learning
Visa Granted: 2018
Economic contribution: £600m
Roles created: 25



Nicole Maltrotti
Marketing at Officely
Sector: HR Tech
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £3m
Roles created: 0



Michael Okaredje
CEO at Pickmeup Technologies
Sector: Transport Logistics
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £5m
Roles created: 10



Lisa Gray
CEO at Black Meteor
Sector: Entertainment Tech
Visa Granted: 2016
Economic contribution: £80m
Roles created: 50



Kaoru Fujita
VP Sales at Omnipresent
Sector: HR Tech
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £15000m
Roles created: 1100



Jason Torres
Co-Founder at Slerp
Sector: eCommerce
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £1200m
Roles created: 36



Hector Alemany Briz
5G Programme Manager at Wayra
Sector: VC Investment
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £500m
Roles created: 40



Harjas Singh
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Shares
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £400m
Roles created: 60



Gokhan Celebi
Chief International Expansion Officer at Early Technologies UK
Sector: EdTech
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £50m
Roles created: 36



Gamal Crichton
Senior ML Scientist at Sense St. Ltd
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £30m
Roles created: 0



Funfere B. Koroye
VP of Technology & Engineering at NupayTech
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2022
Economic contribution: N/A
Roles created: 12



Francisca Chiedu Otu
Programmes Director at Citizen Partnership
Sector: VC Investment
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £2m
Roles created: 10



Fernanda Dobal
CEO at Bia Care
Sector: HealthTech
Visa Granted: 2019
Economic contribution: £165m
Roles created: 52



Emily Sappington
Director of Product Management at Twilio
Sector: SaaS/AI
Visa Granted: 2017
Roles created: 13



Didem Cikse
CEO at Hub21
Sector: EdTech
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £350m
Roles created: 60



Devon Geary
Network & Partnerships Manager at Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands
Sector: Tech Infrastructure
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £5m
Roles created: 4



Caitlin Rich
Associate Director of Product Design at Freetrade
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2018
Economic contribution: £10m
Roles created: 12



Ashraf Attia
CEO at Predictiva
Sector: AI / Machine Learning
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £80m
Roles created: 6



Anna Buldakova
CEO at Vektor AI
Sector: AI / Machine Learning
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £1080m
Roles created: 12



Anita Koimur
COO at LiveFlow
Sector: FinTech
Visa Granted: 2020
Economic contribution: £300m
Roles created: 9



Amber Robertson
Head of Product Management at Dotdigital
Sector: MarTech
Visa Granted: 2017
Economic contribution: £100m
Roles created: 20



Alexandria Procter
Co-Founder / Head of Product at DigsConnect
Sector: PropTech
Visa Granted: 2022
Economic contribution: £5m
Roles created: 20



Alexander Vilinskyy
Lead Product Designer at Grammarly
Sector: Comms
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £10m
Roles created: 0



Adeyinka Ojo
Data Engineer at PA Consulting
Sector: AI / Machine Learning
Visa Granted: 2021
Economic contribution: £8m
Roles created: 7


Tristan Khan
I lead the executive team across all functional areas of the business, set high-level strategic direction and ensure the company is adequately resourced for achieving objectives.
Read more


Lyubov Guk
Scout, select and invest in great early-stage international founders, supporting them to realise their vision in the UK.
Read more


Lauren Kisser
I am the Director for Alexa AI based at Amazon’s Development Centre in Cambridge, U.K. In this role I lead a globally diverse team of knowledge engineers, product/program managers, business and data analysts building delightful information based experiences on Alexa.
Read more


Kimeshan Naidoo
I lead the engineering team to scale existing products and develop new ones, to drive critical business outcomes at Unibuddy
Read more


Jillian Kowalchuk
As the Chief Executive Officer, my role is quite versatile, which I love. Most days, I spend managing the operations of our teams and projects, sales prospecting and customer relations, iterating on our strategy while researching and developing new product and growth ideas.
Read more


Jason Laing
I oversee new product development, Innovation opportunities and Executive networks.
Read more


Jack Wang
I source, coach and nurure founders of amazing tech start-ups with capital and personal support, to sustainably bring their incredible solutions to market
Read more


Elie Matta
I lead a high-performing cross functional teams made of software engineers, QA, DevOps, Data Science and Designers. My role is to enable teams and individuals to develop on the personal/career level while delivering on new features. As we are in hyper scale growth, expanding the team is an important aspect of my day-to-day and I love it!
Read more


Deepak Paramanand
I am in charge of directing research in areas of AI, ML and Cryptography to find innovative ways to solve existing problems. Based on this research I then lead the teams who build products and services that benefit JP Morgan’s employees, partners and clients.
Read more


Daniel Glazer
I lead the US Expansion group and the London office at the Silicon Valley-headquartered law firm Wilson Sonsini. My team supports UK/EU startups and scaleups on venture financing, M&A, and IPO transactions, and through their US life cycle
Read more


Cansu Deniz Bayrak
I lead fundraising for Bethnal Green Ventures and run our highest performing portfolio’s seed and Series A deals.
Read more


Bade Adesemowo
As a person who thrives in high-pressure and fast-paced situations, I strive for positive results through the application of my leadership abilities and innovative thinking. In addition, I possess expertise in technology both from the technical and business perspective. I have an aptitude for optimising performance and motivating colleagues. In any position, I am able to visualise success, and identify innovative and effective strategies for achieving it.
Read more


Alexander Chikunov
As a Managing Partner of UK-based VC, I am investing into UK startups. We are supporting them at every step of the way and provide them with the necessary tools to scale and raise capital and to develop their solutions more rapidly.
Read more


Akram Dweikat
Engineering leadership, I lead engineering teams building algorithms & machine learning powered products at scale. Currently, I am an Engineering Manager at Deliveroo, and ZbyHP Global Data Science Ambassador.
Read more


Bihe Zhu
I am the owner of one strategic growth programs of Amazon Fashion in Europe. I own the product feature request, timeline to implement, and define the Go-To-Market strategy. I also leverage customer feedback to improve their online shopping experience. Our mission is make every customer coming to Amazon Fashion look and feel good, all the time.
Read more
Need support before, or during the process?
Our Alumni have created a forum for current applicants and those considering applying for a Visa, to ask any questions you may have about the Tech Nation Visa and the application process, as well as practical guidance.

Topics explored on the Visa Alumni Forum:

Health Insurance

Tax

Dependants

Evidence & recommendation letters

Switching from another visa route

Whether you fit the eligibility criteria

Alumni Interviews
In this video series, discover how the Visa application works, why people chose the UK and much more.
Meet our Visa ambassadors
The Tech Nation Visa ambassadors are a select group of Alumni who act as a ‘link’ between Tech Nation, the Alumni Network and the wider tech community. They are on hand to provide insight from their experience as former applicants when it comes to the process of applying for the Global Talent Visa.
Awarded the Global Talent Visa and want to join our Visa Alumni Network?
The Tech Nation Visa Alumni Network is for holders of the Tech Nation Global Talent Visa, run directly by Visa Alumni ambassadors in partnership with Tech Nation.
We’ll keep you posted on all the latest community events and meetups, network news, opportunities you can take advantage of and more, through a community monthly newsletter as well as a very active slack group. You’ll be able to reach out directly and connect virtually or in-person to other members right from when you join. So why wait? It’s time to build your professional and personal network now.


As an Alumni member, you can also become an ambassador…
As a valued member of the Alumni network, you have the opportunity to become a Tech Nation Ambassador. By becoming an Ambassador, you are committed to helping Tech Nation raise awareness and develop the Global Talent route for future applicants, and are recognised for their efforts in supporting the Alumni Network.
As key representatives, they provide insight and intellect as former applicants into the process of applying for the Global Talent Visa.
