Our Extraordinary Team

ADAM BRIMO

Adam holds Bachelor of Engineering (Software) and a Bachelor Arts (Politics) degrees from UNSW (University of New South Wales), is the 2011 Choice Magazine Consumer Activist of the Year and is a recipient of the 2011 UNSW Alumni Graduand Award. Adam completed his honours thesis at UNSW in partnership with National ICT Australia (NICTA). Adam previously worked at Macquarie Bank as a Software Engineer in the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Group and at Westpac Institutional Bank as a Senior Software Engineer. In 2010-2011, Adam led the successful Vodafail consumer activist campaign, which resulted in nationwide media coverage, an ACMA inquiry and a $1bn network upgrade for Vodafone’s Australian business. In 2012, Adam joined world renowned UNSW Prof Richard Buckland and David Collien to found OpenLearning.com, a social learning platform. Over one million students have joined courses, including the first massive open online courses (MOOCs) from Australia and Malaysia, where it is the national MOOC platform for public universities and polytechnics. OpenLearning now employs 65 people and is headquartered in Sydney with its Southeast Asia head office in Kuala Lumpur. In recognition of the impact OpenLearning has had on the education sector in Asia, Adam was named one of the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia in the Consumer Technology category in early 2017.

DAVID COLLIEN

David was previously an education PhD researcher at the University of New South Wales, and is a talented software engineer with first class honours in a Bachelor of Science (Computing) degree. David’s current research focuses on the analysis of the pedagogical and motivational aspects of community in online learning environments. David spent 6 years at UNSW as a tutor, high school outreach coordinator, guest lecturer, and course design assistant. David is also experienced in artificial intelligence having done research with NICTA, and been a member of UNSW’s RoboCup team rUNSWift. He has also previously worked in the e-learning field as a researcher, pedagogical liaison, and developer with the UNSW Adaptive eLearning Research Group and Smart Sparrow, and gives talks on software engineering in startups at Muru-D. David also expresses his creativity as an artist, with an installation in the 2015 Sydney Vivid Light Walk.

SARVEEN KANDIAH

Sarveen holds a B. Science (Finance) from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and has previously held positions as Manager at CIMB Group and VP Investments at Malayan Traders Capital. Sarveen was appointed as MD Malaysia in May 2019. He joined OpenLearning in 2017 as Head of Partnerships and established the sales and partnerships teams in Malaysia. With a background in investment banking, Sarveen has worked closely with government, academic and TVET institutions, as well as corporations at all levels. Having been front and center in OpenLearning Malaysia’s growth over the last two years, Sarveen will set the strategy for the next level of growth and will be leading its implementation, as well as guiding our Malaysian team forward.

CHRISTINA HE

Christina holds a Bachelor of Commerce (1st Class Honours) from University of Adelaide and also a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) from University of Oxford. Prior to joining OpenLearning, Christina held several roles at Navitas, a large global education company, including Business Development Director for large-scale transnational education, Investment Manager at the company's corporate venture focusing on EdTech investment, and Senior Strategy Analyst at the group level. Before pursuing her passion in education, Christina spent four years as a management consultant at Azure Consulting Australia and EY across the APAC region, where she worked with organisations across all levels on strategy development and operational improvement. Joining the OpenLearning family in 2020, Christina enjoys working in a fast pace and agile environment and is committed to leveraging her experience in strategy and corporate development to help drive the company's next phase of growth.

DR SHAZIA K JAN

Shazia is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), UK and Academic Director at OpenLearning. A pracademic in the true sense of the word, Shazia has several years of experience in strategic and operational leadership of cross-functional teams for provision of innovative, meaningful, and outcomes-based educational solutions across the lifelong learning span. Prior to joining OpenLearning in 2021, as Head of Design and Innovation at Macquarie Business School, Shazia led several innovative teaching and learning and student experience and employability initiatives with a focus on sustainable impact at scale. Shazia also played an instrumental role in the design, development and launch of the Academy of Continuing Professional Development in Education (ACPDE), Macquarie University from 2018-2019. Shazia is passionate about online learning design and analytics, educational affordances of learning technologies, and engagement in and evolution of digital networks and communities of learning. An award winner for excellence in research, Shazia has authored several papers in top-tier journals on online and technology enhanced learning and is currently Associate Editor of Higher Education Research and Development (HERD). Shazia has a PhD in Education from Macquarie University, Australia, a MA in Educational Psychology from Eastern Michigan University, USA and a BA in Mathematics from Bennington College, USA.