After graduating from City University in London, Divya worked under the ex-Executive Director of Morgan Stanley on a start-up private equity company. Being the first employee under his management, she helped grow the company from scratch, partnering with some of the world’s largest property developers and alternative investment funds.

After a few years, she was offered the position of Head of Business Development for a denim manufacturer, working with Multi-National Corporations such as Inditex Group, Tata Group and The Foschini Group with their production in India, Pakistan and China.

Since then, she founded a social enterprise that supports ethical and fair-trade production around the world while giving back to disadvantaged communities, before joining ITS as a Business Studies teacher.

There is a great disconnect between what I learnt at school and what I learnt in ‘real life’, and I want to help bridge that gap with my students. I am very passionate about teaching business and ever since I started teaching, I realised many of my students are misinformed about how important this subject is, especially in today’s fast-paced and unpredictable world. And of course, teaching offers great job satisfaction - the ‘Ah-Ha’ moment, when the student finally finds out a solution to the problem they were tackling. I love seeing that break-through because it’s that moment where they have learnt something new, and will remember it for a long time.

I also love reading and expanding my knowledge in all fields and industries. You can never stop learning.

An admirable person in business:
Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-A-Porter. Her idea was dismissed by many until people realised it was revolutionary. She never gave up.

An inspirational person:
My grandfather – he started with absolutely nothing and built whatever he has today from scratch. He is the definition of an entrepreneur.

Top tip to my younger self:
Don’t be afraid to ever say ‘I don’t know’ and ‘Can you help me’. If I had said that more often, I would have learnt a lot more than I know now and learnt from other peoples mistakes.