Episode 12: Education: The Greatest Contribution with Vivek Sharma

I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to become the best they can be—and education should never be a barrier. I was honored and thrilled to interview an incredible leader and visionary about his passion for education and opening up pathways for continued growth: Vivek Sharma.

Vivek is the CEO of InStride, a strategic enterprise education company, helping employers achieve business growth through career-boosting online education to their employees, in partnership with leading global universities. He has extensive experience building and growing profitable businesses through the application of technology and data, with roles spanning CEO & Founder, eCommerce and product leader, Fortune 500 board director, author, a data science professor, and strategy consultant.

In 2020, Banfield announced a partnership with InStride to create educational opportunities for our paraprofessionals. Banfield’s Educational Pathways Program is an exciting venture that will provide meaningful career growth opportunities through practice-paid tuition for our paraprofessionals to complete a STEM-related undergraduate degree. To date we have 26 associates enrolled in the pilot program and have received incredible feedback.

Vivek and I talked about the importance of education, the role of organizations supporting education, and what other best-practice companies are doing.