BIO

Aanya Niaz is the Global Leader for Education Equity at with Amazon Web Services. She leads strategic initiatives democratizing access to cloud technology including AI, focusing on building and scaling innovative tech-based solutions that improve access to culturally-responsive learning, development and opportunity for underserved learners around the world.

 

She is also the Founder of The Maple Group, a dedicated network of education leaders (160+ members, 25+ countries) bridging the gap between researchers and practitioners in Education. She is a Board Trustee of UKFIET, UK's International and Education Development Forum and an Advisor to multiple EdTechs, non-profits and consortiums on learning, development and opportunity for underserved learners.  

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She has over 15 years of combined experience as a leading practitioner and researcher in the education sector, and a management and strategy consultant. In consulting, she led multi-year, global projects on the digital transformation of FTSE250 companies and high-stakes public sector organizations in the UK. 

 

Most notably, Aanya shaped national policies on evaluation and assessment with the OECD in France, led the development of Pakistan’s first English as a Foreign Language Curriculum for the world’s largest low-cost private school network, The Citizens Foundation; and taught middle & high school students as well as professionally developed teachers in the US with Teach For America, in South Africa with Raise The Children International and in Pakistan with various organisations.​ She has also developed the Educator as a Free-Agent Framework, which is used to upskill teachers in income-restrained contexts to realize their full potential as leaders. 

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She earned her Master's in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford in 2017. Aanya ​was awarded a full University scholarship to attend the University of Virginia on account of her academic performance, where she completed her Bachelor's degree with a double major in Foreign Affairs and Global Development Studies in 2011.