Life lessons learnt from her extended family growing up in Fiji have had a strong influence on Priya Singh’s entrepreneurial ventures. After a life changing realisation in a maths lecture at the University of Auckland Priya decided she was going to start a charitable foundation that focused on the academic development and economic prosperity of orphans in the Pacific “I’m very passionate about economic empowerment – I think everyone has the ability to achieve anything they dream of but sometimes people lack either the conviction or the opportunity.” Priya explains “At the end of the day, all I am doing is using my time and skills to present these kids with an opportunity to have a dream and to have the support they need to realise it.”

Mentor Me Fiji is the pilot program for the Mentor Me Foundation and works with the child of the Dilkusha Home in Suva, Fiji. Children are matched with a mentor from high performing students at the University of the South Pacific or Fiji National University. The mentoring relationship lasts until the child finishes high school and focuses on helping children achieve their potential and move into employment. Priya has also founded a second social enterprise the Karma Collective which brings together corporates, young professionals and university students to find innovative ways of solving real world problems for entrepreneurs working on sustainable growth in the developing world. She combines these ventures with her “day job” as a senior consultant with Deloitte New Zealand. Priya says that Deloitte has fostered her innovative and entrepreneurial mind-set exposing her to a variety of people, businesses and industries over the years.

Priya’s cofounded her latest venture Pop the Question with her sister Nandika. Pop the Question provides a consulting service for men wanting to create the perfect marriage proposal. She says that “I got the “You’re crazy!” reaction” with her social enterprises, but it wasn’t a reaction she expected with Pop the Question which is Priya’s first for-profit venture. “Crazy is a compliment in my opinion – in fact, there have been numerous times where I would pitch an idea that was brewing in my mind and immediately drop it if it didn’t seem crazy or unachievable to anyone.”

Priya Singh graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science.