Meet the Team Behind Univarsity…
Univarsity was created in 2020 after our founder envisioned being able to connect people around the world via sports and provide better opportunities for people to reap the mental, physical, and social benefits of sport. This concept was dissected and refined by the four co-founders, who are current and recently graduated students, pinpointing the idea to the university sports sector based on their personal experiences of university sports letting them down.
Previously having lives full of sports participation, all team members struggled to join a sports club and were surprised at the lack of drive from the university to get their students active. After conducting extensive research, the team found that these issues were far-reaching across UK universities and there was a gap in the market for a product to bring together all aspects of university sport and activity and to better student mental and physical health in the process.
Richard Steele (Founder and Chairman)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlsteele/
Richard is the chairman, founder and mentor of Univarsity. He provides CTO support and assistance in the administrative side of the business. As the founder, Richard sets the overall vision, business strategy and provides leadership to motivate the team. Richard has several advanced qualifications including a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science. He has worked in the IT sector for 25 years, primarily developing software applications for a number of companies.
Richard has also held CTO positions for Basemap, Neural Insights and Agxio. His clients have included major banking groups, central banks, investment banks, investment firms, regulators, local government, government agencies, transportation companies and consultants.
Rory Lascelles (Co-Founder & Head of Operations)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorylascelles/
Rory is a current student at the University of Sussex studying Management and Marketing. As one of the founding members of the Univarsity team, Rory’s role involves leading the day-to-day operations, being the first point of contact and managing communications with external stakeholders for the company. Rory is currently piloting the entrepreneurial professional placement scheme at Sussex. He is dedicating his professional placement year to working at Univarsity which is a university first for Sussex.
Sam Court (Co-Founder & Head of Marketing)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-court1/
Sam recently graduated from The University of the West of England, business school, with a BA honour in Business Management with Marketing. To accompany the knowledge gained from his degree, Sam has a practical background in sales and marketing with 5 years experience in various sales roles, spearheading promotional activities and fresh marketing concepts throughout.
Sam’s influence as a co-founder is targeted towards marketing activities, including the creation and implementation of promotional material, pitching, and analysis of marketing efforts.
Tom Abrahams (Co-Founder & Head of Product)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-abrahams/
Tom is a recent first-class BA Entrepreneurship graduate from Henley Business School. As a co-founder, Tom helps execute the operations across all functional areas of the company. Being a recent graduate, he is a domain specialist with a thorough understanding and personal experience of the university market and is able to apply this to the Univarsity product and vision. With a keen eye for detail, Tom largely focuses on product and design related efforts. He is motivated to make Univarsity a pioneering company known for revolutionising university sports.
Theo Pittarides (Co-Founder & Head of Finance)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-pittarides/
Theo is a recent graduate from The University of Southampton where he studied Economics and Finance. Throughout his years at university, Theo developed skills in financial and management accounting and both micro and macroeconomics, giving him the tools to head all financial operations within the business.
Theo is the company's trainee Financial Director and is being mentored by one of the company's advisors (who himself is a qualified FD). Theo enjoys the challenge of learning how to create financial plans, forecasts, accounts and day-to-day running of the payroll and pension schemes.
Adam Corbally (Customer Engagement Director)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-corbally-5ba1ab43/
Adam started his first successful business selling fruit and veg on a market stall in his local town, inspiring him to test his entrepreneurial skills on ‘The Apprentice’, beating thousands to get on the show and becoming a finalist in 2012. This offered him a springboard to develop other business interests and hone his skills as a motivational speaker. Adam now runs several businesses and has given motivational talks across the UK to over 700 Schools, Colleges, Universities, and corporate events, inspiring over 150,000 people to date with insightful messages about self-improvement and the importance of looking after your mental health.
Tina Lakeru (Fitness Advisor)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-lakeru-018a0273/
Tina has been working within the sports, health & fitness industry for nearly 25 years and in that time she has worked with a wide range of people from children to adults. Tina spent the last 15 years working within the youth environment. This involved coaching young people in various sports and activities, delivering issue-based sessions, healthy eating and cooking sessions, organising sports, events and activities, taking fitness sessions.
Tina brings expert knowledge to practical fitness side of the company, assisting with activity content for YouPlus by creating workout plans and ensuring correct form is used throughout videos.
