Ashwin Damera

Ashwin Damera, CEO and Co-Founder, Emeritus and Eruditus. Ashwin Damera built Emeritus and Eruditus on the belief that education is transformational. In his role as CEO, he focuses his efforts on driving the strategic growth of the business, and spearheads strategy and expansion in global markets. The company makes high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world by collaborating with more than 80 top-tier universities across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and China.Emeritus has been awarded numerous honors including: World’s #1 EdTech by TIME in 2024, the EdTech Leadership Awards, Fortune’s Impact 20 Award, named the Online Education Solution of the Year by the EdTech Breakthrough Awards, listed as one of the 50 Most Transformative EdTech Companies, and also received the first Lifelong Learning Laureate Award from University of California, Berkeley.Ashwin started his career at Citigroup and spent many years there in multiple roles. He did a brief but eye-opening internship for Dave Barger (Co-founder of JetBlue Airways) in New York. In 2005, Ashwin co-founded Travelguru, a company that was later acquired by Travelocity in 2009. Since then, he has been working in the higher education space. An angel investor and advisor to multiple startups and entrepreneurs, Ashwin holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.