Niraj Saraf joins Resurgence in Head of Strategy secondment
Senior Innovate UK executive is tasked with growing the adaptation and climate resilience business, as Resurgence seeks to expand globally.
Resurgence, the award-winning design, communications and consulting company that specialises in urban climate risk and resilience, announces the appointment of Niraj Saraf as Head of Strategy. On secondment from Innovate UK, Saraf will be leading a strategy review of all elements of Resurgence’s social enterprise business, assessing how best to to drive its development and transformational growth.
To effect this, Saraf will lead collaboration across Resurgence’s internal teams, advise on expansion of its Board and craft a new business plan for the company. Saraf will report directly into CEO Mark Harvey.
Saraf’s appointment comes as Resurgence plans to market its flagship DARAJA service across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. He will be focused on delivering sustainable growth by creating a product and service strategy for twin offerings in inclusive forecasting and early warning systems development and open data infrastructure for urban climate resilience. Saraf will also continue his work at Innovate UK managing innovation to enable the long-term sustainability of cities.
Saraf says, “I’ve spent several years working on innovation for sustainable cities, and on international development, and have witnessed urban resilience rise rapidly up the agenda. We are in the midst of a climate crisis, and we have COP26 coming up, which makes this an important time for Resurgence. I’m really excited to be able to help drive the growth of a company that combines these globally vital themes into its mission.”
Saraf brings 28 years’ experience of policy and strategy development, and programme management across public, private and voluntary sector organisations in the UK and internationally. He started his career in the Fast Stream of the UK Civil Service and has since worked in banking, overseas development, start-ups, and in consulting, and is Newton Fund Programme Manager at Innovate UK.
Mark Harvey, CEO of Resurgence, says, “Niraj is passionate about citizen challenges and smart cities, and brings extensive senior-level experience across open data and international development, which will help shape the future commercial growth of the business. He deeply understands the unique partnership role that we can play alongside; governments, city authorities, urban planners, responders and communities to reduce the effects of climate hazards and high impact weather events, and how we can capitalise on taking our services to a wider global audience.”
For more information on Resurgence and DARAJA; consultancy, advisory work and speaker engagements from our team of climate experts, please contact dilupa@resurgence.io