Our Team
PAUL DOUGLAS
Co-Founder and CEO
PRAVEEN KEDAR
Co-Founder and CEO
BRANDON BATES
Vice President, Technology & Partnerships
SAYALI KEDAR
Head of Development
Eric Barron
Chief Strategic Officer
KASSIA BUKOSKY
Community Outreach Manager
SUMEDH SIRSAT
Community Development Manager
Community Leaders & Advisors
TUNDE OMONIJO
Finance Director
JANINE BRYANT
HR Services
RAMDAS BALWAD
Marketing and Business Outreach Manager
LINC KROGER
Advisor
YOM DOUGLAS
Advisor
“Our work at CareerEquity is part of the greater vision to place 10,000 diverse STEM candidates at top companies within the next five years. We believe this effort will help empower and bridge the incredible wealth gap in communities around the country.”
– Paul and Yom Douglas, Praveen Kedar, Co-Creators of CareerEquity
WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE CAREEREQUITY
This tech platform is a natural extension of The JPI Group’s diversity recruiting expertise. As a black and women-owned company with more than 20 years in the recruiting space, we leverage our vast recruiting knowledge so the platform remains up-to-date and fluid based on the emerging needs of the market place.
We’re proud to provide our clients ….
- Established relationships with top recruiting, diversity and community stakeholders
- Experienced recruiting, data and tech team for reliable components
- Concrete cyber security
- Diversity Recruiting Expertise with a focus on creating a robust candidate pipeline
OUR BELIEF SYSTEM
- We believe a 360 approach is needed to address the widening skills gap in communities across the country.
- We believe that leveraging data, tracking and strong workforce creation programs in a unified manner on one platform will help solve the skills gap problem.
- We believe candidates want to upskill and simply need more guidance and support in landing their dream job.
- We believe in operating within our purpose-driven values.
OUR PURPOSE-DRIVEN VALUES
- Innovators: We are constantly embracing new ideas and thriving environments that push innovative boundaries while challenging the status quo
- Community-Focused Collaboration: We are working to improve individual lives and we recognize the importance of building a network within diverse communities in order to achieve the greatest level of impact
- Intentional: We are deliberate in each step we take and believe that intentional decisions focused on our mission coupled with a strong pulse on this fluid job market will provide the greatest results
- Inclusive: We are a diverse group of founders committed to providing a dynamic and inclusive environment that’s designed to empower people of all backgrounds to soar
BEHIND THE SCENES OF CAREEREQUITY
Meet Paul & Yom
After more than a decade leading top recruiting and workforce consulting firms, The JPI Group was founded by Paul and his wife, Iyomekha “Yom” Douglas, in 2015.
Today, The JPI Group is one of the most diverse staffing firms in the country.
While building their company, they realized a major gap in the job market — lack of fluid collaboration between stakeholders, job seekers and wrap-around services within one ecosystem.
Through the collaborative effort with IT veteran and business partner Praveen Kedar, tech platform Career Equity was born.
CareerEquity is a natural extension of the recruiting expertise the Douglas’ bring to the table.
As first-generation Americans, Paul, and Yom (natives of Jamaica and Nigeria, respectively) were each raised by single mothers in disadvantaged communities. They quickly learned the power of employment and strong work ethic in changing the trajectory of one’s life.
But it would prove to be a career within the staffing industry that prompted their decision to establish a family-owned company. The pair was driven by a strong desire to create strategic job growth and a clear path to STEM careers ― within the same communities that they were raised in years ago.
Since its founding, the JPI Group has placed hundreds of diverse candidates into STEM roles nationwide.
During the pandemic, The JPI Group has managed to continue thriving and received the prestigious 2020 National Minority Supplier Diversity Council Supplier of The Year Class II Award.
Meet Praveen Kedar
Praveen Kedar is the co-creator of CareerEquity and the owner of multiple global startups, including a software product engineering firm. Armed with decades of experience, Praveen merges his passion for business and technology to help build diverse enterprise systems with strong cyber security protections.
Based in New Jersey, he has delivered more than 50 tech-focused projects for clients across the world, including India, Canada, Germany, South Korea, Sweden and Singapore. Previous consulting clients include AT&T, IBM and Crunchbase.
Early in his career, Praveen held technology roles that ranged from software engineer to technology executive. Praveen later gained a reputation as a detail-oriented IT project lead who excelled at building web service based software infrastructure — with a focus on multidimensional data and analytics reporting — that could be utilized by key stakeholders to determine the company’s growth trajectory.
Today, he’s passionate about creating and supporting B2B as well as B2C startups that operate successfully while also offering a dynamic social impact.
When he’s not diving into tech and business, Praveen enjoys spending time with his family and golfing.
CERTIFICATIONS
Federal Certifications
- National Women’s Business Enterprise | WBE
- Minority Business Enterprise | MBE
- Woman Owned Business
- Small Disadvantaged Business | SDB
- Women Owned Small business | WOSB
- African American Business Enterprise | AABE
- Economically Disadvantaged Women Owned Small Business | EDWOSB
- Department of Transportation Disadvantaged Business Enterprise | DBE
State and City Certifications
- AZ | Arizona department of Transportation | DBE
- CO | Colorado Department of Transportation | DBE
- IL | City of Chicago | DBE
- IL | Chicago Transit Authority | SBE
- NY & NJ | The Port Authority of NY & NJ | MWBE
- NY | New York City Department of Small Business | MBE
- PA | Pennsylvania Department of Transportation | DBE
- WA | Washington State Office of Minority & Women’s Business Enterprises | DBE
- VA | Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity | DBE