Welcoming Mr Devani to the organisation, Yuvraj Singh said: “I welcome Mr Kishan Devani BEM to the YouWeCan Foundation and the Yuvraj Singh Group as a Senior Advisor. With him on board, I am sure that we will accelerate our endeavours towards empowering the underprivileged cancer patients in India as well as giving financial and strategic support to the budding entrepreneurs of our country”
MrKishan Devani BEM, who is a Public Figure in the UK, engaged in many diverse segments of society, from politics to education to the charitable sector, has been appointed Senior Advisor of cricketing icon Yuvraj Singh’s company Yuvraj Singh Group. His responsibilities in this new role would be to provide strategic advice to Yuvraj Singh for the philanthropic activities that he undertakes through his non-profit organization YouWeCan Foundation. Mr Devani will also be a strategic advisor for Yuvraj Singh’s investment company YouWeCan Ventures.
Welcoming him to the organization, Yuvraj Singh said, “I welcome Mr Kishan Devani BEM to the YouWeCan Foundation and the Yuvraj Singh Group as a Senior Advisor. With him on board, I am sure that we will accelerate our endeavours towards empowering the underprivileged cancer patients in India as well as giving financial and strategic support to the budding entrepreneurs of our country. I am looking forward to our Group achieving incredible feats in the future with the support and advice from a brilliant strategist like him.”
Regarding his collaboration with Yuvraj Singh Group, Mr Kishan Devani BEM said, “I feel privileged to be appointed Senior Advisor to Yuvraj Singh Group and Yuvraj Singh’s Cancer NGO YouWeCan Foundation. I have seen first-hand the immensely life-changing work Yuvraj Singh personally does globally through his Foundation and Business Ventures. It truly is a privilege to be a part of Yuvi’s journey and playing my small part in changing the lives of millions across the globe, which he desires to achieve. Yuvi is a personal friend, an elder brother like figure to me and somebody I have got to know well personally over many years; he cares for the society, the world we live in and wants to see a world that is better for all of us to live in. Hence, becoming a Senior Advisor to his Group and Foundation is a matter of great pride for me, although first and foremost he shall always be a mate and brother to me!”
Prior to joining Yuvraj Singh Group, Kishan Devani BEM has had advisory roles within various sectors from Governance, Fundraising, Business to Education. He has carried out consultancy work for various Asian organisations, Forums and Societies in promoting youth engagement within politics matters of education and the youth.
He was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in Her New Year’s Honours List 2020 with the British Empire Medal (BEM). He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was honoured with the Freedom of the City of London, which made him one of the youngest BAME Freemans of London. Kishan is also Associate Lecturer of Politics & International Relations, Diplomacy, Advocacy at London Metropolitan University. At the beginning of this year, Kishan Devani BEM was appointed Senior Advisor to the Danny Faure Foundation by the Former President of the Seychelles, Danny Faure. More recently he was appointed President (International Relations) of the prestigious Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club.
Kishan Devani BEM was recently appointed Vice-President of the Green Liberal Democrats. In 2018, he was appointed Vice-President of the Liberal Democrats Campaign for Race Equality (LDCRE) & was elected Vice-Chairman of Liberal Democrats in Business. He was also the Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Candidate for Montgomeryshire in the 2019 General Election.
Yuvraj Singh, who is himself a cancer survivor, founded the YouWeCan Foundation as a non-profit organization that works to empower all people to fight cancer through Cancer Screening Programmes, Cancer Awareness Programmes, YouWeCan Cancer Treatment Fund and YWC Scholarship for Cancer Survivors. Till date, 1,50,000 people have been screened by the Foundation for different types of cancer, 1,25,000 students have been sensitized in anti-tobacco workshops, 30,000 women have been sensitized on self breast examination and 24,000 men have been counselled for tobacco cessation.
Moreover, 150 cancer survivor students have been supported through the YouWeCan Scholarship. In October 2021, YouWeCan Foundation launched the ‘Swasth Mahila, Swasth Goa’ initiative in partnership with the SBI Foundation and the Government of Goa. Under this initiative, free breast cancer screening will be done for 1 lakh women in Goa, thereby ensuring that 50% of the age eligible female population in the state is screened.
The ace cricketer launched YouWeCan Ventures in 2015 as an early age fund for startups. Through YouWeCan Ventures, Yuvraj Singh provides seed funding and angel funding capital to promising startups to help them scale up. Over the years, YouWeCan Ventures has invested in a range of startups from diverse sectors such as healthcare, wellness, edtech, beauty, sports, logistics, travel and more. The company is especially interested in partnering with and promoting tech startups that affect the society and the environment positively.
With a seasoned strategist like Kishan Devani BEM joining the Group, Yuvraj Singh’s vision of helping people across India in their fight against cancer as well as giving a boost to the start-up ecosystem of the country is going to pick up pace and many exciting developments are in the pipeline in the near future.
