The people building Cornerstone.

Stephanie spent two decades as a secondary school teacher and leader across the UK, Australia, Sweden, and the UAE — watching great teachers lead without the tools, research access, or development opportunities that would have made them better. That experience, combined with doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, became the intellectual foundation for Cornerstone.

Her peer-reviewed publications in professional capital, distributed leadership, student agency, and learning organisations are not adjacent to the product — they are its intellectual architecture. The game's design is operationalised directly from her own research, making Cornerstone a form of domain authority no competitor can replicate by hiring a subject matter expert.

• EdD, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
• Published in Journal of Professional Capital and Community; Professional Development in Education; Leadership for Professional Learning (Routledge, 2022)
• Academic Supervisor, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge (2022–2025)
• Adjunct Faculty (Education), Middlesex University Dubai (2026–present)
• Adjunct Lecturer, University of Wollongong in Dubai (2026)
• Editorial Advisory Board, Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning (Emerald Publishing, 2025–present)
• Former Associate Assistant Principal (Teaching & Learning) and Head of Psychology Department, Passmores Academy, UK (2013–2022)
• Network spanning UAE, UK, GCC, and APAC — the four priority markets for Cornerstone's launch

Ajay has spent his career building the commercial ecosystems that take the right products into the right markets. His experience spans EMEA and the Middle East across technology, sustainability, and EdTech sectors — and his direct relationships with boards, investors, and institutional decision-makers across all four of Cornerstone's priority markets make him the right commercial co-founder for this product at this stage.

• EVP Strategy & Partnerships, Barricade Systems
• EVP International, Terravera Foundation
• 10 years at Meltwater, rising to Global VP, Market Innovation & Transformation
• Strategic advisor and Non-Executive Director to technology scale-ups across recruitment, data analytics, and security
• Executive education: Oxford University Saïd Business School (Leadership); Stanford Graduate School of Business (Business & Negotiation)
• Published in Forbes, Authority Magazine, Adweek, and MarTech Series
• UAE residency · EMEA and international network · EdTech investor and operator network