Team

Senior Manager, Technology and Product | Our Ability

Kartik is a disability advocate and technologist who has not let his disability prove an impediment in the pursuit of his personal and professional goals and has done substantial work in empowering other people with disabilities to be successful tech professionals. As the first blind student to pursue science education in high school in India, he advocated for change in rules that now allow all blind students across the country to pursue sciences in high school. Similarly, after several months of advocacy, he convinced the top technical universities in India to open their doors to blind students, leading to at least fifteen students in India pursuing engineering today.

A computer science graduate of Stanford University, Kartik co-founded Project StemAccess (now I-Stem) that provides technical training, mentorship and hands-on opportunities to blind students across the country, and develops technical solutions to empower them to access educational and employment opportunities. I-Stem also works closely with the government, technical universities and corporates to make their campuses and culture more inclusive, and has worked with nearly 2,000 people with disabilities so far. Before this, he co-founded NextBillion.org, an award-winning global mentorship program for students with disabilities interested in technology that worked with over 1,200 mentees and mentors in 10 countries. As an engineer on the accessibility innovation team at Microsoft, Kartik continues to help identify and develop accessible technologies. Further, given his experience in accessibility and assistive technologies, he serves as an adjunct faculty at the Indian Council of Medical Research, besides serving on boards of several organizations and other high-level committees, such as the Education Commission’s Expert Panel on Technology and Education . His work and views have been published in several journals including UNICEF’s State of the world’s children Report among others.

In recognition of his leadership potential and work, Kartik received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award 2016 from Her Majesty The Queen. In addition, he has received the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (India’s highest honor for contributions to the disability sector) and was selected as one of the 17 UN young leaders for Sustainable Development Goals 2018 by Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth.

Vice President | Our Ability

Doug Hamlin is an experienced executive with over thirty years directing development of software products and building sales, training and support organizations to achieve profitable success. He was a member of the founding group of VersaTrans Solutions Incorporated in 1983. After serving many roles throughout the company, including President and CEO from 2000 until 2008, he guided the company through its acquisition by Tyler Technologies where he served as Division President until 2010.

He is active in both the Onondaga and Albany County communities. As a member of the Board of Directors at Albany Medical Center since 2000, Mr. Hamlin currently serves as Vice Chair of the Hospital Board of Governors. He is also president of the Board of Trustees of the Skaneateles Historical Society and Museum.

From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Hamlin led the planning and participated in the “Journey Along the Erie Canal”, a 360-mile adaptive bicycle ride from Buffalo to Albany on the Canalway Trail highlighting the abilities within everyone. This has led to a passionate interest in the history, engineering and economic impact of the Canal’s past, present and future.