About
short bio
About Dr. Akash Angral
Dr. Angral is an experienced architect who has practiced architecture for more than 20 years in the UK and in India as well as tutored design and building construction models within architectural universities. Dr. Angral set up a well-established architectural firm in India before moving to the UK in 2014.
In 2019, he completed his PhD in Architecture and Digital Design from the School of Simulations and Visualisation at the prestigious and high-ranking Glasgow School of Art.
His PhD thesis ‘Reshaping Architect-Client Relationships and Digital Technologies’ prepared ArchiPal in its ambition to enhance how people live, work and connect by creating an intelligent PropTech interface enabling better architectural solutions benefiting clients and architect alike.
A passionate visionary who engages and inspires his team every step of the way.
BACK STORY
Raised in Jaipur (India), where old world charm blends with modern marvels, I grew up surrounded by ambitious business people and educationists who knew how to gather courage and get things done. While stringed to the same chain, who knew I was living a life changing story?
When I was 10, I observed repeated small instances of my stammering which soon alarmingly escalated until it destroyed my self-confidence and instilled self-doubt. 25+ speech therapy sessions with 3 speech specialists later, while I improved. the issue still remained unresolved but it gave me the power to not judge myself through someone else’s eyes.
At 15, I went to The Scinda School, one of India’s top residential schools. The discomfort of staying away from home triggered an increase in stammering once again but this time, it also pushed me to square up to the challenge and not step-back.
I bravely signed up for an English elocution competition unaware that it would open a new door in my journey. I thoroughly practiced, mastered my 4 minutes and 40 seconds long essay, faced an audience of 500+ people and won the competition. I felt like I owned the stage and still think so.
The hazy realization of my significant improvement became clearer when I delivered a speech on ‘The Law of Karma’ at Wellington College (United Kingdom) during Global Social Leaders conference. My commitment and perseverance paid off and I never looked back since then. I rose to become the Secretary of Elocution and Public Speaking and part of the School Council eventually. Simultaneously, my passion for communication grew in the school’s newsroom where I worked as an Editor-in Chief for 2 flagship magazines.
At Nanyang Technology University (Singapore), I received a Bachelor of Business, but I lived my passion in the meeting rooms of Toastmasters International. I was elected at Vice President – Membership, wherein I inspired people to ignite their spark to become a better communicator. Meanwhile, I continued to polish the art of communication and won accolades such as 3rd runner-up at Singapore National Speech Competition 2020 at Singapore Management University (Singapore) and 3rd runner-up at Toastmaster’s International Speech Competition 2021.
Professionally, I am a strategy consultant at Strategy& (part of PwC – PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Singapore. I work across sectors like automotive, healthcare and industrials to solve complex business problems for top clients like Fortune Global 500 companies and private equity houses with >1 billion USD in assets under management.
It is not surprising that more than 40% of the world’s population is afraid of public speaking. I gathered the courage and got things done, so why not others? I was fortunate to get exposure to opportunities, resources and help at right times however, it is seldom the instance with others. Hence, my journey has inspired me to pursue this endeavor to help people become confident communicators by igniting the spark within them.