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Skild | The people behind the name
About Skild
At Skild, we believe in empowering people and organizations by tapping into unheard voices and fresh perspectives. We genuinely strive to affect positive change by helping to solve problems, make discoveries, and in some small way advance society.
Anil K. Rathi
Founder & CEO, Skild
Empowering people by tapping into unheard voices and fresh perspectives.
Anil learned at an early age about the power of people. The son of an international businessman, he watched his father travel the world and paid particular attention to what he brought back with him. “He’d meet all these people from everywhere,” he says, “and when they would come into town, he’d invite them over for a dinner party with authentic Indian food. This was in the middle of Iowa! So, I watched people from everywhere get together and share their experiences, stories, and cultures. It shaped my life.”
Well, that’s not entirely true. It shapes his life. “For almost 20 years now, I’ve made it my mission to carve out a crossroads where people from all walks of life can come together and share their ideas and their passions.” After graduating from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Anil created the Innovation Challenge®, a university-based competition uniting the world’s brightest students with global brands — Hilton Hotels, American Express, AT&T, Shell, Harley Davidson, Google— to foster new products, services, and business models. Now, as the CEO and founder of Skild, he’s taken innovation to the next level, crafting challenge programs that tap into unheard voices and fresh perspectives. To date, he’s produced over 500 public & private challenges generating $200 million in prizes; in the process, he’s worked with clients like Cisco, Samsung, Activision-Blizzard, National Science Foundation, and Disney on employee engagement programs and causes ranging from clean energy to childhood obesity.
With all those challenges, prizes, and partnerships under his belt, you’d think Anil would have perfected a formula for his success. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is no formula,” he counters. “Ideas are fleeting. Challenges come and go. But people, in all their complexity and diversity, are the beating heart behind all of it — and the true driver behind any successful organization.”
Ian Murphy
Outreach Director
I manage a global network of scouts and technology experts to help organizations find diamonds in the rough.
As Outreach Director for Skild, Ian ensures high stakeholder engagement and team participation for client challenges. With over 25 years in innovation development, he has led marketing more than 30 innovation challenges that have awarded over $80 million to trailblazing innovators. His career includes roles as the Communications Director at the X PRIZE Foundation, where he spearheaded PR for the first private spaceship, and at the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, producing TEDxUSC - the world's first TEDx. Ian's advisory portfolio spans influential organizations like SpaceX, Boston Consulting Group, NASA, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and the Girl Scouts of America.
Joe Raines
Director, Engineering
Joe has been with Skild for over ten years. Before joining Skild, Joe was a senior developer at LoanDNA, a web-based platform for transforming affordable housing.
Mona Raymundo
Customer Success Manager
I am a problem solver.
I love to dig in, roll up my sleeves, and get things done!” Regarding self-assessments, there’s no shortage of people who would gladly make this one their own. And why not? It conveys purpose. It brims with industry. Unfortunately, it’s said far more often than it’s actually lived. Enter Mona, someone who lives this statement so thoroughly that when she says it, its value is seemingly restored.
“I love assisting people,” she says. “It gives me great satisfaction at the end of the day when I know I’ve been able to help.” Naturally, the UC Riverside computer science grad who applies her craft as a customer success manager takes particular pleasure in assisting others via technology, admiring how it brings people and solutions together. “I love it when technology can solve real-world problems meaningfully.”
But tech can’t solve all real-world problems, as she would be the first to attest. Certain tasks require a special kind of digging in, rolling up, and getting things done — namely, working with our most vulnerable populations. “We’re assigned to a family that’s just emerging from homelessness,” she says of her role with a nonprofit organization that helps families transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency. “They have housing and food stamps, but they don’t have life skills, such as how to open and maintain a bank account or interact with their children’s school. I was assigned to be the one-on-one mentor to a head-of-household mom of two. I met with her weekly. She recently graduated from the program, so now I mostly speak with her on the phone and meet when needed.”
As you’ve likely gathered by now, Mona is frequently needed — by someone, somewhere. When she finds time for herself, her thoughts inevitably circle back to others, like how she would enjoy cooking a delicious meal for those closest to her. “I love starting with a few simple ingredients and ending up with a dish that will bring enjoyment to my family and friends,” she says, noting that her pork loin roast with shiitake mushroom sauce is a hands-down favorite. “What makes cooking fun is thinking about who you’re cooking for, and I tend to tweak recipes to fit their tastes.
Denis Khoo
Advisor
I’m motivated by technology’s positive people effect.
In the late ’90s, Denis Khoo sat on a plane 10 hours a week. Every week. For a year. Sure, the recent UC Berkeley computer science grad could’ve found plenty of tech work in his native California. But he’d discovered something special that allowed him to pursue his goal: “doing work for the benefit of human society.” And so he spent his weekdays in Detroit, consulting for a health insurance provider, returning on weekends, only to do it again. And yes, because he was the lead developer for the world’s first internet-based healthcare referral system, the results were worth choking down every last roasted almond.
“The project had such an amazing real-world impact,” he says. “Patients were now able to get their referral approved in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks. In general, I’m deeply motivated by the end result, which for me is the positive people effect that comes from technology. This drives me to maximize my potential contribution and motivates me to utilize my time as efficiently as possible.”
In the time since Skild’s technical advisor has been fortunate enough to work for many other companies and projects that have also brought positive impacts to the society. That said, if Denis wants to witness “the positive people effect” of his work, he no longer has to leave home to do it. He and his wife of ten years are the proud parents of a girl and a boy. “Smart, funny, well-behaved (mostly), and humble” is how he describes them: “Their future well-being drives how I now see the world and gives me a profound purpose that didn’t exist before. I want nothing more than to be a positive influence and a role model to them, helping them become happy adults by doing good in the world.”
A committed C-suite technology vet. A loving, mindful husband and father. When, exactly, does Denis find time to unplug? “Dawn patrol,” he says, referring to early mornings at his regular Manhattan Beach surf spot. Riding waves at dusk, he’s able to disconnect . . . to connect. “I’ve come to appreciate the sense of Zen that surfing provides me,” he says. “With today’s fast-paced culture, we’re trapped in multitasking, mobile phones, and instant gratification. We forget how important it is to connect with ourselves and nature. Surfing allows me to be completely in the moment with myself and the water. The distractions of the world fade away.”