Our Team

Swati Gaonkar is the Founder and Director of STEP One Step Ahead. She has 17+ experience in leading & managing application development, support & maintenance projects. She has delivered around 100+ software projects in multiple domains internationally. She has been instrumental in expanding the STEP’s footprint in various industry verticals and geographies.She brings value in projects with her agility.

Swati has led many innovative ‘firsts’ in various domains, especially bringing technological evolution in Robotics Service Spectrum, along with product development and consulting.

She has held leadership positions at Capgemini, Quality Kiosk technologies Pvt. Ltd., TATA Interactive, EnerNOC. She has deep expertise in global delivery operations, Agile, Software engineering,Robotics Process Automation, DevOps, digital transformation, testing, delivery management, leadership development etc.

Swati is Entrepreneur by heart, thought leader in RPA space working at the intersection of domain, IT & business strategy to create digital & business assurance solutions to help customers achieve their digital transformation goals.

Ruslan Desyatnikov brings over 20 years of Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Process Improvement, and Software Testing experience. He is responsible for growing QA Mentor as a trusted partner for software testing, independent verification and validation, and strategic consulting for a client base around the world.

Prior to expanding operations at QA Mentor, Ruslan worked at Citi for 2 years as the Global Head of Testing of Worldlink Technology. He was responsible for both System testing and System Integration testing phases including functional, performance and automation testing of the WorldLink Global Payment System. This system generates more than $325 million in annual revenue and more than $220 million in net income while offering world-class cross-border payment solutions in 150 countries and serving more than 4000 large corporations and government agencies.

Ruslan graduated from Baruch College – the City University of New York with a BBA in Computer Information Systems and holds an MBA in Technology Management from Phoenix University of Arizona. He holds a number of Quality Assurance/Testing and Project Management certifications and is an active board member of multiple QA Organizations in the United States and Europe.

Shankar Gaonkar is Extrovert, Ambitious, Result oriented Head of Administration department with over 40 years of quality experience in spearheading service-oriented teams in fast-paced environments. Adept at formulating cost-effective strategies to conceptualize & implement initiatives for optimizing Administration and Procurement processes. He have been able to leverage my resourcefulness, negotiation and interpersonal skills to successfully take on additional responsibilities like managing Alliances & Partnerships. He is heading administration and accounts department in STEP One Step ahead.

Collaborate with the Founder and Director in setting and driving organizational vision, operational strategy, and hiring needs.

Translate strategy into actionable goals for performance and growth helping to implement organization-wide goal setting, performance management, and annual operating planning.

Oversee company operations and employee productivity, building a highly inclusive culture ensuring team members thrive and organizational outcomes are met.

Ensure effective recruiting, onboarding, professional development, performance management, and retention. Adhere to company, federal, state, and local business requirements, enforcing compliance and taking action when necessary.

A technology-savvy, digital enthusiast and the liaison between the business units, technology teams. Working on playing a key role in innovation projects, design, and roll-out of any new digital project or enhancements.

Amit is also responsible to design and deliver the customer/user experience program through digital projects in order to create a differentiation in the mind of all relevant stakeholders. With the experience of working in a customer-facing project coordination cum Business Analyst role in complex digital projects.

Excellent communicator possessed the skills to effectively lead cross-functional teams, set up processes, and deliver on time and within budget. He enjoys working on engaging and challenging projects that garner respect from others around me. He adheres to the highest standards of integrity while ensuring that the work he produces is of the highest quality.