Arani Kumar Soosaipillai co-founded Prax Group alongside her husband, Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai, and served as its Chief Human Resources and Corporate Officer. She holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance from the University of Kent and accumulated more than 20 years of experience in the energy sector during her time at the company. This article sheds more light on her backstory and contributions to Prax Group.
Co-founding Prax Group
Arani was an equal partner in the creation of what became Prax Group. The company’s own historical account describes the business as “the result of the business vision of Sanjeev and Arani Soosaipillai, who met at university in the UK.
The couple acquired their first petrol station in 1999, neither of them yet owning the capital to buy it. To fund the venture, they secured a £15,000 bank loan, maxed out their credit cards and remortgaged the flat they shared. The business initially operated as a partnership between the two of them, before being conducted through State Oil Limited.
During the earliest phase, Arani continued working at her existing job while contributing to the new venture after hours. “I’d resigned from my job about a month earlier, while Arani carried on working, Sanjeev told the company magazine. “The team was just the two of us.”
The Soosaipillais credit three pillars to Prax’s early growth: sharp deal-making and working capital management; the willingness of Sanjeev, Arani and their close family to put their homes and personal assets at risk; and partnerships that accelerated the company’s progress. Arani’s financial exposure was personal and direct, her own student loan, her credit, and her share of the couple’s property were all committed to the venture.
Human Resources and Corporate Oversight
Looking back, Arani identified three career lessons: that flexibility is indispensable because circumstances change regardless of planning; that strong relationships, with colleagues and mentors, are rarely separate from professional success; and that resilience matters more than the setbacks themselves.
On International Women’s Day, she issued a public statement through the company’s internal magazine: “I would like to take a moment to celebrate all the strong, successful, and influential women in our workforce, who are integral to the success of our business, and who are the ‘engine of growth’ for the Prax Group.”
When asked how she has responded to professional challenges, she wrote: “There have been moments where I wasn’t sure what the next step should be but leaning into uncertainty with curiosity, rather than fear, has helped me grow.”
Prax Foundation Roots
Arani served as a Trustee of Prax Foundation Roots, the charitable foundation funded principally by Prax Group. The charity focused primarily on two hostels in Sri Lanka, supporting girls in care, and partnered with UK-based organisations including Hounslow Community FoodBox in west London and Harbour Place, a homeless shelter in north-east Lincolnshire near Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery. The foundation also committed annual funding of £100,000 over four years as a Cornerstone Patron to the OnSide Horizon Youth Zone in Grimsby. The charity’s name references the Sri Lankan roots shared by its trustees.
The foundation’s logo is a tree whose branches are formed from the children it supports, intended to represent personal growth and the establishment of stable foundations. Activities during Arani’s trusteeship included organising annual “Love In A Box” gift parcels for the girls in Sri Lanka, running clothes donation stations at Prax offices, and coordinating staff volunteering at food banks.
