Co-Founder PAFI

Independent Consultant, Advisor
Group Global Strategic Advisor
Jubilant Bhartia Group

Ajay Khanna

Ajay is a leader in Strategy, Public Policy & Public Affairs, Advocacy, Stakeholder Engagement and Strategic thinking with a demonstrated history of working across sectors including social economy. Ajay, in a career span of more than 40 years, has strong global connections. He is an experienced Ombudsperson and a Leadership Coach. Ajay focuses on ethical and value-based leadership and is a regular contributor of articles on topical subjects in major newspapers.

He is presently the Group Strategic Advisor & Global Ombudsperson of Jubilant Bhartia Group since 2009. As an Ombudsperson, he is an impartial, confidential and independent resource to help stakeholders resolve workplace or business-related issues and build a corporate culture based on values, ethics and compliance.

Ajay is Senior Advisor with The Convergence Foundation, dedicated to building foundations in strategic areas of development in India to improve outcomes at scale. He is also a member of Advisory Board of SaveLife Foundation & Pahle India foundation.

Ajay is Global Advisor to the Catalyst 2030 - a global movement & a network of leading social entrepreneurs & innovators, academics and funders who believe in collective action & bold, new strategies to achieve the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Ajay is a Co-Founder of Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI). Founded in 2008, PAFI aims at aligning business, society and government on long term priorities; fostering trust across all stake holders; collaboratively developing smart and relevant policies, proposals and processes that foster innovation and rely on evidence based research and promotes capacity building to navigate change within the context and complexity of India. He chairs its flagship annual forum since its inception in 2014.

Ajay is a Professor of Practice & Advisor- Careers with Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP). Founded on the commitment to world-class faculty, extensive industry linkages and innovative approach towards design and management of policy, ISPP aims to transform the art of policymaking. He is also an Adjunct Professor at The Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.

He has been member of several high-level Government delegations, committees and task forces. Ajay has been associated with the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship for over three decades. He was the Vice Chair of Regional Strategy Group (RSG) of World Economic Forum and is a regular participant at WEF annual meeting in Davos for over 35 years. He leads the social entrepreneur of the year award initiative of the Schwab foundation & jubilant Bhartia foundation in India over the last 14 years.

Ajay was founding Chief Executive Officer (2002-2006) of India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a joint initiative of Ministry of Commerce and CII, a unique public private Partnership initiative to Promote, Project & Position India’s growth story globally. IBEF, under his leadership led “India Everywhere” campaign at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2006, amongst several other high profile global initiatives.

Ajay was Partner with Accenture India (2008-2009) responsible for managing relationships with the Government & Corporates. Before that, Ajay spent 27 years with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as deputy director general & held several national & global positions from 1981 to 2008.

Ajay has a Degree in Law from University of Delhi and is an alumni of the Shriram College of Commerce. He lives in Delhi NCR, India. Ajay is married to Renu, a lawyer and a social worker. Their children Dr Surbhi and Dr Ankur are both medical practitioners in USA.