Ashwini Kakkar

Ashwini Kakkar

Chairperson, Action Against Hunger International Network

Ashwini Kakkar is widely regarded as a business and thought leader, entrepreneur, and
philanthropist. He is a mechanical engineer with Masters degrees in finance and international business.

He has been actively involved with philanthropy for over a decade, as the Founder-Chairman
of Fight Hunger Foundation India, which is now part of Action Against Hunger. After serving on its Global Board for many years, he was elected Global Chairman of Action Against Hunger in October 2021.

He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Directors and has served as President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the World Travel & Tourism Council, India. In 2006, President Jacques Chirac of France decorated Ashwini Kakkar with the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre de Merite’.

He has been on the boards of various global organizations including Recipharm, Thomas Cook, The Travel Partnership Corporation, Atout France, Europassistance, INSEAD Alumni Association, and Indian organizations: International General Electric, Prudential Capital, Fanuc, Alliance Capital, Nitin Lifesciences, Jai Medica, Via.com, Mercury Travels, Indiva Marketing, Infiiloom, Ambit Pvt. Ltd. and Ambit Capital. And he served as a director for a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (DICGC).

He continues to sit on the board of various international and Indian companies and as an Angel Investor and mentor to start-ups, with multiple exits to his credit.

He is married to a francophile, German businesswoman Beate Mauder and has a daughter, Kritika, a British national working in London. Ashwini is a keen sports person and a collector of modern and contemporary Indian art.

View More Speakers

Mariam Akiror

Imelda Awino

Shawn K. Baker

Dr. Heber M. Brown, III

Sean Callahan

Sarah Charles

Mwandwe Chileshe

Rev. Eugene Cho

Isobel Coleman

Oscar Cordon

Cathryn L. Dhanatya

Bill Drayton

Juan Echanove

Jan Sebastian Friedrich-Rust

Jerry Greenfield

Amy Guterman

Lawrence Haddad

Jessica Hood

Ashwini Kakkar

Joe Kawly

Raj Kumar

Asma Lateef

Daniel Maxwell

Sara Menker

Nicolas Metro

Kate Musimwa

Nhlanhla Ndlovu

Yusuf Omar

Charles Owubah

Greg Perlstein

Suzanne Rexing

Terri Sarch

Meera Shekar

Kathy Spahn

Gloria D. Steele

Roy Steiner

Marshall Stowell

Gokul Sundar

Marielle Amani Thete

Blythe Thomas

Noam Unger

Kate Warren

Teresa Welsh

Gobezayehu Getachew Yilma

Stephanie Zeitz

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Covid Protocol

Action Against Hunger understands the power of bringing people together in person and the importance of doing so safely. We encourage you to stay home if you are not feeling well or have symptoms of any kind so we can keep everyone healthy as we convene. While masking is optional at the REACH, we will have a limited supply of K95 masks and COVID tests available onsite.

On each day of the event, we request at check-in:

Proof of a day-of negative Covid self-test (via photo)

Note: Please self-test prior to your arrival at The REACH at the Kennedy Center, not onsite.

Our team is closely monitoring the evolving global health recommendations and will update attendees with the most up-to-date protocols as we near the event. For additional information, The REACH at the Kennedy Center's health and safety protocols can be found here.