Ashwini Kakkar

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.