Shri Ashank Desai is the founder and Chairman of Mastek and Co-founder of Majesco Ltd. He is widely recognised as an IT industry veteran and is a founder member and former Chairman of NASSCOM. He has also been the President of Asian-Oceanic Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO), a federation organised by ICT associations representing 24 economies of the Asia-Pacific region. Notably, he is the second Indian to hold this position in ASOCIO’s 40-year history.

He has been felicitated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his contribution to NASSCOM and the IT Industry.

Shri Desai has been associated with premier academic institutions for several decades. He served as a member of the Governing Board of IIM Ahmedabad and chaired its Finance Committee for over 15 years. He has been on the Governing Board of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) for the past 13 years and currently holds the position of Chairman of the Governing Board. In addition, he is a member of the Governing Council of SAI University.

Shri Desai has created a corpus to support the Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay and the Ashank Desai Centre for Leadership and Organisational Development at IIM Ahmedabad. He guides the Mastek Foundation and has established the Avanshali Foundation, which has trained more than 30,000 schoolgirls from low-income groups as leaders over the last 12 years. He is a founder member and Co-Chairman of PAN–IIT Alumni Reach for India (PARFI), a 12-year-old not-for-profit organisation that provides vocational training to enhance the incomes of high-school dropouts. He is also a founder member and past Vice-Chairman of the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), an umbrella organisation at IIT Bombay that fosters entrepreneurship and nurtures tech start-ups. His Founding efforts, Donation & Board presence 7/8 NGOs have impacted around 12 lakh teenagers & adults in the low-income group by providing Leadership, Vocational & Entrepreneurial training & Healthcare. He has thus demonstrated lifelong commitment to nation-building through education, innovation, and inclusive development.

Shri Desai has been honoured with several prestigious accolades, including the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ by IIT Bombay and the ‘Fellow of the Society’ title by the Computer Society of India (CSI). He is the only Indian to have received the ‘Honourable Contributors Award’ twice from ASOCIO. Additionally, he was conferred an ‘Honorary Doctorate’ by two Indian universities—SAI and RK University. His achievements include the coveted ‘Outstanding Entrepreneur Award’ at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) 2010 India and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Merchants’ Chamber. He is also the recipient of the Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2021. Recently, Shri Desai was honoured with the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Gold Stevie Award at the 21st Annual International Business Awards in Istanbul, Türkiye, and the ASOCIO DX Award during the ASOCIO Digital Summit 2024 in Tokyo.