Shri Ashank Desai is the founder and Chairman of Mastek. 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.

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

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 Mastek Foundation and has established the Avanshali Foundation which has, over the last 12 years, trained more than 30,000 schoolgirls from low-income groups to become leaders. He is a founder member and Co-Chairman of PAN–IIT Alumni Reach for India
(PARFI), a 12-year-old not-for-profit organisation providing vocational training for enhancing the income levels of poor high-school dropouts. He is also a founder member and Vice-Chairman of the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), an umbrella organisation at IIT Bombay that fosters entrepreneurship and nurtures tech start-ups.

Shri Desai has been conferred the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” by IIT Bombay and the “Fellow of the Society” honour by the Computer Society of India (CSI). He has also been presented with the “Honourable Contributors Award” by ASOCIO–the only Indian to receive this recognition twice. He has received the much-coveted “Outstanding Entrepreneur Award” at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) 2010 India, and has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Merchant’s Chamber. He is also the recipient of the Dataquest Lifetime Achievement
Award 2021.