Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds, is widely recognized as one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry. As a serial entrepreneur, he has led both companies where he was founding Chairman to very successful IPOs: Happiest Minds (2020) and MindTree (2007).

Happiest Minds Technologies Limited is a ‘Born Digital . Born Agile’ Mindful IT Company that uses leading-edge technologies to deliver solutions. A Great Place to Work-Certified™ company, Happiest Minds is in GPTW’s Top 15 Best Workplaces in Health and Wellness, Top 25 Best Workplaces in India, Top 100 in Asia, Top 50 for Women and Top 25 in IT and IT/BPM.

Ashok has been the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force for IT and was on the Advisory Council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva.  He is a Fellow of INAE and CSI and on the Board of Governors of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Philippines. He is a recipient of multiple awards for IT Person of the Year (Dataquest and Elcina) and Lifetime Achievement (Financial Express, Dataquest and Chiratae Ventures, earlier IDG) and ICSI Lifetime Achievement Award for Translating Excellence in Corporate Governance into Reality for the year 2022.

In April 2022, Ashok announced the creation of Happiest Health, a knowledge, health & wellness enterprise.  In April 2021, he launched SKAN, India’s first private sector, a non-profit organization exclusively dedicated to carrying out medical research on aging and neurological disorders. SKAN’s areas of expertise include stem cells, gut microbiome, molecular biology and bioinformatics.  SKAN has recently signed collaboration agreements with Cambridge University for stem cell research and Quadram Institute of Biosciences in the UK for gut microbiome.  He also established in 2011, Ashirvadam, a Trust for environmental projects and assistance to the needy.  Ashok has been included in Forbes’ Asia Top 15 List of Philanthropists in 2022.

Ashok holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Roorkee (now IIT, Roorkee) and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines.

Ashok is a co-author of the national bestseller – “Entrepreneurship Simplified: From Idea to IPO”. He has recently co-authored another book, ‘Busted’ which seeks to challenge many management myths and commonly accepted wisdom. 

 His hobbies include trekking, yoga, taichi, meditation and swimming.