Ajay Suman Shukla

11+ years of tremendous working experience makes him a dynamic personality. He has played a pivotal role in the inception of Ek Soch Sandbox, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh and has been a Co-Founder and Director of the initiative. As he has always been fascinated working with youth, previously he has tasked as a Team Leader and Director of LEAD, a Deshpande Foundation initiative, for about ten years and also held different roles in the same organization. He has been one of the leading persons to kick off LEAD Prayana that comprises an Entrepreneurial leadership journey and aims at transforming Youth wherein young minds had a unique lifetime experience. He has engaged with 45000+ College-going Students through the initiatives.

He is passionate about public speaking and mentoring Youth on motivation, leadership, and Entrepreneurship and always strives to inculcate in young minds to bring positive change in Society. In whichever Organization he is placed, he mainly strives to nurture and build the Organization, team leaders and pushes for an Entrepreneurial eco-system. Born and brought up in a rural background of Hardoi and Auraiya districts of Uttar Pradesh, he has exposure to the ground situation in rural areas. Organic farming and Agri-business are other arenas in which he works on ground level.

Ajay served as the Course Coordinator for Entrepreneurship Development, Advocacy and Networking courses in the Masters of Social Entrepreneurship and also served as the Module Instructor and Resource Person for subjects such as Self and Leadership Development, Entrepreneurial, Motivational, Gender parity and much more for Youth, working Professionals and NGO representatives. Under his leadership, he has helped the Programme and the Organization by collaborating with the premier academic institutions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab and also, collaborating with leading Corporates across the country.

He has co-chaired and moderated panels with Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Narayana Murthy (Infosys), Kailash Satyarthi and Mohammed Yunus (Noble Laureates), Raghunath Mashelkar (Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri), Veerendra Heggade (Padma Vibhushan & Padma Bhushan), Ramdas Pai (Padma Bhushan), Gururaj Deshpande (Innovation Guru, Deshpande Foundation), Manish Sisodia (Deputy CM – Delhi), Nandan Nilekani (Infosys, UIDAI) and other dynamic personalities.

He has been working ruthlessly to achieve our vital motto of serving the rural population through setting up a vibrant Social innovation and Entrepreneurship ecosystem to strengthen their livelihoods and thus improve Socio-Economic conditions. Currently, his motto includes ecological restoration by engaging Women and young Farmers of Mathura.