Mr. Ajay Muttreja
Ajay has 35 years of management experience in India-entry strategy consulting, cross-border public and private sector partnership development, business transformation and complex technology transfers. His strong understanding of global business practices combined with deep knowledge of the Indian regulatory landscape has enabled him to help more than 1,000 multi-national and Indian companies achieve transformational growth and long-term success in India. He has vast experience in every major sector and functional area, with a specialization in technology, healthcare, consumer goods, energy and. manufacturing.
Currently, Ajay works as a strategic advisor and mentor to several Indian startups (Aakar Innovations, Kritikal Solutions, Accuster Technologies and Swasti Agro Products), helping them to scale their businesses and develop global partnerships.
He serves as a jury member of and an advisor to prestigious forums, incubation programs and startup organizations, including Startup India, Millennium Alliance Social Innovation Awards, Plugin (IIT Mumbai + Intel), IC2 (University of Texas, Austin), FICCI and iHub. He was recently invited to speak at global conferences organized by the Government of India, such as the India International Science Forum and Asia Science Park Conference. He also sits on the advisory and board of Indian operations of several global companies.
In 29 years at Tecnova India, Ajay transformed the company from one that sold French technologies in India to one of the leading India-entry strategy consulting companies. He was part of 2,500+ global client engagements, providing end-to-end solutions, spanning consulting, advisory, incubation, partnership and implementation. He managed relationships with over 1,000 global companies and 2,000+ CXOs from US, Europe and Japan. Ajay also established and led the executive search firm Boyden’s franchise operations in Delhi, launched a startup incubator in association with Wharton Business School and State of Pennsylvania, and pioneered Tecnova’s expansion into the North America and Europe. In the span of one year as CEO, Ajay turned the company around, brought it back to profitability and established a culture of talent excellence and leadership development.
Prior to Tecnova, Ajay was the Industrial Advisor to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan for over 2 years. During that time, he worked closely with the Minster of Trade, Industry and Mines to draft Bhutan’s first Industrial Policy. He also led negotiations to secure more than US$ 250 Million funds from UNIDO, World Bank and CDC for new Industrial & Mining projects in addition to serving as the Alternate Director to the Chairman on 17 joint-sector projects. Ajay also spent over 4 years as the Executive of Packaging Machinery at Metal Box, where he was responsible for launching high-value global turnkey contracts in India and USSR.
Ajay holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.