Ashutosh Khanna

Ashutosh (Ash) Khanna is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ New Delhi office and leads the Consumer Markets Practice in South Asia. With more than 15 years of executive search experience, Ash works closely with C-suite clients to find talent solutions that address increasingly complex business challenges.

Starting with FMCG and then marketing services, Ash’s involvement has largely been within the consumer sector. His body of work includes board advisory and executive search for CEO and functional leaders. He leverages the deep relationships he formed within the marketing and advertising sectors to work with clients on senior-level searches in the consumer goods, retail, marketing services, and travel/hospitality sectors as well as digital native companies. In addition to executive search and advisory work, Ash finds satisfaction in building employer branding for start-ups with local and regional business locations.

Prior to Heidrick & Struggles, Ash worked with another global executive search firm for 15 years. Before that, he was COO, India at Grey Worldwide, and with Bayer, Lowe Lintas, and WPP in several P&L roles.

Ash was an independent director on the board of Balaji Telefilms from 2010 through 2020 and a member of the advisory board of Atria Power, a renewable energy company, since 2015.

Bombay University, Master’s Degree in Management Studies

Delhi University, Bachelor of Science Degree

Ash was ranked as one of the Top 20 Most Influential Professionals by Economic Times in 2006.

Ash is an enthusiastic advocate for the campaign against climate change. He and his family were early advocates for saving the Aravalli Forest Range in North India, and he has been lending support to the cause for the last decade. He is also a volunteer at the local Missionaries of Charity Orphanage. During the pandemic, Ash helped in migrant relief work as well as an initiative to help supply under-equipped municipal hospitals and doctors with medical equipment.