Ashok founded the Antara Foundation in 2014 to apply his experience in ‘scaled health delivery’ to solve maternal and child health problems, using methods of scaling from business. Prior to this, Ashok led the creation and expansion of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s India office from its inception in 2003 until 2012. There he created Avahan, an initiative to stem the growth of HIV in India. Avahan went on to become the world’s largest private HIV-prevention program credited with averting over 600,000 new infections (Lancet, 2013). Prior to the Gates Foundation, Ashok worked with McKinsey and Company in its Delhi and New York offices for 17 years, and left as senior partner. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and a health columnist with Mint, and Hindustan Times. Ashok is also an author – his first book, “A Stranger Truth” is a chronicle of his adventures with Avahan. Ashok studied in St. Stephen’s College, the Delhi School of Economics, and IIM Ahmedabad.