Ajayya Kumar

Mr. Ajayya Kumar is COO of Emircom. a management thinker, art enthusiast, mentor, business advisor, author and strategist. Born in Thrissur, Kerala, Ajayya pursued his education from the prestigious Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) and completed his Advanced System Management from N.I.I.T, Mumbai. He is a qualified CMA from ICMA, USA and Master Financial Professional from American Academy of financial management along with having a doctorate degree in Organisational Behavior. Ajayya started his professional journey in 1994 as a Management Accountant with ABB, one of the largest technology companies. He lent his expertise to various entities like ABB, IPCA Laboratory and Federal Foods that helped him build an expansive portfolio. In the year 2004, he joined Emircom as a CFO (Chief financial officer) for which he played a very crucial role, focusing on the growth and contributing towards making the company a market leader in ICT in the Middle East from the past two decades. He is currently the COO (Chief Operation Officer) of Emircom. Besides this, he has been involved in mentoring two prominent and quickly growing start-ups in education and energy conservation and is associated with 12 start-ups and mentoring its founders. Ajayya is highly passionate about reading and draws his inspiration from books like Built to Last, Good to Great and Great by Choice, all written by Jim Collins’, Leader without Title by Robin Sharma’ and concepts like Grid Theory. His book choices range from the likes of Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru to Shantaram by Gregory David Robert’. His favorite legendary writer from whom he takes inspiration and, in his words, “worships without batting an eye” is ‘Gabriel Marquez’. Drawing inspiration from such legends, Ajayya himself has co-authored four books; out of which one is a work of fiction, one is about parenting aspects in which he is writing about parenting tools, techniques and methods of mentoring the child and the other two are management books. They are expected to be released in 2021. He is a travel buff and has visited most of the countries. Exploring a diversity of cultures and nations, he has gathered numerous experiences. Despite shifting base to the middle-east, Abu Dhabi, Ajayya is not swayed to foreign values as much as he is connected with his traditional roots. He grew up surrounded by artists, watching performances and spending his time backstage with Kathakali artists and that has kept him close to the country ever since. A person imbibing with all the family values, he is raised in a culturally affluent place like Peruvanam. Apart from his corporate life, Ajayya has been associated with various cultural organizations, which promote Indian Arts and Culture. He has an affinity for the Indian culture and art and thus, also serves as the founder and Chief Curator of Sarvamangala Arts Initiatives. He has curated 6 editions of classical concerts as well. Furthermore, he is encouraging his artisanal streak by making his venture, SARVAMANGALA PRODUCTIONS, a media production company making conscious interventions in the field of films and OTT content. His company has produced more than 10 short films, out of which Burning and Dammy have been featured & recognized in many international film festivals like Indian Panorama, Madrid International film festival 2019, South Asian Film Festival of America 2019, San Diego International Festival 2019 and many more. Ajayaa’s dream project is to mentor 1000 startups in the art domain in the next 5 years which will include dance, plays and many more.