Ashok Khosla chairs the Boards of the thirty five-year-old Development Alternatives Group. Headquartered in New Delhi and set up in 1983, the DA Group was among the first civil society organizations to address the issues of sustainable development as a whole.
It also pioneered the concept of social enterprise, creating business-like approaches for eradicating poverty and conserving the natural resource base. Concurrently, he was Co-Chair of the UN’s International Resource Panel, from 2008 to 2016; and a member of the China Council for International Environment and Development from 2011 to 2016. He was President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2008-12; and President of the Club of Rome, 2005-12.
Before his present position, Ashok served as Director, Infoterra, the first global environmental information system, in UNEP, Nairobi (1976-82) and as the founding Director of the Office of Environmental Planning and Coordination in the Government of India, New Delhi (1971-76).
In India, he has served on the National Security Advisory Board, the National Environment Board and the Science Advisory Council to the Cabinet and on the boards of many official, NGO and academic bodies and currently chairs the Board of the Centre for Environmental Education.
At the international level, Ashok Khosla has held senior positions, such as Special Advisor to the Brundtland Commission (WCED), Chair of the ‘92 NGO Forum at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the Rio+20 Conference. He has served on the Boards of several environment and conservation organizations, including Chair of the Centre for Our Common Future, and Energy Globe, and member of IISD, Stockholm Environment Institute, ZERI, EXPO 2000, Toyota Environmental Awards. Globally, he has pioneered several initiatives, including helping to design and teach the first university course on the environment (as a Teaching Fellow with Professor Roger Revelle at Harvard University, 1965); to set up and head the first governmental agency for the Environment in a developing country (under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 1972); to set up the original international information system on environment (Infoterra, with Maurice Strong at UNEP, 1976); and to establish the first social enterprise for sustainable development (Development Alternatives, 1983).
He is an Officer of The Order of the British Empire (OBE), an Honorary Member of IUCN, Senior Ashoka Fellow, Patron of LEAD-India and has received the United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize, the Zayed International Environment Prize, the WWF Duke of Edinburgh Medal, Honorary Member of IUCN, the Schwab Foundation Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and the Stockholm Challenge Award. He has a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University (1962) and a PhD in Experimental Physics from Harvard University (1970).
