Strategic conversation with Ashish Kumar Gupta on the evolving digital ecosystem

Under Ashish Kumar Gupta’s leadership, HCL has grown to become one of the more recognised IT service providers in Europe. His work for the company has focused on building business and ensuring the success of these proposals across India, the United States and – since 2004 – in Europe and Africa. This includes the conceptualization and execution of Remote Infrastructure Management Services that eventually led to the formation of a large Indian infrastructure outsourcing industry. Gupta has been instrumental in creating key alliances and partnerships, including the Cambridge Service Alliance and HCL’s digital transformation partnership with Manchester United. In 2019, Ashish was nominated to the board of TechUK and the World Economic Forum – Europe Regional Business Council, focused on collaboration between corporates and start-ups and boosting digital education and upskilling.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.