Ashok is an Agribusiness Professional, retired as the Chief General Manager of National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) Head Office, Mumbai in 2017. He also holds the position of Senior Adviser BAIF Research and Development Foundation, he has been Adjunct Professor for School of Agribusiness Management, MIT World Peace University, Pune. He is the author of a book on ‘Emerging Trends in Agricultural Marketing in India. A Post Graduate in Agriculture, Mr. Ashok is from the 1980 batch of Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi after a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore (1978 batch) with additional qualifications in Agri-Business Management from Cornell University, USA as well as on Financing Micro Enterprises from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Reading, UK and in General Management, Human Resources Development & Training & Development. Mr. Ashok has had exposure of rural finance and agribusiness sector in several countries including Thailand, Kenya, China, Germany USA, Finland, and England.

He is senior Development Professional with more than 27 years of experience in Development Sector. He was a core Team Member of NRLM, when it was headed by Mr T. Vijay Kumar, Joint Secretary Ministry to Rural Development Government of India. He was the part of the foundation team of the World Bank-funded JEEViKA program, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) and played critical role in taking up JEEViKA's operation on scale and building an effective human resource system. Currently, he is working with the Buddha Institute, New Delhi, and looking after two flagship programmes namely “the Buddha Fellowship” and "Investing in Future Leaders" in the eastern region of India.