Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints: A billionaire who found his real wealth in Iyengar Yoga
Ashwin Dani, whose father co-founded one of Asia's biggest paint companies, Asian Paints, where Dani was the non-executive chairman, India's industry has lost an innovative entrepreneur and yoga a tireless evangelist. Dani, a steadfast disciple of legendary Yoga guru BKS Iyengar, had set up an Iyengar Yoga studio at his home in Mumbai.
According to Forbes India, Dani's real-time wealth currently stands at $7.7 billion. With Dani's technological expertise and entrepreneurial zeal, Asian Paints lived up to its name and became Asia's second-biggest paint company after decades of leadership in the Indian market.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Venture Capital and Private Equity ProgramVisitUniversity of Western AustraliaUWA Global MBAVisitIIM LucknowIIML Senior Leadership ProgrammeVisitIIM LucknowIIML Advanced Programme in Human Resource ManagementVisitDani got India's most famous cartoonist RK Laxman to paint the company's mascot, Gattu, a boy holding a brush beside a bucket of paint, which made the company a household name.
From a chemist to an entrepreneur While Dani's father and the co-founders were avid businessmen, Dani brought to the company what it needed the most to get ahead at that time, the technology. For that, he chose to study paints and chemicals. He graduated from the University of Bombay with specialisation in the technology of paints, varnishes and pigments. After his graduation, his father sent him to the US for further studies.
Dani joined the University of Akron in Ohio, from where he got a masters in polymer science. After his M.Sc, he attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York from where he secured a Diploma
