Ajit Jain (born 1951) is an
Indian-American
Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...
executive who is the Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations for
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
as of January 10, 2018. Ajit Jain is an older cousin of
Anshu Jain, who was the former Co-CEO of
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
.
Education
He did his schooling at
Stewart School,
Cuttack
Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literally ...
. In 1972, Jain graduated from the
IIT Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a Public university, public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the Indi ...
in India with a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Career
From 1973 to 1976, Jain worked for
IBM as a salesman for their data-processing operations in India. He was named "Rookie of the Year" in his region in 1973.
He lost his job in 1976 when IBM discontinued their operation in India because they declined to allow any Indian ownership of the company, as was then required by law.
[
In 1978, Jain moved to the United States, where he earned an ]MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and joined McKinsey & Co
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
. He returned to India in the early 1980s and married. The Jains then moved back to the United States, as Jain's wife preferred to live there.
In 1986, he left McKinsey to work on insurance operations for Warren Buffett. Jain was invited by his former boss, Michael Goldberg, who had left McKinsey & Co. to join Berkshire Hathaway in 1982. At the time, he said he knew little about the insurance business.
In the annual letter to shareholders on 2014, it was suggested that both Jain and Greg Abel
Gregory Edward Abel (born June 1, 1962) is a Canadian businessman, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and vice-chairman of non-insurance operations of Berkshire Hathaway since January 2018.
Early life and education
Gregory Edward Abel ...
could be appropriate successors for Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
. In January 2018, Jain was named Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
's vice chair of insurance operations and appointed to Hathaway's board of directors.
Jain lives in the New York City area.
Philanthropy
In 2005, Jain established the Jain Foundation, a non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
located in Seattle, Washington, the mission of which is to cure limb-girdle muscular dystrophies caused by dysferlin
Dysferlin also known as dystrophy-associated fer-1-like protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''DYSF'' gene.
Dysferlin is linked with skeletal muscle repair. A defect in the DYSF gene, located on chromosome 2p12-14, results in sev ...
protein deficiency, a condition that Jain's son has. Jain's son Akshay is the chairman and CEO of the Jain Foundation. Douglas Albrecht and Laura Rufibach are co-presidents of the Jain Foundation.
See also
* List of Jains
* Indians in the New York City metropolitan region
Indians in the New York City metropolitan area constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing ethnicities in the New York City metropolitan area of the United States. The New York City region is home to the largest and most prominent Indian ...
References
Further reading
* Matthews, Jeff, "Secrets in Plain Sight: Business and Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett," eBooks On Investing, 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Ajit
American Jains
Indian emigrants to the United States
Harvard Business School alumni
Living people
1951 births
IIT Kharagpur alumni
American people of Indian descent
American businesspeople