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

. In January 2018, Jain was named

'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.

Education

Career

Philanthropy

See also

References

Further reading