Ashok is a conflict resolution professional, educator, mediator, researcher, trainer, and speaker with over 25 years of experience in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He is also an experienced teacher in critical & creative thinking. One of his most significant professional accomplishments is founding Meta–Culture in 2005—a human engagement studio, and South Asia’s first specialized organization for conflict resolution, consensus building, relationship management, and Dialogue in Bangalore, and leading it through over nine years of success as its executive director and principal consultant. Ashok has led many pioneering projects undertaken at Meta–Culture including the first–of–its–kind, multi–year, multi–stakeholder engagement in the garment and apparel sector in India called the Garment Sector Roundtable (GSR), and two ongoing sub–projects, the Joint Fact–Finding Commission, and the Women’s Supervisory Training Program, as well as the Hindu–Christian and Hindu–Muslim Inter–faith Dialogues—an ongoing initiative to bring together leaders of religious communities in Karnataka for Dialogue and consensus building. He also established the Public Intelligence Project—an initiative to better manage diversity by promoting participatory democracy, Dialogue, critical thinking, and freedom of expression. In recognition of Meta–Culture’s work, it was the 2010 recipient of the Outstanding Leadership Award of the International Committee of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). Ashok is also actively involved in the peacebuilding community. He is currently a CBI Global Network Member, and has been a member of the board of the New England Association of Conflict Resolution (NE–ACR) from 2004–2005, a member of the Board of Directors, Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) from 2010–2012, and a founding member of the Community Company Dialogue Facilitators Forum of ACCESS, World Legal Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands.