ISUW 2025 Speaker

Mr Ashish Khanna has over twenty-six years of experience leading energy sector development across private and public sectors in more than fifteen developing countries across South Asia, Middle East & North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. He possesses unique experience of working in the solar sector across the entire value chain ranging from project conceptualisation, resource mobilisation, financing, bid process management to project implementation. In his current role as the Head of the World Bank’s West and Central Africa Program, he is leading Mission 300 for energy access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. He has also worked as the Program Leader in the Middle East and North Africa, leading the program that enabled private sector investment of USD 20 billion in the energy sector for the first time in Egypt. In India, as the Lead Energy Specialist at the World Bank, he worked with the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy on policy and regulatory reforms to enable private sector engagement in solar. Born and raised in India, he experienced first-hand the basic human need for energy access and the constraints of developing countries in achieving the same. He believes that the success of International Solar Alliance, in future, would require a strengthened organisation that has the right skills and accountability framework to earn respect and trust of countries and their agencies in designing and implementing solar pathways for energy access and energy transition. Ashish has dual Master’s degrees in Management and Public Administration. He was recognized as Littauer Fellow for Global Leadership Potential at Harvard Kennedy School while undertaking Master’s in Public Administration.