Mr Ashish Khanna has over twenty-six years of experience leading energy sector development in the private and public sectors in more than fifteen developing countries in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has unique experience working in the solar sector across the entire value chain, ranging from project conceptualisation to resource mobilisation, financing, bid process management, and project implementation.

As the former Head of the World Bank’s West and Central Africa Program, he led the 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 has 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 the International Solar Alliance requires a strengthened organisation with the right skills and accountability framework to earn the respect and trust of countries and their agencies in designing and implementing solar pathways for energy access and transition.

Mr Khanna has dual post-graduate degrees in Management and Public Administration. While pursuing his master's in public administration, he was recognised as a Littauer Fellow for Global Leadership Potential at Harvard Kennedy School.