A global citizen

Text: Derek Rodriguez

Earlier this year, Ajit Mohan returned to Singapore, where he last lived 20 years ago, to lead the Asia Pacific region for Snap Inc as its President. Most recently, he spent more than a decade in India between his roles as Vice President and Managing Director of Meta and the founding CEO of Hotstar.

“After a series of career relocations that have taken me from Singapore to North America, Europe, Latin America and India, I am excited to be back at the heart of Asia at a time when there is yet another big and exciting transformation underway in the region,” says Ajit.

Graduating with a degree in computer engineering from NTU, he spent the first 10 years of his career in management consulting, where his work put him in a different environment every few months.

“The locations and companies changed, and so did the market. I would move from working for a family-owned media company in Brazil one month to the public school system in Cincinnati in the US the next month. The only way I could keep up and make an impact was to develop the ability to switch gears quickly,” says the 2023 Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award winner.

NTU and Singapore provided the springboard for Ajit to pursue a diverse and global life and career.

His international experience, he adds, has enabled him to seek and appreciate diversity, and be open to new ideas, people and opportunities. However, he didn’t always have such an expansive perspective on life.

Taking the first flight of his life at 18 and relocating from a small company township in a corner of Kerala in South India to Singapore was a huge culture shock and left him feeling homesick.

“This feeling prevented me from embracing the exciting things that came with my new life in Singapore,” he says. “The shift in mindset I made was to recognise that with every new place comes the opportunity to colour in a fresh canvas. That is true when it comes to making new friends and finding new avenues of learning and professional growth.”

Soon, Ajit’s leadership would shine through when he was elected to the NTU Students’ Union in 1994 and was appointed its Vice President. He was also part of the debating team representing NTU at multiple World, Australasian and Asian Debating Championships between 1994 and 1997.

Ajit (back row, middle) with the School's debating team and coaches during the 1993/94 season.

“NTU was my window to a new country, a new world and an entirely new life, and it set me up for the very diverse and global life and career that I ended up having,” says Ajit.

 

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This article first appeared in issue 4 of U, the NTU alumni magazine.