| Ajit Jain | |
| Birth Place: | Sundargarh, Odisha, India |
| Citizenship: | United States |
| Education: | IIT Kharagpur (B.Tech) Harvard University (MBA) |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations, Berkshire Hathaway | |
| Boards: | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Spouse: | Tinku Jain (m. 1981) |
Ajit Jain (born 23 July 1951) is an Indian-American executive who is the Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations for Berkshire Hathaway as of January 10, 2018.[1] [2] Ajit Jain is an older cousin of Anshu Jain, who was the former Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank.[3]
Jain attended Stewart School in Cuttack. In 1972, he graduated from the IIT Kharagpur in India with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering.[4] [5]
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.[6] 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.[6]
In 1978, Jain moved to the United States, where he earned an MBA from Harvard University and joined McKinsey & Co. 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.[7]
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.[8]
In the annual letter to shareholders on 2014, it was suggested that both Jain and Greg Abel could be appropriate successors for Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.[9] [10] In January 2018, Jain was named Berkshire Hathaway's vice chair of insurance operations and appointed to Hathaway's board of directors.
Jain lives in the New York City area.[11]
In 2005, Jain established the Jain Foundation, a non-profit organization located in Seattle, Washington, the mission of which is to cure limb-girdle muscular dystrophies caused by dysferlin protein deficiency, a condition that Jain's son has.[12] [13]