Kevin Parikh

Kevin S. Parikh is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Avasant, a global management and technology consulting firm that advises many of the world's largest companies on sourcing, digital, and business transformation, and reportedly negotiates over $20 billion in technology deals annually. Avasant operates in more than 50 countries across the Americas, the UK, EMEA, and Asia. He also chairs the Avasant Foundation, a philanthropic arm focused on creating digital-economy job opportunities for disadvantaged youth — an effort credited with supporting job creation for tens of thousands of young people.

Before founding Avasant, Parikh led the Global Sourcing practice at Gartner Consulting, where he served as a Vice President and Global Sourcing Leader (roughly 2000–2006). Earlier in his career he held roles that spanned the for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors, including service as a Presidential Appointee and attorney with the U.S. government (associated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and a position at KPMG. He specializes in IT and business-process outsourcing contract and service-level negotiations, strategic management, corporate governance, business-risk evaluation, and software licensing.

Parikh holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Davis, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from American University's Washington College of Law, where he focused on commercial agreements. He also completed a California Senate Fellowship (Energy and Public Utilities Committee). He is a best-selling author and frequent keynote speaker on globalization, digitalization, and innovation, and has been recognized as a thought leader and futurist — including being ranked the #1 CEO in Los Angeles by Owler and inducted into the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) Leadership Hall of Fame in 2024.

Beyond Avasant, Parikh holds a number of civic and advisory roles: he sits on the Board of Trustees of TiE Global, the CEO Board of Advisors of UCLA-Innovate, and the Board of Councilors of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, and is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and Indiaspora. As an individual, he has made angel investments and participated as a limited partner in venture funds.

• Invests personally as an angel/seed investor rather than through an institutional venture fund; his consulting career centers on digital and business transformation, which informs his interest in technology-enabled businesses.
• Disclosed sector focus is Consumer and Gig Economy, per investment databases, plus women-owned / lifestyle brands.
• Has participated as an angel/early-stage backer and, according to profile aggregators, as a limited partner in venture vehicles (e.g., early-stage funds) since the early 2010s.
• Public philanthropy signals a values lean toward youth empowerment, women's empowerment, sustainable development, and expanding access for underrepresented (including Indo-American) founders.
• Note: No formal published investment thesis or target check size has been made public; the above reflects his stated sector interests and disclosed deals.