A 1989 graduate of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India Ashwini is the co-founder of Elephant, India's largest independent integrated design consultancy with offices in India & Singapore. Founded in 1989 when design profession was nascent in India, Elephant was instrumental in establishing the “business of design” with their user-centric approach & systematic problem solving processes. Some of the most leading & innovative companies in FMCG, Entertainment, e-commerce, Pharma, Banking, Automotive & Healthcare partner with Elephant for developing brands, products & experiences. The Economic Times – Brand Equity has ranked Elephant as India’s No 1 Design Agency consistently.  

Ashwini is part of the core group that steers the Design Alliance Asia consortium. She is also an active founding member of the Association of Designers of India.

She has done award-winning work for global brands in automobile, engineering, FMCG, food service, healthcare & personal care segments.

Ashwini was invited by Rockefeller Foundation to participate in a global Social Impact summit. She has lectured at the icograda Design week in Vancouver & Istanbul, Business of Design week in Hong Kong and International Design Congress at Mexico as well as in South Korea more recently. She has been a jury member on Global ReBrand 100 (USA), Spikes Asia (Singapore), Design for Asia (HK), Cannes Lions (France) & Design for Change (India) Awards.

Ashwini is an active founding member of the Association of Designers of India.

As a key member of The Design Alliance Asia consortium, she edited Colours of Asia book that was published in Hong Kong. This project was awarded Design for Asia Special Culture Award by the Hong Kong government.

Most recently, Ashwini was awarded a place among 50 Most Influential Women in Media in India by Impact magazine in 2015.

She mentors start-ups as a member of advisory board of IIMA-CIIE. She is also a metor to Creanara community & Vedica Scholars Programme.