Ashok Panikkar, is Meta-Culture's principle consultant and a passionate conflict resolution professional. He has worked as a Conflict Management Consultant, Mediator, Facilitator and Trainer all over the United States, India and in Europe.
Prior to starting Meta-Culture, now India's first full service conflict and dialogue facilitation center, he directed a successful organizational conflict resolution program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, successfully mediating hundreds of disputes.
As a professional facilitator, his experience ranges from working with Fortune 500 companies, to mid-sized organizations, governmental and non-governmental groups and educational institutions.
Ashok has a Master's degree in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and advanced training in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from leading institutes in the US, such as Harvard Law School and Center for Dispute Resolution, Boulder, Colorado. He has presented well-received papers at professional conferences in India and the US, written for professional journals and was elected to the board of the New England-Association of Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR) for the year 2004-2005. He was also on the Board of Mediators Beyond Borders from January 2010-December 2012.
Ashok was the Keynote speaker at the Mediators Beyond Borders Congress, a prestigious professional conference held in Los Angeles in March 2011. He has also been an invited speaker and presenter at the United Nations, Cardozo Law School, NYU, Regis University, Denver, CO, UMass, Boston and the ABA.
Meta-Culture is the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding International Leadership Award presented by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), USA.
Meta-Culture has been approached by various government agencies and national level industrial bodies to intervene with dispute resolution and/or capacity building processes.
Ashok Panikkar is also the founder of The Public Intelligence Project, a first of its kind independent think tank conducting research and advocacy on democracy, critical thinking, dialogue, and freedom of expression. With this, the project aims to foster a more conducive environment for conflict prevention, participatory democracy and civic engagement.