Ajay Bhojwani

Regional Managing Director at MCI Group

Judge

Ajay is an Indian by origin but has spent over 30+ years living in the Middle East. A graduate from Osmania University in India, he completed his MBA in marketing from the University of Wollongong, Australia.

He started his career working with large market research organisations like AC Nielsen, NFO Merac for looking into various consumer trends and buying behaviour for various FMCG segments. Though for a short span of only 3+ years at Informa, Ajay led teams in developing key strategic Oil & Gas and Energy conferences in the emerging markets, he built a strong profitable business for the sector before moving on to MCI.

From thereon, he has spent 16+ years in the meetings industry working for brands like Informa and MCI Group. In his current capacity as Regional Managing Director – Middle East and Africa for MCI Group, he looks after an operation spanning over 250+ events annually spread across 20+ countries through 5 offices and nearly 100 talents. Over the 16 years at MCI, he has not only opened new markets with physical offices and teams in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia but also led several large association meetings strategy and supporting them with rotation around the world through government partnerships, tourism endorsements as well as strategic sales & marketing efforts to grow the events year on year.

In addition to his full-time role with MCI, he holds several positions, which include being on the board as a council member for International Association of Professional Conference Organisers (IAPCO) as well as ambassador for The Iceberg – an industry communication publication led by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC). And, he is also the current president for the The Events Group (TEG), a not-for-profit registered organisation bringing event professionals from various facets of the industry in UAE together to drive excellence, bring in best class knowledge and professional development leading to the development of future leaders in the industry.

Ajay has been awarded to be amongst “The 100 most influential people in the events industry” as well as “The 100 most influential event professionals” in 2024 followed by which he was awarded as “The 100 most influential people in the events industry”, “The 50 most influential event professionals” and “The 50 most influential people in the events industry for Middel East” by the EVENTEX INDEX.