Jay P. Desai is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Consulting India Pvt Ltd, which has a strategic equity alliance with L.E.K. Consulting, and is responsible for the South Asia and the Middle East region. Jay has more than 22 years of consulting experience and, since 1994, has built Universal Consulting from the ground up with an initial investment of US$ 1,000, into one of the largest strategy consulting firms in India, with 55 people across the Mumbai and New Delhi offices. He has overseen more than 600 cases across more than 250 clients, in the areas of strategy, transaction services, performance improvement and organization design consulting, and across industry verticals as diverse as life sciences, industrial products, financial services, retail, consumer products and rural markets & agribusiness. Jay also leads Universal Consulting’s Biopharmaceuticals & Life Sciences and Healthcare Services practices.

Prior to founding Universal Consulting, Jay worked with Accenture in Mumbai. He received a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from the University of Bombay, a Master of Science in Biology from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University. He is also a graduate of several executive education programs at The Wharton School, INSEAD and the Harvard Business School.

Jay also conducts an annual lecture at The Wharton School on the 'Indian Healthcare System' and has spoken at the University of Cambridge, on 'Accountability in India's Public Administration'.