There are those who wait for the world to change. and then there are those who put their strengths into action to revolutionise their lives and the environment around them. Their dreams become their driving force, as they take the world by storm and revise the way we think.
Meet Ashvinder Kundan Singh, better known as Ash Singh. a man with a vision. A relentless entrepreneur. Singh. has broken into cyberspace and firmly left his mark. At Just 27. he spearheads his own digital media company, Interactive SG, that develops and produces digital concepts for Asia's top brands including ESPN, Nickelodeon, Mattel, 7-11, Fitness First, Skype, McDonald's and TV shows like 'The Contender Asia' and 'Biggest Loser Asia'. Interactive SG’s team of 30 employees is anticipating a turnover of 5-7 million dollars this year – a growth rate of 100% from last year.
He was recently nominated as one of Asia's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2009 by Business Week magazine.
Also a proud Sikh by birth, he has changed the face of Sikhs online by creating award-winning websites for the Sikh community and rest of the world.
Born and raised in Toronto. the striving Sardar studied at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Toronto and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. While still a student there. he conceived and launched Social Network Business Systems. a social and business network development company that was acquired after 10 months of inception. Upon his exit, his next startup was At-Life Pte Ltd. which manages in-store plasma screens, kiosk network and Singapore's largest customer loyalty rewards program with almost 500,000 members, for McDonalds.
Currently based in Singapore. he is also a lecturer for several schools including the INSEAD business school and the Singapore Management University. He is managing director of Kundan Holdings (the holdings company of his businesses): the 2009 valuation of the company is $30 MM USD.
Never too big to be a Nani's boy, he Journeys back to India every year to meet his Nani Ji in GK in south Delhi.
His dad's side hails from Mumbai. A turban fanatic, Singh has a varied collection of over 150 turbans in all colours and designs from all over the world. Also an avid basketball fan, he is the co-owner and interactive director of the Singapore Slingers team
He currently has his hands full pursuing an amalgam of exciting projects including the reality TV show 'Biggest Loser' in Asia, 'Star Commentator,' an online search for the next cricket commentator, and is launching a clothing line.
SikhiWiiki.org which he created for SikhNet in 2004 is his leading online venture for the Sikh community. It is the first online 'living encyclopaedia' aiming to preserve Sikh history, culture and life online by allowing anyone in cyberspace to add to it. It is now the biggest web archive of Sikh related information.
He says, having visited or lived in Canada, Africa, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore: "I noticed most Sikhs living outside India have a pretty boring turban life (they wear one to two colours and usually tie the same style turban as their fathers.) I wanted to create this web site to showcase turbans as an art form and try to revive our majestic roots."
Also perturbed by the way today's Sikhs are commonly confused for Muslims, he set out to creatively showcase Sikhs and their turbans. 'I wanted to depict us in a positive way to the general public and also show Sikh youth that wearing a turban is cool and fashionable.' So his site, RateMyTurban.com was the result in 2005. This site allows people to upload their photos sporting their favourite turban looks and then have them rated by the public.
He also created Turbanizer.com. "I realised I had a lot of friends who aren't normal everyday turban wearers so I created Turbanizer.com in 2008 for anyone that has ever wondered what they look like in a turban." They have turbanized over 250,000 people since.
>> Vote for Asias's Best Young Entrepreneur 2009 Now!