Mr. Ardeshir Contractor is the Founder & CEO of Kiran Energy. Founded in 2010, Kiran Energy is a solar energy utility at the forefront of India’s renewable energy market. Kiran Energy’s fleet of solar power plants are located in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. By 2013, it became India’s largest solar utility. Kiran Energy has operational joint-ventures with Mahindra & Mahindra and First Solar, USA. In its journey, the company examined and deployed multiple innovative products and also set early benchmarks in non-recourse project financing.
Mr. Contractor graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1984 and a Masters in Science from Ohio State University in 1986, where he led a graduate team on development of absorption heat pump systems, a project co-funded by Battelle and Gas Research Institute.
After completing his Master in Science in 1986, Mr. Contractor worked with the Tata Group in corporate venturing for new Engineering business lines till 1990 and then, till 1996, with Lazard as Vice President M&A in Mumbai, New Delhi and London. In 1996 he joined as Managing Director of KPMG India till 2004 and also held international leadership positions of KPMG in the Asian and EMEA regions. During his tenure, KPMG saw a rapid growth and built a leadership position in the Indian market with key projects including the privatization of Mumbai and New Delhi airports.
Prior to founding Kiran Energy, Ardeshir Contractor has been a serial entrepreneur with successful ventures co-founded in the areas of Funds management for real estate and Legal process outsourcing. Mr. Contractor chairs India’s Solar Energy Task Force at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, partnering with the Government in developing policy, standards, sustainable financing and pathways for growth. He has served as independent director on the Boards of Nature India and Zoroastrian Investment Corporation and on the Advisory Committees of several Government Committees, the Clean Energy Ministerial CEM4, the Ohio State Institute of Materials Research, National Centre for Photovoltaic Research & Education, Asia Solar Task Force, Brics Business Council, and the Indian Green Bonds Council. He addressed the United Nations at the Paris COP21 in 2015, was deeply involved during 2015-16 with the UN Environment Programme’s Enquiry on Designing a Global Sustainable Financial System, and has been a mentor to start-ups in the UNIDO Clean Tech Program 2014. He is a Research Associate with Edhec Infrastructure Institute, Singapore, investigating long term asset finance principles.
Mr. Contractor was awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award 2015 by the College of Engineering, Ohio State. Kiran Energy has been awarded by IPPAI the award for the Best Solar Power Developer in 2013. Mr. Contractor has been invited to make plenary presentations at Bloomberg Future of Energy 2013, US Exim Bank Conference 2014 and IEEE PVSC 2015. At KPMG, he was nominated to the KPMG Global Leadership Program at Burgenstock, Switzerland. He published a paper at the ASME Winter Conference 1986 on his research findings at OSU.