The Savor Craft dinner series is back to celebrate masters in their craft. 

This month, meet the man who is the SVP, Essar Group, CEO of Avid Learning, and the

curator of the Royal Opera House and has an unusual penchant for cufflinks, Mr Asad

Lalljee for dinner, drinks and candid conversations.

Asad brings several years of advertising, publishing, marketing and business development experience, both in international and domestic markets. Prior to relocating to India, Asad worked for 14 years as one of the ‘Mad Men’ advertising executives on New York's Madison Avenue. He was with McCann-Erickson, and earlier with Hill Holiday, a subsidiary of advertising giant IPG. Under Asad’s leadership AVID has distinguished itself with a wide variety of arts and cultural programming and is currently at the forefront of India’s cultural hub. AVID has grown its curatorial practice by leveraging international cultural collaborations through the diplomatic core and partnering with the existing ecosystem by creating opportunities at some of the country’s and region’s largest cultural platforms including

JLF, The Serendipity Arts Festival and The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Asad co-curated the Literature Section at Kala Ghoda for two years. Asad’s career also demonstrates his passion for technology and new media. Under his leadership AVID has a robust social media presence and uses social media as an integral channel for learning. In 2016, Asad was appointed curator of the newly restored Royal Opera House, Mumbai for which he has successfully designed a robust program. Under Asad’s guidance the Royal Opera House, Mumbai has re-established itself as a performance space of international quality, a cultural venue par excellence and a prime example

of restored and renewed city heritage. In 2018 Asad was inducted into the prestigious FICCI Art and Culture Committee as a distinguished member. FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organization of Indian business with a glorious history of nine decades. FICCI cuts across 72 different sectors and has started working for the cause of the Indian Art and Culture Industry since 2015. Asad has co-convened foray conferences for FICCI’s Smart Cities, Art Cities IP in Mumbai and Bangalore. Asad holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Xavier's College (Mumbai) and an M.A. in Global Marketing Communications from Emerson College (Boston).