Ajai Rana

Ajai Rana is CEO and MD of RiceTec’s business in India (operating under the name of Savannah Seeds). Ajai is a seasoned Agriculture Industry executive with over 31 years of experience in diverse commercial operations, business development, strategy and leadership roles across two continents. Ajai began his career with American Cynamid in 1992 and later joined Monsanto in 1995, where he held diverse sales, marketing, product management, strategy and operational leadership positions, including responsibilities for Director of Sales and Corn business of Monsanto India, Corn Traits Pricing and Pipeline biotech products for US corn market. In 2010, he joined RiceTec as Director of Business Development at Texas headquarters, where he successfully developed the Asia business expansion strategy, and subsequently moved to India and founded Savannah Seeds. By the successful introduction of SmartRice hybrids and acquisition of Ganga Kaveri (GK) rice seed business, within 12 years Savannah became one the leading rice seed companies in the South Asia region.

Ajai holds a master’s degree in Vegetable Breeding from CSK HP Agriculture University, Palampur and an MBA in Marketing from Punjabi University Patiala, India. In his spare time, Ajai enjoys badminton, cricket, farming and traveling with his wife.