Ashok Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Alternative Dalit Media (CADAM), is an Ashoka Fellow and a global civil society leader. He is an authority on tackling socio-economic inequalities and mobilizing socially, economically, and educationally marginalized communities for their effective participation in civil society.

Shri Kumar currently serves as Chair of the Board of National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR), the largest citizen platform of the marginalized communities in the country. He has also served on the Board of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Global Call to Action against Poverty, and the board of many other important organizations. On behalf of the Asian Civil Society, he addressed the UN High-Level Meeting on Hunger and Poverty in 2008. He was awarded with the Care Millennium Award by Care Deutschland and Luxemburg for his exemplary works on Millennium Development Goals.

Prior to CADAM, Shri Kumar served in Indian Engineering Service for 17 years, Gas Authority of India Limited, and taught briefly in Delhi College of Engineering as a part-time lecturer.

Shri Kumar is an alumnus of Hindu College, Delhi University; Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University), and the University of South Australia.