Lina Ashar

Lina Ashar is an Indian educationist, entrepreneur, and writer based in Mumbai. She is the chairman of Kangaroo Kids Education Limited (KKEL), an education chain that runs the schools. She is also the founder of Kangaroo Kids International Preschool and Billabong High International School. Lina has received numerous awards for her work. The most notable award she has received is the Lifetime Award for Achievement in Education by Education World in 2014.

Lina is an Australian citizen who grew up in England and presently lives in Mumbai. She finished her primary schooling in England and traveled to Australia to complete her secondary and tertiary schooling in Melbourne. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Education from Melbourne's Victoria College, Melbourne.

Lina began her career as a secondary school teacher in Melbourne, Australia. In 1990, she took a year-long sabbatical and came to India, while being in touch with her roots, she ended up taking up a school job in suburban Mumbai. She was surprised to see the education system is in India, so she started the first Kangaroo Kids Preschool in Bandra in a 650 square feet with a small batch of 25 students and today Kangaroo Kids is a chain of 70 preschools across India as well as in Dubai, Qatar, and the Maldives. Later she also founded Billabong High International School (BHIS) in 2004, which presently has 23 branches at 16 locations across India.

2009:

• Education Excellence by Indian Economic Development and Research Association

2011:

• Leading Woman Entrepreneur of the year in 2011

2012:

• "Education Entrepreneur of the Year" and Indian Education Awards- 2012 presented by Franchise India & Bloomberg

2013:

• Leading Women Entrepreneur by iiGlobal

2014:

• Lifetime Award for Achievement in Education by Education World
• Panelist at The Economic Times Future of Learning Summit 2014

2015:

• Alumni Excellence Award by Australian High Commission

2016:

• Inspiring Business Leaders India award by The Economic Times

• Who Do You Think You Are Kidding? Random House India, 2012, ISBN 9788184003628.
• Drama Teen: A Cool-Headed Guide for Parents and Teenagers, Random House India, 2016, ISBN 9789385990724.