Ajay Chowdhury is the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. He is a tech entrepreneur, writer and theatre director. His children’s novel ‘Ayesha and the Firefish’ was published in 2016.

He is the Artistic Director of the Rented Space Theatre Company that he formed in 1987 and has directed over a dozen plays in London including ‘The Merchant of Vembley’ at the Cockpit Theatre and ‘Cymbeline’ at the Etcetera.

On the business front, Ajay has been the founder or CEO of several startups, including Shazam (sold to Apple), Seatwave (sold to Ticketmaster) and LineOne (sold to Tiscali). He has served on the boards of Lionhead, Department of Culture Media and Sport, Arts Council London, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and Historic Royal Palaces amongst others.

 He was Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG Digital Ventures, globally responsible for their ‘deep tech’ businesses, and is currently Chair of Cambridge Enterprise, Cambridge University’s spinout arm and sits on several other boards including Octopus Investments Future Generations venture capital trust, the renowned Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company and Enacte – a San Francisco based South Asian Theatre Company.



He was selected to be part of the Asian Power 100 – the 100 most influential and powerful Asians in the UK and was selected as one of 2016’s Sunday Times top 100 BAME business leaders in the UK.