Avani Davda is a distinguished business leader with broad experience across the consumer, retail and hospitality sectors. She is recognised for shaping premium brands, leading transformation and building differentiated consumer experiences at scale.
Avani grew up in Mumbai and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce with Honours in Advertising and Media from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Management Studies from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai, where she graduated with a gold medal.
Avani Davda is an eminent business leader with over two decades of experience across the consumer, retail and hospitality sectors, with a strong track record of building and scaling businesses and leading transformations in complex and evolving markets. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the Indian Luxury Brands portfolio at Reliance Retail Limited, where she oversees a portfolio of leading Indian designer businesses. In this role she holds full P&L responsibility across the portfolio, driving brand development, category expansion, retail scaling and international growth, working closely with founders and leadership teams to scale businesses across domestic and global markets.
She began her professional career with the Tata Group, joining through the Tata Administrative Services (TAS) leadership programme in 2002 and held roles across The Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (Taj Hotels) and Tata Consumer Products Ltd. As Founder Chief Executive Officer of Tata Starbucks Private Limited, she led the successful market entry and scale-up of Starbucks in India, establishing it as one of the fastest growing international markets for the brand, with over 85 stores across six cities within three years of launch. She subsequently served as Managing Director of Godrej Nature's Basket, where she led the turnaround of the omni-channel business and its strategic sale to the Spencer Group in 2019 and later, as an Advisor at Bain & Company, advised leading consumer and retail companies across India and Asia on growth strategy, market entry, M&A and organisational transformation.
Avani serves as an Independent Director across multiple listed companies, contributing across risk, audit, nomination and governance committees. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, where she supports initiatives to build sustainable and scalable solutions for child nutrition. She has been featured in Fortune US's annual global list of '40 under 40 leaders' (2013), ranked 13 on 'The Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink' list in Fortune and Food & Wine (2014), nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Geneva (2014) and featured in 'ET & Spencer Stuart Women Ahead' (2019).
At Persistent, she serves as the Chairperson of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company.
Avani is married to Vishal and they have a son.
