Aparna Piramal Raje is a thought leader on business, design and workplaces. Her first book, Working Out of the Box: 40 stories of leading CEOs was published by Penguin Random House in September 2015. The book is based on Head Office, her popular monthly column in the Mint newspaper, which features the heads of organizations, and looks at leadership through the lens of workspaces and workstyles. Over 75 CEOs from India and overseas have been profiled in the series to date.

She also writes on urbanization, and has written several series of stories, featuring global thinkers and highlighting solutions to urban challenges, by looking at the intersection of urban planning, market forces and government policy.
Aparna has earlier contributed to the UK’s Financial Times Weekend, a leading global publication, and is regularly invited to address diverse audiences on the subject of business and design. She is a Visiting Faculty Member and on the Board of Studies at the Anant National University, dedicated to study of the built environment, in Ahmedabad. She also serves as a member of the CII National Design Committee, and as a member of the Advisory group of Maker’s Asylum, a fast-growing makerspace in Mumbai and Delhi and is involved with a non-profit ARMMAN, in the area of technology for maternal and child health. An advisor to the Wonder Girls movement to enable adolescents to have access to role models, Aparna is committed to supporting gender equity and has previously led professional women’s networks.

Former CEO of BP Ergo, one of India’s largest modular office furniture companies, Aparna completed an MBA from Harvard Business School and read Economics, Politics and Philosophy at Oxford University.