Founder
Akhil Gupta
Author, educator, and bridge-builder between wisdom traditions and modern life.
Akhil Gupta is the founder director of Universal Enlightenment Forum, a 501(c)3 corporation. He has been associated with Harvard University since 2015, first as a fellow at Advanced Leadership Initiative and later as an Impact Leader in residence in 2023. Akhil currently serves on The Dean’s Leadership Council at Harvard Divinity School, on the Advisory Board of Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, and on the Advisory Board of Harvard’s Chan Initiative on Health and Homelessness.
He is the author of two books “Bridges Across Humanity” published in 2023 and “To Flourish is To Love Learn Play” to be published in Fall 2025. He was inspired to write these books while studying at Harvard University.
Prior to Harvard, he was the founder Chairman of Blackstone India & Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group. He also served in senior positions at Reliance Industries Limited and Hindustan Unilever.
Akhil has a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He served on the Advisory Council of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University from 2014 to 2021.
In Conversation
Hear Akhil Gupta in his own words.
Interviews and talks on flourishing, religious literacy, and the road from boardrooms to wisdom traditions.
On Love, Learn, Play
Conversations on the framework — realizing our deepest longings to love, to learn, and to play.
On Religious Literacy
Conversations on common ground — the shared wisdom across the world’s religious traditions.
Watch every interview Akhil has been part of, gathered in one place.
Watch the playlist on YouTube