Appointment Announcement
KLAY, India's leading early childhood education and care provider, announced that Abhishek Joshi has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, to steer the company through its next phase of growth.
Executive Profile
Abhishek Joshi brings more than twenty years of experience in scaling prominent Indian consumer brands. He has held senior leadership positions at Licious, Jubilant FoodWorks (operator of Domino's India), Hindustan Unilever Limited, and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (owner of the Amul brand). He is an alumnus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (PGDM in Sales & Marketing) and holds a B.Tech from Govind Ballabh Pant University. Joshi is described as a transformational leader with a focus on purpose‑driven organisations and high‑performing teams.
Statements
Sandeep Reddy, Chairman of Founding Years Learning Solutions, said that India is at an inflection point for early‑years education and that the appointment of Joshi, who has built trusted consumer brands, is essential for KLAY to make world‑class early childhood education the norm rather than a privilege. Joshi himself stated that KLAY has earned deep daily trust of parents and that he will work to widen impact, ensuring more children begin life with a strong foundation and that parents have a reliable partner throughout their parenting journey.
Company Overview
KLAY, operating under the name Founding Years Learning Solutions, was founded in 2011 and is described as India's leading chain of preschools and daycare centres. The network serves over 80,000 families, operates more than 180 self‑managed centres across more than 20 cities, and maintains over 500 corporate partnerships with Fortune 500 organisations. The company employs over 3,500 professionals who deliver its integrated proposition of learning, care, and parenting support.
Strategic Vision
The CEO’s mandate includes establishing KLAY as the definitive early childhood ecosystem in India, deepening its integrated offering across learning, care, and parenting partnership, and expanding access to high‑quality early education for families nationwide. The ambition is positioned as setting the standard for early childhood education rather than pursuing incremental growth, based on the premise that nearly 90 % of a child's brain development occurs before age six.