Pankaj Maheshwari

Pankaj Maheshwari is a seasoned international higher education leader with over 25 years of experience spanning institution building, market development, and strategic partnerships across Africa, Asia, and beyond. He began his career in India before moving to West Africa, where he has spent the better part of two decades shaping the region's higher education landscape.

He has held senior leadership roles at some of the world's most recognised education groups — including Laureate International Universities, Global University Systems (GUS), NIIT, and Texila American University — and has successfully led the African growth of globally acclaimed institutions such as the University of Liverpool, University of Roehampton, Walden University, University of Law (UK), University of Sunderland, and The Open University (UK). His work has spanned B2B, B2G, and institutional partnerships, with projects executed alongside the World Bank, UN, Mastercard, and governments across Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, and India.

As Group CEO of BlueCrest & OpenLabs Group of Institutions — operating across Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — Pankaj leads a multi-country university and college network delivering programmes across IT, management, hospitality, fashion, events, and professional skills education. His leadership is defined by a commitment to technology integration, industry-relevant curriculum, and building institutions that are genuinely responsive to the communities they serve.

At the QS Africa Forum, Pankaj brings a practitioner's perspective on what it truly takes to build quality, sustainable higher education at scale in emerging markets — and why aligning skills with economic realities remains the defining challenge for African higher education today.