Ajay Rastogi is the founder member of the foundation and has established the Vrikshalaya Himalayan Centre in the village Majkhali. He is a philosopher and applied ethics practitioner with extensive experience working across the fields of environment, agriculture, livelihoods and ethical business practice. His passion is to explore how wholeness and integrity can be manifested in systems thinking, with a special focus on philosophical and ethical traditions for a sustainable society, and the biological and agricultural roots of society and civilisation.

Ajay studied agriculture and environmental science at Pantnagar University and has been honoured with several awards; He was the recipient of the South Asia Youth Leaders Award, European Union Erasmus Mundus Fellowship in Applied Ethics, and the Nehru-Fulbright Environmental Leadership Award for Contemplative Education.

He is also a yoga practitioner and a certified teacher. He has extensively travelled and partnered with multicultural organisations. His work has been translated and published in Spanish in 2015. He has attended the Contemplative Environmental Educators Workshop; and the Sustainability and Contemplative Practice Retreat.