Ajay Kakkar, Baron Kakkar
Ajay Kumar Kakkar, Baron Kakkar, PC is Professor of Surgery at University College London.
He was educated at Alleyn's School, King's College London and Imperial College London. Son of Prof Vijay Kakkar, pioneer in the use of low-molecular weight heparin therapy, he followed in his footsteps as a surgeon and medical researcher. He has research interests in the prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolic disease and cancer-associated thrombosis and, in particular, the role of antithrombotic therapy in prolonging survival in cancer and the role of coagulation serine proteases in tumour biology.
Kakkar is Chair of UCLPartners, the Academic Health Science Partnership, Director of the Thrombosis Research Institute, London, and lectures and publishes widely on his specialism. He has worked with the NHS on its strategy to prevent venous thromboembolism.
Among the awards Kakkar has received are Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons of England 1996, the David Patey Prize, Surgical Research Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1996, the Knoll William Harvey Prize, International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis 1997 and the James IV Association of Surgeons Fellow 2006. He is a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Chair of the Board of Governors at Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and a Trustee of the Dulwich Estate.
Kakkar was created a life peer on 22 March 2010 as Baron Kakkar, of Loxbeare in the County of Devon, and introduced in the House of Lords the same day. He sits on the crossbenches.
He was Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission from 2013 to 2018.
Kakkar has been noted for his work promoting British business as an ambassador for the United Kingdom. He has taken 11 trips in 2014 to promote business relations.
He is a member of the Athenaeum Club.
