Vinayak Mahajan

Vinayak Mahajan is a TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of GiftAFeeling Inc., a company specializing in corporate gifting and promotional products. Mahajan established GiftAFeeling Inc. as a globally recognized supplier in the branded merchandise and company swag industry.

Mahajan moved to Canada as a 17-year-old international student and overcame personal and professional challenges to excel academically and professionally. While studying computer programming at Georgian College in Barrie, he achieved second place nationally and a top 20 global ranking in the Master the Mainframe World Coding Championship. This accomplishment led to an internship and subsequent full-time position at Royal Bank of Canada, followed by a role as IT innovation team lead at TD Bank.

During his five years in the technology sector, Mahajan founded The Shared Secrets Lab, a research lab focused on gift-giving psychology in the corporate gifts and promotional items sector. The Shared Secrets Lab became known for educating individuals and organizations on gift-giving based on psychological research, laying the groundwork for GiftAFeeling Inc. Within its first year, GiftAFeeling was recognized as a leading research and development company in the gifts and giveaways domain. The company now serves a global clientele, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, India, and the Netherlands. GiftAFeeling partners with brands such as Nike and Yeti and offers more than 100 unique printing techniques for product customization and branding.

GiftAFeeling maintains a 98 percent or higher customer satisfaction rating and has served thousands of clients, including Amazon, Honda, Manulife, CBC, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Maple Leafs, McDonald's, eight of Canada's top ten universities including University of Toronto, SickKids, RBC, CIBC, KPMG, Hilton, and Telus. In its first year, the company and Mahajan received nominations for Startup Business of the Year and Young Entrepreneur of the Year by CanadianSME National Business Awards. GiftAFeeling was also named one of Canada's top five e-commerce businesses by the same organization.

Mahajan is a global bestselling author and recognized thought leader in the gifting industry. He leads a team of psychologists conducting research in gifting psychology and has contributed to the modern understanding of giftophobia. His book, "Unearthing the 'Gift'," became a global bestseller and achieved top rankings in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Mahajan has shared his expertise in human psychology and gift-giving on the TEDx stage, presenting a research-based blueprint for selecting meaningful gifts. His work has been published in Exceptional People Magazine and Business Digest Magazine, and he has been featured on CNBC, Wall Street Select, USA Today, LA Business Podcast, and Ticker News. Mahajan is also recognized as a subject matter expert on IBM zSystems, industry trends, and enterprise technology innovation, and has spoken at the IBM Global Enterprise Computing Virtual Conference on open-source technologies for modernizing enterprise applications.