Who is Ness Wadia? Know About His Relationship, Age, Family, Career & More

Ness Nusli Wadia was born on 30 May 1971 and is a prominent Indian industrialist belonging to the Wadia family, one of the country’s oldest and most influential business families. He was raised in Mumbai in a Parsi household and is the elder son of veteran businessman Nusli Wadia and Maureen Wadia. He is also the grandson of Dina Wadia, the only child of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Wadia received a diverse international education, beginning his schooling at Mumbai’s Cathedral & John Connon School before studying at The Lawrence School in Himachal Pradesh and later at Millfield School in the United Kingdom.

Before joining his family business, he went on to pursue higher education in the United States, earning a degree in international relations from Tufts University, and subsequently completed a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Warwick.

Wadia has also found himself at the centre of notable public controversies over the years. In June 2014, actor and Punjab Kings co-owner Preity Zinta lodged a complaint alleging molestation at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, after which the police filed a chargesheet in the case.

Later, in 2019, a court in Japan sentenced him to two years in prison for possessing roughly 25 grams of cannabis resin; however, the sentence was suspended for a five-year period, meaning it would only be enforced if he were to commit another offence in Japan during that time.

Ness Wadia Biography

Ness Wadia began his corporate career at Bombay Dyeing in 1993 as a management trainee and progressed through marketing and distribution roles to become Deputy and later Joint Managing Director.

He stepped down from the joint-MD position in 2011 and took on the role of Managing Director at Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, while serving on the boards of several Wadia Group companies, including Britannia and the Go First airline.

Outside the textile and trading businesses, he is one of the original investors in the Indian Premier League franchise Punjab Kings alongside partners such as Mohit Burman and Preity Zinta.

Ness Wadia Religion & Caste

Ness Wadia belongs to the Parsi (Zoroastrian) community, which is a minority religious group in India that traces its origins to Persian Zoroastrians who migrated to the subcontinent a long time ago.

In social terms, Parsis do not follow the Hindu caste system, and therefore Ness Wadia does not have a caste classification.