Akshay Anand is an internationally-known and award-winning businessman and entrepreneur. He serves as the CEO of Karats in Overland Park, Kansas. Known to his friends as Andy, he has been instrumental in bringing his family-owned jewelry business Karats from a small operation into a regional giant with thousands of customers and the success that comes with that. His sharp expertise in marketing strategies and his decades of experience in the jewelry industry has positioned him to achieve new levels of success in the coming years.

Andy Anand lives and works in the Kansas City metropolitan area at his jewelry retail firm called Karats. The jewelry business runs deeply in his background; as a child in New Delhi, India, he worked alongside his father, his grandfather, and his uncles at the family-run Mahalaxmi Amba Jewelers. It was from his early experiences in the shop that he learned to balance traditional family values with smart business strategies. This combination of old- and new-world traits has given him the ability to grow his company while building a reputation as a caring and customer-oriented jewelry retailer. Andy still has ties to his family company; despite operating his own successful jewelry business in the United States, he serves as the marketing director and lead gemstone buyer for his family’s company. At both operations, he works closely with Indian-based gemstone brokers and manufacturers that have partnered with his family for generations. These partnerships help him to deliver incredible value to his customers in the United States and internationally.

Akshay received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management from Northwest Missouri State University in 2004. His formal education and the years spent in the company of his family prepared him uniquely for the challenges of the jewelry business. He has focused on developing and implementing advanced marketing practices, especially on social media platforms. In addition, his time-honored principles of account management and innovative sales programs worked together to assist his company as he doubled both the firm’s inventory of jewelry and its annual revenue in only two years. He never rests; he is always looking for the best ways to improve sales and growth of his company and is putting the finishing touches on a long-range development plan for Karats that will see it through the next several years of success.