Dr. Gopichand Katragadda is the Tata Group Chief Technology Officer and Innovation Head.  In this role, Gopi facilitates the development of pioneering products and services, strategic technology collaborations, and evangelizes innovation across the $100B Group.  He also serves as a director on the boards of Tata Elxsi, Tata Communications, Tata Teleservices, Tata Autocomp Systems, and Flisom AG.

Previously, as Chairman and Managing Director, he helped grow GE’s largest R&D Centre – the John F. Welch Technology Centre, to be amongst the world leaders in intellectual property generation.  Gopi also served as the chairman for GE-BEL.

Before joining GE, Gopi was the VP of Technology at the US based Karta Technologies.  Here, Gopi led the development of advanced sensor technology for US government agencies and research consortiums.  He also was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas and served on the Board of Directors for Texas Public Radio.

Gopi provides the voice of technology for various Government of India organisations.  He chairs the CII National Technology Committee and the CII Western Region Innovation Taskforce.  He is the India chair for the UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee.

Gopi is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.  He is a GE Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  Gopi has over 30 publications and 5 patents.  He has authored a book on innovation –  “SMASH,” currently in its second edition, published by Wiley.   He contributed to the establishment of the Advanced Materials CoE at IIT-Madras and the Advanced Manufacturing CoE at IIT-Kharagpur.  Gopi has helped set up and has driven the ongoing Tata research collaborations with Harvard and Yale.

Gopi holds MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.