Rakesh Kumar

Rakesh Kumar

Business Strategy and Technology Coach

Downstream, Clean Tech
 
United States, Canada

1. What is your profession? Or if you are retired, what was your profession?

President & CEO

2. What are your areas of expertise?

Downstream Subsegment: Refining, Retail

Downstream Disciplines: Process Engineering, Project Management, Corporate Development, Supply Chain, Marketing, Digital, Operations

Clean Tech List: Technology, Commercial, Engineering, Project Management, Corporate Development, Executive, I.T/Digital, Supply Chain

Types of Clean Tech: Solar, CO2 capture, Wind, Batteries

3. Current Employer:

Technology Connexions Inc.

4. Previous Employers:

Cadence Design Systems, Unisys , Motorola

5. How did you end up in the Energy Industry?

I have been a technologist and executive in the semiconductor industry for many years. Through my involvement in the IEEE I am engaged with the applications of Integrated Circuits in many industries, including the Energy sector.  

6. Why do you like working with Start-Ups?

Having had my own start-ups, and having consulted with ~30 start-up companies I got engaged as a Mentor and an educator at UC San Diego. I have developed a very popular 'Entrepreneurship for Engineers' course that I have taught for 7 years. This involves dissemination of my experience and coaching students about how to do start-ups right. The experience keeps me feeling young!

Okay, now for some fun things about Rakesh…

7. What are three of your interests outside of work?

  • Volunteering for the IEEE

  • Gardening

  • Fixing things

8.  What are your top 3 accomplishments (personal or professional)?  Don’t be shy!  Give ‘em to us.

  • Authored a book, "Fabless Semiconductor Implementation" published by McGraw Hill

  • Inducted into IEEE Technical Activities "Hall of Honor"

  • Being a recognized contributor to the semiconductor industry as a technologist, executive and a consultant

9.  If I were a superhero, my superpower would be               .

Get people to listen to, and tolerate each other

10. When I was 5, I was pretty sure I'd be a                 when I grew up.

Medical Doctor. My Dad and two older brothers were engineers...I wanted to be different!

11. If I weren't so damn good at what I do now, I'd probably be                 .

An evangelist

12.  My favorite song is               by            .

"'Take me home" by John Denver

13.  If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd          .

start an early stage fund to enable undergraduates to implement their start-up dreams in a low cost manner.

14.  The best piece of advice I've ever been given is                              .

Learn from your experiences and implement in the pursuit of excellence