Tata Sons, on Friday announced that Dr. Gopichand Katragadda will join Tata Sons as its new Group Chief Technology Officer, from August 3, 2014, reporting to the Chairman, Cyrus P. Mistry. In this new role, Dr. Katragadda will be responsible for technology at the group level and share his expertise in managing R&D operations, leveraging cross-company synergies, creating technology strategies for white spaces, and acting as an evangelist for innovation across group companies.

Prior to joining Tata Sons, Dr. Katragadda has served as Managing Director of the GE India Technology Centre, leading GE’s India technology team of over 5,000 engineers and scientists. In his 12 years with GE, based at the John F. Welch Technology Center in Bangalore, Dr. Katragadda built new technology teams, facilitated funding of cross-business innovation, championed the commissioning of new research labs, and helped create what is today GE’s largest integrated multidisciplinary R&D centre.
 
Before joining GE, Dr. Katragadda worked with Karta Technologies, San Antonio, Texas, as Vice President – R&D. He also was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas and served on the Board of Directors of Texas Public Radio.
 
Dr. Katragadda has over 30 publications and 5 patents. He has authored a book on innovation, titled ‘SMASH’, published by Wiley.  A champion of innovation across India, he serves as a member of various important forums, like the Government of Karnataka’s Vision Group on Information Technology, and is an advisor to various industry bodies.
 
Dr. Katragadda has also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of GE-BEL, and is on the Industry Advisory Board of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
 
An active volunteer in community programmes, Dr. Katragadda has also founded an NGO, the India Literacy and Leadership Trust.
 
Dr. Katragadda holds MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. His graduate studies at Iowa State University were funded by grants from NASA and the Gas Research Institute. He was selected as a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology in 2014. He is also a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.