Shekar Rao
Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Center for Innovation
Shekar Rao is the worldwide manager for medical electronics at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas and is also responsible for University collaborations in the Medical Electronics space. He is Texas Instruments’ representative to the Continua Health Alliance and is the Chair of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (Dallas Chapter). Earlier as an entrepreneur, he founded startups in Telecom, Semiconductor IP and Life Sciences sectors. He possesses over 30 years of worldwide experience in product development, P&L, operations, business strategy, marketing, sales, and consulting within start-ups as well as established companies such Texas Instruments, NEC Electronics and LSI Logic. He has a track record in developing and implementing multi-product and multi-market business strategies. Mr. Rao is highly knowledgeable in anti-trust issues, intellectual property protection, patents and the promotion of industry-wide interoperability standards and collaborations. He has a deep understanding of issues and opportunities in industries as diverse as semiconductor, life sciences, healthcare, networking hardware, software, IT, knowledge management and workflow automation. Mr. Rao has a BSEE and an MBA in International Trade. He has been a keynote speaker, panel chair or panelist in a number of international conferences on healthcare, medical electronics, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. Selected Accomplishments ·Played a key role in five start-ups over the last ten years - as founder, president, and chief executive officer for three of the five, including one in the area of Life Sciences. ·Was the Chairman of The ATM Forum’s Market Awareness Committee, president of the Desktop ATM25 Alliance and a founder of the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance. Professional Affiliations (past and present) ·Chair, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Dallas Chapter, IEEE ·Founding Member of the Medical Electronics Forum in India under the auspices of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ·Member IEEE ·Texas Instruments’ principal representative, Continua Health Alliance ·Charter Member TiE, an International organization promoting Entrepreneurship ·Member American Association for Clinical Chemistry ·Member American Association for the Advancement of Science ·Member Bay Area Bioinformatics Discussion Group ·Member of EPPIC, a Pharma entrepreneurs’ organization ·Founding Member of the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance in 1996 ·President, Desktop ATM25 Alliance (1995 – ’96) ·Founding Chair, The ATM Forum, Market Awareness Committee (’92 – ’94) ·Toastmasters International ·Member, Board of Trustees, National Federation of Indian American Associations
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