Mumbai, July 1 2014: Tata Sons,  the promoter of the major operating Tata companies, has announced that  Gopichand Katragadda till recently  Managing Director of the GE India Technology Centre, will join as Group Chief Technology Officer,   from August 3.
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.
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, commissioned new research labs, and helped create what is today GE’s largest ( 5000-strong)  integrated multidisciplinary R&D centre.
Earlier. 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. He has over 30 publications and 5 patents and  has authored a book on innovation, titled ‘SMASH’, published by Wiley.
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.