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Dr. Venkat Maroju is Chief Executive Officer, SourceTrace Systems - a company that has become a global leader in providing software solutions to agriculture and allied sectors. The use of these technological solutions has made the agriculture value chain more sustainable, transparent and equitable - thus empowering hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Venkat has been able to achieve this by combining his core capacities in technological leadership with extensive grassroots-level experience with social enterprises such as microfinance institutions, farmersā€™ cooperatives, sustainable agriculture, rural supply chain and renewable energy.

Prior to joining SourceTrace, Venkat had founded Factum Ventures, a holding company in India that set up and promoted new business ventures in sustainable agriculture, microfinance and renewable energy. He was also advisor to venture capital firms investing in social enterprises that supported people at the bottom of the pyramid in developing economies.

His earlier experience with technology leadership includes well known global corporations like Bose, where, as Divisional Information Officer, he led the information systems strategy and implementation. He also held a leadership position at ComauPICO (A subsidiary of Fiat).

Venkat holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and was a Sloan Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia and Masters in Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His Bachelorā€™s degree is in Engineering, from Osmania University College of Engineering, Hyderabad.