Dr. Sumit Dutta Chowdhury is an Indian entrepreneur, a business executive and an author.Currently, he serves as the Managing Director and founder of the Gaia Smart Cities, an IoT and AI company focused on telecom and ICT solutions for smart cities and smart sites. He isworking with several cities in India to define their Smart Cities solutions and building unique propositions to solve urban problems in the cities.
Dr. Chowdhury did his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1992, and subsequently went on to earn his MS in Electronics and Communications Engineering and PhD in Business Administration & Management Policy degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. Dr. Chowdhury started his career as a Project Executive with Philips India. Post his Ph.D. in the US, he joined KPMG. During his career, he rose quickly from a Consultant, to become one of the youngest Partners of KPMG in the US. Subsequently, he worked in several leadership roles in BearingPoint and KPMG in US, Australia and with Reliance Industries, IBM, Reliance ADAG, in India. While working with BearingPoint, he led the system integration practice for major companies, including Vodafone, British Telecom, Verizon, Singtel, Australia Post, BHP, Coles Myer, National Australia Bank, Cadbury Schweppes and GE Capital. He served as the CEO of BearingPoint in Australia before moving to India in
2006.
In 2012, Dr. Chowdhury joined Reliance Jio where he worked as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and also became the President of the Enterprise Business unit. He also had astint as the VP and Partner of IBM Global Services in India. He was also the CIO of Reliance Communications during its growth phase. He has also served on the Board of Directors of
Tele Management Forum (TMF) and as the founder of Digital Bridge Foundation -a non-
profit organization which helps bridge the Digital Divide in India through computer-assisted
constructivist education. Dr. Chowdhury has held CXO roles across several Global
companies and is a Visiting Faculty and Member of Dean's Advisory Committee at Carnegie
Mellon University. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and
also a certified Independent Director in India. He sits on the Board of ABM Knowledgeware
and Metrology Data Limited (a Division of BARC).
Currently, Dr. Chowdhury serves as the Managing Director and Founder of the Gaia Smart
Cities, an IoT and AI company focused on telecom and ICT solutions for smart cities and
smart sites. He is working with several cities in India to define their Smart Cities solutions
and building unique propositions to solve urban problems in the cities. He is also the
technical advisor of BARC, India. He was also contracted as the CTO of Brookfield
Properties in India. He is also the founder of SesoVera Inc. a US incorporated Edge compute
AI platform and solutions company.
Being an entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Chowdhury has been mentoring, angel funding, and
incubating several start-up companies in diverse areas in India. He is serving on the Board of
4 Start-ups. He is associated with NEN, Total Start, Business World Accelerate programs and
is a part of Mumbai Angels & CIO Angels. He is the author of a bestselling career
management book titled 'Rules of the Game' published by Bloomsbury India. The book
empowers readers to enhance productivity and fast-track their careers. He is also a regular
speaker on the TEDx platform.
