Lakshmi Pratury

Lakshmi has a penchant for community-building and technological innovation. A Silicon Valley veteran, she spent over two decades in the United States in leading roles in technology at Intel, finance at a venture capital firm, Global Catalyst Partners, as well as the non-profit sector at the American India Foundation. She eventually returned to India and founded INK, which stands for INnovation and Knowledge. INK is known for events like its annual INK Conference and programmes like INK Fellows, where curated stories of game-changing innovations reach audiences far and wide.

At INK, Lakshmi taps into her tremendous stage presence built over years of speaking at global conferences such as TED, DLD, and WIRED; hosting over ten major INK events across Asia; and acting in theatre in the US. She engages with large corporates and leaders, where she instills cutting-edge insights and moonshot-style of thinking to kickstart innovative business practices in the company. She also speaks widely on the topic of storytelling, specifically the vital role that stories play in businesses and institution-building. Her long experience in this area dates back to her time at Intel where she harnessed the power of storytelling to help the IT giant transform from a chip company to a leader in the computing industry through programmes like Intel Inside.

Having worked in industries – such as technology, mathematics and finance – where women are underrepresented, Lakshmi is also an ardent advocate of women at work. Among many other awards and recognitions, Lakshmi was listed in Forbes’ ‘Women to Watch in Asia.’