Mr. Rudraksh Bhawalkar left his home country of India to come to the U.S. in 2005 after completing his bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications from Bhopal, India, and studied at Wayne State University, Michigan, USA. He had never made that long of a journey alone before. However, since earning his M.S. in electrical and computer engineering in 2006, he has traveled all over the world building a career of more than 17 years in information technology, data platforms, and artificial intelligence. His work has left a lasting impression on corporations throughout the U.S., Africa, and Europe in consumer goods, health care, pharma, finance, manufacturing, automotive, and energy. It has also made him a global citizen with insightful stories and lessons to pass along to the students he mentors.

After completing the M.S. degree from Wayne State, he got into the fields of business intelligence, data warehousing, analytics, and artificial intelligence. He worked in retail, print media, and the oil and gas industries for the first phase of his career as a data engineer, team lead, and architect across the Midwest, East Coast, and southern U.S.

In January 2015, he had the chance to move to South Africa to pursue sales and practice management for data, analytics, and artificial intelligence businesses for the entire continent of Africa, working at an Indian multinational company based in Johannesburg. It was a very different but enriching experience with a chance to travel to southern and east Africa. He moved to Germany In April 2017 as the sales lead for data, analytics, and AI for retail, CPG, media, health care, pharmaceutical, and medical device business for continental Europe.

Currently, he is working at EY as a Partner leading Data Modernization, Modern Data Platforms, Data and AI Solution Architecture, and Data Strategy capability for Germany.

Thanks to God, his parents, and his family, the journey through four continents and 30+ countries has been extremely fulfilling. BTW, his hobbies are astronomy (he used to teach children about it in India), reading (mainly about strategy, sales, and people/personal development), and geography. He is currently teaching his son about both astronomy and geography. On the personal front, he volunteers, within his capacity, to mentor students and professionals irrespective of the organization. He is also supporting a few organizations which help provide access to food for the needy and he is also involved in supporting Indian tourism in my hometown. This is how he tries to help his culture and young minds (who are the future of the world) as his payback to society (though small but still there).

The most important thing he learned through his travels across the world is the importance of his parents and home. He left India on August 25, 2005, and before that, he never traveled alone this far from home and for this long. When he started his life as a graduate student, he realized that whatever we take for granted — like Mother’s hand-cooked food, protection, and assurance from Father — are priceless, hard to earn and few are lucky to have them. We should always respect parents and family, and try to provide for our loved ones as much as possible. All these things made him a humble but confident person, and it set the mantra for him, “You can achieve what you want, but should do so with respect for others.”

His advice to bright young minds is – to be humble, confident, honest, and a lifelong learner. Try everything — cautiously though, and take calculated risks.