Board Member
Corporate Engagement Lead, Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois
Renu’s driving purpose is to help organizations and people leverage emerging technologies to improve the human condition, at scale. As a senior executive and an ‘accidental academic’, Renu has spent nearly 30 years working for and advising leading global organizations in technology, strategy, innovation, and enterprise transformation in higher education, high-tech communications, consumer electronics and media sectors.
As co-founding Partner at Kulkarni Associates, Renu’s consulting and advisory work is focused on
transforming education (for K-Gray learners) to be more approachable, accessible, inclusive, and
outcomes based. Her clients include top US-based universities, global learning academies, and
start-up’s in ed/tech aspiring to improve learning outcomes by appropriately leveraging technology. Renu has held leadership, strategic and operational roles at Motorola, Deloitte Consulting, BellSouth International (now AT&T), Sprint, and GTE (now Verizon) at a time of massive growth and change in the telecom and wireless industry.
Her academic career includes leadership and teaching positions at Singularity University (an emerging technology think-and-do tank in Silicon Valley), the University of Chicago (as Associate Dean of Executive Education at Booth School of Business and Associate VP, Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the President) and Georgia Institute of Technology (as Founder and Executive Director, FutureMedia). Renu serves on the Board of Regents of Loyola University Chicago, is Ex-Officio Chair of the Questions Committee of the Economic Club of Chicago, an Advisory Board Member of the newly established College of Computing at Illinois Tech, a Judge for the New Venture Business Challenge at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a Board Member for Pilot Light – a national food education non-profit.
Renu holds an MBA degree from Emory University, Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Systems Engineering/Management Science from Georgia Tech and an Executive Management Certificate from Booth School of Business.