Arun Rao is a resourceful and passionate technologist with extensive experience designing software solutions, leading IT departments, managing technology professionals, systems and a variety of technologies in both, enterprise environments and technology start-ups. Arun started his IT career at a manufacturing / SCM company and has over 20 years of experience in supply chain, information technology, customer service and business management.

Currently, Arun is the CTO and co-founder of GrandCanal Solutions, a global distribution optimization and marketplace platform, based in San Jose, CA. Previously, Arun worked as the IT Director at Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) where he managed B2B Data Integration with business partners for several years, designed IT strategies and directly managed various programs and functions. Arun has also worked in various technical and management capacities at venture-backed technology start-ups in the Silicon Valley and in the consulting industry as well as co-wrote a position paper on “RFID applications in Manufacturing” in 2005 (published during the SME conference in St. Louis, MO). In the early part of his career, Arun worked at Baan (now part of Infor) where he was the Lead Technology Consultant for EDI and B2B solutions in the Asia region and managed partner certifications and training.

Arun has an MBA from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Mysore University.