Summary:
Raj Chowdhury is an entrepreneur and investor in Renewable and Internet companies and an active member of the
philanthropic community.
He is the co-founder of Unification Energy; a company focused in facilitating the penetration of Electric Vehicles through its design and
installation of state-of-the-art charging stations. In 2008, the founding team envisioned the rise of the Electric Vehicle as the
technology of choice for automobiles. Together, they pioneered a business model that would keep charging sessions at retail locations,
completely free of cost to EV owners.
In 2010, Raj co-founded Shop-a-Block, a lifestyle website designed to provide attire shoppers with a personalised shopping experience. The
founders set out on a journey to seek solutions for two major hurdles shoppers’ confront- fit and social assurance. That was how features
such as ‘Check your Best Fit’ brand and ‘Share your Avatar’ on social networks were conceived. Today, Shop-a-Block has over 8000 merchants
and 9 million products on display.
Raj co-founder Power Enhancing Devices, which designed Piezoelectric NEMS applications to harness environmental energy for portable
electronic devices. Physik Instrumente, a German Piezoelectric device manufacturer, acquired the company in 2006.
He co-founded Locus International in 2002 to generate mapping data of India cities to be used for GPS navigation.
Once a research associate at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Lab, he went to Tufts University, Santa Clara Universityand the Fletcher
Schoolof International Law and Diplomacy for MS, MBA and other certifications.
Raj is a long time member of AshaSilicon Valley chapter, a non-profit committed to the spread of education for children in emerging
countries.
He authored the book ‘The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley’, in which he shares personal stories of his experience working alongside the
Godfathers’ of the Valley, the billionaires who help keep the place in a few hands.
In his spare time he enjoys, biking around city lakes, yoga, golfing and traveling internationally
Effective and Accountable
Corporate Strategy & Development Specialist
Consistently deliver mission-critical results
Strong orientations in operations and finance
Respect and leverage of human capital
Vision, Strategy, Execution & Leadership
Business Process Development
Startup, Turnaround, Change
Investors, Shareholders & Board Relations
Online Marketing
E-commerce
Intellectual Property Law
EXPERIENCE:
2008-Current Unification Energy@ San Francisco, CA
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Unification provides charging infrastructure and services to the global Electric Vehicle (EV) industry to help consumers make a seamless
transition to clean energy transportation.
2012-Current Shop-a-Block @ San Francisco, CA
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Shop-a-Block is a leading social shopping website with a wide variety of brands and stores offering a range of products for Women &
Men, Home Decor and Kids. The site carries deals and offers from over 8,000 merchants organised in a searchable and easy to browse
interface.
2008-2014 GloCal Venture Capital @ Seattle, WA
Entrepreneur in Residence
GloCal Venture Capital based in Seattle, WA invests and incubates startups to create a collaborative environment where for-profit,
government and non-profit can work seamlessly under one umbrella.
2008-2012 Smartbid @ Sunnyvale, CA
Advisory, Board of Directors
Smartbid is a social auction site offering pay per bid strategy auctions. The site makes auctions fun and exciting experience while
providing unbeatable deals for new factory sealed products.
2008-2012 Intevac Inc @ Sunnyvale, CA
Program Management, Hard Drive Equipment
Intevac is the market leader in the hard drive industry with approximately 60% of all magnetic disk media produced worldwide. Our
technology solutions, which improve performance and throughput, have helped us expand into additional markets including solar and
adjacent thin film deposition applications.
2006-2008 Applied Materials @ Sunnyvale, CA
Product Manager, Semiconductor Equipment
Applied Materials, Inc. is the global leader in providing innovative equipment, services and software to enable the manufacture of
advanced semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic products.
2005-2006 MIT, Microsystems Technology Lab (MTL) @ Cambridge, MA
Research Associate
MTL at MIT is an interdepartmental laboratory that supports Microsystems research encompassing work in circuits and systems, MEMS,
electronic and photonic devices, molecular and nanotechnology.
EDUCATION:
2004-2006 Tufts University @ Boston, MA
Master of Science (MS)
2004-2006 Tufts University @ Boston, MA
Master of Science (MS)
2008-current Santa Clara University @ Santa Clara, CA
Master of business administration (MBA)
AUTHORED BOOK:
SKILLS & INTEREST