Sampath Kumar Veeraraghavan
HAC Chair
Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan is a globally renowned technologist best known for his technological innovations in addressing global humanitarian and sustainable development challenges. He is a seasoned technology and business leader with over 16 years of experience in Top 500 Fortune companies. Throughout his career, he has led business-critical strategic programs and successfully delivered cutting-edge technologies in areas of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Understanding, cloud computing, enterprise systems, infrastructure technologies, assistive and sustainable technologies. Sampath served as an expert in the 2020 Broadband Commission working group on school connectivity co-chaired by UNESCO, UNICEF, and ITU to drive “GIGA,” a Global School Connectivity Initiative. He is the founder and president of “The Brahmam,” a humanitarian program delivering next-generation social innovations to achieve sustainable development goals and benefit marginalized communities globally. Over a decade, he has launched large-scale transformational global initiatives that brought together academic institutions, industry leaders, and Government agencies to address pressing global challenges faced by children with disabilities, impoverished women, and students from marginalized communities in developing nations.
Sampath serves as the Global Chair of the 2021 IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (IEEE HAC) of the world’s largest technical professional organization “The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA. In this role, he spearheads the global strategy and portfolio of sustainable development and humanitarian engineering programs to deliver impactful programs to engage and benefit 400K+ IEEE members at the grassroots in 160 countries. He is credited with launching several novel global programs in humanitarian engineering which successfully inspired and engaged students and young professionals in sustainable development activities globally. Sampath was the Global Chair (2019-2020) of IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian technologies (SIGHT), leading the program to record-breaking growth through high-impact, technology-driven sustainable programs benefiting members in 119+ countries. He is the founding chair for the IEEE SIGHT day (2020) and SIGHT week (2019), a global program that showcases the impactful IEEE technology-based humanitarian programs. He currently leads the IEEE Standard’s 2021 corporate sustainability working group. As an active IEEE and IEEE-HKN member, Sampath has spearheaded more than 20+ global committees and has made significant contributions in advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
Sampath is accredited with numerous global awards and media mentions for his leadership excellence and technological innovations in addressing global sustainable development challenges. He has delivered 250+ invited talks in International forums, premier technology conferences, and industry panels organized by UN, IEEE, ITU, World IoT forum and Top universities around the globe. He has authored and published 30+ research publications and thought leadership articles in leading global conferences, journals and magazines. His technological innovations and leadership excellence were featured in cover stories of global media such as IEEE TV, IEEE spectrum, USA today, E-week, AI-news and IEEE transmitter, The Bridge, and ACM-News. He received an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA and a B.E. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Anna University, India. He currently works as a senior technology and program management leader in the conversational Artificial Intelligence industry where he spearheads a portfolio of science and engineering programs to advance spoken language innovations.