Prakash Shukla
Founder, Managing Partner at Wayfare Ventures
Prakash Shukla is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of general management, finance, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Prakash is the founder and managing partner at Wayfare Ventures . Before that he was a managing partner with seed firm Solarex LLC (family office), partner with HGM Asset Management (PE fund) and was a 2013 Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. He served as Senior Vice President and CIO of TAJ Group of Hotels from 1999-2012. With a background in some of the industry's most venerable corporations – Unisys/Sperry and IBM Research Labs – Prakash has innovated and provided solutions for numerous corporations and financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Paine Webber and Solomon Smith Barney. In addition, he was an early investor and/or board member of Speech&Software Technologies (a Tata promoted company), TravelGuru, a Sequoia funded India centric travel portal sold to Travelocity. Early investor in Transerv, base of the pyramid payment solution provider. Prakash also formulated and launched base of pyramid hotel chain Ginger Hotels (100% subsidiary of the Taj) in consultation with CK Prahalad. Launched MangoTree PE fund seeded by the Tata Group. Served on HTNG board and is now Advisory Board Member. Prakash was inducted into HFTP Technology Hall of Fame for his contributions to hospitality industry. He also served on Microsoft Hospitality Advisory Board.
