Managing Director of StartAD, NYU Abu Dhabi

Ramesh Jagannathan is currently the Vice Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Managing Director of startAD, the innovation and entrepreneurship platform at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Ramesh is an entrepreneurial technologist specializing in leading global teams, converting abstract concepts into tangible and marketable technologies in a short timeframe.

Since 2010, Ramesh has led the focus on innovation and entrepreneurship at NYU Abu Dhabi. He believes in the UAE’s ability to develop into a leading innovation center in the world, with a focus on addressing the needs of the 21st century middle class. Ramesh has full faith in the UAE's ability to evolve rapidly into giving Silicon Valley a run for its money.

Prior to startAD, Ramesh piloted an entrepreneurship program, IDEA Lab, which connected NYUAD members with the broader startup community. He also developed the "Superlab" course for engineering students that sought to introduce design concepts around abstract challenges.

Previously Ramesh spent 30 years at Eastman Kodak in the US and the UK, which culminated in a prestigious appointment as Research Fellow at Kodak Research Labs. He has significant experience in process engineering and scale up and lean manufacturing. A recipient of the Kodak Distinguished Inventor Award and a distinguished researcher, Ramesh sat on the Cambridge University Mentor Panel and the Kodak Research Scientific Council. He is a gold medalist from the University of Madras from where he received his B.Tech degree. Ramesh went on to complete his PhD from Clarkson University.

Ramesh holds 43 US patents, and has invented a dry inkjet printing technology and a new atmospheric process for coating organic device quality thin films. He also has 31 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Nature Scientific Reports and Advanced Functional Materials, including “Organic Nanoparticles — Preparation, Self-Assembly, and Novel Properties,” one of the most accessed papers of 2006 in Advanced Functional Materials.