Rohit Shukla founded Larta Institute in 1993 – Larta is now an internationally recognized accelerator whose mission is to foster science and technology innovation for a sustainable planet. Mr. Shukla previously served nearly six years as Director of High Technology Business at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. He was Executive Director of the Presidents’ Roundtable, a California-based network of chief executives from Fortune 500 U.S. aerospace and defense electronics companies. In 2008, he was appointed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to advise and lead a multi-country study of IP policies and practices and IP as it affects the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. He also has established regional commercialization initiatives and provided technology commercialization policy advice to the governments of Australia, Israel, Malaysia and New Zealand, among others. In 2014, he was appointed to a 2-year term to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship which advises the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce on issues related to accelerating innovation, expanding entrepreneurship, and developing a globally competitive workforce.

Carlos Gutierrez is the Chief Development Officer at Larta. He oversees aspects of client and partner engagement, new business growth, and initiatives in the areas of technology commercialization and technology transfer. Carlos has led strategic efforts to initiate and nurture engagements with leading federal agencies that support R&D-driven ventures under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Partners include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Institute for Standards & Technology (NIST), and others. He has similarly pioneered projects with government agencies around the world to support ecosystems of innovation and the global competitiveness of entrepreneurs. Countries and client partners include Japan (Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry), Russia (under nonproliferation program support), Malaysia (Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation), Brazil (Agency for Industrial Development), and others including Canada and New Zealand. He has served on a World Bank mission to Croatia assessing innovation policy, capital infrastructure, and government mechanisms to support high technology entrepreneurs. He conceived and launched Larta’s Industry Network of executives in corporate venturing, licensing, external discovery, and technology scouts across various sectors. He has served as a speaker and moderator at the SBIR National Conference on the commercialization of government-supported R&D and World Bank briefings on similar subject matter. He has advised and mentored NSF and USDA-funded companies in Larta programs leveraging technology to address issues related to remediation of produced water and groundwater cleanup. Carlos has a B.S. degree in Marketing and Business Administration from Cal State University, Northridge, and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC). He is bilingual in English/Spanish.