Mr Gopal Rao has had a long career of over 30 years of International experience working in California in USA, Singapore, Lagos in Nigeria and in India. His experience covers, Corporate & Project Finance, M&A, and Business Development and Business Strategy. He was involved in setting up a chemicals plant in Malaysia, Business Development in S.E.Asia, and in Business Acquisitions in USA. He worked in various CXO positions in USA, Singapore and Nigeria.

An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, he holds PGDM (MBA) in Finance from IIM Bangalore and Chemical Engineering degree from Annamalai University Tamilnadu.

Gopal Rao Addanki is a "Mentor-in-Residence, Start-up Ecosystems" at NSRCEL in IIM Bangalore and is involved in Mentoring and providing advisory services to Start-ups.He is deeply involved in various programs of NSRCEL as Mentor, evaluator and Jury for various programs like Mobility, Women Start-up Program, 10K Women program, New Star-ups... etc. He is also freelancing as a "Venture Catalyst" and a mentor for SME businesses.