"We can initiate or participate in a joint effort only by coming out of our own boxes" is a popular catchword of Rohit K Shukla, CEO, Larta. And true to his words, Shukla has always given free expression to his out-of-box thinking. It's, therefore not surprising that the founder and chief executive officer of Larta Institute, has made his company a premium organization in the world by his innovative ideas. A Masters in social and political sciences from Cambridge University and masters in communications arts from Loyola Marymount University, Shukla has been instrumental in bringing people, technology and capital together. He is one of the few individuals whose innovative process has accelerated the transition of cutting-edge technologies to the marketplace.

Today, it goes to Larta's credit that companies helped by it have raised over $1.5 billion in capital. In fact, it was in 1993 when Larta began serving the State of California as its official commercialization agent, and now it manages the nationwide Commercialization Assistance Program for the National Institutes of Health also. And the man responsible for such stupendous growth has been no other than Shukla, who has helped the company grow in all directions. Only a few people know that Shukla has been working in high technology industry since 1983, first as an entrepreneur and founder of his own small company providing database and communications solutions and devices, and later as the executive director of The Presidents' Roundtable, a mentor Los Angeles-based group of CEOs from defence and aerospace companies.

Shukla is one of the well-known public figures in the technology economy in California, but his influence goes beyond tech into areas of local government, infrastructure, education and training and economic transition, including outsourcing. His expertise is also valued worldwide, and he has worked with foreign governments, organizations and businesses in Sweden, Finland, Britain, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Israel, Australia and Far East. It was Shukla's pioneer work in developing the "Global Bridge" programme to facilitate enterprise building and market access programmes that earned him a great reputation. With clients in Australia, Japan, Israel, Sweden and Finland, the programme is fast growing into a great success story. Prior to founding Larta, Shukla served as the director of aerospace and high technology business at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

He oversaw an ambitious programme funded by the federal Economic Development Administration, the first federally-funded 'defence adjustment' programme in the country. Shukla's multi-faceted personality has helped him assume several responsibilities. He has served on the boards of several institutions including the Integrated Media Systems Center at the University of Southern California, the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, EC2, Annenberg Incubator Project at the University of Southern California, the Digital Coast Roundtable and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). It's no wonder that his untiring efforts earned him the rare title of "Tech Coast 10 To Watch" in the 1999 by the Los Angeles Times. He was also part of "Who's Who of High Technology" of the Los Angeles Business Journal, and has several numerous awards and citations for his outstanding performance. A US citizen, who has been a resident of Los Angeles since 1979, Shukla through his out-of-box thinking is sure to climb new heights of innovations.