Prashant Tiwari, PhD, MBA

CTO at Pliyt

Santa Clara, California, United States

About Prashant Tiwari, PhD, MBA

Prashant Tiwari, PhD, MBA is CTO at Pliyt. Location: Santa Clara, California, United States.

Growing up in India, I only had 4 or 5 toys (total!) during all my school life. I still remember constantly breaking them and fixing – until there was nothing left to fix. This is where my passion for innovation and technology was born ... I nurtured my passion for innovation through continuous learning & been lucky to interact with 3 Nobel laureates, granted 64 patents, filed 80+ patents, and received many honors & awards. I have been fortunate to work & study in three continents (North America, Europe & Asia) & had amazing opportunities to lead & build diverse teams across 12+ global sites & leading large product & project portfolio ($400M+). These experiences taught me skills to mentor & grow high performance teams with focus towards diversity & inclusion. I am often told that I have unique skills to quickly build both depth and breadth and rare (some even consider uncanny) quality of remembering names of people for a long time. I attribute this to systems level thinking, which I often champion, and developed by managing many large complex technologies across R&D, Automotive & Aerospace. These were only possible due to strong human relationships & collaborations. As a hobby, I love to explore nature and enjoy hiking & camping with family & friends. I actively seek volunteering/sponsoring opportunities whenever I can. Some close personal losses taught me to be compassionate and realize there is no greater joy than helping others in need. Core Competencies: Executive Engineering Leadership | Passion for Technology & Innovation | Global P&L & Program Management ($400M+) | Product Development (SDV, Connected Vehicles, Autonomous Systems, Digital Twin, Robotics, Aircraft Engines, CFD) | Intellectual Property Strategy (60+ granted patents) | Cross-Functional, Multicultural & Multilingual Team Leadership | Strategic Partnerships & Industry Consortia (SAE, AECC, Digital Twin Consortium, 14+ Universities, 10+ Startups) | Software Defined Vehicles | Digital Twin | Edge & Cloud Computing | Robotics | Systems Engineering | CFD | Engineering Design Compliance, Product Quality, Functional Safety (ISO 26262, DO-178C, DO-254) Domain Knowledge: Automotive | Aerospace | Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) | Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) | Digital Twin | Edge Computing | Robotics, AI/ML, ADAS Sensor-Fusion | IoT | Predictive Analytics | Systems Engineering, MBSE | Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) | Digital Transformation, Data Analytics | Entrepreneurial & Lean Mindset

Skills

  • Automotive
  • Functional Safety

Additional experience

  • Board of Directors | Director of Operations

    IIT Bay Area Alumni Association

    Started January 2026

Education

  • Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute