Govi Rao is a visionary thought leader and seasoned business growth architect with more than 25 years of leadership experience globally - scaling businesses and transforming eco-systems across several industries including specialty chemicals, coatings, building materials, lighting, energy and the rapidly evolving Fourth Industrial Revolution. In his current role as CEO of Phase Change Solutions, Govi leads a team of highly innovative and inspiring leaders, with a vision to decarbonize our footprint and enable human health with sustainable solutions to manage temperature in any environment. Govi is a co-founder of CARBON Group Global - a sustainable impact enterprise scaling transformational solutions, specifically to address education, total resiliency of women and resource efficiency (food, energy & water). Prior to CARBON, Govi was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Noveda Technologies a leader in water and energy management solutions, based in Bridgewater, NJ. Govi is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lighting Science Group Corporation, a leading LED lighting Solutions Company. He was instrumental in envisioning and establishing Lighting Science as an innovative pace setter in the emerging LED lighting space.
Govi’s experience includes several global leadership roles in Philips Electronics and Rohm and Haas Company (now part of Dow Chemical) – spanning a range of businesses across several geographies. In addition to his experience with a wide business portfolio, Govi has extensive functional expertise that includes strategic planning, product management, marketing, operations, leadership development and general management. Widely traveled across Asia, Europe and the Americas, Govi has a keen sense of value creation in emerging markets and technologies, grounded on the principles of sustainability. Govi has built winning teams that achieved extraordinary goals in start-ups as well as mature businesses – pioneering and inspiring profitable and sustainable growth.
A graduate of Villanova University, Govi serves on the Advisory Board of Undergraduate Research and Innovation at NJIT, and serves as an advisor to Hellothinkster, an AI based educational technology company and the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation. He also serves as a trustee on the board of Crossroads4Hope, a social impact organization supporting people touched by cancer. Govi is active in discussions with various Governments, NGOs, and investment groups to drive market adoption of social impact & energy efficiency solutions and is a contributing author of the Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook (AMACOM 2008). Govi has testified to the U.S House of Representatives on Intellectual Property (IP) and Innovation.