Shaku Selvakumar

Shaku Selvakumar is a successful marketing leader with multi-country, multinational and start-up experience having worked for Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Shell, and fast growth companies like CognitiveScale and Webify Solutions. She is the founder and CEO of BraveCenter, an EdTech venture for teenagers. BraveCenter, launching this summer, is a collaborative innovation lab that provides an integrated tech, design, digital and social learning centered around gaming systems.

She also currently serves as the Community Impact Advisor at CognitiveScale, a fast growth enterprise AI company.

Till recently, she was the Vice President, Marketing for CognitiveScale. Here she led the company’s marketing strategy and execution from its inception and was instrumental in positioning it as one of the leading core AI startups garnering awards, influencer endorsement, and driving demand with Fortune 500 customers and partners.

Previously, Shaku was the Customer Advocacy Leader for Social Business. Before this, she was the lead social and content strategist for IBM WebSphere. Her work has won various awards including Forrester Groundswell, Hermes, and SIA. Shaku was recognized by IBM as top talent and is an alumni of the company’s Leadership Development Program.

Before IBM, Shaku managed the marketing and communications for Webify Solutions and played a key role in building awareness and demand leading to its acquisition in August 2006. She also worked as a brand and corporate communications strategist for Shell in Dubai.

Shaku holds Bachelor’s in Arts in Literature and Sociology, a Post Graduate degree in Mass Communications and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Bradford.

She is a prolific writer and industry speaker. She is passionate about education reform and acted as a youth mentor at different community programs. She is also an avid hiker, and her poetry is often inspired by the beautiful trails of Central Texas.

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