Prakash Pawar, CTO, Head HRD and Operations, Intrex India, is one of the five finalists for the CTO of the Year Award instituted by The CTO Forum. The CTO Forum is honouring India’s leading technology managers and providing a platform for them to showcase their talent. Over the years, these awards have gained industry recognition for having honoured the brightest and the best technical managers.

The CTO Forum received over 300 nominations from the country’s leading companies across verticals. The five finalists for the CTO of the Year award were selected by an eminent jury comprising personnel from the industry, user organizations and academia. 

Prakash has been with Intrex for over five years. Besides technology, he has headed functions like HR, Operations, commercial purchase and store. He was the business head of ItzCash card. Prakesh feels that in the future, the CIO will be seen as a Chief Innovation Officer. He holds an engineering degree in electronics and communication, an MBA in Marketing and a CCNA degree.  

The selection process for the CTO Award began with a questionnaire sent to IT heads to gauge the extent to which the technology manager has been able to leverage IT to meet the strategic goals of his organisation. The other criteria on which the participants were judged included projects handled during the year, importance in financial decision making, vendor selection and investment in a project.   

The jury comprised Ravikiran Mankikar, DGM – IT, Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank, Nandu Pradhan, President and Managing Director, Red Hat India, Anil Valluri, Director – Services Practice and Systems Engineering, Sun Microsystems India, Satish Warrier, CISO, Godrej Industries, R Dhamodaran, Director, IBM Software Group, Ninad Karpe, Managing Director, CA – India and SAARC, Dhruv Nath, Professor and Chairman of Information Management Services, MDI, and Vinnie Mehta, President, MAIT.

The other finalists are Arwind Tawde, Senior VP and CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra, Satish Joshi, CTO and EVP, Patni Computer Systems, Prasad Dhumal, National IS Manager, DHL Express India and Shridhar Rane, VP-Head of Technology, Citigroup.