Speaker

A lawyer by education from India, Pras pursued his Masters in International Relations in Japan and the United States. Thereafter he spent his initial career as an in-house legal advisor and a management consultant in Japan and Australia, prior to joining Toyota.

For the last 16 years he has been in Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, Europe, and now Thailand, with experience in Human Resources, Accounting & Finance, Global External Affairs, and Corporate Planning.

During his time in HR he was responsible for Global Industrial Relations, HR Resource Management and Organization & HR Development. In Finance he led teams on Tax & Audit and Profit Planning for Europe. In External Affairs he led Global Strategic Planning and was instrumental in the set-up of the Hydrogen Council (launched in Davos in January 2017). Currently, he has responsibility towards corporate planning for the engineering & manufacturing operations across Asia.

Pras is also Program Director for the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), responsible for the Asia- Pacific Region. In a world with mounting mobility challenges, Toyota Mobility Foundation was set up to use Toyota’s know-how in partnership with universities, governments and non-profit organizations to address the mobility issues of tomorrow today.

In TMF, Pras has been instrumental to introduce 1st and last mile solutions to the Bengaluru and Hyderabad Metros in India, supported the introduction of public transportation and On-Demand Bus solutions in Danang, Vietnam, and is working to identify causes and propose solutions for traffic congestion, including through data analytics, in Bangkok, Thailand.