Dr. Sonali Gupta is a practitioner-scholar with over 25 years of diverse work experience spanning the domains of technology, entrepreneurship, business incubation and ecosystem building, research and education. She has broad organizational experience – having worked with process-driven & structured multinationals (such as TCS, SchlumbergerSema, ACT Inc), fluid & agile startups (such as Sonim Technologies, Core Objects), Non-Profits, and Public Institutions (such as NSR Center for Entrepreneurial Learning, IIM Bangalore, JDGD Saraf Trust)- leading high impact projects, managing culturally diverse teams spread across time zones and geographical locations. An entrepreneur herself, she is experienced in facilitating the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and enabling communities of practice.

Dr. Sonali is an alumna of BITS Pilani, IIM Bangalore and IIM Indore. She obtained her PhD from the Indian Institute of Management Indore. Her dissertation titled ​“Demystifying the Black Box of Business Incubation: A Longitudinal Study of Incubated Entrepreneurs”. Though widely called for, longitudinal studies in entrepreneurship are challenging to complete and rare to find. Her study is probably the first such study in India that explores business incubation from the entrepreneurs’ perspective. It uses a grounded theory approach to investigate how and under what conditions business incubators really help nascent entrepreneurs. Her articles have been published/​presented in several international journals and conferences. Her research interests are at the intersection of entrepreneurship and public policy; gender, narrative, and public service motivation; the use of qualitative research methods to understand business phenomena for evidence-based management.