Rakesh Mohan Bakshi is the Vice President-Legal and Associate General Counsel at Amazon. With over 26 years of experience in telecom, information technology and e-commerce, he has seen the three waves of growth that the Indian economy has gone through since 1990. He started with Fujitsu and managed an end-to-end procurement of multi-million dollar transactions with the Department of Telecom, Government of India.
He was a part of the India Leadership Team that helped establish Microsoft’s business in India in 1998. At Microsoft, he led a team of 17 specialists in the legal, public policy and CSR space. One of the highlights of the time was the conceptualisation and execution of the zero-piracy program by Karnataka state. It was the first of its kind in the world that helped establish Bangalore as the Silicon Valley of India in 2001.
For the adoption of Information Technology in the under-served manufacturing clusters across India, Rakesh assisted in establishing Project Vikas, a program launched by Bill Gates in partnership with the Indian government. He was the second person hired by Amazon in India to launch its marketplace and leads a team of 30 lawyers and legal professionals.
Rakesh has served in key committees of several leading industry bodies. He was recognised as Asia’s first Annual IP In-house Counsel of the Year, India (2010). He ranked among the top 50 lawyers in India by Lex Witness.
"Let the better idea win and not the person who makes it"
Known for his polite attitude, he is said to fit the definition of an ideal manager. He is strong in terms of subject matter knowledge and is a people person. He believes in leading by example and sets very high standards for his team. These are not just restricted to discipline, but also relate to work culture ethics, integrity and core values.
