Smruti Patel

I spent the first half of my life in the hustling, bustling city of Mumbai. It's called the 'city that never sleeps, for a reason. And a lot of how I am wired comes from my time there.

In the pouring rains of Mumbai, when your umbrella turns up, you still take an extra minute to help that old lady cross the street. Whether it is time, space, money or opportunity, you cannot squander it, cause there is precious little to go around. And even if you have to wade through chest deep water, you go give that Electronics exam. Empathy, efficiency, and engagement are my core DNA.

I'm currently SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL, where I lead engineering teams building the world's most adopted GraphQL platform. My journey has taken me from Mumbai to New York to the Bay Area, with nourishing stops at VMware and Stripe along the way.

I'm passionate about building platforms that provide high leverage to its users, debugging engineering velocity, and creating cultures where teams can do their best work. I believe that after two decades in tech, it all comes down to people - and I'm committed to helping engineering leaders build the most effective, inclusive, and sustainable organizations.

I love the outdoors and traveling, seeing people I've helped grow in their careers and being silly with my boys.