Prat is our Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee given his strong track record of financial and operational growth. Bhatt served as the Chief Accounting Officer from July 2009 through July 2023 and as Executive Advisor from August 2023 to January 2024 at Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), a global technology company. He previously also held the additional title of Corporate Controller from July 2009 to May 2022. From June 2007 to July 2009 he served as Vice President, Finance and Assistant Corporate Controller, and from November 2000 to June 2007, Bhatt served in various leadership roles of increasing importance at Cisco.
Bhatt currently serves on the Board of Directors of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) since December, 2020 and is the Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (“FAF”). He also currently serves on the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality (“CAQ”) since August, 2023 and is a member of the Financial Oversight Committee. In addition, he currently serves as a member of Deloitte's Audit Quality Advisory Council. From June 1999 to November 2000, Bhatt was Director of Financial Operations at Kaiser Permanente and from October 1990 to June 1999 he was Senior Manager with Ernst & Young LLP in the Assurance Practice.
Bhatt has previously served on advisory committees to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”), chair roles including the Financial Executives International’s Committee on Corporate Reporting (“CCR”) and is a regular speaker on financial reporting & accounting topics at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and other forums.
Bhatt is a certified public accountant (retired) and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his master’s degree in accounting from the University of Southern California.
