Shailesh Ingale

My Work

I'm a product portfolio management executive who thrives at the intersection of product management, strategy, and finance.
 
I cut my teeth as an Audio Systems Engineer in the automotive industry, working with automakers to design branded audio systems in their cars. This required working across multiple engineering domains. The cross-functional was in my blood from the start.
 
I complemented my engineering background with an MBA and Masters in Design Innovation. Since B-school, I've worked across industries on a variety of product development challenges -- telecommunications, automotive, food & beverage, home building controls.
 

Always Ready: Elevating the In-Car Experience

In March, 2025 I was featured in the Always Ready Podcast where I spoke about the evolution of Brand Audio in Cars with new digital experiences. Great sound is table stakes for an in-vehicle branded audio system, but with digital experiences, we can engage the drivers other senses and create a full experience that lets them get to their destination happier and more relaxed, with technologies like Mood Wave and the Aura light show.
 

My Master's Thesis

While at Illinois, I wrote my master's thesis "Comparison of Alternative Training Algorithms for Hidden Markov Models (HMMs)," where I showed that AI models trained using ad-hoc structured machine learning can be just as effective for speech recognition as models trained using much more resource-intensive machine learning algorithms.
 

Relevant Links

Places I've worked and learned

HARMAN International

The Car Audio business is the global market leader in brining branded audio to life in cars.

HERE Technologies

The original visionaries in digital maps, HERE mapped the world decades before MapQuest or Google Maps existed.

Accenture Strategy

Strategy consulting group within Accenture. I was a part of the Innovation & Product Development practice.

Bose Corporation

My original exposure to the world of Branded Car Audio. Bose believes in Better sound through research

Anheuser-Busch

Makers of the famous Budweiser beer. Part of the Brewing Operations & Technology team.

Coordinated Science Laboratory

Multidisciplinary research laboratory at the University of Illinois. Home of my hearing aid research.

Advanced Micro Devices

Circuit design for x86 chipsets going into home computers. I designed a random number generator as my highlight.

Lockheed Martin

Aerospace and Defense. I spent two summers tracking security audit and Y2K compliance status of NASA systems.

MMM Program

Joint program in Product Design between the McCormick School of Engineering and Kellogg School of Management

Kellogg School of Management

The business school at Northwestern University. I studied Finance, Entrepreneurship and Product Design.

University of Illinois

One of the public ivies and an incredible place to spend the most formative years of my life while earning two degrees.

"If you're not doing what you love, you're just wasting your time"
     - Billy Joel