Aruna Ghatak-Roy
Aruna Ghatak-Roy, XRSI’s Head of Legal – Engineering and Innovation, brings a distinctive combination of technical engineering expertise and comprehensive legal acumen to XRSI’s mission of building safe and inclusive emerging technology ecosystems.
Believing deeply in challenging the status quo and thinking differently, Aruna applies over a decade of specialized experience at the intersection of law and cutting-edge technology to lead and shape legal strategies for innovations in AI, product security, and emerging technologies. As a former Manager, Assistant General Counsel at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), she architected practical and effective legal approaches that enabled the successful open-sourcing of critical security technologies and proprietary firmware technologies, including developing the legal framework for Caliptra, the industry’s first open-source silicon root-of-trust hardware, and creating an innovative licensing framework for the transition of AGESA platform firmware to open-source.
Aruna’s technical foundation as an electrical engineer with professional experience at Intel Corporation enables her to dive deep into technical details and bridge the challenging gap between technical implementation and legal compliance. Her approach of asking probing questions to uncover underlying needs proved invaluable when she resolved critical AI tools implementation challenges for over 300 global engineering teams at AMD, applying her engineering mindset to legal problems where traditional software-focused frameworks didn’t serve the hardware design flow.
Her expertise in product security and regulatory compliance has been recognized globally. She served as Business Information Security Officer (BISO) for AMD’s legal department and was appointed Chair of the Linux Foundation Chips Alliance Legal Committee, advising the technical board on legal frameworks for accelerating open-source hardware innovation. Through her practice, Ghatak Jones PLLC, she provides fractional general counsel services primarily to early-stage startup companies, fostering environments where diverse perspectives flourish.
Aruna’s commitment to creating more beautiful, connected, and just outcomes in technology is exemplified through her role as a Global Speaker for AMD’s Advancing Women in Tech Program, where she strove to drive increased patent submissions from women engineers. Her work has been instrumental in high-stakes transactions exceeding $35 million and creating industry-standard IP development agreements for strategic collaborations.
At XRSI, Aruna applies her comprehensive expertise to develop and implement legal frameworks supporting the organization’s Standards Development Organization (SDO) mission, ensuring practical and effective legal protection and alignment with global standards for responsible innovation.
Aruna holds a J.D. cum laude from Lewis and Clark Law School and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She is licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Texas State Bar, and the Western District of Texas.