Dr  Raghu Dharmapuri Tirumala is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building, and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Raghu’s research focuses on public private partnerships in infrastructure, project and property finance, and managing the transformation of cities.

Raghu holds a PhD in Built Environment, an MBA in Marketing and Finance, and a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering. Previously, as the Professor and Director at RICS School of Built Environment (Noida, India), Raghu had set up the School of Infrastructure and designed the MBA program in Infrastructure Management. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited, a joint venture of the Government of Karnataka, IDFC, and HDFC at Bangalore, India. Raghu had partnered with various government, multi-lateral agencies (including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, GIZ, UN-Habitat), international development organizations, and private sector clients in the urban infrastructure (water supply, sanitation, solid waste management), property, integrated transportation, tourism, energy, commercial and industrial infrastructure sectors. Raghu had authored numerous policy documents and research reports. He is an invited speaker at numerous professional and industry conferences and conducts training courses on public private partnerships and infrastructure development.