Nikhil Kulkarni

Nikhil Kulkarni is an author, AI leader, and cricket enthusiast whose work celebrates sport, innovation, and Australia–India connections.

on Jun 15, 2026

A lifelong cricket tragic, Nikhil Kulkarni’s first book, My Summer of Cricket, is an impassioned memoir chronicling the Test cricket matches between Australia and India over the 2024–25 summer. It’s also a heartfelt homage to the lasting connections between cricket fans across the globe.

With a distinguished career as a product management leader across several startups and high-growth companies in India and Australia, Nikhil currently leads teams in the AI space at Atlassian. He regularly speaks on AI and product management and mentors young talent.

Nikhil is a community leader and advocate for deeper Australia–India ties. He serves on the management committee of the NSW chapter of the Australia–India Business Council and was recognised as a 2024 finalist at the Asian Australian Leadership Awards in the Corporate Category. In 2025, he was named one of 21 national leaders in Asian Australian Voices, an initiative bringing diverse perspectives into policymaking and national discourse on Australia’s engagement with Asia.

A strong believer in paying it forward, Nikhil was a founding volunteer and part-time Fellow at iSPIRIT, a think tank in India aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in the software product ecosystem. He has led several programs and key events for the Indian startup community.

Nikhil’s deep love for cricket is matched only by his enthusiasm for wordplay and puns. An avid quizzer, he has appeared twice on SBS’s Mastermind. He is deeply invested in supporting girls’ cricket and lives in Sydney with his wife and two daughters – both of whom he’s trying to convince to pick up the bat!