Flextronics Software chief Arun Kumar dies in U.S.

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Monday, 10 July 2006, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Arun Kumar, the President and MD of Flextronics Software Systems passed away in the U.S. Friday night of a serious heart attack. He was 51 and is survived by wife Amita and son Kunal. Kumar was an IT industry veteran and was associated with Flextronics for 10 years. Flextronics Software Services was formerly known as Hughes Networks before Singapore based Flextronics acquired it. He was raised in the princely city of Lucknow and graduated from IIT Kanpur in 1969 and He did his Masters in Computer Science from the University of Missouri. Arun started working in San Diego and returned to India in 1995 after Hughes Networks setup a development center in India and asked him to lead it. At Hughes, he was employed in the remote management center of Hughes Networks. Arun believed in giving more to the employees and customers and in a short span of four years, listed the Indian arm of Hughes on the Bombay Stock Exchange. This was an highly impossible task considering that the India development center was an captive unit. In more than six years of public listing and even after the recent delisting, the core management team in HSS has remained the same. Arun remained loyal to the company even though the company went to three separate owners in three years. The first change in control was in July 2003 when Australia based media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s company News Corp made an open offer for HSS shares as a follow up of its global acquisition of a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, the U.S. based parent of Hughes Network Systems, which in turn owns 55.4 percent stake in HSS. Within a year, News Corp sold its stake in the company to Flextronics. Though Flextronics talked about a great future for the company, the happiness didn’t last long. Earlier this year, Flextronics sold its stake in the company to U.S. based private equity fund Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. A FSS statement said, "It is with deep regret that Flextronics Software Systems (FSS) announces the demise of its President and Managing Director, Arun Kumar. Kumar died of a cardiac arrest in San Diego, California, U.S. on July 7, 2006.” “While we all remember Arun as a visionary leader and a professional, he was first and foremost an outstanding human being," said Ash Bhardwaj, Chief Executive Officer of Flextronics Software Systems. “Arun had an unyielding belief that people always come first. This philosophy impacted everyone who came into contact with him, both professionally and socially. We have lost an outstanding leader, a true friend, and a genuinely decent man. All of us at FSS mourn Arun's passing and extend our deepest sympathies to his family."