SAP India Head Ranjan Das passes away
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 22 October 2009, 00:03 IST
Printer Print Email Email
SAP India Head Ranjan Das passes away
Bangalore: Ranjan Das, CEO and Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent, who played huge role in taking business of SAP India to greater height in the last two years, died today morning due to heart attack. It is learnt that he collapsed at his home in Raheja Bay, Bandra, after returning from the building's in-house gym. In July 2007, Das was relocated to Mumbai from SAP's offices in Silicon Valley in the U.S. At SAP Labs in the U.S, he co-founded the business unit for xApps, the first packaged composite business applications in the industry. On the sudden demise of Das, Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys said, "In the brief interaction I had, Ranjan came across as a dynamic and visionary leader. His demise would be a loss to SAP and IT industry as well as his family and friends." Friends in the industry said Das was an unlikely candidate for a heart attack, since he was known to exercise regularly and be scrupulous in his food habits. Nagaraj Bhargava, a former Director, Marketing and Strategic Initiatives, SAP India, who worked with Das for more than 18 months, described him as a smart, intelligent and ambitious individual. "He would never miss a gym routine, come what may," Bhargava added. Born in 1967, Das earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. "He was a promising and dynamic person. This is a terrible loss and he will certainly be missed," said Girish Paranjpe, CEO, Wipro. Prior to joining SAP, Ranjan was the Founder and CEO of Patkai Networks, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital-funded software startup company. Earlier, he held a variety of roles at Oracle in Redwood Shores, California. He started his career as a software engineer at InterSystems and Kenan Systems, both based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The long hours and frequent travel between different time zones required by the industry have led many people to wonder if executives in the IT industry are more susceptible to the dangers of a heart attack. However, Nasscom President Som Mittal said that it is not specific to the industry. "I don't think it is an IT industry issue. He never looked over-stressed to me. It is very unfortunate," he added.

siliconindia