Two Indians in Forbes list of richest Americans

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 26 September 2006, 19:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: Two Indian-Americans have appeared in the Forbes 400 richest Americans list. They are Kavitark Ram Shriram, the first investor in Google and Amar Bose, the chairman of Bose Corporation. They have both moved up the rankings in the list, leaving behind many U.S. corporate moguls including those from Starbucks, eBay and Motorola. Bose, known around the world for speakers and clock radios and tech wizard Shriram have been tied at the 242nd position in the list, ahead of Margaret C. Whitman, the president and CEO of eBay Inc, Howard S. Schultz, chairman of Starbucks and William Barron Hilton, the chairman of Hilton hotel chain. Both Bose and Shriram, who are now U.S. citizens are worth $1.5 billion each and have overtaken Rober William Galvin of Motorola, Robert Drayton Mclane Jr of Wal-Mart and Roy Edward Disney of Walt Disney. In 2005, Shriram first entered the list and was ranked 258. But Bose has been in the list for five times in a row. He was ranked 283 last year. The net worth of boh of them is $1.5 billion each from $1.3 billion and $1.2 billion respectively last year. Speaking about Shriram, 50, Forbes said that his riches are either self-made or from technology business. Shriram was born and did schooling in Chennai, and currently lives in California. Forbes said he created shop bot Junglee that he sold to Amazon in 1998. He later worked for Netscape, Amazon before launching Sherpalo in 2000. It also said he was an early investor, board member of Google and later sold more than half his shares since public offering 2004. However he still owns 1.9 million shares worth $760 million. His other investments are Zazzle (custom-designed T shirts, mugs, stamps), PodShow (online radio), 24x7Customer (Indian call centers). About Bose, 76, Forbes said he earned most of his wealth from Bose Corporation, a company that builds the world’s finest speakers. He completed his education from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founded Bose Corp in 1964. Bose started out by repairing radios after his father’s import business slumped after World War II. He first contract was with the NASA and the U.S. military to improve sound quality. Today he supplies to high-end automobiles like Porsche and Mercedes.

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