Ashok Soota
Founder & Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds
Ashok Soota is widely recognized as one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry. Prior to founding Happiest Minds, Ashok co-founded MindTree in August 1999. Under Ashok&rsquot;s leadership, in a span of 11 years, MindTree became a global entity with revenue run rate of US$350 million, over 9000 people and offices in multiple cities in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Prior to co-founding MindTree, Ashok was President of Wipro Infotech from 1984 to 1999. Under his leadership, Wipro&rsquot;s IT business grew from US$2 million in 1984 to US$500 million run-rate in 1999.
Ashok began his career in 1965 with the Shriram Group of Industries in India. In 1978, he became CEO of Shriram Refrigeration, a company which was unprofitable for four consecutive years. Ashok facilitated a complete turnaround, making it profitable in his first year and taking it to a position of leadership in each of its product lines.
Ashok is an industry leader. He was President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India&rsquot;s largest Industry association and also President of Manufacturers Association of Information Technology. He has served on the Prime Minister&rsquot;s Task Force for IT and on the Advisory Council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva.
For his contribution to the Indian IT Industry, he was recognized as "IT Man of the Year" twice and as "Electronics Man of the Year". He is the recipient of the Prof. S. N. Mitra Award from Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Golden Peacock Award for Technology Leadership. He has been a member of the Global Board of Trustees of TiE. He has served on the Board of Governors of IIM, Kozhikode and was the founding Chief Patron of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled.