Friday, November 21, 2008
Sunil Wadhwani
Age 47
Place of Birth Mumbai
Residence Pittsburgh, PA
Family Wife Nita and children, Shalina and Rohan
Came to the U.S. 1974
Education B. Tech., IIT, Mumbai; Master’s degree in management, Carnegie Mellon.
First job UroTec Systems Corp. (CEO and co-founder)
Company started 1986
Year did an IPO 1996
Year became millionaire 1992
Favorite charity Children’s education in India
Lifetime goals Help educating underprivileged children in India
Net worth $450 million
Philosophy of life Set very ambitious goals -- then work hard to achieve them
Most inspired by Mahatma Gandhi
Most excited by Playing with my kids!
Most expensive thing ever bought
Ashok Trivedi
Age 50
Place of Birth Lucknow
Residence Pittsburgh, PA
Family Wife Anjana and children, Sheena, Shivani and Shelly
Came to the U.S. 1973
Education - B. Sc. and M.Sc. (Physics), University of Delhi; MBA, Ohio University
First job Unisys Corporation
Company started 1986
Year did an IPO 1996
Year became millionaire 1996
Favorite charity Educational charities in India and US
Lifetime goals Be happy. Help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and build great companies
Net worth - $450 million
Philosophy of life Life is short, make the most of it
Most inspired by My father
Most excited by Identifying new opportunities and a round of golf
Most expensive thing ever bought My house
No one knows how to ride technology curves better than Mastech’s co-founders, Ashok Trivedi and Sunil Wadhwani. And Silicon Valley’s technology arbors really do resound with applause for a company that went from zero to over $500 million in just a decade. Mastech has certainly come a long way since its inception in 1988 and recently unveiled a dramatic turnaround plan for the consulting company, which will now be called iGate Capital Corporation and focus on e-services.
CEO Wadhwani and co-founder Trivedi are, by themselves, studies in intrepid entrepreneurship. Whereas Wadhwani attributes his success to a simple work philosophy: the love for intellectual challenges and the thrill of achieving extremely high goals; for Trivedi, it was being able to ride the technology curve at the right time. “When the client-server technology train left the station, we were sitting on that train. When it picked up speed, so did we. Then there was no looking back.”
Today, iGate’s 6,000 employees are spread over five continents and 36 countries, with a workplace diversity that reflects over 50 nationalities.
Setting high personal goals is a religion with the two savvy entrepreneurs. For Trivedi, personal goals are “nothing but dreams with a deadline.” Raised in New Delhi, he first came to the US to attend a doctoral program. After working at Burroughs for several years, he and Wadhwani got together to cerebrate over the inchoate Mastech.
The 47-year-old puts a high price on value and integrity. Although he clocks 16-hour days, Wadhwani still finds time to play chess with his children. He believes in the value of hard work and intellectual challenge as primary to success.
Raised in Bombay, the former IIT-ian came to the US for a Master’s program at Carnegie Mellon. He worked as a freelance management consultant for several years before embarking on the Mastech ride.
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