Kanwal
Rekhi, a Sikh by religion, though “without a turban,” as he puts
it, was part of the exodus of refugees from Pakistan after the
partition of India. The family settled in Kanpur and Rekhi graduated
from IIT Bombay, an institution he still holds dear to his heart.
In fact, he was the first big individual donor to the IIT, contributing
two million dollars towards the construction of “The Kanwal Rekhi
School of Information Technology.”
Rekhi went to the US in 1967 to get a Master’s degree in electrical
engineering at Michigan Technological University. “In the early
70s, you had to scramble to survive in this business,” recalls
Rekhi who was laid off from his first three jobs after graduating.
“It was not a great time to be an engineer.” Rekhi’s latent talent
of spotting winners, be it in people or places was kindled from
the beginning.
Recognizing the potential that Silicon Valley held for the future
of technology, he moved to San Jose and a job at Singer-Link.
He soon quit Singer-Link to join Zilog, Inc., a microprocessor
outfit. But the entrepreneurial spirit in him never died.
A year after joining Zilog, Rekhi along with two other colleagues
who were Indians, started Excelan, to build add-in boards to connect
desktop computers into a local area network. It wasn’t easy for
an Indian to launch their own business. The Venture funding company
felt the company lacked the right manager indirectly pointing
out that there was no white guy in the team.
A successful Excelan was later sold to Novell thus making millions
for Rekhi. Rekhi joined Novell but quit after he was passed over
for the post of chief executive in favor of Robert Frankenberg.
A disillusioned Rekhi decided that it was time to utilize his
talents, skills and money to help other start-ups mainly by Indians.
Recently, Rekhi along with a few other Valley veterans have joined
forces with the mission of raising venture capital for Indian
companies. Their goal is a venture-capital industry capable of
putting together over $3 billion a year. Rekhi has also made a
$1 million donation to the Foundation for Excellence (FFE), a
non-profit organization that helps students in India. He has pledged
to match the sum for each of the next four years to assist disadvantaged
students, particularly girls, in India.
Rekhi is the president of the IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit
global network of entrepreneurs and professionals that has often
been termed the “Indian Mafia”, established to foster entrepreneurship
and nurture entrepreneurs.
Kumar
Mangalam Birla , 31 years of age heads the US$ 1.1 billion A V
Birla Group (Textile, Aluminium, Finance etc) based at: Mumbai.
Coming from the well-known Birla industrial family of India,
Kumar Mangalam Birla heads the 38 companies under the Aditya
Birla Group. The Group indulges in a range of activities from
commodities to telecom. It was a tough job for the young Aditya
to step into his father's shoes to run the groups interests
in various fields. Whereas his forebears collected businesses
the way some people collect stocks and mutual funds, young Kumar
is engaged in sorting out Birla's potential winners from its
also-rans.
The earlier generations of Birlas, had gone into just about
any business for which the $5 billion (revenues) group could
get a government license. Kumar revisited each company and cancelled
$2 billion in planned investments in steel, petrochemicals,
paper and fiberglass. "As times change, organizations, too,
have to change," he says.
The image-conscious Birla has devised a corporate logo and increased
openness to investors and analysts by creating a corporate communications
department. This is in contrast to the low-profile corporate
image pursued by his father, who died of cancer three years
ago, pushing Kumar into the top spot at an unexpectedly early
age.
Mr.
K.N. Bhandari, chairman and managing director of the Chennai-based
United India Insurance Company, was born and educated in Jodhpur.
With a double degree in law and economics he hoped to pursue
the legal profession. However his father's sudden demise forced
the young Mr. Bhandari to look out for a job.
Soon
he got himself a job with the General Assurance Society as a
trainee officer in 1963. This took him to Calcutta. 1971, was
the year of nationalisation of the insurance sector. The same
year he was absorbed in National Insurance Company Ltd, Calcutta.
This is where his career path began an upward movement. After
five years of service he was promoted to assistant manager/divisional
manager. His firm belief in delivery only what he can promise
is what changed the face of his company. He turned Rs 70 lakh
premium into a Rs.7 crore-premium division. From thereon he
was involved in all the major insurance projects that came along.
Now
Bhandari is also the chairman of the newly formed body of nationalised
insurance companies, General Insurers (Public Sector) Association
(Gipsa). He is busy charting a new course for United India and
GIPSA to take competition head on.
Father
of two daughters and a son Bhandari has no intentions of shifting
into the private sector or take up a top notch post in the countries
largest general insurers. For him it's not the benefits, rather
the conventions that are associated with the insurance industry.
K.N.