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Romesh T. Wadhwani (born 1947) is an Indian-American billionaire, businessman and head of investment firm SAIGroup. He is the former chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group, a private equity firm for software, Internet and technology services companies. He established the Wadhwani Foundation for economic development in emerging economies, with an initial focus on India. Initiatives in India include the National Entrepreneurship Network.

Early life

Romesh T. Wadhwani was born in a Sindhi Hindu family in Karachi, British India (now Pakistan), 10 days after India gained Independence in August 1947. His family moved to India following Indian independence. He contracted polio at age 2 and had difficulty getting admission to school. He received a bachelor's degree from the IIT Bombay, and master's and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Career

For ten years, Wadhwani was the founder, chairman, and CEO of two companies, one (American Robot Corporation) specializing in software and solutions for computer-integrated manufacturing and the other (Compu-Guard Corporation) in technology-enabled energy management.

Wadhwani was then the founder, chairman, and CEO of Aspect Development, Inc., from its startup in 1991 to its acquisition in 1999 by i2 Technologies for $9.3 billion in stock.

Wadhwani is the executive chairman of Symphony Teleca Corporation, MSC Software Inc., Symphony Health Solutions Inc., and Shopzilla Inc., and is on the board of Information Resources Inc. Wadhwani is the largest limited partner in each of Symphony's private equity funds, the third of which closed at $870 million.

Together with his brother, Sunil Wadhwani, he has founded Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Mumbai to develop artificial intelligence solutions for public good.

Wadhwani has invested $1 billion in predictive and generative AI SaaS company SymphonyAI.

Philanthropy

Wadhwani is on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both in Washington, D.C.

He established the Wadhwani Foundation for economic development in emerging economies in 2000, with an initial focus on India. Initiatives in India include the National Entrepreneurship Network, which has established programs to enable growth-centric entrepreneurship at over 500 universities and colleges; a skills college network to help train and place large numbers of young adults in vocational jobs; an opportunities network for the disabled; and a research initiative in biosciences and biotechnology to help create jobs through innovation. The Foundation has launched a US-India policy initiative, with Rick Inderfurth, previously Assistant Secretary of State, as the Wadhwani Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C., and Hemant Singh, former Indian Ambassador to Japan, as the head of the Wadhwani program at ICRIER, a major policy institute in Delhi. Wadhwani won the India Abroad Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.

In 2012, he inaugurated a new research centre at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore, named after his late mother, Shanta Wadhwani.

Personal life

He is married to Kathleen "Kathy" Wadhwani, and they live in Palo Alto, California.

They have one daughter, Melina, who married Patrick Carey in 2011. Carey works as head of sales operations at Symphony Talent.

Honours

Wadhwani was awarded an honorary doctorate by the IIT Bombay in August 2018.

References

1. ^ Tripathi, Naandika (29 April 2022). "Romesh Wadhwani: Building Up, And Giving Away". Forbes India. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
2. Rajvanshi, Astha (7 September 2023). "TIME100 AI 2023: Romesh and Sunil Wadhwani". Time. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
3. Fannin, Rebecca (8 December 2023). "How a 75-year-old Indian-American tech entrepreneur is betting $1 billion of his own fortune on AI's future". CNBC. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
4. Gupta, Ashish (5 June 2015). "How to create jobs by the million". Fortune India. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2020. The white-haired, soft-spoken Sindhi was born in Karachi, and later moved to India with his parents.
5. Krishna, Mrinalini. "Q&A With Immigrant Billionaire Romesh Wadhwani: America Needs Immigrants". Forbes.
6. ^ "Forbes profile: Romesh T. Wadhwani". Forbes. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
7. Cuff, Daniel F.; Times, Special To the New York (13 June 1985). "ROBOT MAKER FINDS A NICHE (Published 1985)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
8. Christopher, Nilesh (20 February 2018). "India's first AI research institute opened in Mumbai". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
9. Fannin, Rebecca (8 December 2023). "How a 75-year-old Indian-American tech entrepreneur is betting $1 billion of his own fortune on AI's future". CNBC. CNBC. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
10. ^ "Romesh Wadhwani: The Renaissance Man - Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
11. "Wadhwani". glasspockets.org. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
12. "2011-08-31 Wadhwani - Carey Family Party - Singularity University". singularityu.org. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
13. "Oceanfront Ceremony & Opulent Pink and Metallic Reception". insideweddings.com. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
14. Gaenger, Sheridan (5 July 2016). "Mastering Your Employer Brand to Fuel Talent Acquisition". symphonytalent.com. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
15. ANI (11 August 2018). "Romesh Wadhwani conferred with degree of Doctor of Science by IIT Bombay". Business Standard India. Retrieved 16 January 2020.

• 1940s births
• American computer businesspeople
• American billionaires
• Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni
• 21st-century American philanthropists
• IIT Bombay alumni
• Living people
• American chief executives
• American company founders
• American people of Sindhi descent
• Indian billionaires
• Indian emigrants to the United States