The Hindu : Front Page : Four Indian-Americans make it to Forbes list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 23, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Four Indian-Americans make it to Forbes list

Amar Bose

Houston: Four Indian Americans — acoustics pioneer Amar Bose, Google founder director Kavitark Shriram, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Bharat Desai, CEO of an info-tech outsourcing firm — have made it to the Forbes list of richest Americans.

Mr. Bose shares the 271st place in the list, released on Friday, with Mr. Shriram with a net worth of $1.8 billion.

Both Mr. Bose and Mr. Shriram, who shared the 242nd spot last year, went down the list but their personal fortunes have gone up from $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion.

Mr. Bose, an acoustics pioneer, formed his firm 43 years ago, which today thrives on the latest in iPod speaker docks, home theatre systems, noise-killing headphones, with a sale of $2 billion. The 77-year-old ‘sultan of sound,’ who started repairing radios in high school to help his family after his father’s import business was hurt due to the Second World War, earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering from MIT and began research in hi-fi sound. He founded Bose Corp in 1964 and contracted with NASA and the U.S. military to improve radio communications. He built his brand on groundbreaking loudspeaker design and presently owns 60 per cent stake in the company.

Vinod Khosla

Mr. Shriram, an India-born financier, is an early investor and a board member of Google who owns 1.7 million shares worth $870 million despite selling over 3 million shares in 2004, when it went public.

Another NRI Bharat Desai and his wife Neerja Sethi, founders of an info-tech outsourcing firm Syntel, have been ranked 286th with a fortune of $1.7 billion in the list. Mr. Desai, who was born in Kenya but moved to India at the age of 11, studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, took a programming job in the U.S. with Tata Consultancy Services in 1976. He earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and founded info-tech outsourcing firm Syntel with his wife Neerja Sethi.

Mr. Desai, also a card player, represented India in the bridge world championship in 1995.

Indian-American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla who had made his presence in the list almost continuously, this time figures in the 317th place. The price of admission to America’s most exclusive club is now $1.3 billion, instead of a billion. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page