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Board of Directors
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Dr. Anand Deshpande, Ph.D. – Founder, Chairman and Managing Director
As the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Persistent Systems, Dr. Deshpande's vision created a distinctive business that was focused on outsourced product development.
Dr. Deshpande, who embarked on as a hands-on techie, used his expertise in Data Management Systems to boot-strap a small boutique shop. In the course of time, under his leadership, Persistent has grown tremendously with a host of satisfied customers.
Dr. Deshpande completed his graduation in B. Tech (Hons.) in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana (USA). After his Ph.D., he worked at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in Palo Alto, California, and has been a member of the Board since he founded Persistent Systems in 1990.
He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Computer Society of India (CSI) and Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA). He has been the President of Software Exporters' Association of Pune (SEAP) for 2005-06 and 2006-07 and Chairman of the Pune Chapter of Computer Society of India for 2003-04 and 2004-05.
He is an active member of the Database Community and has served as the Industrial Program Committee Chairman for Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) 2007 in Vienna, International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE) 2005 in Tokyo and Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA) 2008 in New Delhi. He was actively involved in organizing VLDB 1996 in Mumbai and ICDE 2003 in Bangalore. He was the Organizing Chair of the Conference on Management of Data in 2005 at Goa. He has also been selected as the technical chair of the conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications to be held in January 2008 in New Delhi.
Dr. Deshpande has been awarded the Ninad Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science and Technology by the Ninad Foundation, Pune in 2007 and the Wisitex International Excellence Award - Corporate Ratna for furthering the growth of Information Technology in India. He received recognition from SPIN for Software Process Improvement in 2003 and was recognized by the Department of Engineering and Information Technology, Government of India, for presenting a paper on 'Emerging Trends in Database Technology.' He has also been awarded the Entrepreneur Award in recognition of his contribution to the Information Technology sector at the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal Convention in Atlanta, USA in 2005 and the Rotary Excellence Award by Rotary Club, Pune for his vision and leadership in the growth of IT sector.
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S. P. Deshpande – Founder and Director
S. P. Deshpande is the Founder and Director of Persistent and has been associated with the company right from its inception. An Electrical Engineering graduate from Jabalpur Engineering College in 1958, S. P. Deshpande has worked in some of India's leading engineering companies. Between 1958 and 1982, he worked with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in several departments specializing in transportation systems.
In 1982, he joined Kirloskar Pneumatic Company Limited (KPC) as the Associate Vice President and the Head of Materials Division. During his eight and half years with KPC, he also worked in QA, manufacturing services and R & D divisions. At KPC, he was credited with improvising the systems to reduce inventories, increase the turnover and to improve the processes for payments to the suppliers. He retired from KPC as the Vice President in October, 1990.
At Persistent , S. P. Deshpande is responsible for purchase, accounts, finance, secretarial, legal as well as entire administration functions.
He also founded the Software Exporter's Association of Pune (SEAP) in the year 1998 to foster better interaction among software export units in Pune for their mutual benefit. He heads the administrative functions at Persistent including General Administrations, Human Resources, Purchase, Accounts, Finance, Secretarial, Legal and Facilities. He has been a member of our Board since 1991.
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Dr. Pramod Haque – Investor Nominee Director
Dr. Promod Haque carries a huge experience in the venture capital industry and currently serves as Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. He joined Norwest Venture Partners in 1990.
Dr. Haque focuses on investments in semiconductor and components, systems, software and services. He was an early investor and a board member of Cerent (acquired by Cisco); Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks); OnDisplay (acquired by Vignette); Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and Extreme Networks.
Dr. Haque's current investments include Persistent, among other companies. Prior to Norwest Venture Partners, he spent 18 years in various operational roles, ranging from product development, marketing, and as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer at various public and private companies.
Dr. Haque received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delhi, India. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he serves on the advisory board. Dr. Haque has been ranked as a top dealmaker on the annual Forbes Midas List for the past five years and, in 2004, Forbes named him as the number one venture capitalist based on performance over the last decade. In 2006, he was presented with a Global Leadership award from NASSCOM. He has been a member of our Board since 2005.
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P. B. Kulkarni – Non-Executive Independent Director
P. B. Kulkarni is a senior banker and renowned expert in the area of foreign exchange and commercial banking. He was an Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India and is a former Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank of Maharashtra, a reputed nationalized bank in India. He was also a Non-Executive Chairman of the local advisory board of a foreign bank. He is rendering advisory and consultancy services in finance and banking areas, and functioning as the Director of some companies.
During his illustrious career spanning over 50 years, P. B. Kulkarni handled several responsibilities at the Reserve Bank of India, including management of foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate policy. He was on deputation to the Asian Development Bank, Manila, the Bangladesh Shilpa Bank, Dhaka, and the Myanmar Economic Bank, Yangon (Rangoon). He has also served as a chairman of the local advisory board for the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, B.S.C, and has been a Director on the boards of the Punjab and Sind Bank, Bank of India and Central Bank of India and was an alternate Director on the Board of Asian Clearing Union.
He has over fifty years of experience in the fields of banking and finance and currently renders advisory and consultancy services in finance and banking areas. He has served as a Chairman of the finance sector sub-committee of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture and is a past member of the editorial board of the journal of the National Institute of Bank Management.
He has been a member of Planning and Monitoring Board at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and was a Chairman of the Committee to monitor code of ethics of the Indian Banks Association. He is the member of the Centre for Advanced Strategic Studies, Pune, the English Speaking Union, Pune and the Vision Committee of the Pune University. He is the Chief Trustee of the Suparn Charitable Trust and serves on Arbitration Committee of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce in Industries and Agriculture and serves on the Grievance Committee of Pune Stock Exchange. He has been a member of our Board since 2001.
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Prof. Krithivasan Ramamritham – Non-Executive Independent Director
Prof. Krithivasan Ramamritham is Dean of R&D at IIT, Bombay, and the Vijay and Sita Vashee Chair Professor in the Computer Science Department.
Prof. Ramamritham's interests span the areas of real-time systems, database systems, and real-time database systems. He is applying concepts from these areas to solve problems in embedded systems, mobile computing, e-commerce, intelligent Internet, and the Web. During the last few years, he has been interested in the use of Information and Communication Technologies for creating tools aimed at socio-economic development.
He earned a Masters Degree in Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Utah. He was a professor at the University of Massachusetts from 1993 to 2001. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Science and Engineering Research Council, UK, at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, and has also held visiting positions at the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, and at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Prof. Ramamritham is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a member of the board of the Very Large Database Foundation (VLDF), and is an advisory board member to TTTech Computertechnik AG, Vienna, Austria (TTTech, Vienna), Microsoft Research India, Bangalore, India, the Technology Board of Tata Consultancy Service Limited and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad and Association for Computing Machinery - Special Interest Group on Management of Data, New York, USA (ACM Sigmod).
He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 2006 and has received the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from the University of Sydney, Australia in May 2006. He has been a member of our Board since 2001.
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Ram Gupta – Non-Executive Independent Director
Ram Gupta brings over 20 years strategy and execution expertise at global technology companies, holding various leadership positions at PeopleSoft, WebMD, Silicon Graphics, IBM and Tata Consultancy Services. He holds several patents in the U.S. and was awarded the Smithsonian Computer World "Search for the Heroes" Award for the year 2000.
Mr. Gupta is currently the Chairman of Sourceforge and Cast Iron Systems. He also serves on the Board of Directors of various technology companies such as S1 Corporation, Yodlee Inc., Plateau Systems, Compiere, and Accruent, Inc.
Previously, he was the President and CEO of Cast Iron Systems. Under his leadership, the revenues and the customer base grew significantly and Cast Iron became one of the largest vendors of application integration appliances.
Prior to that, he was the Executive Vice President at PeopleSoft responsible for strategy, marketing, development, customer support, alliances and mergers and acquisitions. He was instrumental in molding the company to be the one of the largest vendors of application suites worldwide.
Mr. Gupta was also the Senior Vice President and General Manager at WebMD Corp. He was part of the executive team that shaped WebMD from a single service, startup to a public company with a set of comprehensive offerings.
Mr. Gupta holds an MS degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is a graduate with Honors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani, India. He has been a member of our Board since September 14, 2007.
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About Persistent
