Naveen Jain Biography

Naveen K. Jain (born 6 September 1959) is a business executive, entrepreneur and a philanthropist. He is founder and CEO of inome (originally called Intelius). He is the founder of InfoSpace, Moon Express, and other companies. When Infospace stock was at its heights, Jain became a billionaire. In 2000, Forbes ranked Jain 121 on their list of 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of 2.2 billion dollars.

Background

Jain grew up in villages throughout Uttar Pradesh, including cities such as New Delhi. Later he moved to Roorkee, where in 1979 he earned an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and then moved to Jamshedpur, where in 1982 he earned his MBA at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources.

Professional background

Early professional life

Jain left India in 1983 after being accepted to Burroughs via a business-exchange program to explore the emerging U.S. high-technology market. He worked at companies that included Convergent Technologies and Tandon Computer Corporation.

Microsoft and MSN

In 1989, Jain joined Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, working in the capacity of Program Manager. He initially began working on OS/2 and then moved on to several of Microsoft's flagship products, including MS-DOS, Windows NT, and Windows 95. Jain is listed on three patents from his time with Microsoft. He later moved to the development of the Microsoft Network. Jain left Microsoft in 1996 to form InfoSpace.

InfoSpace

Jain founded InfoSpace in March 1996 and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2000. InfoSpace provides metasearch and private-label Internet search services for consumers and businesses. While CEO, Jain's personal worth rose from almost one billion dollars in 1999 to USD$2.2 billion in 2000 when, at the height of the dot-com bubble, he was ranked 121 on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans. He resumed the role of CEO in 2001, but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December 2002. In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.

Intelius

In 2003, Jain co-founded Intelius, a Bellevue, Washington-based Web security firm with annual revenues of $150 million and more than 350 employees. Intelius specializes in public records information and offers service to consumers and businesses which include background checks and identity theft protection.

The company has been subject to significant criticism and lawsuits relating to their marketing practices.

inome

In 2012 Intelius and it's holdings were restructured. The corporate umbrella was named inome.

TalentWise

TalentWise is a May 2013 spin-off from inome where Jain serves on the board.

Moon Express

In August 2010, Jain co-founded Moon Express, a privately funded company that aims to build and launch a robotic spacecraft to the moon. Moon Express is a Mountain View, California-based commercial lunar transportation company pursuing the Google Lunar X PRIZE and a long term interest of developing lunar resources for benefits to humanity.

World Innovation Institute

Jain is the founder of The World Innovation Institute, which focuses on innovations and entrepreneurship that have the potential to solve our world's most complex challenges.

Board memberships

In June 2011, Jain was elected to the board of director of Singularity University.

Jain is a trustee of xprize foundation and co-chairs the education and global development initiative of the X Prize Foundation. In this position, he has spearheaded several entrepreneurial incentive challenges to find solutions to agriculture, poverty, health and clean water. His current projects include Digital Doctor, which provides ways to give rural communities global access to primary care physicians. He is developing Addictive Education, which is a neuroscience-based program to teach students skills such as math, science and history.

Recognition

In 1999, Jain was awarded the Emerging Entrepreneur Award Winner for the Pacific Northwest Region by Ernst & Young.

On April 25, 2011, The Times Group has awarded Jain the "Light of India Business Leadership Award" for "visionary entrepreneurship".

In August 2011, Jain was named one of the Most Admired Indian Serial Entrepreneurs by Silicon India.

In December 2011, Jain received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Red Herring Global 2011 Conference.

Notable rulings

In May 2002, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman made a landmark $247 million ruling in favor of Thomas Dreiling, a small shareholder of InfoSpace who brought a lawsuit against InfoSpace as well as then CEO Jain. Under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the judge ruled, Jain had violated six month short swing stock trading rules. Language in documents prepared by J.P. Morgan Securities incorrectly put control of stock granted to Jain's children's trust funds in 1998 and 1999 in the Jains' account without the Jains' knowledge. The judge ruled that Jain had in essence "purchased" the stock for nothing. During that same period, Jain sold $202 million worth of stock. Jain argued that he didn't intend to take control of the trusts and blamed J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., among others, for the mistake.

While the cases were in appeal, attorneys at the Securities and Exchange Commission urged the appeals court to reverse the ruling. Attorneys representing InfoSpace shareholders agreed to settle the case, fearing the weight of the SEC brief could result in a complete reversal of their ruling during the appeal process. In late 2004, InfoSpace reached a settlement agreement resolving the numerous related lawsuits, including the Dreiling v. Jain, et al. Section 16(b) (short swing) case which was pending on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Insurance carriers finally settled the case in March 2009.

Following the settlement, Jain unsuccessfully sued his stock management company and lawyers. The Supreme Court in March 2009 refused to hear an appeal from Jain of the decision against him from the Washington state Court of Appeals.

In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing. The court found in favor of Jain citing no evidence to support InfoSpace's claim.

Philanthropy

In 2009, Jain helped raise over $200,000 at a luncheon benefiting Overlake Service League. He and his wife, Anu, co-chaired the event.

In May 2011, Jain funded a $1-million award for the "Digital Doctor" competition. The prize for this competition will go to the first team to build an easy-to-use, tablet- or laptop-based system that can accurately diagnose regional diseases afflicting people in developing nations.

Family

Jain is married and lives in Medina, Washington. He has three children, Ankur, Priyanka and Neil.

Ankur Jain graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2011, and is working on a business venture that will connect entrepreneurs with innovative technologies with established businesses in foreign markets.

His daughter, Priyanka, is the founder and president of iCAREweCARE.org, a social network that connects philanthropically minded high school and college students with local opportunities to give. The United Nations Foundation named her a Youth Champion, "Teen Role Model" and "Teen Advisor".

His youngest son, Neil, was a speaker at TEDx at the United Nations. He is the founder and leader of Team Gen Z, a student-run group competing for the $10 MM Qualcomm Tricorder X-PRIZE competition.