Romesh Wadhwani Biography

Dr. Romesh T. Wadhwani is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group (STG), a strategic private equity firm that is a partner in building software, Internet and technology-enabled services companies. Symphony's approach is to create value in its portfolio companies by enabling organic growth through innovation. With this transformation-centric approach, Symphony has grown over 10 years to a group of 12 companies with combined revenue of nearly $2.5 billion.

Education

Wadhwani received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and his MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Career

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

Wadhwani has been recognized by Forbes Magazine in the Forbes 400 and also in the Forbes Global 1000.

Prior to Symphony, Wadhwani was the founder and former chairman and CEO of Aspect Development, Inc., from its startup in 1991 to its acquisition in 2000 by i2 Technologies for $9.3 billion. Wadhwani grew Aspect Development to become an industry leader in software, analytic and content solutions for supply chain management and optimization. Prior to Aspect, for ten years each, Wadhwani was founder, chairman and CEO of two companies, one specializing in software and solutions for computer-integrated manufacturing and the other in technology-enabled energy management solutions.

Wadhwani is on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both in Washington, D.C.

Philanthropy

Wadhwani is a committed philanthropist who plans to give away much of his wealth. He established the Wadhwani Foundation with the mission of accelerating economic development in the emerging economies, with an initial focus on India. The foundation staff, which consists of 55 professionals, imagine, develop and execute major initiatives with large-scale impact and measurable outcomes, often in partnership with the central and state governments and other foundations. Key initiatives in India include the National Entrepreneurship Network, which has established comprehensive programs to enable growth-centric entrepreneurship at over 500 universities and colleges; a major Skills College Network to help train and place large numbers of young adults in vocational jobs; an Opportunities Network for the disabled; and a world-class research initiative in biosciences and biotechnology to help create jobs through innovation. The Wadhwani Foundation has also 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 prestigious policy think tank in Washington D.C. and Hemant Singh, most recently 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.