Board of Directors
Thomas Kailath
Chairman of Board, Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, Stanford University
Thomas Kailath (Sc.D.,MIT,1961) has been at Stanford University since 1963 and currently holds the title of Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus. His research has ranged over several fields of engineering and mathematics, including information theory, communications, linear systems, estimation and control, signal processing, semiconductor manufacturing, probability and statistics, matrix and operator theory. He has also co-founded and served as a director of several high-technology companies. Major honors include the IEEE Medal of Honor; Guggenheim, Churchill and Humboldt Fellowships; several honorary degrees and election to the US National Academy of Engineering, the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.
He is a Foreign Associate of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, a high national award presented by the President of India.
Anu Maitra
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Anu Maitra is Floreat’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Maitra steered the company in the direction of providing IP based software solutions, and established its Canada and India operations. Before joining Floreat she taught Business and Consumer Microeconomics, Mathematical Economics and Econometrics at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, a M.A. in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, India, and a B.A. in Economics Honors from Miranda House, Delhi University, India. Dr. Maitra also serves as President of the Board of Trustees of UC Santa Cruz.
Radha Basu
Director, Chairman of SupportSoft
Over a 20-year tenure as general manager at Hewlett Packard company, Ms. Radha Basu held various general manager positions, most recently Senior General Manager for HP’s international software division. Radha joined SupportSoft as CEO in July 1999 and is considered a pioneer of the support automation market having built SupportSoft into a global market leader in support automation software, with customers, including GE, Cisco Systems, Bank of America, BellSouth, Procter & Gamble, IBM and Siebel Systems.
In the mid-1980s, she developed HP’s software center in Bangalore, one of HP’s first foreign subsidiaries and it is still thriving today. Radha holds a B.S. in engineering from the University of Madras, a Masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Management Program.
Radha also serves on the board of Interplast. Interplast’s mission is to provide free reconstructive surgery for people in developing nations, and to help improve health care worldwide. Radha, and her husband Dipak, have trekked on Mt. Everest twice, reaching its base camps on both the North and South sides. She applies this experience to every aspect of her life – “The Mountain doesn’t care if you are a Hollywood actress or a CEO – the enormity of the trek forces you to be prepared for every disaster. Yet when you are faced with life or death on the mountain, you quickly realize that failure is not an acceptable option.”
Advisory Board
Arogyaswami Paulraj
Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
Arogyaswami Paulraj is a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University since 1993. His group has developed many key fundamentals of a new field called space-time communications theory and has helped shape a worldwide research and development focus on this technology.
Paulraj moved to Stanford University in 1992, and his interests has since focused on space-time wireless communications. He is the author of over 320 research papers and holds thirty US patents in wireless. He has authored two books in wireless. In 1999, Paulraj founded Iospan Wireless Inc., which pioneered MIMOOFDMA fixed wireless technology and developed chip sets for fixed wireless systems. Iospan was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2002.
In 2004, Paulraj co-founded Beceem Communications, Inc. to develop base band and RF chips sets for WIMAX 802.16e standard. The company has emerged as the leading supplier of Mobile WIMAX chip sets worldwide. Paulraj is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering where he was elected for his pioneering leadership in MIMO wireless. He received the IEEE Technical Achievement Award in 2003 and several best paper awards from the IEEE and is a Fellow of the IEEE. He was recently acclaimed as the “father of WIMAX” by Business Week. Paulraj currently serves on Board of Directors for 3 wireless companies and on several advisory boards of companies, universities and foundations.
Arjun Malhotra
CEO and Chairman of Headstrong
Mr. Malhotra serves as Chairman of Headstrong’s Board of Directors. Prior to Headstrong he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of TechSpan, which merged with Headstrong in October 2003.
A pioneer of the Indian IT industry, Mr. Malhotra founded TechSpan in 1998 with funding from Goldman Sachs and Walden International. The merger of TechSpan with Headstrong has built an end-to-end services organization. Mr. Malhotra led the seamless integration across businesses and cultures, resulting in Headstrong’s recognition as one of the fastest-growing IT-based Financial Services companies.
Mr. Malhotra has a long string of entrepreneurial successes. He co-founded the HCL group in 1975, taking it from a six-person “garage operation” to one of India’s largest Information Technology corporations. The first leading Indian entrepreneur to relocate to USA, Mr. Malhotra took over HCL’s US operation in 1989 and grew it to nearly $100 million annual revenues. In 1992 he ran the HCL-HP joint venture in India, and in 1996 he set up and ran the joint venture with Deluxe Corporation. He consolidated and grew HCL operations in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
Pravesh Mehra
Managing Partner, Heidrick & Struggles
Mr. Pravesh Mehra has more than 20 years of experience in management consulting and a proven track record of managing and growing businesses. He has worked with senior executives of major companies in the high technology industry in the areas of business and operations strategy, organization transformation, and technology implementation, and has extensive international work experience, including offshore outsourcing.
Pravesh joined Heidrick & Struggles from Capgemini, where he was the Americas Leader for Consulting Services. He joined Ernst & Young Consulting (which was acquired by Capgemini in 2000) in 1987 and was admitted to the partnership in 1993. Pravesh held various national and global leadership positions during his tenure. Pravesh received his MBA with honors in finance and management science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Bombay. He is also a gold medalist Chartered Accountant.
Pravesh is an enthusiastic and accomplished “outdoor-er” – hiker, biker, skier and golfer.
Kishan Shenoi
Chief Technology Officer, Floreat Inc.
Dr. Kishan Shenoi is our Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Floreat he worked at Symmetricom, Inc. for over 10 years, most recently as their Chief Technologist, and at DSC Communications Corp. for almost 10 years as Director, Engineering. Dr. Shenoi is a recognized expert in Digital Signal Processing and Telecommunications. He has published 56 technical papers as well as text, Digital Signal Processing in Telecommunications. He hold 29 patents on variety of DSP topics including Echo Cancellation, Clock Recovery, and Synchronization.
Dr. Shenoi is an active contributor to standards bodies, including ATIS and ITU-T. He received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1977, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India.