Romesh T. Wadhwani (born 1947) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

, businessman and head of investment firm SAIGroup. He is the former chairman and CEO of

Symphony Technology Group STG Partners, LLC (STG) is an American private equity firm and based in Menlo Park, California. Its predecessor, Symphony Technology Group ("Symphony") was founded in 2002Dorbian, Iris (July 1, 2024) STG Rising: Hailing the Newcomer on the 100. ...

, a

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

for software, Internet and technology services companies. He established the Wadhwani Foundation for economic development in emerging economies, with an initial focus on India.

Early life

Romesh T. Wadhwani was born in a

Sindhi Hindu Sindhi Hindus are ethnic Sindhis who practice Hinduism and are native to the Sindh region of the Indian subcontinent. They are spread across modern-day Sindh, Pakistan and India. After the partition of India in 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were amo ...

family in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, Pakistan, 10 days after India and Pakistan gained Independence from Britain in August 1947. His family moved to India following Indian independence. He contracted

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

at age 2 and had difficulty getting admission to school. He received a bachelor's degree from the

IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT- Bombay or IIT-B) is a Public university, public research university and Institute of technology, technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. IIT Bombay is mainly known for the hig ...

, and master's and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

Career

For a decade, Wadhwani was the founder, chairman, and CEO of two companies, one (American Robot Corporation) specializing in software and solutions for computer-integrated manufacturing and the other (Compu-Guard Corporation) in technology-enabled energy management. Wadhwani was then the founder, chairman, and CEO of Aspect Development, Inc., from its startup in 1991 to its acquisition in 1999 by i2 Technologies for $9.3 billion in stock. Together with his brother, Sunil Wadhwani, he has founded Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

to develop artificial intelligence solutions for public good. Wadhwani has invested $1 billion in predictive and generative AI SaaS company SymphonyAI.

Philanthropy

Wadhwani is on the board of trustees of the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

and the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...

, both in Washington, D.C. He established the Wadhwani Foundation for economic development in emerging economies in 2000, with an initial focus on India. Initiatives in India include the

National Entrepreneurship Network National Entrepreneurship Network or NEN is a community dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. Services focus on providing institutional capacity building, entrepreneur support, entrepreneurial eco-system and national platforms. Based on an id ...

, which has established programs to enable growth-centric entrepreneurship at over 500 universities and colleges; a skills college network to help train and place large numbers of young adults in vocational jobs; an opportunities network for the disabled; and a research initiative in biosciences and biotechnology to help create jobs through innovation. The Foundation has launched a US-India policy initiative, with Rick Inderfurth, previously Assistant Secretary of State, as the Wadhwani Chair at the

, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C., and Hemant Singh, former 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. In 2012, Wadhwani inaugurated a new research centre at the

National Centre for Biological Sciences National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore, Karnataka, is a research centre specialising in biological research. It is a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) under the Department of Atomic Energy of the Go ...

(NCBS) in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, named after his late mother, Shanta Wadhwani.

Personal life

He is married to Kathleen "Kathy" Wadhwani, and they live in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. They have one daughter, Melina, who married Patrick Carey in 2011.

Honours

Wadhwani was awarded an honorary doctorate by the IIT Bombay in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadhwani, Romesh 1940s births American computer businesspeople American billionaires Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni 21st-century American philanthropists IIT Bombay alumni Living people Sindhi Hindus American chief executives American company founders American people of Sindhi descent Indian billionaires Indian emigrants to the United States Indian Sindhi people Indian chief executives Indian company founders 21st-century Indian philanthropists Indian computer businesspeople Recipients of the Padma Shri in trade and industry Year of birth missing (living people)