Trustees

WGF trustees are a select group of well-known alumni leaders in the IIT community who provide strategic oversight and direction to ensure WGF maintains its growth trajectory to achieve its stated vision.

Improving the Lives in Rural India by Technology-enabled Solutions

Typically, they have been at the apex of their professional and financial success and are deeply imbued with a sense of giving back (with a pledge for multiple years of giving) and see WGF as a key organization in their endowment plans. They commit to bringing large sponsors to ensure WGF has a robust operational infrastructure and critical funds to drive its mission.

Rajat Gupta

Mr. Rajat Gupta is also Chairman of WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF), and serves on its board as a key strategist in defining direction and focus of the non-profit organization. Mr. Gupta brings his considerable skills to WGF, along with his leadership associations and advisory roles to many other non-profits such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Mr. Rajat Gupta is a leading Indian-American businessman and Philanthropist who has co-founded successful world-class institutions including the Indian School of Business(ISB), American India Foundation(AIF), New Silk Route, and Scandent Solutions. He was ranked 15th in the nation in the entrance exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT JEE. He received a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-Delhi) in 1971 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1973.

Mr. Gupta joined McKinsey & Company in 1973 as one of the earliest Indian-Americans at the eminent consulting company. In 1994, he was elected the firm’s first managing director (chief executive) born outside of the US and then was re-elected twice in 1997 and 2000. Mr. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the first Indians to successfully break through the glass ceiling, as the first Indian-born CEO of a multinational corporation (not just a consultancy). During Mr. Gupta’s tenure as head of McKinsey, the firm opened offices in 23 new countries and doubled its consultant base to 891 partners, increasing revenue by 280 percent to $3.4 billion.

Anil Bhandari

Mr. Anil Bhandari is also the Chairman of Wheels Global Foundation (WGF) Advisory Board and Senior Vice President of a leading NY Wall Street firm. Prior to joining the Wall Street firm, Mr. Bhandari was with Morgan Stanley for fifteen years as Senior Vice President and a member of the Chairman and Director Councils. Earlier he was with Bear Stearns for over 16 years and was appointed Senior Managing Director in 1999.

Mr. Bhandari graduated from Agra University, India with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1964 and received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1969. Mr. Bhandari received a Master of Industrial Engineering in 1971 and an MBA in 1973, both from Ohio State University. In 1997. Mr. Bhandari received The 1997 IITK Distinguished Alumnus Award. Mr. Bhandari has been a speaker at Euro Money and Institutional Investor global conferences. He chaired the 2011 Pan IIT NY Global Conference. Mr. Bhandari served on the Board, Advisory Committee, and as Treasurer of American India Foundation, a 501 C(3) charity founded by President William Jefferson Clinton. He is currently chair of the WHEELS advisory Board (a 501 C3 charity) and is involved with numerous other charities. Mr. Bhandari is currently the Emeritus Member of the Pan IIT USA board.

Hiten Ghosh

Dr. Hitendra Ghosh is the ‘President Emeritus’ of WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF) and serves on its board as the chief executive of the operations of the non-profit organization. Dr. Ghosh has a distinguished career and has been actively involved in giving generously, his time and talent to activities of PanIIT and Capital IIT Alumni associations, as well as other organizations that promote the welfare of citizens ‘at the bottom of the pyramid’.

Dr. Ghosh is Vice-President and Chief Quality Officer of Hughes Network Systems, LLC, Maryland. He is a member US-India Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce and the board of the IIT Foundation and US-India Strategic Institute. He is a member of the board of Advisors of IVY venture capital, India, and of the Board of Executive directors, Quest Forum, USA, an Industry body of Telecommunication companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Ericsson, Nokia, Fujitsu, Reliance, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone, and others.

His past achievements include receiving an outstanding Invention Achievement award from IBM, a Management Excellence award from Unisys Corp., and a Corporate Quality Management Award from Hughes Electronics. He has been awarded the “Pride of India” award by NRI Institute of India and Pravasi Achievement Gold medal of UK as also Distinguished Service Gold Medal from IIT-kgp and Lifetime Service Achievement Award of PanIIT Alumni, the USA of which Dr. Ghosh has been Co-president (2005-2006) He has also served on the Board of Directors of Tata-Unisys Corp, India.

Dr. Ghosh received B. Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur in 1958 and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1962 from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

Dr. Ghosh will serve as Chair of the Board of Directors, presiding over meetings of the Board and other Board activities, including program planning, policy-setting, global strategy, financial oversight, and fundraising. Dr. Ghosh will also serve as President of WHEELS. In this role, he will have primary responsibility for implementing WHEELS programs, administration, and fundraising. Specific responsibilities include execution of organizational activities and goals, maintenance of communications with the Board of Directors regarding major policy setting and fiduciary board responsibilities, strategic planning, budget development, and monitoring, and hiring and management of employees and volunteers to execute programs and activities.

Ashank Desai

Ashank is the Founder and Former Chairman of Mastek Ltd. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He is the Founder Member of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), Past Chairman and now Member of the “Chairmen’s Council” & invited to Executive Council. Ashank has been felicitated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his contribution to NASSCOM & IT Industry for the last 25 years

Ashok Siddhanti

Ashok Siddhanti is currently CEO of EnDyna Inc. (www.endyna.com) where he leads cybersecurity and technology-based practices. Ashok brings over twenty years of experience with the commercial sector and ten years’ experience working with U.S. federal government. Ashok started his career first as a design-manufacturing engineer with Westinghouse, then as a management consultant starting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He went on to be partner at global consulting firms – Mercer Management and AT Kearney. During his consulting career, Ashok led the reengineering of key business processes in over twenty countries to increase productivity, speed, and revenue of U.S. Fortune 100 multinationals. One of the engagements included redesign of a client’s supply chain spanning 90 countries. In addition to being an investor in various technology startups, Ashok is engaged with TiE-Global’s angel investing. He also heads up a company specializing in prediction of equity and commodity prices using machine learning. Ashok holds BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay, MS in Management Engineering, and an MBA from RPI in New York, USA.

Ashok has been engaged with WHEELS since its inception. In the IIT-2005 global alumni conference held in Washington, DC, he was instrumental in introducing sessions on rural technology. This rural focus was embraced by several IIT alumni conferences downstream. One of the culminations of IIT-2005 conference was formation of WHEELS, of which Ashok was a co-founder. Ashok has been a funder of and advisor to NGOs working in rural entrepreneurship area for the past two decades.

trustees

Rajat Gupta

Anil Bhandari

Hiten Ghosh

Ashank Desai

Ashok Siddhanti

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