PEOPLE
SATISH JHA, CHAIRMAN
Driven by a Dream
An alumnus of JNU, The Fletcher School, ISS at The Hague, the Kennedy School and EDHEC, France with education in economics, political economy of development, international affairs, government of science and business management, Satish Jha has been learning with a dream to see India contribute at the apex of its potential.
After teaching at the Indian Institute of a Public Administration (IIPA) and the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) Hyderabad, he joined the Indian Express Group to head the Research Bureau of The Financial Express, co-founded Janasatta, a national Hindi Daily noted for its pathbreaking journalism in both style and content and was appointed to lead the prestigious weekly Dinamaan of The Times of India Group as the youngest national editor at the time.
Later, following his management education as the charter batch of an MIT Sloan School and a European Consortium to develop information managers of tomorrow, he was appointed to lead the global information management for the chemicals division of Hoffmann-La Roche, an experience that helped him co-found James Martin & Co, META Group India, Digital Partners India and he seeded, advised and mentored a couple of dozen social enterprises focusing on using technologies for development of rural India, including Tarahaat.com, DESI Power, Drishtee etc.
Lately he has been focusing entirely on technologies that can help those not served well by either the markets or the government and founded OLPC India to change the way we think about early education and nurtured some start ups to go to the next stage. He believes in the vision, cause and strategy of Ecco to make a difference in the lives of India's underserved people and in the excellence it can bring about in the way India can leverage its talent to contribute to our evolution.
TARUN AGARWAL, CEO
Driven by Excellence
Tarun has a Masters Degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a post graduate diploma in Management from Indian School of Business, Hyderbad. He has more than a decade of experience across a wide array of positions ranging from Technical leadership and business development in Semiconductor and High tech industry to General management in a retail sales organization.
He started his career with Bisquare Systems, a design and technology consultant, that designed consumer electronic products and encryption technologies. At Bisquare, he led the design and development of India's first indigenous DTH Set Top Box. After Bisquare he helped establish the India Design Center of Neomagic Semiconductor, the then world leader in the area of graphic processors. Tarun led the Semiconductor design group and was instrumental in delivering multiple ASIC products for the mobile multimedia segment. Next, he moved to Freescale Semiconductors where he worked on product management for the 3G mobile handset market.
After his one year stint at ISB, Tarun worked in the area of retail sales, as a General Manager of Andhra Pradesh’s largest retailer of consumer electronic products , he was responsible for managing 11 retail stores with total floor space of close to 100k sq. ft. and revenue of Rs 250 Cr.
RAMENDRA BAONI, CO-FOUNDER
Driven by a Vision
An alumnus of BITS, Pilani with a dual degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Ramendra Baoni started his career life early with the pioneering venture Bisquare Systems Pvt. Ltd., an Embedded Product Design and Consulting Company that went on to develop the country's first indigenous Set Top Box for DTH in 1999.
As part of several committees of the Govt. of India such as CAS committee, BIS standardization committee for Set Top Boxes and a decade long association with the Indian Navy developing various cryptographic products, Ramendra has championed the success of many technologies of national and international significance.
All along, the one thought that has continuously driven him is that technology should be used for the benefit of the masses, and not only for the privileged few. To realize this vision of enabling the masses to reap the benefits of green design technology, he co-founded ECCO.
DIPENDRA BAONI, CO-FOUNDER
Driven by a Cause
Mr. Dipendra Baoni is a graduate in Product Design from the National Institute of Design (NID). He has a unique perspective to everything around him. He strongly believes in the motto “Think because its possible”. A true patron of design, Dipendra established his own design studio - Lemon Design Pvt. Ltd. in 2000, one among the reckoned names in the industry today. The other hats that he wears are that of the Director of Cinemon Studios in Mumbai, which is a Film Publicity, Set Design & Production Company, a visiting faculty at various Design institutes like NID, NIFT, SID & MIT and Juror for various Degree programs in these schools.
What led Dipendra to be part of this unique endeavour of ECCO was the cause of pushing design beyond its perceived boundaries and exploring ways in which it could benefit the lifestyle ecosystem of the world. He lives 'design at work'.
VIVEK BIHANI, VENTURE CAPITALIST
Driven by Strategy
Vivek is an Engineer from BITS, Pilani and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore. He has total work experience of 20 years of which 6 years have been as a venture capitalist and 11 years as an entrepreneur.
As a venture capitalist, during 1992 – 1998, he worked with TDICI Limited (now called ‘ICICI Ventures’), a firm that pioneered venture capital in India and has grown to become one of the largest and most successful private equity firms in India. His role as a manager at TDICI included generating deal flow; evaluating business plans; structuring deals and making equity investments; adding value to investments by helping investee companies recruit senior executives, raise debt financing by leveraging ICICI’s brand image, network etc.; going on the Board of portfolio companies to monitor their progress, help in business strategy, and plan for timely exit. During his tenure at TDICI, Vivek was responsible for setting up the New Delhi office to focus on VC investments in the highly entrepreneurial northern part of India. During his tenure at TDICI, Vivek recommended investments in 14 companies, 8 of which have grown to be very large and successful companies.
As an entrepreneur, since1998, he has helped drive the growth at Magic Software Private Limited (Magic), a leading Indian eLearning company that helps global publishers build education software products. As a shareholder and COO of Magic, he was responsible for several activities at different times. These include business plan development and arranging equity and debt financing; business development in the United States and India, with frequent travel to the U.S.; managing delivery, finance, accounts, taxation, IT infrastructure, administration and statutory compliance. During his tenure there, he contributed to Magic being recognized as a leading player in the eLearning Services space with an extremely strong and capable management team and efficient processes & systems.
