Technology >> CEO Interviews >> October 18, 2004
ARJUN MALHOTRA serves as Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of
Headstrong's Board of Directors. Prior to Headstrong, he was Chief
Executive Officer and Chairman of TechSpan, which merged with Headstrong
in November 2003. Mr. Malhotra brought a long string of entrepreneurial
successes to Headstrong. He founded and built HCL Technologies from a
six-person "garage operation" in 1975 to one of India's largest
Information Technology corporations. He took over the US Operations of
the group in 1989 and grew it to nearly $100 million annual revenues. In
1992, he ran the HCL-HP joint venture in India. In 1996, he set up and
ran the joint venture with Deluxe Corporation. He also consolidated and
grew the HCL Australasia operations in Hong Kong, Australia and New
Zealand. In late 1998, Mr. Malhotra founded TechSpan with funding from
Goldman Sachs and Walden International. Mr. Malhotra did his schooling
from The Doon School, Dehradun and his B.Tech Electrical Communication
Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur
where he was awarded the Dr. B.C. Roy Gold Medal. In 1985, he attended
the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Mr.
Malhotra founded the Prof. G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunications at
IIT Kharagpur through personal endowment of Rs 30 million, and is a
member of the Board of Governors for that School and the Technology
Foundation of IIT Kharagpur. He was a member of the Board of Governors
for the Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, and was Vice President of The
Doon School Old Boys Society. Deepening his ties with the IIT System and
higher education as a whole, Mr. Malhotra serves as Chairman of Vision
2020, an alumni initiative to raise a $200 million endowment fund for
IIT Kharagpur by the year 2020. In "recognition of his outstanding
contribution and services to the Institute", Mr. Malhotra was declared
Life Fellow of IIT Kharagpur in February 2003. The Jerusalem Fund of
Aish HaTorah has honoured Arjun with the coveted Albert Einstein
Technology Medal for 2001. The Albert Einstein Technology Award salutes
the high tech industry's vanguard who "with their vision...have
revolutionized the perception of time and space, linking mankind with
ever growing speed and ingenuity. Their cutting-edge breakthroughs have
empowered countless others." The Institution of Engineers (India), too,
has named Mr. Malhotra an Eminent Engineering Personality. Mr. Malhotra
is a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics & Telecommunication
Engineers, India (FIETE), and a Member of the Institute of Engineers,
India (MIE). He is also one of the founding members of SPIC-MACAY -
Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture amongst
Youth. This is today India's largest non-government, not for profit,
social and cultural organization. Profile
you do?
Mr. Malhotra: Headstrong is a 23-year old company. It started as a
consulting company. Basically, it was started
