Vinod Gupta is the chairman and CEO of infoUSA (previously known as American Business Information, Inc.). He did his graduation (BTech) from IIT Kharagpur in 1967, and MS in Agricultural Engineering and MBA from the University of Nebraska in 1972. Before starting American Business Information Inc., he worked as Marketing Research Manager in Commodore Corporation. His company aimed to provide information services to American businessmen. ”He served as a member of Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (appointed by the President of the United States, Bill Clinton). He was nominated as the US Counsel General to Bermuda, and the U.S. Ambassador to Fiji. He received honorary doctorate in Humane Letters by University of Nebraska in 1999, Business Leadership award (1991) by Alumni Association of the College of Business Administration of the University of Nebraska, Entrepreneur of the Year (1989) (by the Nebraska for Productivity and Entrepreneurship, University of Nebraska). In 1992, Vinod Gupta gave $2 million to IIT Kharagpur for setting up the Vinod Gupta School of Management, and later $1 million for Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law Kharagpur.[1]
Trivia
Vinod Gupta belongs to Rampur Maniharan, a small town near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh state. He has also set up a Polytechnic for women at this place which has greatly improved education facilities for the women there. The Polytechnic was inaugurated by the former US President Bill Clinton. Owner of the Opinion Research Corporation[2] - a CNN polling partner[3].
References
- ^ ag-IP-news. "George Washington University signs Technical Collaboration Agreement with IIT Kharagpur", Intellectual Property News Agency, 2006-01-31. Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
- ^ http://blog.cleveland.com/wideopen/2007/10/cnn_now_literally_the_clinton.html
- ^ http://opinionresearch.com/news/ORC-CNNPollingPartnership.pdf
