Mr. Dhananjay Saheba is a Founder and Managing director of iJunxion, a company focused on value added telecom services.
After graduating In Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in the year 1977, Mr. Saheba completed his MSEE from Columbia University in 1979 and an additional qualification in Electrical Engineering from the same University in 1980.
He has spent the bulk of his career in telecom sector starting with AT&T Bell Labs in 1984. He undertook various assignments with AT&T in the area of development and marketing, including a stint in New Delhi as Director, Marketing Transmission Systems. Mr. Saheba joined Hughes Tele.com as the CTO in the year 2000 and was responsible for developing new products and services. Following the takeover of Hughes Tele.com by the Tatas, he was appointed as Vice President, NPI, where he spearheaded the development of new products. In the year 2008, with the encouragement and backing of an IIT classmate – Kiran Roshania – he ventured out on his own with iJunxion.
Out of several wonderful memories of IIT Bombay, Mr. Saheba particularly recollects the day when he appeared for the final exam on Fluid Mechanics in the Convocation Hall. After reading the entire question paper, he realized that he had probably studied from the wrong text book! The average class score in that particular exam was 4 out of 50. Another amazing experience, he fondly remembers was hitch-hiking from Borivali to Daman with fellow classmate Kiran, after having missed the train they were supposed to catch. The impact of IIT Bombay on his life was felt even years later when Mr. Saheba appeared for his first job interview with a company called RCA for a hardware designer position. “The only time I had studied this particular subject in design, was in the third year of IIT and acing that interview nearly five years later made me realize that I had infect learnt a lot at IIT Bombay,” he informed.
Mr. Saheba takes keen interest in IIT Bombay and has been an active participant in the alumni activities of the Class of ’77. He was one of the key leaders of the team that successfully organized 25th reunion of their batch. The team in fact initiated a donation drive during the reunion and carried it on for the next few years. He moreover, played a vital role in organizing the 35th reunion of his batch in 2012. “The IITs are amazing institutions funded by the people of India. Contributing to the alumni activities of my alma mater, is a way of saying thank you to my fellow citizens for their incredible generosity. Hopefully, I am also contributing in some ways to make IIT Bombay a greater institution,” he added. Mr. Saheba continues to be at the forefront of donation programs for the Institute as well as other alumni activities such as students mentoring and Fundamatics.
Lot of people are aware that Mr. Saheba is an accomplished photographer, but not many know that he also tried his hand at acting in a Hindi movie, which was being made for television. “In my debut movie, one of the first scenes I had to do was a song and dance sequence, which was one of the toughest things I have ever done. After the third retake the director walked up to me and said – Saheba, you have no rhythm!,” he shared.