Mr. Parag Saxena
B.Tech., 1977, Chemical Engineering

Mr. Parag Saxena graduated as Chemical Engineer from IIT Bombay in 1977 and thereafter did his M.S. from West Virginia College of Graduate Studies in 1978. He earned his MBA degree in Finance from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania in 1982.

Mr. Saxena is the Founder and CEO of Vedanta Capital and NSR New Silk Route Growth Capital. He started his career as an engineer for a medical products company (Becton, Dickinson) to save money for Wharton. He briefly worked as a management consultant after getting an MBA, then worked for a newly formed Venture Capital group at Citicorp. Eventually, he set up Vedanta Capital and NSR and invested around the world.

Mr. Saxena has helped finance over 300 companies, at the venture capital stage, which collectively have a market value exceeding $500 billion. He has personally led a number of life sciences, telecommunications and retailing companies. He has also served on 80 boards over the years. Mr. Saxena raised a $1.35 Billion fund for Indian investments, at the time the largest pool for India. In the past, he has also served as President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) for five years, Trustee of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, served on committees reporting to the Prime Minister of India, Planning Commission, Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker of the House of the US Congress. Currently, Mr. Saxena is on the Advisory Councils at Brown, University of Penn, SIPA at Columbia University, Royal Shakespeare Society. Mr. Saxena has been on Forbes’ Midas List of Best Technology Investors for years.


Special Memories

Having endless conversations with fellow IITians, still my dearest friends, early Mood Indigos and part of the planning, Bridge with a special thrill of playing Prof/s Kamath and Rao, acting in plays at PCSA and home paper with Prof. Raja Rao (I used it in my first full time job as an engineer at Becton, Dickinson).