Naveen Jain: Proud Product of IIT
October 29th, 2009
Seattle today is home to many India-born entrepreneurs and technologists who have built successful careers in a foreign country. In addition to being of Indian ancestry, most of these achievers are products of the same academic institution, the Ivy League-caliber Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). IIT is made up of 15 independent engineering higher education schools that are considered as “Institutes of National Importance.” The institution was founded so that India could produce professionals and scientists to reconstruct the nation after it gained independence.
The CEO of Intelius, Naveen Jain, is an alumnus of IIT who obtained a bachelor’s in engineering in the late 70s. Bumping into fellow IIT alumni in the world’s technology hub comes as no surprise to Jain. According to him, many of those who have become successful in America tended to be, like him, in the top 1 percent of the country.
Naveen Jain is one among many who have reaped considerable success in the United States. After migrating in the 1980s, Jain led an illustrious career in information technology. In 1985, he worked for the New Jersey-based Burroughs Corp. before transferring to Washington when software giant Microsoft hired him as group manager in 1989. Until 1996, Jain immersed himself in developing and marketing software technology such the OS/2 platform, Windows NT, and The Microsoft Network. When he exited from Microsoft, he was a proud owner of several patents. In March 1996, Jain fulfilled a life-long dream of building his own company. He established InfoSpace, an Internet company that provided content to Web properties such as Lycos, AOL, Microsoft, Disney/InfoSeek’s GO Network, NBC’s Snap, go2net Inc., Dow Jones, and ABC LocalNet. In 2000, it was worth $31 billion and Naveen Jain netted a personal worth of $2.2 billion.
At present, his recent venture Intelius is considered one of the fastest growing tech companies in North America and enjoys mutually exclusive partnerships with Yahoo! and MSN.
